Book review - Muntasir Fayez Al-Hamad. 2022. Signs and Gestures: Non-verbal Communication in the Qatari Culture (translated and edited by Alreem Al-Adba). Doha: Qatar University Press. 278 pp. ISBN: 978-992-713-954-3

Abstract

Language is the main means of communication for human beings, but it is not the only one. In fact, we communicate through our body movements and postures, through gestures; even the distance between bodies has a specific meaning, and the clothes and the accessories we wear, too. Ignoring the meaning of certain verbal and non-verbal languages can cause communication problems, because what it is acceptable in a culture, might not be accepted by another culture. With this in mind, it is necessary to emphasize the importance of how non-verbal communication is just as national and cultural as verbal communication.