At the Benihana Restaurant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

At the Benihana Restaurant - Essay Example We got so curious that we set out on a task to see the different types of kinemes. The analysis we did was in a restaurant called Benihana restaurant. Being a social space we had an excellent chance of making appropriate observations on the various forms, emblems, illustrators, regulators, adaptors, and affect displays of kinesics. Emblems defined as a substitute for words and phrases. Illustrators are gestures that accompany verbal communication. Affect displays defined as gestures that show emotion. Regulators are gestures that control the pace of the conversation. Adopters are the gestures that reduce the tension between two people conversing. On entering the Benihana restaurant, the waiter ushered us in and we noticed that he had put on a broad smile when he was greeting us, and when directing us to the table the waiter used his hand to show as the location of the table reserved for us. We saw nods directed at us by some friends that were present in the restaurant, and this we as sumed was a form of greeting. As we had made an observation of illustrators, the waiter pointing into the direction of the table, the smile he directed to us on the entrance of the restaurant was an affect display and the nods directed to us by our colleagues’ we took them for emblems. ... The welcoming, smile by the waitress is an affect display, and the nod is an emblem. The restaurant was playing jazz music in the background; I could tell that a lot of people in this place loved this genre of music since most people were swaying their head to the flow of the music. A look at the people carrying on with their conversation we could see a lady who from time to time, kept rolling a strand of hair that kept falling on her face, this we assumed was her way of making herself comfortable. Looking around for other gestures, we came up with people tapping on the table, others continuously rubbed their hands together, while others took in deep breaths from time to time. These expressions are what we call adaptors. The affect displays we observed in the room made us know that most of the meetings in that room were romantic dates. We could tell this from the smiles exchanged for couples they were not just ordinary smiles but affectionate smiles. We also observed a couple holding hands from time to time, exchange of different kisses, peck on the cheeks, forehead and the back of the hands all served as affection displays. We also; had a look at the regulators which included people shaking hands before they departed while others exchanged kisses and departed. Some people glanced at their watches signalling the end of the meeting. Among the emblems that we observed in the restaurant included, nods that most of the time we interpreted as ok, a swaying of the head from side to side in a continuous motion meant a no, a lift of the shoulders with the hand spread meant a maybe, waving of hands continuously to say bye. In addition, the thumbs up sign to show agreement could be spotted. We came to a