The Three Languages — Body, Speech, and Writing
Two people meet in a doorway. “So good to see you,” one says, and means it, or believes she does. Her shoulders, meanwhile, stay angled toward the hall she came from, and her weight never quite leaves the back foot. The other answers warmly, the conversation lasts four minutes, and both walk away with a conclusion neither could quote. Nothing false was said. Something was communicated anyway. We talk about communication as if it were one activity called language. It is at least three. The body speaks in posture, rhythm, distance, and gaze. The voice speaks in sound and sequence. The hand speaks in marks that survive the speaker’s absence. The three overlap, translate badly into one another, and disagree most often when the message matters most. …