Facial expressions 'not global'

Most Asian languages are symbolic, and meanings are ascribed to individual symbols and not a combination of symbols that form a word (which is then defined). This means that each symbol is given more attention, like how East Asians give more attention to a particular facial feature rather than focusing on the entire face's features at once.

It gets me thinking about Asian cinema, and asian acting... that sometimes seems odd to us. To me at least. It isn't worse or better, just different.

It gets me thinking about Asian cinema, and asian acting... that sometimes seems odd to us. To me at least. It isn't worse or better, just different. Give some examples?

i think this is crap...i think we might all act different, but i think facial expressions are the same all over

As an English teacher in Asia I can explain this unexplained mystery. In many asian languages vowels are pronounced with the whole mouth, creating a face that might seem like surprise to Western eyes. So the shape of the mouth cannot be relied upon to convey emotion. The fact that Glasgow University needs a team of researchers to discover this is quite humorous indeed. I guess they need to justify all that research money they spent down at the pub.

As an English teacher in Asia I can explain this unexplained mystery. In many asian languages vowels are pronounced with the whole mouth, creating a face that might seem like surprise to Western eyes. So the shape of the mouth cannot be relied upon to convey emotion. The fact that Glasgow University needs a team of researchers to discover this is quite humorous indeed. I guess they need to justify all that research money they spent down at the pub. Interesting observation but casual observations never equal proof, they are often what triggers a study, however you can often not just start sayin... [More]

Well, if they are seriously studying the differences between Eastern and Western expressions, it might help if they actually spent some time in the East, get some assistance from Westerners who have spent their lives observing Easterners in their homeland and jump start their work on these elementary details which have still managed to elude them as they have (apparently) not left the confines of their campus in Scotland. It's no challenge at all to confirm my "casual observations" if you have access to an English school in Shanghai, Soeul, Bangkok or Tokyo, but this test group is a bunch of E... [More]

Well, if they are seriously studying the differences between Eastern and Western expressions, it might help if they actually spent some time in the East, get some assistance from Westerners who have spent their lives observing Easterners in their homeland and jump start their work on these elementary details which have still managed to elude them as they have (apparently) not left the confines of their campus in Scotland. You are insulted by my smug and simplistic comment, and I am bewildered by the naivety of the premise of this whole "scientific study". As I said in my previous post, you nee... [More]

As an English teacher in Asia I can explain this unexplained mystery. In many asian languages vowels are pronounced with the whole mouth, creating a face that might seem like surprise to Western eyes. So the shape of the mouth cannot be relied upon to convey emotion. The fact that Glasgow University needs a team of researchers to discover this is quite humorous indeed. I guess they need to justify all that research money they spent down at the pub. Great and why exactly would the world just accept you unevidenced say so?

Maybe Charles Manson can teach a thing or two about facial expressions?