特别广播英语第 106 课：Body Talk 身体语言-1

Have you ever wondered why you sometimes take an almost immediate liking to a person you have just met? 你有没有想过为什么有时你刚刚见到了一个人，你就会立刻喜欢上这个人？

Or worried about why someone you were talking to suddenly became cool and distant? 或者你有没有因为一位正在跟你谈话的人突然态度变得很冷而又疏远，这使你心情感到焦虑不安？

The chances are that it wasn't anything that was said but something that happened: a gesture, a movement, a smile. 这很可能并不是因为你说错了什么话，而是因为你的一个手势、一个小动作、一个微笑引起的。

Social scientists are now devoting considerable attention to "non-verbal communication," what happens when people get together, apart from their actual conversation. 社会科学家们现在特别注意"非语言文字的交际"，即当人们到一起时，除了人们实际上所谈的话而外所发生的事情。

Professor Erving Goffman of the University of Pennsylvania is involved in a continuing study of the way people behave in social interaction. 宾夕法尼亚州立大学欧文o高夫曼教授一直不断地在研究社会效中人们行为的方式。

He feels that gestures, movements and physical closeness have meaning which the words that the people are using do not carry. 他认为每做一个手势、每个动作和身体亲近的程度都有着人们的语言所表达不出来的意义。

The closeness of two people when talking, movement towards and away from each other, and the amount of eye contract all reveal something about the nature of the relationship between the two individuals. 交谈着的两个人的亲密程度，动作上的互相接近或疏远以及两个人目光接触的次数及接触时间的长短，所有这一切都能表明两人之间是哪一种关系。

We tend to be only subconsciously aware, if at all, of the various patterns and rituals of social behavior. 一般我们对社会行为的种种规范和礼仪，即使知道该怎么做，也常常是通过下意识才意识到的。

We expect other people to act according to the same "rules" that we do, so much so that the manners and behavior of persons from another culture can be extremely confusing. 我们期待着其他民族也按着我们做事的同样的"规矩"办事，以致于来自其他民族文化的人们的待人处事的态度和行为举止可能会令我们感到极端地困惑不理解。

Fox example, North Americans tend to expect more physical distance between two speakers than do Latin Americans. 例如，北美洲的人和拉丁美洲比较起来，北美洲的人希望两个谈话的人之间的距离稍大一点。

Consequently, when the Latin American seems to be leaning too close, the North American complains of "invasion of his space." 因而，当拉丁美洲的人似乎把身子凑得离谈话对方很近的时候，北美洲的人就会抱怨说你"侵犯了他的私人窨"。