Observing Teacher

Last Monday I was observing my Music Appreciation teacher and I noticed various aspects of gestures he uses every day. He is always moving from one side of the room to the other. I really try to keep my mind on the class, but he has so many funny gestures that is kind of hard not to be observing him rather than listening to him, although he does have some serious and even scary gestures. After the class is over I have to admit that I wouldn’t enjoy this class that much without his movements, but of course I can’t speak for all, that is just my opinion. Sometimes is hard for me to know what is it that he is trying to say. The most frequent gestures used by my music teacher are the funny ones. For example when he is trying to say something and he forgets about what it was, he moves the head side to side; when he is excited he moves his head & arms like he’s dancing. Another funny thing he does occurs when he plays the piano, all his body seems to have an earthquake. He is always moving his hands, feet, and head, well his entire body. When he is wrong, you can see his eyes moving upside down. But when he is right he has this funny smile and his eyes are kind of closed, well more than usual. The gestures I think are probably interpreted similar by most students are for example, when he smiles and look right to the eyes, most of the times that means he is going to ask you something. Or when he touches his head with the hands and then go down to his chin, either he forgot something or he doesn’t know what’s happening. But there are some gestures he does that you just can’t tell for sure what they mean. For example like I said before, sometimes he forgot what he was going to say, he moves the head side to side, and some students would think he is mad or disappointed. Those are probably the gestures differentially interpreted by many students. I don’t think that if the student is unable to “translate” the instructor’s non-verbal communication, their grade should be significantly affected, at least not in this class and with this teacher. There may be teachers in whose class you have to try hard and understand the gestures or you may get sued. Of course we are all different and that’s why we tend to assume that we know what others try to say with their non-verbal language. My music teacher for example, he is from other country and so he has different meanings for some gestures we’re used to. And that’s why sometimes we have to learn to learn to interpret these meanings. When we’re talking about gestures & non-verbal communication, we can’t specify the meanings for ourselves; that’s what we have to understand. We won’t always be able to interpret other people gestures. And when we misinterpret the meaning, we have to know there would be some social effects. If you are working and you see your boss on the hallway telling you something with his hands and you’re not able to interpret them, you can’t get in trouble. Or if someone is waving at you, you may think is being mean and you’re going to get mad. The same thing happens when you’re driving, if you misinterpret other driver’s gestures, you may get upset. But we need to understand we’re all from different cultures, and that we have different customs, and so our gestures may have different meanings for others. We have to make mistakes because that’s where you can learn. You learn from your own mistakes. And someday you’re going to find out that you are acquiring the knowledge from others. Non-verbal communication is something we use every day, although you may haven’t noticed that. So we don’t have any option but keep on living and learning from each other, of course always with respect.