Excellent communication is often the foundation for any form of understandings and successful relationships, whether personal or professional. More importantly, we have to recognize that it is our non-verbal side of communication that predominantly speaks the loudest. Understanding one another in addition to using non-verbal communications is a significant tool that helps people to connect with one another. Additionally, through non-verbal communications, various individuals can express what they mean and therefore can build better relationships since spoken words alone cannot conceptualize information that is passed across through communication (Smith, Boose, & Segal, 2018) . As human beings, we continuously give and receive wordless signals in our everyday interactions with each other. All the non-verbal behaviors that we portray mostly send forward strong messages which often do not stop when we stop speaking. In other words, an individual still can communicate nonverbally even when silent. In many occasions, what we speak and what we communicate nonverbally are often two different things (Smith, Boose, & Segal, 2018) .
Moreover, in instances when a listener is faced with these mixed signals, he or she will choose to believe the speaker’s nonverbal side for it is a natural, unconscious language that predominantly broadcasts the real feeling and intentions of a person. As Drucker states, “the most important thing in communication is hearing what isn’t said.” (Smith, Boose, & Segal, 2018) . When adequately yielded, nonverbal communication that is passed across between different individuals can increase trust, clarity and additionally add interest to one's information. Being that nonverbal communication is the element of the in-person presentation of information, it has become the default response where responses matter the most (Smith, Boose, & Segal, 2018) . Nonverbal communication shares much more than simple di alogue since it reinforces things that have already been said by a speaker and additionally can uncover a speaker’s untruthfulness as it can contradict messages. Furthermore, nonverbal communication often takes the place of words, compliment verbal messages and underline specific points in a message. I will, however, discuss the tone of voice, body language and the emotions part of nonverbal communication.
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Body Language
Body language is one of the nonverbal systems of communication that mainly relies on body movements and may include gestures, facial expressions, and postures to convey messages across individuals (Nordquist, 2018) . Body language at most times may be used unconsciously or consciously and often accompanies verbal messages or used as a substitute for speech. Body language has been used in many instances to relay information across different people. When looking at William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus , Act III, Scene 2, we can spot the use of body language. It explicitly states that, "Speechless complainer, I will learn thy thought; in thy dumb action will I be as perfect, As begging hermits in their holy prayers, Thou shall not sigh, nor hold thy stumps to heaven, Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor make a sign, But I of these will wrest an alphabet, And by still practice learn to know thy meaning.” (Nordquist, 2018) . B ody language in communication often makes information that is passed across more believable than if verbal communication is used.
Body language in communication may be shown through head motions, a person’s posture, facial expression, space, gestures, silence, gestures or paralanguage. However, gestures are more specific to cultures. An example can be seen with the clenching of fists that can mean emphasis for an American but sign of disrespect for an Indian. Although at times they are culture-specific, there are also some that are universal and hence has been able to cut across cultural boundaries. For example, a V sign used with the index finger and the middle finger often stands for victory while waving a hand is for a ‘hello' or goodbye (Nordquist, 2018) . Additionally, certain gestures if made unconsciously will mostly reveal the mental state of the speaker such as anger, fear, or nervousness. Moreover, paralanguages such as ‘Hmm’ although most do not have semantic values, are often essential prompters in maintaining an unbroken communication chain. For example, the use of body language can be seen in the meeting that took place between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in the instance when they reached for a handshake, but there was an awkward question left between them that made Putin smirk. In these instance, we can say that both leaders were vying for dominance in the room, although there was mutual respect between them that was however competitive.
Tone of voice
The tone of voice is one of the major contributors that often determine how the information you will pass across will be taken by your audience. It is the expression of a person’s values and way of thinking, and therefore we have to consider it more thoroughly when communicating (Moran, 2016) . More importantly, the tone of voice can instigate feelings of hurt or even an argument between individuals. When it comes to a matter relating to business, using the wrong tone of voice in the information that you pass across can put off potential customers. At most times, however, it is not what we say to each other that matter but how we say it (Moran, 2016) . As a person, I’m not a fan of watching dramas occurring between individuals as I sometimes walk down the streets but on one particular day while walking back from school, it was too tempting not to stand and watch while two young men were arguing. As I recall, they were arguing about a girl whom they were both interested in who was a girlfriend to one of them. One of them was rubbing in the face of the other about how his girlfriend was "cheap" and was the one who fell easily for material things. But unknown to this man, the other was stating while smiling that if he utters another word concerning his girlfriend, then he won't like what will happen to him next. He, therefore, ignored the young man's threat thinking it as a joke and continued "bad mouthing" the girlfriend. The next thing I saw was the man on the ground with blood oozing out of his nose, how the punch was thrown still a mystery to me to date. In this situation, the tone of voice that the young man used was not at all threatening hence the ignorance on the other man's side. If he had used a tone that relayed what he meant then the young man would have taken him seriously and could have avoided the split nose.
Emotions
Although at most time’s emotions may tend to be personal since they relay what we feel on the inside to those around us, they may also tend to be interpersonal since other people show of emotion often triggers a reaction from other individuals as well (Tracy, Randles, & Steckler, 2015) . Even though suggestion has been made that a small number of emotions have been associated with clear nonverbal communication that is explicitly recognized and displayed across cultures, initially, they served as an internal and physiological function that later served as social communicative functions (Tracy, Randles, & Steckler, 2015) . Emotions often express the necessary signal information of whether the expresser should be avoided or approached. In our everyday lives, we often see various individuals expressing different kinds of emotions be it happiness, anger or jealousy, some without even realizing they are doing it while some are aware of the feelings they are displaying. For example, during my first date, I was so nervous that I could not bring myself to sit still during the entire period of the date and this made my partner start looking at other individuals instead of me which in turn made me a bit jealous. As I later came to find out, my nervousness was to do with the possibility of interference with the goal that I had in mind. The fears that I had of the date going poorly further interfered with my desire to have a good time and thus make a connection. My jealousy was however because the relationship I was to establish was being threatened. This scenario clearly indicates how emotions can bring out the unspoken words in our minds and our true feelings.
References
Moran, K. (2016, July 17). The Four Dimensions of Tone of Voice. Retrieved July 2018, from Nielsen Norman Group: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/tone-of-voice-dimensions/
Nordquist, R. (2018, February 03). Body Language in the Communication Process. Retrieved July 2018, from ThoughtCo: https://www.thoughtco.com/body-language-communication-1689031
Smith, M., Boose, G., & Segal, J. (2018, January). Nonverbal Communication. Retrieved July 2018, from Helpguide.org: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/nonverbal-communication.htm
Tracy, L. J., Randles, D., & Steckler, M. C. (2015). The nonverbal communication of emotions. Current Opinions in Behavioral Sciences, 3 , 25-30.
