I thought I was speaking clearly but he had no idea what I was saying.
We have heard it before, right? There is much more said in the unsaid than the said. But have you considered how your body language is telling a different story to what you are actually saying?
In the latest episode of the Real Fast Spanish tips podcast, we will be discussing the topic of body language as the mindset discussion for this week.
Body language is important and it is even more important when you are uncertain of a language because if you can’t tell the full story with what you are actually saying then you need to make up the rest with your body language.
I had a bit of shock early in my language learning journey when a good friend of mine told me that my body language was awful when I was speaking Spanish. “Look me in the eyes” he said. I didn’t realise that when I was practicing my Spanish my eyes darted to the ground, the confidence in my tone of voice dropped, my shoulders slouched and I crossed my arms.
He told me that even if my spanish is disjointed and broken, he could still understand more clearly if I looked him in the eye and conveyed more with my body language.
It is amazing what your body will do if you aren’t conscious of it and if you aren’t confident in what you are saying. Public speakers practice this regardless of their confidence level in a topic. It is critical to getting your point across and it is absolutely worth practicing with your Spanish.
Mentioned in the episode
- Body language study number 1 – Mehrabian and Wiener, (1967)
- Body language study number 2 – Mehrabian and Ferris (1967)
Today’s quote:
“What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
How can you improve your body language?
Podcast: Play in new window
Leave a Reply