Words can harm…….
some days ago I came across some very thoughtful photo on facebook.
The text says: your words can hurt, please use them wisely.
Well, the one side of the issue is that words can harm, can hurt even
Read Morenonverbal communication
Another smile in life….
………creates and establishes connection among people.
On Sunday, as a young boy, after church we went to my grandparents` house. It was a ritual, an unspoken proof of family life, when we went there to meet with my grandparents for dinner. My grandfather sitting behind his huge desktop in the living room. In former times this was not unusual. He was not working on Sunday. But this place seemed to be his throne of importance. Smiling he adressed us with some jokes, often he presented us some funny game to play, before we went to the table ready laid.
Meanwhile my grandma and my mother had been busy in the kitchen. The attractive smell of the special Sunday roast
Read MoreGerman romanticism….
German romanticism….….and Chinese!
It feels like this when I imagine Germans and Western people feeling excluded like me as I told you yesterday. Excluded by this so charming Chinese smile of a group. Watching the group, looking for some kind of contact, but just facing this smile.
I know about the importance of the group in Chinese social life. I know about the role of group cohesion and it´s relevance for social behaviour, for social functioning and I know about the role of group identity which gives personal orientation. Which also carries personal identity. Which shapes and characterizes identity at all. – In China……………………….
Read MoreSmiling also can exclude….
Some days ago I told you about having met three Chinese picking nettles. It was an interesting and charming encounter, though we did not understand their language. And they had problems to understand us. On the way home my wife and I talked about this experience whereas I remembered some other experience.
As usual, when going out for shopping on Saturday, I meet some Chinese groups near our university. Some Chinese students, male and female, stand together, talking, laughing and being busy shopping. They cling together and seem to be very happy, as happy as they seem to be on all those photos which can be seen on facebook or some other social media posting.
Well, remember the kind of friends they feel connected to on facebook for example. It´s almost Chinese only. For me it seems as if everybody knows each other. Every Chinese knows all other Chinese. ;-)……………………………..
Read Morecowardice or humility
yesterday there was election in one big state of Germany. Interesting in so far as in contrast to many other eöections we had a clear winner and a clear looser. Not the result struck my mind, not the winner or looser impressed me, but one little side phenomenon.
Some shade behind the spoken words.
Both politicians were asked about the importance of the politician as a person, not as representative of a special programm or party. Both answered the same way:………………
Read MoreWords and face and words……and understanding
When my wife and I had a walk yesterday we met two Chinese women and one Chinese man picking some grass or so. Wondering what they really were picking up made us come closer and ask them. Quite a bit puzzled and uncertain how to react they smiled at us very openly and friendly.
No words followed. — More smile.
We repeated our question more slowly and smiled also a bit puzzled. And looked at the same time at their hands which held the stinging nettles. We now knew, but…..still stayed there not knowing whether to leave or to go on communicating.
Again no word. Some almost whispering words………………………….
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To meet the strange in yourself
If one understands training as: organized activity aimed at imparting information and / or instructions to improve the recipient´s performance or to help him or her to attain level of knowledge or skill, training just is a necessary step on the way to improve.
Intercultural training as preparing yourself for meeting people from another culture means most of all especially in the beginning nonverbal communication. As you cannot speak the language or understand what is meant between the lines you are just open with all your senses: Your eyes look and try to figure out what it´s all about. Often you see but don´t understand. Your ears listen to some kind of strange sound which you probably have never heard before. Your nose smells extraordinary strange, ……………………………
Read MoreWhy do we need an intercultural training?
This morning I read some notes on Obamas search for identity when he was young. As son of black father from Kenia in Africa and a white mother from the Midwest in the US he searched for his identity. Obama said: “The only chance, to calm down my feeling of isolation, was, to inhale all traditions and social classes”.
People today could call this Obama´s way of integrating himself.
Being so open to all those influences he had met or he was confronted to, reminded me of what Yang Liu had pointed out to me: When I met someone……………………….
Read MoreOn Chinese body thinking…
This book uses Western philosophical tradition to make a case for a form of thinking properly associated with ancient China. The book’s thesis is that Chinese thinking is concrete rather than formal and abstract, and this is gathered in a variety of ways under the symbol “body thinking.” The root of…
Link to the Book:On Chinese Body Thinking: A Cultural Hermeneutic
Read Morepeople understand…….
most of the things wrong but feel most of the things right
Kurt Tocholsky
(a German writer and jounalist)
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