The Silent Language

Rating:
Summary: Still the best book available on non-verbal communication.
Review: Hall delves into most of the possible modes of non-verbal communication. You will learn consciously what you have been doing unconsciously and will learn much about reading others' emotions and thoughts by their behavior. A real winner! Also a good companion volume to Morris's "The Naked Ape."

Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Hall, but maybe not his best
Review: If you only read one Edward Hall book, I think that "Beyond Culture" is a better read, and more lucid. Although the two texts overlap somewhat, there are many concepts in this book that do not appear in the other (the idea of "High Context" vs "Low Context" cultures is only hinted at in this text).

The basic concept of "Silent Language" is that much of our communication is non-verbal, but that it consistently follows cultural and linguistic patterns, just as spoken and written communication does. The major difference in non-verbal communication is that it is mostly subconscious.

The book revolves around the idea that all cultural conventions can be classified as either formal, informal, or technical. Although he spends an entire chapter introducing this concept, I personally found the distinctions a bit confusing, although I do believe that the author has an important insight.

One of my favorite concepts was the idea of 'spacial accent,' which describes the size of and culturally-specific behaviors associated with that invisible zone we all carry around with us. This concept helps explain why Europeans (outside of the British) generally don't queue, and why this so aggravates Americans (and presumably Brits). The concept of 'order' also helps explain different behaviors in forming lines (American belief in 'first come, first serve, is culturally relative). Besides speaking about space, he also discusses the cultural aspects of time, which he also describes in terms of an 'accent'. (He deals with both space and time more fully in two of his other books.)

Hall makes quite a number of connections between cultural behavior, these three types of cultural convention, and specific forms of expression. Examples include: --Why scientists are terrible writers (one of several digressions away from non-verbal communications) --A very believable explanation of why art is art --Why long-range planning is rare in America

--A concept of sacred place that anticipates the recent idea that men retreat to personal 'caves'

All in all, I found this an enjoyable and enlightening book. I wish that it could have been more clear in spots, and I think it is fair to say that some of his ideas are more fully worked out in some of his other books. My only real complaint is about the quality of Anchor's reproduction, which uses a cheap paper that cannot withstand normal highlighters at all (try the wax Textliners from Faber-Castell).

Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Hall, but maybe not his best
Review: If you only read one Edward Hall book, I think that "Beyond Culture" is a better read, and more lucid. Although the two texts overlap somewhat, there are many concepts in this book that do not appear in the other (the idea of "High Context" vs "Low Context" cultures is only hinted at in this text).

The basic concept of "Silent Language" is that much of our communication is non-verbal, but that it consistently follows cultural and linguistic patterns, just as spoken and written communication does. The major difference in non-verbal communication is that it is mostly subconscious.

The book revolves around the idea that all cultural conventions can be classified as either formal, informal, or technical. Although he spends an entire chapter introducing this concept, I personally found the distinctions a bit confusing, although I do believe that the author has an important insight.

One of my favorite concepts was the idea of 'spacial accent,' which describes the size of and culturally-specific behaviors associated with that invisible zone we all carry around with us. This concept helps explain why Europeans (outside of the British) generally don't queue, and why this so aggravates Americans (and presumably Brits). The concept of 'order' also helps explain different behaviors in forming lines (American belief in 'first come, first serve, is culturally relative). Besides speaking about space, he also discusses the cultural aspects of time, which he also describes in terms of an 'accent'. (He deals with both space and time more fully in two of his other books.)

Hall makes quite a number of connections between cultural behavior, these three types of cultural convention, and specific forms of expression. Examples include: --Why scientists are terrible writers (one of several digressions away from non-verbal communications) --A very believable explanation of why art is art --Why long-range planning is rare in America

--A concept of sacred place that anticipates the recent idea that men retreat to personal 'caves'

All in all, I found this an enjoyable and enlightening book. I wish that it could have been more clear in spots, and I think it is fair to say that some of his ideas are more fully worked out in some of his other books. My only real complaint is about the quality of Anchor's reproduction, which uses a cheap paper that cannot withstand normal highlighters at all (try the wax Textliners from Faber-Castell).

Rating:
Summary: Another winner from Hall, but maybe not his best
Review: If you only read one Edward Hall book, I think that "Beyond Culture" is a better read, and more lucid. Although the two texts overlap somewhat, there are many concepts in this book that do not appear in the other (the idea of "High Context" vs "Low Context" cultures is only hinted at in this text).

The basic concept of "Silent Language" is that much of our communication is non-verbal, but that it consistently follows cultural and linguistic patterns, just as spoken and written communication does. The major difference in non-verbal communication is that it is mostly subconscious.

The book revolves around the idea that all cultural conventions can be classified as either formal, informal, or technical. Although he spends an entire chapter introducing this concept, I personally found the distinctions a bit confusing, although I do believe that the author has an important insight.

One of my favorite concepts was the idea of 'spacial accent,' which describes the size of and culturally-specific behaviors associated with that invisible zone we all carry around with us. This concept helps explain why Europeans (outside of the British) generally don't queue, and why this so aggravates Americans (and presumably Brits). The concept of 'order' also helps explain different behaviors in forming lines (American belief in 'first come, first serve, is culturally relative). Besides speaking about space, he also discusses the cultural aspects of time, which he also describes in terms of an 'accent'. (He deals with both space and time more fully in two of his other books.)

Hall makes quite a number of connections between cultural behavior, these three types of cultural convention, and specific forms of expression. Examples include: --Why scientists are terrible writers (one of several digressions away from non-verbal communications) --A very believable explanation of why art is art --Why long-range planning is rare in America

--A concept of sacred place that anticipates the recent idea that men retreat to personal 'caves'

All in all, I found this an enjoyable and enlightening book. I wish that it could have been more clear in spots, and I think it is fair to say that some of his ideas are more fully worked out in some of his other books. My only real complaint is about the quality of Anchor's reproduction, which uses a cheap paper that cannot withstand normal highlighters at all (try the wax Textliners from Faber-Castell).

Rating:
Summary: a critique of the silent language
Review: In 1962 this book was provided to all Peace Corps Volunteers as part of their preparation for working abroad in non-U.S. cultures. Hall describes categories of communication which can be used to compare any two cultures. He discusses not only conversation but a number of non-verbal communication areas, with good illustrative scenarios, for the variety of attitudes toward personal space, use of time, interaction with authorities and the law, etc. His ideas seem congruent with Marshall McLuhan's famous concept of "the medium as the message." For me, --as a very verbal person, an artist, and a world traveler-- this book provided new and useful insights about inter- and intracultural communication. It is clearly organized, well written, fascinating, and as relevant to today's global communication as when it was written.

Rating:
Summary: A clear summary of nonverbal human communication avenues
Review: In 1962 this book was provided to all Peace Corps Volunteers as part of their preparation for working abroad in non-U.S. cultures. Hall describes categories of communication which can be used to compare any two cultures. He discusses not only conversation but a number of non-verbal communication areas, with good illustrative scenarios, for the variety of attitudes toward personal space, use of time, interaction with authorities and the law, etc. His ideas seem congruent with Marshall McLuhan's famous concept of "the medium as the message." For me, --as a very verbal person, an artist, and a world traveler-- this book provided new and useful insights about inter- and intracultural communication. It is clearly organized, well written, fascinating, and as relevant to today's global communication as when it was written.

Rating:
Summary: Old as the hills, and language has moved on
Review: Recently I was in Japan, and I had some food with me, and I went to shake the hand of my hosts, and in doing so, put down the food on a convenient shelf, and instead of shaking my hand, the host turned away, and ran out of the room in a dignified way. I had read SILENT LANGUAGE by Twitchell Hall, and it definitely did not cover this faux pas. My translator, a young Russian woman, informed me that it is not polite in Japan is leave food observable in plain view. It would be like going to a business meeting in a US boardroom with your zipper undone and your genitals left visible as a result. Whether or not this is actually the case, I don't know, but again this subject was not treated in Twitchell Hall's book.

On the back of my edition of SILENT LANGUAGE it says that this is the book used in Kennedy's NEW FRONTIER to fight the image of the Ugly American then prevalent at the dawn of international mass tourism and the coming transnational age. Well, time has moved on and I believe that Twitchy's masterpiece has seen better days. They could do with far more ways to save embarrassment. Otherwise it's red faces all around and that sinking feeling of having done something wrong, and you don't even know what it is you've done! Also, I agree, there might be one for people coming to the USA for the first time, perhaps a book of photos showing different people's body language.

Rating:
Summary: a critique of the silent language
Review: The Silent Language was indeed an excellent book on the cultural influences on communication. Its definition of culture in the contexts of time and space were insightful. The most interesting thing was the breakdown of culture as communication into three categories. This is truly a breakthrough in defining theory for anthropology and related social sciences.

However, the book was limited in its focus, given that this phenomenon does not apply to North Americans only, but to anyone wishing to travel to a foreign country, whether on business, or recreation. One could say that in order to understand it, we may substitute our own experiences into those given by the author.

But culture can only be understood in social, economical, historical and political contexts. It is these contexts that shape or influence our perception, and the way we relate to others. Therefore, if Hall seeks to appeal to the intelligent , culturally diverse, non-technical audience, he should make the book more culturally relevant. In doing so, however, he must avoid generalisations that may make the text too simplistic and lose its focus.

An overall interesting book.

Rating:
Summary: Out of date
Review: This book may have been important in the 1950's, but it's rather quaint and dated now. It contains many interesting anecdotes about the differences between cultures, but very little of it is systematic or scientific. The idea that other cultures are not like us and that their communication systems are different as a result is not very revolutionary at a time when one can read the blogs of Iranian students on a daily basis.

The book lacks rigor. In the third chapter, for example, the author introduces us to a formal concept of "Primary Message Systems" (such as "learning", "play", "territorality", etc), but the concepts aren't carried forward into the rest of the book and the reader is left hanging. Besides, one has to be pretty suspicious of such concepts when it turns out that there are exactly ten - not nine or eleven - of these primary message systems.

Many of the anecdotes are interesting and illustrative, but they're mostly limited to the cultures that Hall has experience with; which turns out to be Americans, the Hopis, middle eastern Arabs, the Japanese and one or two others. It would be more interesting to see examples drawn from all over the world. Better would be a systematic comparison of, say, the concept of being on time for a meeting covering a dozen or more cultures. Instead we get only anecdotes about the fact that Arabs and Latin Americans don't find it rude to be an hour late for a meeting while being an hour late infuriates Americans. What about Russians? What about Japanese?

The book is dated and this shows one of its biggest flaws. It's hard to read about the American male greeting ritual of pounding each other on the back and exchanging cigars or the American female desire for dominance within her kitchen with a straight face these days. The very fact that culture is transient and changes over time is hardly addressed in the book, but it's one of the most obvious points the 21st century reader takes away from the book.

Lastly, Hall tries to keep value judgements out of his comparisons, but fails at the task. Over and again he slips and lets us see his disregard for American culture. Americans are too conscious of time compared to more laid-back cultures. Americans are too strict in their concept of personal space. And so on. Whenever he slips and lets his opinions show, he invariably finds American culture lacking, no matter what it is being compared to.

This book is an interesting trip into the mind of a 1950's academic, but it's not very informative on modern culture or modern thought about culture.

Rating:
Summary: Out of date
Review: This book may have been important in the 1950's, but it's rather quaint and dated now. It contains many interesting anecdotes about the differences between cultures, but very little of it is systematic or scientific. The idea that other cultures are not like us and that their communication systems are different as a result is not very revolutionary at a time when one can read the blogs of Iranian students on a daily basis.

The book lacks rigor. In the third chapter, for example, the author introduces us to a formal concept of "Primary Message Systems" (such as "learning", "play", "territorality", etc), but the concepts aren't carried forward into the rest of the book and the reader is left hanging. Besides, one has to be pretty suspicious of such concepts when it turns out that there are exactly ten - not nine or eleven - of these primary message systems.

Many of the anecdotes are interesting and illustrative, but they're mostly limited to the cultures that Hall has experience with; which turns out to be Americans, the Hopis, middle eastern Arabs, the Japanese and one or two others. It would be more interesting to see examples drawn from all over the world. Better would be a systematic comparison of, say, the concept of being on time for a meeting covering a dozen or more cultures. Instead we get only anecdotes about the fact that Arabs and Latin Americans don't find it rude to be an hour late for a meeting while being an hour late infuriates Americans. What about Russians? What about Japanese?

The book is dated and this shows one of its biggest flaws. It's hard to read about the American male greeting ritual of pounding each other on the back and exchanging cigars or the American female desire for dominance within her kitchen with a straight face these days. The very fact that culture is transient and changes over time is hardly addressed in the book, but it's one of the most obvious points the 21st century reader takes away from the book.

Lastly, Hall tries to keep value judgements out of his comparisons, but fails at the task. Over and again he slips and lets us see his disregard for American culture. Americans are too conscious of time compared to more laid-back cultures. Americans are too strict in their concept of personal space. And so on. Whenever he slips and lets his opinions show, he invariably finds American culture lacking, no matter what it is being compared to.

This book is an interesting trip into the mind of a 1950's academic, but it's not very informative on modern culture or modern thought about culture.