Oral and Nonverbal communication patterns can be more important in some cultures than it is in Belgium.
What aspects do I mean :
-looks (clothes)
-smell (much perfume)
-gestures (how much)
-use of facial expressions
-eye contact
- ...
Some cultures that I have met really show much more emotions. They express themselves more through non-verbal communication. Sometimes we(Belgian people) would just show almost no non-verbal signals, but they do it much much more.
So for example the Russian and Turkish girls are using eye contact, gestures and facial expressions a lot to express how they feel. For me, they are "dramaqueens".
Something I also noticed was the fact that some foreign girls dress up very different than the Belgian girls that I know...
For example the way that some Russian and Turkish girl look like, that I have met.
If I look at some girls, I think they all want to be "moviestars"...They even carry a little mirrow and, every 5 minutes, they look at it!! Really insane !! Appearance for girls is very important in these cultures but in other cultures people may dress up the other way around.
I think this has something to do with being individualist or being a collectivist. I think the Russian and Turkish cultures are far more collectivist than ours. We want to be different and individual, but they want to belong to a group, they want to be seen as somebody else, somebody they look up to (who they also want to be).
I think this also has something to do with the hight context communication of the Russian and Turkisch culture. They want to use their physical appearance to prove that they are rich or popular for example.
I am also a volleybal player and sometimes I also have to play against foreign opponents....
This has also led to some funny situations. The way some cultures greet each other can also be very different than the way we do it.
The Belgian people give a firm handshake, I guess.
But for example German people are far more brusque in the way they shake hands, and French people, wen they meet they are more gentle. And if they know each other good, they KISS! They do it all the time. It's not only the French but also the french-speaking part of Belgium. When two men of the same sportsteam want to say hello for example in Nivelles, they kiss!!
