Nonverbal Communication Codes Essay

Words: 1440
Pages: 6

Nonverbal Codes Around The World A Map for Saturday is a documentary that explores the idea of world traveling in the form of backpacking. It features a main character Brook who documents his travels along with the people he meets along the way. As Brook comes in contact with many different people there is all different types of nonverbal communication that takes place. The idea is that a nonverbal code is given and received at many different levels; ones that are known and others that are not known. While there are numerous nonverbal codes that are noticeable throughout A Map for Saturday, there are four that I want to focus on. The first is the proxemics code, which deals with personal space in territory. The next is the chronemics
Also, when one traveler forms a relationship with another traveler, the whole process is sped up. For example, when Brooke meets the girl is Australia; he mentions that it is like having a three-year relationship in about six weeks (Silva-Braga, 2007). Brook says at one point that “you get good at goodbyes”. To me, this means that while traveling, everything has a specific end date or time. These are all examples of how Chronemics are used throughout the documentary. There are numerous countries that are featured throughout A Map for Saturday. These countries include Australia, Asia, India, and Brazil and all of them have different standards of touching. Touching as to do with the nonverbal code, haptics. Haptics is the science the deals with the sense of touch {Burgoon, Guerrero, and Floyd (2010)}.. Touch is important for emotional and psychological well-being {Burgoon, Guerrero, and Floyd (2010)}. The travelers seem lost and depressed the first few days of their trip. I believe this is partly due because they are so alone and not touched by anyone or anything during those first few days. However, this changes when each of the travelers starts meeting each other and relationships are formed. Haptics begins to take place. Even something as little as someone putting his or her arm around you to take a picture, gives you an emotional sense of security. Also, touching standards