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(共13张PPT)
Unit 6
Smell in Intercultural Communication
presentation
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Olfactics refers to the non-verbal communication study of smell, or people’s sense of smell. First, our sense of smell serves an important biological function.
Delicious smells from food facilitates our appetite, while bad or stinky smells keep us away from rotten food so that we will not get sick from eating it. Also, we sometimes react to people based on their scent, referring to body odor, or perfume. Naturally everybody has a smell, no matter whether he or she has used perfume or not.
But we know that people have to be really careful about their communicating with fragrances. If a person’s cologne can be smelt from a far distance, it may give us certain impression about him or her.
What scent we have will give a non-verbal communication to people around us. So it is like body adornment and clothing; it is something that we may want to alter, depending on circumstances and what it is exactly that we are try to communicate non-verbally.
Culture influences how we respond to certain contexts involving smell. Americans are likely to feel uneasy with natural smell, while many other cultures regard natural odors as normal, and Arabs tend to regard the smell of a person as an extension of the self.
It goes without saying that smell plays a prominent part in social interaction. In Bali, it is often found that lovers upon greeting each other breathe deeply in a kind of friendly sniffing; this behavior is also desirable between Arabic friends, who are thought to act shamefully when they fail to do so. Nevertheless, Americans are taught not to breathe in other people’s face.
A number of elements affect the meaning we give to a smell: (1) the strength in relation to competing fragrances and odors (French perfume versus an inexpensive after-shave lotion), (2) the smell’s distance from the other person, (3) the perceived relationship between the parties involved, and (4) the context of the encounter. Culture influences our reaction to each of these variables.
A person’s smell can have a positive or negative effect on the oral message. Most people of the West respond negatively to what they consider bad odors such as body odor, breath odor, or clothes that emit unpleasant aromas such as perspiration. They work hard to neutralize body odors or cover them up and view those with body odor as dirty and unsanitary.
Other cultures have quite different concepts of natural odors; they consider them as normal and believe that it is an act of friendship to “breath the breath” of the person with whom they converse and to feel their presence by smelling.
To illustrate, Arabs don’t seem to feel comfortable unless they can smell each other. When Arabs talk, they virtually envelop each other in their breath. Selling the natural body odors of one’s friends is desirable; denying him or her this privilege is to act ashamedly.
Clearly, encounters between people with such widely differing attitudes could lead to serious miscommunication.
To maintain harmonious intercultural relationship, one should remember these diverse attitudes toward smell and, if possible, adopt the hygiene practices of the country in which you are travelling.
Notes
olfactics
biological
facilitate
stinky
rotten
scent
cologne
adornment
alter
interaction
嗅觉学
生物的
促进，使容易
散发恶臭的
腐烂的
香味，气味
古龙水，花露水
装饰品
改变
合作，互动
Notes
Bali
sniff
perceive
variable
body odor
breath odor
perspiration
unsanitary
envelope
privilege
巴厘岛
嗅，深深吸入
察觉，理解
变量
体味
口气
汗水
不卫生的，不洁净的
包围
特权
Questions
1. What are the functions of smell
2. Give examples to show that four elements can affect the meanings of smell.
3. How do people in Bali and Arab greet each other

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