without any intent to do so. Lots of books and websites show for instance identical gestures with completely different meanings in different cultures.

External appearance have both biological and cultural aspects. The biological aspects may in turn also get a cultural meaning. Examples are skin colour and the 'scary, dark man'; male or female and (sub)domination and subordination; height as a characteristic of power; age and the wise old man; effects of diseases. The face is a mixture of biological and cultural aspects as well. If we are happy, we laugh, but how we laugh is another story.

Culture has a strong impact on body language. Major domains include proxemics and territoriality (mostly the preferred distance between people); kinesics, movement and posture; gestures; greeting; facial expression; chronemics (aspects of time); haptics (touching); clothing and physical appearance; olfactics (smell and its influence). More details may be found on the website.

nature. Of course, we all try to bring an awful message across in a friendly way, but we rarely take voice lessons to get everything out

of our voice. And it is still the question what may be used deliberately or not (biologically determined or not). What in one language may sound friendly, doesn't need to sound friendly in another language. Sometimes people say that a particular language sounds friendly or sounds sharp, while they do not speak the language.

Body Language

Body language, the number of its aspects and their meaning is studied in more and more detail. All in all, it is way too much to consider when you are just talking to someone from another culture but the awareness of some of these points may already help.

Much of body language is on a subconscious level, resulting in misunderstanding and even insult in communicating across cultures