The Importance Of Gestures And Body Language

Many people have come to the conclusion that gestures and body languages are natural for humans and it is considered to be a universal language. It can be debated that gestures are part of speaking and assists humans to understand more of what is being communicated. Like when giving directions, a vast majority of people will not only describe the destination’s route with their words, but would additionally use their hands to display the curves of the route suggested. Arika Okrent, a linguistic scholar who is part-taking in the Department of Psychology’s Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience Program at the University of Chicago, stated “when we form our thoughts into speech, some of it leaks through our hands” (23). Okrent believed that our gestures and body languages expressed what we are saying and what we may not be verbally saying. However, gestures and body language can often be misinterpreted as each individual gesture and pose can vary. There are many variations of gestures and expressing feelings that it can be very complicated to distinguish the thoughts or feelings of others just through gesturing. …show more content…
One day, I was following my normal routine of bumping from class to class every forty-five minutes or so. As I headed towards my last class of the day, English, I settled into the classroom. I slouched back onto the cold, square piece of metal that’s considered to be a backrest and sunk down until my feet were flat on the ground. I grabbed a notebook from my bag and placed it on the desk along with my pencil. Just as the bell rang over the speaker to state the beginning of class, my teacher, Ms. Brill, walked