Activity 7 Facial Expressions and Body Language: “Emotions through the Body and the Face”
In intercultural context non-verbal communication plays an important role. We rely on nonverbal clues to "say" things that are difficult to say by talking. The face has a total of 250,000 distinct expressions. Many of these differ from culture to culture, but some are universal. Research has shown that sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and disgust are universal and can be understood in all countries. But what about the rest of emotions? Can they be easily understood via facial and body expressions? This activity is a great choice to be performed with friends and family members.
Duration: 1 ½ hours
Duration: 1 ½ hours
1.Go to a friend, family member, etc. to perform this activity.
2.Use one of the lists of emotions (Annex D & E) and ask your partner to create his own list of emotions and do not reveal the.
3.You have to non-verbally present the emotions in each list one by one. The objective of the actor each time it to show the emotion effectively enough so the spectator will be able to guess it.
4.Reflect and ask questions to yourself: a) What do I feel after this activity? b) Was it easy to find the emotion? c) Are Body Language and Facial Expressions the same in every culture when it comes to emotions? d) How do locals express their emotion by using their body? e) Do I remember of any intercultural communication difference I encountered in the past?
1.If you are a bigger group, you can assign 3 Volunteers.
2.Two of them will be actors and 1 will be the Joker. Provide the below instructions to the Joker as well.
3.The Joker with the help of the Audience will create a concrete scenario that has a) context, b) environment and c) a problem to be solved.
4.Actors should improvise and implement the scene based on the factors the audience with the Joker provided.
5.While actors perform the scene the Joker randomly asks the audience to add to a specific actor an Emotion-Role. For instance, if someone from the audience says, “Actor B – Happiness”, the actor B should show of his happiness both verbally and non-verbally even if the context is not relevant for showing that emotion.
6. If the actor freezes, then the audience shouts “Leave” and his roles is being replaced by the person who assigned the emotion.
1.Pleasure
2.Nervous
3.Misery
4.Dislike
5.Annoyance
6.Relief
7.Fun
8.Horror
9.Scared
10.Worried
1.Happiness
2.Relaxation
3.Loneliness
4.Mad
5.Distaste
6.Panicked
7.Anxious
8.Terror
9.Insulted
10.Despair