Adeola Abdulateef Elega

Nonverbal misinterpretations and language: Nonverbal communication becomes 
a major barrier to communication across cultures when we don’t know them. A lot of 
nonverbal cues vary from culture to culture. Some nonverbal cues even within same 
culture has different meaning base on the context the cue is used, so a particular cue 
can possibly have more than one meaning. An example in this respect is that of a 
teacher in Iran who is from the United States, he complained that his Iranian students 

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didn’t copy note as he was teaching them unlike the way students in the United 
States do. He failed to understand that Iranian students believe that having one of the 
two is important. Having the lecture and copying the note is just not too necessary 
since it is all about the same message (Barna, 1994 pp.337-364). 
2.6.2 Language Barriers 
Language is universal; it is used by all inhabitants of the world to communicate. 
Words, symbols, signs, and all forms of language have different meanings across 
cultures. The basic difficulty in language is because of differences in meaning of 
languages. Language barrier occurs when there is lack of shared meaning between 
people. Communication only takes place if only all barriers are taken away. For 
messages to be passed without shared meaning a translator, a confirmation or a 
verifying means is required which can also be a barrier as it will be discussed 
accordingly below. Kaplan (1954) accedes that it is imperative to understand that to 
realize what someone means when he/she says something about a situation, it is 
ultimately important to know how the person thinks. He highlights two ways in 
which language can be a barrier to understanding; malapropism and translation. 
Malapropism: This is a language barrier which is caused by the unwilled misuse of 
words that confuses with another word that sounds alike. This impediment is so easy 
to overcome. Reason being that when you continue to learn the language by day and 
you get so used to it. You will know the difference between words. 
Translation: This barrier is an aid to communication across cultures and it is also a 
major barrier to language. In this sense, we mean that the process of translation is the 
act of changing a language to another without changing in meaning. But most times 
it is a major impediment to communication. Some words in English do not give 

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direct translation in other languages. For example, in Yoruba language “mo fe lo je 
aye orimi”, literarily it means “I want to go and enjoy myself” but a direct translation 
is “I want to go and eat the life of my head” which is a different thing entirely. In 
Turkish language “Gumusservi” does not have an English translation but it means 
the light of the moon glows on water. Translating is inevitable and over time these 
are the problem it has encountered (Kaplan 1954 pp. 278-279). 
Sechrest et al (1972) agree that translation is a problem to intercultural 
communication barrier and have highlighted five problems caused by translation; 
Vocabulary 
equivalence, 
idiomatic 
equivalence, 
grammatical-syntactical 
equivalence, experiential equivalence, conceptual equivalence