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Nonverbal Communication As An Intercultural Communication

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Introduction There are many definitions for the term, “communication”. According to Samovar, Porter, McDaniel, and Roy (2015), communication is the ability to share ideas and feelings, and is the basis of human contact. Communication can also be defined as the process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another (Keyton, 2011). In my own words, I would define communication as sending and receiving message through verbal and nonverbal modes between individuals or groups. Against the background of communication being through verbal and nonverbal mode of transmission, I would concentrate my research paper on nonverbal communication as an intercultural communication concept. …show more content…

I worked as a police officer when I was in my country and I remember a nonverbal experience I had one day in my course of duty. There was a chieftaincy dispute between two clans, each of which was claiming title to the king’s throne after the death of the chief in a town in the eastern part of Ghana. That dispute resulted in a bloody clash between the two factions. I was among a contingent of police officers that was dispatched to the town to enforce law and order. Even with the presence of the police in the town, the disturbances continued between the feuding factions but we managed to arrest some of the troublemakers. During the melee, one of the police officers was kidnapped by one of the factions who was not happy with the arrest of some of its members. All efforts made to locate the whereabouts of the police officer proved futile for us. It was getting dark and we were very apprehensive that the kidnapped officer might be killed by his kidnappers. As we moved from place to place, we reached a mud house at the outskirts of the town and saw an old lady aged about 80 years of age sitting in front of the house and smoking tobacco in a pipe. When we enquired from her if she had any knowledge about the kidnapping of the police officer, she ignored us but provided a clue as to where we could locate the officer without uttering a word. She released

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