Body language can tell us a lot more about how a person truly feels than spoken words. For example, the shaking of legs usually meant the listener was bored or distracted, biting of the nails usually shows one is nervous while the sudden darting of eyes to the left when answering a question is often believed to be an indication that the speaker is lying.
Talking about this I can't help but be reminded about the famous TV debate between Mr R Nixson and Mr JF Kennedy. I remember watching a documentary on History Channel discussing about how President Kennedy's poised and confident image during the 1960 Presidential Debate played an undeniable role in his eventual success. In the past, such debates between the candidates were usually broadcasted on radio but in that fateful year of 1960, the debate was decided to be televionized. This way, the candidates were judged not only by what they said during the debate but also inevitably how they delivered the speech. Well thanks to technology, you can check out the video below which will help to explain what am trying to say much more effectively :p
Just by looking at the way they were sitting at 0:26, Mr Kennedy was sitting upright with his legs crossed and his hands on his lap, showing that he was comfortable and self-assured whereas Mr Nixson was fumbling in his pockets and looking rather awkward to be in his seats. If you listen to their responses to the questions you will find that Mr Nixson definitely is just as(if not more) experience and capable than Mr Kennedy, but his body language seemed to speak otherwise.
I remember attending a group interview in NTU, each interviewee's body language certainly was just as important as what his/her answer was. I have to admitt that am not a very confident speaker and I could actually tell that the interviewer was not impressed by what i was saying as she was checking her watch and she changed her sitting postures a few times when it was my turn... I think you can imagaine my anxiety at that time right? Haha I felt quite disappointed for a while but the lessons that i learnt was priceless.
Am sure that you guys must had experienced similar scenarios whereby a person's body language revealed something that she/he didnt intended to, do share with us so that we can all become better observers and communicators :)
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Thank you, Jingyang, for sharing your thoughts and this fascinating video. I appreciate your analysis of Nixon and Kennedy's body language, and I can also sympathize with your discomfort at the interview.
ReplyDeleteThank you Brad! I hate public speaking so am hoping i dont screw up my team's presentation. Truth is i don't really like this post because i had wanted to write about something else but was too busy last week.
ReplyDeleteHi Jing yang,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that body language is an important aspect of effective communication. I guess this is a form of non-verbal communication.
During interviews and presentation, maintaining a good posture is a good body language and it does leave a good impreesion to others.
I think that I tend to make mistakes in my body languages during presentation and interviews. This is because when I am nervous, I would tend to do excessive hand gestures which are unnecessary and distratcing. I am aware of such mistakes but sometimes it just happened naturally when i am very nervous.
Looks likes it requires me effort to control my body language.
Thanks for the post and the video. cheers:)
hi Qiying :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for your honest comment! I totally agree that sometimes it's just hard to control our body language when we are nervous(I mean i have a rehearsal in my mind but when once i feel anxious...it's all out of the window). So i guess more practices are the only way out.
Hey and girl i felt you were a natural and lovable presenter acutally after seeing you in class. Haha your smile certainly made one feel warm and thus people will pay attention to you.
Hey Jing Yang,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post. I agree with you that body language is very important in communication. It can reveal many things to another person. The customs are taught to read body languages to detect if anyone is smuggling any illegal items. And even a simple interview, body language reveals a lot of information to the interviewer.
I myself tend to make both non-verbal and verbal mistakes like fidgeting and the way I sit and saying the wrong things. All these may have caused me to fail in many of my interviews.
I guess that for an interview, it is important to go in prepared, this way you will feel confident. And last of all lots of practice is important too.
Thanks for the post again Jing Yang. Cheers!
Hey Keldren :D
ReplyDeleteHaha thanks for the encouraging comment! It's very interesting point that you brought in about Customs...they must have a lot of experience in reading people's body language to find out which are the 'suspicious' ones. Hmm this is random but I suddenly recall seeing in the movie Ocean's Eleven that Brad pitt's character was able to tell that 2 police officers in civilian clothing were pretending to be a couple from their body language!
oh ya and thanks for the advice...haha it's strange that my group's going to give the presentation on interview tomorrow so i better practise what i 'preach' i guess :p
Dear Jing Yang,
ReplyDeleteI really agree with you and Qiying that body language is an important aspect of effective communication.
I think that body language has its advantages and disadvantages. It is advantageous when the body language helps to reinforce communication positively and to portray an optimistic look. On contrary, body language may be a disadvantage as it portrays a negative look to the audience, which is unintended, just like the case of Mr Nixson. I am sure that he did not intend to put across the message that he was very nervous. Therefore, I think that it is a skill to be able to conduct oneself properly and to portray a positive body language.
If I did not remember wrongly, one can actually study the behavior of mankind through analyzing their body language. If there is ever such a course in NUS, I will be more than willing to register for it! I think that it is really something very interesting.
As for your dreadful experience in NTU, just to let you know, you are not the only one!! Laughs! I went for 2 interviews, one in NUS and the other in SMU. The interview experience in NUS was not that bad, however, the one in SMU was awful. I was applying for the School of Economics back then and the interview was in a group form. There were a couple of students together with me in the room, with 2 staff from SMU interviewing us. Back then, I was not equipped with any knowledge on how to handle such interviews. I went in, just being myself, and answered the questions the best I could. From the body language of the 2 staff, I could sense that they were not very much pleased with my answers, as compared to the other students. And it was then I realized that ‘OK! Things are not going in the right direction. I just failed the interview!’. Quite a similar experience ya? But thank god it’s all over! Cheers!
hi michelle,
ReplyDeleteHey thanks for sharing your dreadful experience! Haha i know this is not a good thing to say but thanks girl it does make me feel better to know that i was not the only one who "learned her lesson" during the NTU interview. I think after attending more interviews, I can roughly guess whether am going to get the job or not judging by my performance that day and the responses of the interviewers.
Hey like you said that body language can be both beneficial or detrimental depending on how aware you are of yourself. I think the only way is to pay more attention to ourselves when speaking so that our body dont betray our thoughts. And it's a very interesting topic that you brought up about the course in NTU! I didnt know about it but my friend from NUS psychology did mention that body language is indeed a part used to analyze human subconsicious thoughts. Haha hope to discuss this more with you next time!
Hi hope you can master your body language in your future interviews :D
Hi Jing Yang,
ReplyDeleteI would like to add on to the other comments. Firstly, I like the title! It gives readers a sense of curiosity.
I have the same opinion too about the importance of body language. I am pretty conscious about other people's body language when I speak to them because words can lie but body language can't. From these little gestures we could also infer what others see in us.
Thank you for the interesting post!