The Power of Gestures: Learn Non-Verbal Communication in Arabic Culture

The present lecture is part of the monthly Research Talks organised by the Arabic Language@Leeds Satellite group in the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies at University of Leeds. For the February Research Talk we invited Dr Muntasir al-Hamad (FHE, Fellow of Higher Education Academy-UK) from Qatar University, specialist in comparative Semitic Languages syntax and grammar and highly interested in the history of the region and its faiths. The talk covers the following points: - The importance of “Non-Verbal Cues” in human conversation; - NVC dimensions: time (monochronic vs polychronic), space and context; - The Arab culture (as a High-context culture) compared to other cultures. - An introduction in the Types of NVC (e.g. gestures, Proxemics, Kinesics … etc); - An introduction to the clothes semiotics; - Presentation from the speaker’s book (in Arabic): “Signs & Gestures: NVC in Qatari Culture” by Qatar University. It contains more than four hundred (400) entries for signs and gestures that are unique to the Qatari society, some may be in common with other cultures. It presents the intangible cultural side of Qatari heritage in line with the UNESCO convention of 2003 headlined “The Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage”. Dr Muntasir al-Hamad worked as a lecturer of Arabic and Oriental Studies at the Manchester Metropolitan University, as well as the director of Amstone Project on Abrahamic Religions at the University of Manchester before moving to Qatar University to teach Arabic at the Arabic for Non-Native Speakers Center. He provides training and consultancies for various universities, schools, educational firms and publishers in the field of teaching Arabic as a second/foreign language. The talk took place on February 1st, 3-4pm GMT

Morano Roberta

2/1/2021 3:00:11 PM