Body Language

　When I was a high school student, I felt that studying a foreign language was bothersome. Actually, I was not a good student. When my classmates and I had a bad grade in English, we all told ourselves, “Relax! We will not need a foreign language. Because if we need to communicate with people from abroad, we can use body language.” We comforted each other.

When I was a university student, I traveled to Kyoto by myself. Everyone loves Kyoto.

I forgot the name of the temple, but I watched a shocking scene there.

There were a couple. They might be from abroad. They were walking around. There were also two high school girls. They stood in front of a small house.

One of the girls said, “Come here,” using body language to the couple. The couple got angry, glared at them, turned back, and got out of the temple.

Okay, here is the question. What happened between them?

I had studied English for a long time, so now I could solve this miscommunication. I could help them. But as you know, I was not a good language student at that time. I couldn’t help them.

I wrote, “Come here,” with body language. If you are familiar with Japanese culture, you might already know the answer. Japanese’s “come here” gesture and the English-speaking world’s “come here” gesture are upside down. It was not the beckoning sign. If an ordinary Japanese person invites you with the gesture, he or she waves the fingers with one’s palm facing down, bringing them toward one’s body (like the famous Maneki-neko lucky cat), but it means “go away” in the English-speaking world.

From the couple’s point of view, this was a sad incident. They came from abroad. They were enjoying an old temple, but a high school girl expressed “go away” to them in a gesture. They love Japan, so they visited Japan, but they could assume they were not welcome by the young girls. This might be a shocking experience.

I could understand the situation, but I couldn’t speak English. So I couldn’t take care of the couple. I talked to the high school girls because they were almost crying.

They said there were mysterious stones in the small house. They wanted to explain about the stones to the couple. Instead of that, they explained that to me.

There were three stones in the small house. They were different sizes. The big, middle, and small. All of them were handheld sizes. One of the girls said, “If you caress a stone, it will become lighter. If you hit a stone, it will become heavier.”

Actually, I couldn’t believe that story, but I tried.

Actually, it worked as the girl said. Somehow, I felt lighter when I caressed it, and I felt heavier when I hit it. I tried all the stones. I felt the miracle. The big stone, especially, drastically changed its weight. I was surprised.

I am not sure you can believe this story, but I think it would happen in Kyoto. Kyoto is a mysterious city.

The girls wanted to explain about these magical stones to the couple from abroad. The girls tried to invite the couple to the small house, but there was miscommunication. The couple got angry and went away. This was a sad incident for all of them.

Language includes body language. Our body language might not have common universal meanings. We use body language in daily life, but these could have bad meanings in a different part of the planet.

Studying foreign languages is bothersome, but we have to study them steadily.

Japanese 

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Picture by Hibino Kiro