Importance of verbal vs. non verbal in cross cultural communication

Is verbal communication more important or non-verbal in cross-cultural communication? This debate has ignited the scholars all over the globe. Many theories and studies have been conductive to find their relative importance. Words are used to express whatever one wants to say but they can have different meaning and connotation across various languages, countries and cultures and therefore can be misleading. On the other hand body movements, expressions and gestures have generally the same connotations across cultures but can also contrasting meanings.This paper will attempt to prove it through scholarly articles, authentic research and examples. In order to understand the topic and elaborate on the essay, first some key words shall be defined: Culture is defined as everything which is socially learned and shared by the members of a society. Everything in this definition includes a vast range of topics such as knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, values, ideas and many other capabilities (Horton & Hunt, 2004).According to Lustig and Koester (1993), communication is defined as ‘symbolic, interpretive, transactional, contextual process in which people create shared meanings’. Therefore cross cultural communication or inter culture communication refers to sharing of ideas, values etc. amongst people from various cultures. This means that people from different cultures seek to understand what others communicate and what their messages signify (Reisinger, 2009). On the other hand, intra-cultural communication refers to sharing and understanding of messages of people within a culture.