Silent Language

¶ … Silent Language In the Introduction to his book the Silent Language Edward T. Hall notes that "much of our difficulty with people in other countries stems from the fact that so little is known about cross-cultural communication." This central premise is what makes Hall's work endure over time. Although much of the book, including his diction and his examples, are outdated, the Silent Language raises important questions about the nature of human communication. Hall suggests that verbal language is only the tip of the miscommunication iceberg.

Sure, hundreds of different tongues cause communication problems, but the real impasse that people reach when trying to foster genuine understanding is in the realm of the unconscious. Specifically, Hall refers to the "cultural unconscious," that which drives and motivates whole groups of people. The silent language of nonverbal communication is not restricted to gestures or body language, either. One of the most poignant ideas raised by Hall is that time is a relevant factor in intercultural communications.

Time is so central to Hall's theory of cross-cultural communication that he devotes two chapters out of eleven to deal with the topic. Time impacts human communication in a variety of ways, informing the way people think and act. For example, Hall notes that for Americans time is fixed, absolute, segmented, and highly structured. Americans, and an increasing number of "westernized" societies, depend on the rigidity of the clock for setting schedules and agendas. Days of the year are marked, along with months, days, hours, minutes, even seconds.

So ingrained are cultural concepts of time that Americans have difficulty understanding people from cultures that do not support this fixed temporal system. Looking past Hall's gross generalizations and stereotypes (which can be forgiven because the book was written in 1959), the author does provide ample examples from a variety of cultures and subcultures. In fact, he even notices that people from different parts of the United States treat time differently.

Although all Americans operate on the same temporal system, Hall asserts that people from the Pacific Northwest are less concerned with punctuality than people from other parts of the country (160). The author also states that Mormons are the exact opposite and are particularly concerned with exact punctuality when making meeting times. Whether or not these generalizations apply, individual differences with regards to time and punctuality cannot be denied. Some people simply care more about being on time, while others seem to never be able to meet an appointment.

How much of this is due to psychology is unknown, and Hall fails to treat this issue adequately. After all, many people who are chronically late are simply acting out of rebellion, reluctance, or even anxiety or depression. However, Hall's theories about time are valid and worth analyzing, especially as they pertain to intercultural communication. One of the problems that American travelers have with cultures and countries other than ours is embodied in the silent language of time. According to Hall, "time talks," it has a voice (1).

When a person arrives late for a job interview, he or she communicates possible disinterest in the job, which can be translated as disrespect. Time, and people's treatment of time, is indeed a silent language. In highly structured cultures such as ours, time also informs cultural psychology. For example, Hall notes that Americans have developed a need for urgency: "In the United States the need must be highly critical before people act," (152).

Moreover, Americans are unique in their contrived sense of urgency; Hall states that even Western European cultures do not possess as much of a sense of urgency (152). Another category of time that is culturally relevant and culturally specific is that of "monochronism." When someone is engaged in an activity, that person is properly doing something; if the person is just sitting around, he or she is deemed inactive. In many cultures, especially agrarian ones, time and activity are less closely linked.

A person is still "doing something" even if he or she is not actively engaged. A person from a more industrialized society will feel the sense of "wasting time," or of urgency. To simply sit and do nothing is anathema to progress and success. If a person is used to being constantly busy, time will seem so valuable that each minute must be scheduled and taken up with some kind of "meaningful" activity. Similarly, boredom is a cultural construct. Ironically, when the urgency of time is removed, so is boredom.

Every moment becomes meaningful when there is no sense of time ticking away, to be gone and lost forever. Although Hall notes that it takes about twelve years for children to understand time, the author reminds his readers of the influence of television on the child's concept of time (140; 144). Children, for whom minutes and hours might seem indistinguishable, nevertheless know that when the clock reads 6, that their favorite cartoon comes on.

Even children who can read clocks might still not be sensitive to the notion of time in the same way adults are. "Are we there yet? Are we there yet?" is an example of children being unable to grasp time. Waiting for something is foreign to a child who normally depends on instant gratification. Time is always subjective for the child, always perceived as feelings and emotions rather than as something mathematical and precise.

Similarly, waiting for five minutes can seem alternately like waiting an hour or five seconds, depending on the circumstances. The subjective notion of time translates into other cultures as "rubber time," or flex-time. In cultures less dependent on the clock, time is not a matter of rigid seconds, minutes and hours. Minutes and hours provide a ballpark figure with which to work with. Many cultures do not value punctuality because their time-language does not demand it.

This can be interpreted as a refreshing change of pace from the time-language of Western cultures, especially.