Silence
The homicide of 24 year-old Yale University doctoral student, Annie Le, by Yale lab technician, Raymond Clark, have generated intense media coverage over the past 2 weeks. In brief, the unpleasant event took place on September 8, 2009 in Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, which was ironically, the day of her wedding. And on September 17, the Police for the alleged murder of Annie Le arrested Raymond Clark, after 9 days of investigations.
However, it was not the whole hyped up media coverage on the investigation of the homicide that caught my attention, but the funeral that was held on Saturday, 26th September, that set me thinking.
Watching through the video of the memorial service and viewing the pictures taken, it gave me further insight on how different forms of non-verbal communications can be played out in one single event. So much so that even when one mute the memorial video, he or she can still unmistakably tell that a funeral ceremony is taking place, through the various indicators of non verbal communication.
1. Kinesics : Study of Body movement
The bowing of his head, with his hands placed together in front of him, is an outward expression of the love and respect he have for his sister, Annie.
2. Paralinguistic – Study of non-verbal cues
- The tense and silent atmosphere of the ceremony, the solemn tone used by her brother and long pauses in between each sentence, clearly depicts the emotional attachment the brother has for Annie.
3. Objectics or Artifacts- Study of how meaning are conveyed through physical objects.
- The Coffin, an funeral artifact, is a clear indicator that a funeral is taking place.
4. Oculesics- Study of non-verbal meaning associated with the eye.
- From her tear soaked eyes and dipping brows, we able to tell that the lady above is deeply affected by the lost of Annie.
5. Haptics: Study of touch in communications.
-The comforting gesture and touch offered by Annie Le’s fiance, Jonathan Widawsky to Annie’s Mum clearly tells us the emotional state Vivian Le is in.
6. Proxemics: Study of space and distance in communications
- The above pictures also depicts the close relationship shared between the fiance and her mum, as he have clearly entered her personal space, with a light hug.
7.Physical appearance: Judge a person by their appearance
-From their yellow skin tone, small eyes and jet black hair we can tell that they are not native Americans but of Asian origin. ( they are Vietnamese by the way )
- And from the way they are dressed, mostly in black suits and dress, it tells us that it is non-joyous event that they are attending. As the colour black symbolizes death and respect.
Lastly, to the family members and friends of Annie Le, I would like to express my greatest condolences and may she rest in peace
Hey.
Non verbal cues truly speak alot more than words themselves.I’m suprised because i never knew so much can be infered from one’s body language.Its both amazing and scary.Your body language truly speaks a language of its own
(:
feedmechocolate
September 27, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Hello adrian! Good post! (:
Anyway, agree with pathma. It is amazing how non verbal cues are able to bring messages across as effectively as verbal cues. I feel that the study of non verbal communication is very interesting, as through different indicators, we are able to know more about people’s feelings, happenings and the message they need to bring across.
Condolences to her family too… This is really saddening. Imagine the grief that her family and fiance has to go through ):
EDWINA
September 28, 2009 at 4:08 am
I have studied that non-verbal communications are more effective in transmitting our message. As it reflects our emotions directly, although it can be acheived through verbal communitcation(i.e. tone, volume), non verbal communication are being percieved as your true emotions since many instances we would choose to believe what we see instead of what we hear.
Hwa Hiang
November 1, 2009 at 5:05 am
very interesting entry, i never knew non-verbal communications were divided into so many forms. i think that this form of communication occurs everyday so we might not notice it but it can still affect us greatly.
yunshan
November 2, 2009 at 2:06 am
Yes, non-verbal cues are constantly employed everyday in our lives. Most of the time, such cues aids in the sizing up of one self, understanding relational information, and the expression of emotions (:
whatisadriansblog
November 9, 2009 at 10:12 am
I’ve learnt that non-verbal cues are a better and more accurate way of reading a person, as it projects the person’s innermost feelings accurately. While one can lie through the usage of words, it is difficult to do so through non-verbal cues, such as body language.
HuiLin
November 8, 2009 at 8:45 am
nonverbal communication definitely plays a very important role in our lives, but sometimes it’s so hard to detect that we do not even know it exists.
however, because nonverbal comms is receiver-oriented, it may sometimes lead to miscommunication.=(
minzhi
November 8, 2009 at 12:42 pm
Those pictures do tell a thousand words.
The ability of body language and non-verbal evidence can sometimes enable an individual to be understand the situation better rather than merely listening to what the subject could be trying to convey through verbal discussion.
Simply try this yourself.
While having a phone conversation, are you able to clearly know what the other person is thinking, or do you merely have to develop an impression base on their tone & form of expression.
While taking the train and plugging in your ipod. Sometimes observing the way which people interact or communicate, you would be able to develop more assumptions than just basing it solely on eavesdropping on the details of the conversation.
Edrea
November 8, 2009 at 1:08 pm
I think this is why people watching is so fun. You know nothing about the person at all. But are able to tell many things with just one glance. They might be just assumptions, but it’s fun to try conjuring up a story about someone’s life, or what they happen to be doing there, solely based on how and what they do.
Tam Mei
November 8, 2009 at 1:42 pm
that is why we can make use of this non verbal communications to fool others! just joking
zhihao
November 8, 2009 at 2:49 pm
agreed! sometimes non-verbal ways are more effective in communication. if the signals are intepreted correctly that is. haha!
Ritzley
November 8, 2009 at 3:17 pm
It’s always interesting to see discussion on things like these which we do not really observe closely at hose it affect our lives.
I once watched an interview with a person who is an expert on reading facial expressions and can interpret very accurately if those expressions were genuine just by looking at the face. He can tell if a smile while taking a photo is a genuine smile or a forced one. Super cool.
Anyway, i feel that expression is the best way in communicating how a person feel. When you’re angry, you can say you’re ok. But when it comes to expression, it’s not going to be easy pretending for a long time that you are ok when you’re not.
Joel
November 8, 2009 at 4:48 pm
hmmm… does this mean that when paparazzi speculate that brad pitt and angelina jolie is splitting due to their body language it is accurate? but they’re still together leh.
but i guess you are right, ultimately, true emotions will still show through your body language no matter how hard you try to keep your emotions intact.
Faith
November 8, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Wow! this concept of non-verbal communication is so contrived and it really provoked me to think about all the events that have happened in a week how many people have i upset without even speaking a word. Likewise, it got me to start to think how i can reverse it and turn them to positive cues to brighten up someone else’s day.
Next time i will be more careful in displaying my displeasure through my body language.
yanni
happycookies
November 9, 2009 at 9:10 am
yes indeed, non-verbal cues expresses 70% of our emotional expressions everyday! (:
Hence, it is difficult to hide all our emotions to ourselves, people are just able to tell somehow!
whatisadriansblog
November 9, 2009 at 9:47 am