1 . When we talk more broadly of body language, rather than good postures, we can actually see the effects it has on relationships right throughout the animal kingdom. In particular, body language is used to express power through expansive (扩张的) postures.

You might know about Amy Cuddy’s famous Ted Talk and her incredible insights on how posture changes our thoughts. Cuddy and her team study body language, particularly what they call “high-power” and “low-power” poses.

“High-power” poses refer to the act of taking a posture of confidence, which can help you feel more self-confident, even after only two minutes. Typical high-power poses are about opening up. You stretch and expand your body to take up as much space as possible. For example, bosses are doing high-power poses when they lean back in their chairs, put their hands behind their heads, and kick their feet up onto their desks. Meanwhile, people take low-power positions when they’re feeling helpless or defeated. They close up, arms around themselves, taking up the smallest space.

Some even more recent studies took this even further: A study by researchers from Columbia and Harvard Universities showed that body language symbolizing power can actually affect our decision-making, unintentionally. The researchers measured the desire for risk of participants in either expansive, powerful poses or constricted (收缩的) poses. Those in the powerful poses not only felt more powerful and in control, but were 45% more likely to take risky actions.

“This isn’t about what your body language is communicating to others; it’s about what your body language is communicating to you. Your body language is changing your mind, which changes your behavior, which changes your outcomes,” said Cuddy.

So if you want to take advantage of the benefits of these poses to live a healthier and happier life, where should you start?

2 . You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression — this was the theme of this year’s International Public Speaking Competition (IPSC), held in London from May 11 to 12. Thirty-three young speakers aged 16 to 20 from around the world gathered at The English Speaking Union to tell their stories, including Wu Dongxu, 19, a student from China. To him, the event wasn’t just about giving a speech on first impressions. It also made a strong impression on him.

“Rather than a competition, the experience was more like an inspiring research trip to me, a trip that allowed me to see firsthand the differences and similarities between Chinese and foreign cultures,” said Wu.

Apart from the obvious differences in food, transportation and climate, what impressed Wu most was the different styles of Chinese and foreign public speaking.

Although still a teen, Wu is no stranger to the public speaking podium (讲台). He has participated in many speaking competitions since 2017. But on the stage of the IPSC, speakers had no podium to stand behind. They just had to face the audience.

“This was the first time that I gave a speech without a podium, which made me realize how important eye contact and body language are,” said Wu. “It also gave me more freedom to convey more information with my body language instead of just with words.”

Another difference that caught Wu’s attention was the evaluation criteria (评价标准). According to him, in every speaking competition he had participated in in China, things like pronunciation, fluency and quality of language are always important. But to his surprise, in the IPSC accents and grammatical mistakes are not considered in the evaluation process. It is the story itself that matters most.

“Audiences are eager to hear powerful stories, no matter where they are from. That’s because the emotions expressed in them are shared by all human beings although there are the cultural differences.” said Wu. “Diversity, respect, tolerance and understanding — these are what the IPSC really wants to stress and spread.”

3 . Have you ever watched a silent television show and tried to predict how the characters were feeling according to their body language? The ability to understand people’s body language is a skill that’s almost born inside of us.     1    . This skill develops as we grow older, which is called non-verbal communication.

Body language helps us communicate what we’re feeling without saying much at all. Think about a time when you were very angry. Did you clench (咬紧) your teeth? Did your palms get sweaty when you were anxious? In most cultures, these cues (线索) that reveal emotional states are quite common. But gestures have specific meanings across different cultures. Take touch for example.     2    . In India, however, the ideal way to greet someone is by touching their feet, not by shaking their hand.

In some places, gestures meaning hellos and goodbyes and touches indicating friendship and love are all the same. But the problem arises because some gestures have vastly different meanings in different cultures. For example, the “OK” symbol is used as a superb symbol in India, but in Turkey, this symbol is considered offensive (冒犯性的).     3    .

So, what should we do? Should we not use gestures at all? Of course not.     4    . No matter how much we try to stop ourselves, we will end up communicating non-verbally in some way or another.

    5    , you’d better make a quick Google search or turn to a comprehensive book to better interact with the locals, and avoid offending them during your stay!

You probably have ever been warned against using certain hand gestures when    1    (travel) abroad. The meanings of hand gestures differ so    2    (great) in different countries. But do you know the relationship between body language    3    groups?

Mark Moffett, author of The Human Suarm, describes our need to belong to a certain group. We are    4    (safe) in a group than in one person. We trust them, they protect us, and they share    5    same values and beliefs as us. We will even go to war to fight for our group. Humans attract those people    6    are members of their own group. This is because we like to be able to predict the     7    (action) of others and belonging to a group enables this.

Outsiders to our group    8    (be) foreign and unknown. Therefore, they may be    9    (danger), unpredictable or threatening. So it is important to recognize these outsiders to our group.

There are many things helping us identify these strangers or outsiders — the clothes they wear and the way they speak. Now, experts know that their body language is also an indicator. In our ancestors’ times, knowing    10    someone is a friend or foe (对手) could mean the difference between total annihilation (灭绝) of their family or the survival of their genes.

6 . How to “Speed-read” Body Language

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, social distancing has dramatically changed the way we interact with each other, especially when it comes to non-verbal communication.

Wearing a face mask has quickly become the norm — and that will likely remain for the foreseeable future.     1     How can we better read body language, now that we’re wearing masks? Part of the answer lies in the question itself. Too often, we put all our focus into people’s faces, when we should also be observing the movements of their entire upper bodies. This is especially important today, since we do a lot of social interacting through video platforms, where we see each other mostly from the waist up.     2     Here are some tips on how to speed-read it.

Touching the neck

If someone is touching their “neck dimple” (the visible indentation at the middle-front of their neck), it could mean they’re distressed or insecure.     3    

Rubbing the chest

    4     If someone is rubbing the upper part of their chest with a palm of a hand (or even just the fingers), it can indicate discomfort or concern. I recently found myself doing this when discussing a family-member’s health.

Tilted head

Head movements can go a long way toward showing whether or not someone is fully engaged, especially during video conference calls. A slightly tilted head displays awareness and attentiveness.     5    

Squinted eyes

We often squint our eyes when we’re trying to focus our vision on something that’s far away. But squinted eyes and a furrowed “glabella” (the part of the forehead above and between the eyebrows) can also be a sign of disagreement or confusion.

7 . Gesture (手势) gets its power in part from the fact that it is rarely noticed by the speaker or listener, yet it is easily understood and included in our conversations.     1    Here are some tips that can help you take advantage of gesture.

Encourage gesture in your children, students and anyone you are trying to teach. This will help them understand the material you are going to explain.    2    That is important because being able to apply what we learn is essential to acquiring new knowledge.

Pay attention to other people’s gestures. These offer a window into the thoughts that speakers have but don’t express in their words. These thoughts are often at the cutting edge of their knowledge or   address issues that are uppermost in their minds.    3    

    4    Those you talk to will pay attention to your gestures — although often unknowingly. So choose them wisely. Remember, gestures can reveal what you might want to hide. And if you are questioning someone, be aware that a gesture may unavoidably influence them to tell you what you want to hear rather than give their own unbiased (无偏见的) answer.

Gesture more when you speak. It will help you learn and understand, and also think in a more abstract (抽象的) way. If you gesture while talking, you will remember more of what you have said.    5    What’s more, when you gesture, the people around you tend to do so too. This can give you a way of seeing what others are thinking but not saying.

8 . Do Animals Communicate?

When we think of communication, we normally think of using words — talking face to face, writing messages and so on. But in fact we communicate far more in other ways. Our eyes and facial expressions usually tell the truth even when our words do not.

Then there are gestures, often unconscious: raising the eyebrows, rubbing the nose, raising the shoulders, tapping the fingers, nodding and shaking the head. There is also the even more subtle (微妙的) body language of posture: Are you sitting or standing with arms or legs crossed? Is that person standing with hands in pockets, held in front of the body or hidden behind? Even the way we dress and the colors we wear communicate things to others.

So, do animals communicate? Not in words, although a parrot might be trained to repeat words and phrases which it doesn’t understand. But, as we have learnt, there is more to communicate than words.

Take dogs for example. They show their teeth to warn, shake their tails to welcome, and stand firm with hair upright to fight. These signals are surely the equals of the human body language of facial expressions, gestures and posture.

Color can be an important means of communication for animals. Many birds and fishes change color, for example, to attract partners during the mating (交配) season. And mating itself is commonly done after a special dance which both partners take part in.

Here, again, there are striking similarities to young men and women who dress up to meet partners at parties, where the music is often too loud for word communication. Communication there takes place through appearance and movement.

The most carefully planned dances in the animal kingdom are those that bees use to communicate. With body movements alone they can tell other bees the direction and distance of a newly discovered food.

All these examples may suggest instinctive (本能的) rather than intelligent communication. But human body language is largely instinctive, too. And, in many ways, body language says far more than intelligent word communication ever can.

9 . I decided to write the article on British Sign Language (BSL) being taught in school. This is because both of my parents are completely deaf which means they can’t hear at all and another reason I decided to do this topic is because I have realised how much of a problem it has become.

It might come to a surprise to learn that nearly all communication is non-verbal (非语言的) and only a little bit is verbal. Over half of the non-verbal communication is body language. Deaf pupils often struggle (挣扎) in school because they can’t get proper help from their teachers as they might not understand each other.

Sign Language is a language that uses hand gestures and body language. These are different ways of communication that deaf or hard of hearing people use to communicate with people. Some deaf people are what you might call “mute”, which means they use Sign Language but don’t use speech. Other deaf people may use speech, most of whom either use hearing aids or have a cochlear implant (人工耳蜗) which can help them hear.

By teaching BSL it would open doors for the deaf community and it would reduce a lot of language barriers (障碍) between deaf and hearing people. The more people learning BSL through education means that it would give deaf people more options for further education and good jobs. By teaching Sign Language in school it can help deaf awareness (意识). With young people growing up and learning it together there wouldn’t be a problem with getting jobs.

I think that deaf awareness is better than it used to be but it still isn’t good enough. In the end teaching Sign Language will be the best for everyone. There would be less language barriers, which means communication will be easier between hearing people and deaf people.