Adeola Abdulateef Elega

2.5.2 Culture and Non-verbal Cues 
Culture remains a subtle concept to define. It is so because culture is everything. 
Getting an all-encompassing definition of culture is hardly possible. It is ultimately 
important to note that so many meanings have been given to culture from different 
scholars all over the world and the submission is that defining culture is tough. 
According to Lowell (1915) delimitating culture is like trying to capture air in the 
hand. He continued by defining culture in his own way by saying culture is the 
authoritative direction of the practice of one’s own trade. His meaning of culture is 
explained in the line of profession. He believed that as medical personnel, everything 
you do within your field makes you an expert of your area. However, when you meet 
with other people from different disciplines everybody talks in mastery of their craft.
If a lawyer comes to a radio station to air a program, he therefore broadens his 

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culture which makes him see more out of the restrictions of law and order. Culture 
goes as afar as making you know something about everything and everything about 
something. A professor in communication who knows public relations, advertising, 
print media, broadcast media and knows nothing else does not fit in the meaning of a 
person of culture (Lowell, 1915 pp. 553-554). 
Culture is also defined by David Matsumoto, an authority in culture and nonverbal 
cues. Matsumoto (2006) accedes that “culture is the product of the interaction 
between universal biological needs and functions, universal social problems created 
to address those needs, and the contexts in which people live” (Matsumoto, 2006, pp. 
219-220). He went further to say culture is all about coping in your environment and 
trying to live the life as it is generally lived within the circle. 
However it is imperative to note that with all definitions offered to culture, the basic 
idea behind all is that culture is the way of life of a given people. In spite of this fact, 
Nonverbal communication may vary across cultures. The way we eat, the way we act 
the way we think and the way we feel affects the elements of nonverbal 
communication. Some gestures have similar meaning while others are entirely 
different in other cultures. Eye contact, handshakes, clothing, tone of voice, personal 
space and even silence may have different meaning across ends. A measure of the 
effect of culture in nonverbal communication has been worked on by a couple of 
scholars. According to Matsumo (2006), its origin can be linked to David Efron’s 
work on the Sicilian and Lithuanian Jewish migrants in the United States specifically 
New York city. He discovered that they have their local nonverbal communication 
which became almost unnoticeable when they mixed with the America way of life. 
Also, Ekman and his colleagues followed with a work on differences of gestures 

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among Americans, New Guineans and the Japanese people. Morris and his 
colleagues also worked on studies of gestures and culture. Basically, differences in 
gestures across cultures can be controversial. A gesture that is inoffensive in a 
culture can be offensive in another culture. An example of the “A-ok” sign in 
America means wanting sex in some parts of Europe (Matsumoto, 2006, pp. 231). 
Yes and No are commonly used through nonverbal cues as a result of its frequent 
popping up in conversations. Also their meanings differ across cultures. Generally 
nodding the head front and back vertically is a way of consent and horizontally for 
saying ‘no’. In japan hand gestures are the best to assert and nullify. Moving the right 
hand means no and moving both hands in a way is equal to no (Jain & Choudhary, 
2011 p. 24). 
According to a World Bank report, a good communicator should be at alert to 
meanings of nonverbal communication in other cultures. To avoid gestures with 
entirely different meanings which might be insulting, passing your intended message 
across is vital. However, for a foreigner in a new environment you are expected to 
understand how to play around nonverbal cues to achieve the basic aim of 
communication (Worldbank.org, 2014).