INTERCULTURAL NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SERBIAN COMMUNICATIONS STUDENTS

Abstract

Using non-verbal communication, people convey information, emotions, express views, intentions and expectations regardless of gender, race, origin or culture. They do this with conscious or subconscious gestures, bodily movements and facial expressions that are often culturally predetermined, in addition to those which are biologically inborn. When we observe the surveys that say that the meaning of the message being conveyed depends largely on non-verbal communication, it is clear how important it is for the process of establishing interpersonal relationships and how much the differences in such communication can create misunderstanding among people from different cultures. This paper investigates concrete examples by describing culturally specific types of non-verbal communication. The aim of this research isto determine the extent to which the culture and the predetermined non-verbal communication could lead to misunderstanding. The initial hypotheses are that non-verbal communication significantly affects the communication process among people from different cultures and the differences in non-verbal communication lead to misunderstanding among people from different cultures. The scientific method used in this paper is Virtual Snowball Sampling, while the data collection instrument was a questionnaire. The survey was conducted on a sample of 112 respondents who were the students of communications at the Faculty of Philosophy in Nis, Serbia. This research has shown that Even though the respondents had some misunderstandings with people from other cultures due to the non-verbal communication issues, which can be explained by the fact that these are communication professionals, almost two-thirds of them emphasized the importance of non-verbal communication for understanding among the people from different cultures.

Keywords: Non-verbal communication, international communication, culture, students of communications.