My son Chase served a church mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on the islands of Kiribati. Kiribati is in-between Hawaii and Australia in the Pacific Ocean. Right on the equator. He had to learn a new language and a new way of living. I think the Kiribati people operator as a polychronic culture. He had to learn slower lifestyle. One that is more focused on family and friends and not worried about time. Laid back, easy going, nobody in a rush style of life. One, of many culture communications he had to learn was watching the persons eyebrows. When asking a person a question you would watch to see what they do with their eyebrows, if they went up that meant yes. If they stayed the same it was no.
When Chase came home, he was still answering questions with his eyebrows. It took me awhile to know that he was not ignoring me, but using a different way of communication. I took his nonverbal answering as rude and inconsiderate. I think that when we are communicating with someone it is ALWAYS good to look them in the eyes but we must learn how a person says yes and no in their culture. In Bulgaria the if you shake your head YES it means NO and NO means YES. Learn how the person communicates so you won't get confused!
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