Page 111 - 633 102 Professional English for Pharmacists E-Course book

Non-verbal Communication

Not only the verbal communication, Non-verbal, your body

• Body Movements (Kinesics): hand gestures, nodding or shaking the head;

your body movement, the way you nod, the way you shake your head, hand gestures, when you
talk, when you speak. Does it make people have a headache?

• Posture, or how you stand or sit: your legs/arms are crossed, forward sloping/backward
stance

What about the way you sit? Your posture, the way you stand, the way you talk to them. Are you
talking as it’s like they are a child, you are standing and they are sitting, that might not be a way
to strengthen the relationship.

• Eye Contact: often determines the level of attentiveness, trust and trustworthiness; Your
eye contact, you don’t look at them at all. One of the patients when I was interviewing
patients, and they said “you know? When I walk to the clinic or the drugstore, they just
don’t look me in the eye, they just ask, especially the doctors, just give them prescription
without asking than anything that much.” How would they feel? They don’t feel respected.
They don’t feel like you're really somebody that they can trust. Whenever they don’t feel
that you can be trustworthy to them, then they don’t want to review or talk about anything
at all.
• Para-language, or aspects of the voice apart from speech, such as pitch, tone, and speed
of speaking; Your voice apart from your speech, and your pitch, your tone, the speed.
Those we call Paralanguage. You just not only the language you speak, but the way you
deliver, some people speak very high pitch, or the tone, especially the elderly one. And it
looks like you are mad at them. You don’t think that they are more like a child. That
situation, Then, that kind of non-verbal language would not be rude.
• Closeness or Personal Space (Proxemics), which determines the level of intimacy

What about space, the way you are between you and the patient. A lot of time we are too
close or we are too far away from them.

o In today's multicultural society, a range of non-verbal codes are expressed in
different ethnic groups
o When someone violates an ‘appropriate’ distance, people may feel uncomfortable
or defensive

108 633 102 Professional English for Pharmacists