1 . What Does Our Body Language Reveal

    1     People tend to judge us far more on our physical appearance, including our mannerisms, than by what comes out of our mouths. To give the right impression, it’s important to understand what we are conveying non-verbally and how our unconscious signals are being received by the people we interact with.

Smiling is a powerful tool in your body language collection. Perhaps you smile a lot in the hope of appearing friendly.     2     In some Asian cultures, smiling too much is seen as a signal that you’re not a serious person and may lose you some respect.

If you’re trying to hide nervousness you’d better avoid smiling too much, too. Also be aware that nervous people often hug themselves, rub their forehead, and shift their body weight from one foot to another to create a slight rocking motion.     3    

If you’re trying to show that you are listening sympathetically to what someone has to say, try tipping your head slightly and nodding very slightly. This gesture implies you are listening with interest. If you’re talking to someone and a third person joins, turn your body towards them slightly to include them and make them feel valued.     4     A single nod of the head is also a strong gesture of coolness when listening to another person.

To build trust quickly? Try mirroring. Adopting a similar stance (站姿) to the person you are engaged with indicates your interest and helps develop trust. Use this with caution, though.     5     Mirroring only works when they don’t realize what you’re doing.

4 . Every morning on the island of Oahu, students at Pu’ öhala Elementary gather on a field as towering mountains watch them from the mist. Their day starts with songs in ‘ölelo Hawai’i, the islands’ native language, restating values of respect and justice that their teachers hope will guide them through their education, and throughout their lives.

Like most kids their age, they’re not concerned about the significance of the language they’re learning. Still, they have a weighty responsibility: to receive the torch (火炬) and ensure the security of ‘ölelo Hawai’ i for future generations.

It was only 50 years ago that the language was on the edge of extinction. Though the situation is much improved, in many ways ‘ölelo Hawai’ i is still on life support. Teachers say there’s a huge enthusiasm for school kids to learn the language, but as they grow up, they’re encouraged to focus on “more useful” subjects and use English, which are believed to assist them in achieving success in their work. In 2016, there were 18, 610 Hawaiian speakers on the islands.

“One hundred thousand is the approximate number of speakers needed to consider the language safe, ” says Solomon, professor of Hawaiian language at University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “The idea is that there are enough people passing it on to the next generation, socializing their children to use the language in all domains of life, to express all thoughts and needs and desires. ”

Fortunately, the kids of Pu’ öhala Elementary will take the responsibility to continue the work of the current young adults defending the language, expanding access to ‘ölelo Hawai’i in part through TikTok and Instagram, and making the language a practical skill in adulthood. These youth, along with those committed to recovering the language from previous generations, share their hopes for the better.

10 . When I mentioned to some friends that we all have accents, most of them proudly replied, “Well, I speak perfect English/Chinese/etc.” But this kind of misses the point.

More often than not, what we mean when we say someone “has an accent” is that their accent is different from the local one, or that pronunciations are different from our own. But this definition of accents is limiting and could give rise to prejudice. Funnily enough, in terms of the language study, every person speaks with an accent. It is the regular differences in how we produce sounds that define our accents. Even if you don’t hear it yourself, you speak with some sort of accent. In this sense, it’s pointless to point out that someone “has an accent”. We all do!

Every person speaks a dialect (方言), too. In the field of language study, a dialect is a version of a language that is characterized by its variations of structure, phrases and words. For instance,” You got eat or not? “(meaning “Have you eaten?” ) is an acceptable and understood question in Singapore Oral English. The fact that this expression would cause a standard American English speaker to take pause doesn’t mean that Singapore Oral English is “wrong” or “ungrammatical”. The sentence is well-formed and clearly communicative, according to native Singapore English speakers’ solid system of grammar. Why should it be wrong just because it’s different?

We need to move beyond a narrow conception of accents and dialects — for the benefit of everyone.

Language differences like these provide insights into people’s cultural experiences and backgrounds. In a global age, the way one speaks is a distinct part of one’s identity. Most people would be happy to talk about the cultures behind their speech. We’d learn more about the world we live in and make friends along the way.