Relation to Sociology: Over all I found this article very intriguing because I had no idea that certain actions with your hands and such differed from country to country. A connection that I made from the article referred to the "fourth zone." Which stands for public distance typically used by teachers or public speakers. If I were to go to a concert I would recognize the same thing. The band would be about twenty-five feet at least from the fans.
*As we learned in class there are four main distances: intimate, personal, social, and public. An intimate distance might be me with my boyfriend. Its a distance that we both feel comfortable with because of our attraction towards each other.
Relation to My Life: This article relates to my life because I know what its like to be shocked by a foreign culture. I spent six weeks in France when I was fourteen years old and I remember thinking to myself, "Wow these people are really 'touchy feely'." Its our wide range of cultural norms that give our country diversity.
I enjoyed how you touched upon the four main distances. Using your boyfriend and yourself as an example of an intimate distance was quite clever. I must admit I test out this norm quite often. I enjoy getting up in peoples faces and acting like I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary. It's really hilarious how people try to back away from you when you get in their personal space. Sometimes they don't just back up, they'll bend back, pull their face away or move in other strange ways just in order to feel like they have their "personal bubble" back. I also find it funny that it makes them look more ridiculous trying to back away then it does for me to be somewhat closer then the "apporpriate" distance. - Kevin Crall
ReplyDeleteVery true. I'm one of those bend backwards types of people, but now that I really think about it would it really kill me to stand a tad closer to someone...probably not
ReplyDeleteI can totally identify with how different the nonverbal communication is in other countries as well. In the Dominican Republic they are very touchy, for example, they will almost always have a hand on your arm while they are talking to you and they always give a hug and kiss when you see them for the first time in a few hours. It seems that other cultures probably have different ideas of the four distances. What may seem personal to some of us americans may be very normal and social to another culture. I can definitely see how this article relates to sociology and almost everyone's lives individually. Katie Veatch
ReplyDeleteConnor Murray
ReplyDeleteI think the communication through distance is completely true; in a concert there is definitely at least 20 feet between the front row and the performers on stage and I would think it's for the benefit of the musicians or speakers to feel safe from the unknown actions of their audience. In times like the early-to-mid 1970's especially performers in rock'n'roll and folk and cross-genres between would host acoustic sets in which the audience would sit on the same floor as the performer, in personal, whispering-distance from each other, and the performer would perform the same- if not better. This effectively eliminated the isolation- and "safety"- between the performers like James Taylor, The Beatles, and Bob Dylan and their followers; many thought it was the ultimate sign of Peace in the movement focused on it and Love to non-violently protest government violence. But the really crazy thing was that all of this was communicated through a shift in the non-verbal language of distance, making strangers trust each other with more than a 'public' level.
Connor,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting observation. I wonder if the shift in body language created a feeling of closeness and peace, or if a feeling of closeness and peace resulted in a shift in body language.
Mrs. Castelli
It's very interesting how different cultures use different hand motions and body language to indicate different things. It makes you more cautious when you go to other cultures because you don't want to offend anyone with a hand gesture or body language that might be offensive to them even if it is completely acceptable in America.
ReplyDeleteI like how you talked about the four different distances. We usually aren't aware that we observe these distances until we think about it in the moment. When you are talking to your friends, you don't think about how far you are standing apart..you just naturally stand a certain distance away because socially, thats what you've learned. It's very interesting to watch different cultures social interactions, like you were saying when you were in France. I went to France as well a few summers ago and noticed the same thing. I'm beginning to see how sociology is very prominent in culture and language.
Mia Llerandi