Nonverbal Communication With Language Barriers

The small group that I attend through my church has been fostering a refugee family from Somalia for the past few months. The family is moving to another state soon, so we decided to throw a going away party for them. Needless to say, there are a TON of culture differences between us, and the most notable one is language. The younger kids in the family speak English the best because they pick it up in school. The older kids and adults have been more resistant to learning a new language, and as a result have a really hard time communicating with the rest of us.

At the going away party, it was really interesting to note how the family members who didn't speak much English found ways to communicate with those of us who did speak English. They used their hands to mimic the things they were looking for, they would act out activities that they couldn't describe, and they would use facial expressions instead of words in response to a lot of things. I was surprised at the end of the night that I sort of felt like I'd been talking to the family all night, when really we'd just been exchanging facial expressions and funny actions.

I found it especially interesting that some expressions or actions matched perfectly between our two cultures. For instance, when thanking the host of the party for all her efforts, the mother grasped the host's shoulders affectionately and gave a big smile. This is probably exactly what I would do while at the same time using words to say thank you in English. Another example I noticed was that when one of the daughters was trying to ask where the trashcan was, she made a throwing motion with her hand, like she was holding something and tossing it away. I also recognized this as a motion commonly seen in our culture.