talking; and even nonword vocalizations.”- extracted from Chapter 4 Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal communication is a manual language that most people are cultivating in their daily life. As we all know, communication is a complex behavioural interaction that one needs to interpret to have a successful exchange of information. As nonverbal communication does not really involve fully prepped written language, it is often time hard for us to understand what kind of message they are trying to convey. Even though nonverbal communication does not involve any kind of wordy message, for instance e-mail, it plays a significant role for us to analyse the codes that our peers or loved ones trying to tell us. If we look close enough and pay more attention to their body language, expression, gestures et cetera, you will be amazed at how much information you can catch. “Although precise estimates of how much communication is verbal or nonverbal are difficult, researchers estimate that between 60% and 90% of our daily communication behaviours are conducted nonverbally.”

 

Thanks to the vast development of technologies, social media for example, Facebook, we can include emojis through a nonverbal communication. In that way, the message will conveyed in tone or emotions we are trying to express. “These tools illustrate our need to use symbols and behaviors other than words to convey certain types of messages.”

Firstly, it is well known that conceptual words are often grouped based on their similarity to each other. This classification also includes gender stereotypes for example a doctor is often known for a male and a nurse is often known as a female. Not going to ignore that fact that we use systems of classification to navigate through the world. It would be difficult for us to communicate if we do not know how to classify the existence we have in our lives. In the movie Frontliner Malaysia, there were several groups of societies being included in the movie. For instance, doctors, polices, frontliners, students, parents etc. Without the classification of individuals in the movie, it would be difficult to identify who is who and impossible to understand what the movie is telling. Thus, this brings to the conclusion that language is capable to organise and classify reality. 

 

Words do not have any inherent meaning. Humans give meaning to them, and their meanings change across time. For example, humans give different meaning to the word “home,” and define it through visual images or dialogue, to communicate with their audience. The general meaning of home is a structure in which a person lives in (a house or an apartment). The connotative meaning for a home is related to an emotion towards a person or a place. For example, one feels like home when seeing the love of their life. Also, words have two meanings. It is important to know both these meanings to reduce misinterpretation when in a conversation. First and foremost, denotative meaning defines as the general or common meaning often found in the dictionary. In the movie, many denotive words were used to communicate with each other. The connotative meaning is often not found in the dictionary but used in the community of users itself with different meanings. It can involve an emotional association with a word, positive or negative but is not universal. For example, in the movie when Sham’s father said to his wife when they were having a chat with each other “kita ni dekat tapi jauh”. They were close in person but emotionally far from each other as he could not comfort his wife that was emotionally unstable. He could not comfort her well as in giving her a hug because of the standard operation procedures (SOPs).

 

 3. Language is abstract

Words are abstractions, or simplifications of what they stand for. Abstract language is the ability to gain meaning from things that are not said, or from things that are said in a different way. Other than that, abstract in language is also what we cannot touch or see but feel deep within our hearts and can only be expressed or shown by actions. Abstract term is open to interpretation which makes it difficult to pin down to a person’s mind. If one uses too much abstract language or being not straightforward, people too can end up not guessing what we mean. For example, when you and your friend are in a car and the aircon is just too cold, your friend would probably say that it’s too cold. In other words, she wants the aircon to be turned off or the temperature to be turned up. As an example, form the movie, at 44:29, Nasir was asked by the head police for why he was being silent lately. Nasir then told him that his mother is sick, but he can’t visit her at his hometown due to the situation they were in. What I understood from Nasir’s reply was that he low key hoped that the head police gave him the permission to go back home to visit his mother without saying directly that he wants to, instead, Nasir just told the head police that his mother was sick and that he’s unable to go back home during that moment of time. 

 

Language is the best way to express yourself. Through language, people express their thoughts, desires, feelings, and emotions. Most of the activity in the world is done through or by it. There are many types of communication that does not involve communicating with language. For instance, non-linguistic symbols such as flags, traffic lights, braille alphabets, mathematic symbols and etc, yet they are not so flexible, comprehensive, and extensive as language is. As what we can see from the movie, the casts succeeded to deliver their message by expressing themselves with words and body language. For instance, at 13:25, Syam’s mother stood up and pointed their neighbours house while telling Syam that it didn’t matter where he went or how far did he went from his house but he is not allowed to do so because of Covid 19. Syam’s mother stood up with rage from her voice. This example clearly showed that she was angry and disappointed with ther son by expressing herself the way she did it. At the end, Syam understood his mother’s reaction after seeing her mother get into an anxiety attack state while leaning to the wall. 

 

Each language is unique in its own sense and its own creativity to deliver the best ways to communicate with each other. Language has its own potential to be unique and modifiable with time and culture. In the movie Frontliner, the language used by the casts were Malay language. Malay language is the national language of our country Malaysia but not all citizens of Malaysia communicate with each other using the same slangs and dialects. For instance, Sabahans and Sarawakians did a little twist on speaking in malay. Most Sabahans use “bah” while Sarawakians use “kamek, sik, tok”. Other than that, in Semenanjung Malaysia, the situation is the same too. For example, the original word for “want” in Malay language is “mahu” but then it is modified into “nak”, thus, becomes a part of the slangs used among Semenanjung citizens. What we can observe from the Frontliner movie is that the mode of communication of the casts were mostly modified Malay language with slangs which made the language more unique rather than sounding of yore. 

According to Mehrabian, we express liking or showing interests by leaning forward, increased touching, being in a relaxed posture with positive facial expression and direct eye contact. Other than that, someone who is responsive expresses it according to their movement toward the other person by spontaneous gestures, shifts in posture and position and by facial expressiveness. In different words, the face and body deliver positive feedbacks to others. Lastly, Mehrabian describes people with high status with bigger gestures, a more relaxed posture and less eye contact. Mehrabian also stated that when engaging in a conversation, an individual with higher status might feel more comfortable with powerful gestures than would someone in a lower status role be.  

 

According to Ekman, emblems are nonverbal movements that replace for words and phrases. Some examples of emblems are waving that signals hello or goodbye, a hitchhiker’s thumb to represent a good or bad sign, an open hand held up to mean ‘stop’ and etc. Other than that, Ekman also stated that illustrators are nonverbal movements that accompany or reinforce verbal messages. Some examples of illustrators are shaking or nodding your head to mean no or yes. Also, when you give someone directions, you use illustrators to facilitate your task such as pointing into the directions. Furthermore, after displays are the type of face and body movements used to show emotions. We can often observe this body movement through people’s facial expression towards something. For example, when they got a bad grade at History. Their facial expressions will be very sad. Other than that, when they heard a loud thud or bang, they will look shocked. Next is regulators. Regulators control the flow or pace of communication. Individuals will utilize eye behaviour, inflection and head nodding to regulate a conversation. For example when someone wants to stop the conversation, they will start to move or look away. Lastly, adaptors are also a type of body movements that are nonverbal. Adaptors usually involve the unintended touching of our bodies or manipulations of a body that serves some physical or psychological need without us realizing it. Adaptors could mean that someone is anxious when they play with their hair or spontaneously scratching their finger. For example, in the movie, Sham's mother got a panic attack after scolding his son about the risk of going out during covid. His mother cried and leaned to the wall unconsciously according to what she was feeling in that state. 

 

According to Ekman and Frieson, facial expressions are important in conveying information to others and in learning what others are feeling as a person’s facial expressions provide lots of information on how they feel. 

One code may communicate several different meanings.

Encik Samad’s wife crying after Dr Azhan told that her husband has been passed away. [9:00 - 9:40]

Mak Captain Nasir crying because she thought that Captain Nasir take his work as police officer is more important than her. [51:20 - 52:41]

Dr Azhan crying because he feels sorry for suspecting Nora was dishonest with him. [53:00 - 57:00]

Any number of codes may be used to communicate the same meaning

a) Encik Samad’s wife suddenly cry after Dr Azhan told that his husband has been passed away. She always can’t say the last goodbye to the love of her life.  [9:00 - 9:40]

b) Nadia scolded Shamsul because he often complained that he was bored and wanted to go out to hang out but the truth is Nadia want to prevent them from the virus. [13:00 - 14:00]

- Support others by giving advice/helping.

a) Inspector Zulkifli as father advising his son, Shamsul to listen to words and not repeat the same mistakes. [ 59:00 - 1:02:00]

b) Nora told that she will lend a hand by finding a non-government organisation (NGO) that can help Nadia pay off her employee’s salaries. [ 2:00 - 3:00]

Really listening to what person is telling you is crucial to being a helpful listener.When you reply, it can be helpful to repeat some of what they told you using the same language.This attention to detail demonstrates that you care.

Do not avoid eye contact but do avoid staring.It’s important for o meet someone’s gaze.It shows you are interested and that your focus is on them.

Your facial expressions convey your emotions.Facial expressions are typically universal, which means they convey the same message globally. A frowning person is usually upset.Offer a smile when talking to someone’s, as long as it is not inappropriate to the situation.

Your tone of voice and the sounds you make can communicate your thoughts to others without your even speaking.If you receive directions from a manager and immediately grunt, you are showing your manager that you do not agree with what he said.Your tone or sounds can inform people of your anger, frustration or sarcasm.Avoid sighing repetitively or speaking in a high-pitched voice.Speak softly and calmly.

When you are communicating with others, always consider the situation and the context in which the communication occurs.Some situations require more formal behaviour that might be interpreted very differently in any other setting.

 

 

“The study of bodily movements, including posture, gestures, and facial expressions, is called kinesics a word derived from the Greek word kinesis, meaning “movement.” One’s body movement could be interpreted as happy, sad or rage emotions. Although it is easy to sense someone’s change of body movement, thorough analysation and observation are needed to interpret their true meaning. A person might look happy and having the time of their life but they might be actually supressing their sadness. Thus, it is important for us to learn and by heart someone’s unique behaviours and how they acts towards certain situations before jumping into a conclusion on how they feel.

    

Example from Frontliners Movie: Captain Nasir was sitting across his mother while eating the food prepared by his loving mother. Due to the distance that Captain Nasir put between him and his mother, her body language and facial expression can be clearly seen that she is indeed sad. She was silently crying without Captain Nasir in her vision, amid that he is trying very hard to comfort his mother by telling her the reason the distance was made.

 

Appearance in someone’s eyes is an important criteria that most people look at, whether if you are looking for a partner or a job. It is a hard truth that most of us went through most of our life when growing up. For instance, people who looks more attractive tends to get the upper treatment wherever they go. This stereotypical act has been a hard thing to grasp on as we grow older, as that is one of the most apparent and first thing people will see when they meet us. “Beauty, it has been noted, is in the eye of the beholder. However, some research has suggested that particular characteristics—bright eyes, symmetrical features, and thin or medium build—are generally associated with physical attraction.” Although being attractive and pretty gets us an easy way out most of the times, we still cannot deny that it brings a huge impact on our performance on day-to-day basis as a whole.

 

Distance, personal bubble, unintentional claimed space is a part of nonverbal communication that we do in our daily life. Territoriality and personal space are two of essentials in studying the space of human nature.

“Territoriality refers to your need to establish and maintain certain spaces as your own.” 

Sitting in a table with your fellow colleague for a meeting, a system of territory was unintentionally created in order to claim a spot of your own. 

you maintain between yourself and others, the amount of space you claim as your own. When you are walking along a park, a distance was formed away from the people around you creating a safe and comfortable zone for you to enjoy.

 

Example from Frontliners Movie: Dr. Azhan and Nora lives in a different household due to Covid-19. Since, Dr. Azhan works in a hospital he takes extra precaution as his wife is pregnant. To maintain his wife health and protect her from the virus.

 

Tactile communication is the use of touch in communication. In most of our life we might experience to be touch, be it voluntarily or involuntarily. It is an act of space invasion that people do to show affection or in a way that might make us uncomfortable. Without realisation, physical touch relieves a certain level of stress that we had developed over a period. A crucial gesture that allows the well being of one’s life. Insufficient touching can lead to health disorders, such as allergies and eczema speech problems, and even death. 

Example from Frontliners Movie: Nora had a panic attack due to work overload and the burden she faces. Inspector Zul watches and screams in panic while watching his wife slowly losing sanity. Thankfully, Sham was there to hug and comfort his mother.

 

Nonverbal communication includes some sounds, as long as they are not words. We call them paralinguistic features—the nonword sounds and nonword characteristics of language, such as pitch, volume, rate, and quality. Vocal cues tell a lot about one’s personality. For instance, someone who speak high pitched and nasally tends to be a toddler way of speech. Other than that, our vocal cues also can help others to understand at the same time analyse our emotion, credibility, and dominancy. Whether we are a confident public speaker or not the way we enunciate our vocal cues tells a lot. 

Objectics, or object language, is the study of the human use of clothing and artifacts as nonverbal codes. Artifacts are ornaments or adornments you display that hold communicative potential, including jewelry, hairstyles, cosmetics, automobiles, canes, watches, shoes, portfolios, hats, glasses, tattoos, body piercings, and even the fillings in teeth. The way we dress up is a way of to express our self in a nonverbal way. 

 

The factor that determines the amount of personal space used:

 

 

Sex differences are the important determiners of personal space. Men or women prefer to sit close to someone the same as them. Like, women prefer to sit near other women so they can talk peacefully without any interruption from the men. The same goes for men.

Example:

 

The police officers, Inspector Zul and Captain Nasir sit close to each other while they were talking because they are both men. [33:30 – 33:55]

 

Large people usually claim more space than small ones because of their size. This personal space will make them comfortable and easy to communicate with.

Example:

People that are bigger tend to have more space when they talking to others that smaller. 

 

Someone that has the same similarity as we are the one that we prefer to communicate with. This is because there are so many topics that can be shared with and we found it interesting to have someone the same as ourselves.

Example:

 

Syamsul talks with his friend about their boredom of staying at home for too long due to the Covid-19 pandemic while he hangs out with them at the park. [58:06 – 58:11]

 

 

Men tend to take more space because they are larger followed by women and children. However, women and children seem to desire more relational closeness than do men.

Example:

 

Dr. Azhan talks with Dr. Rina about Nora in the patient's room, at the hospital. [1:06:51 – 1:07:34]

 

 

You usually stand closer with someone that you already know or are familiar to you like friends or family. This is because closeness communicates trust. Besides, you will stand farther away from your enemies, strangers, authority figures, high-status people, physically challenged people and people from racial groups different from your own.

Example:

 

Inspector Zul and his wife Nadia speak close to each other to share their problem because they are husband and wife. [26:41 – 29:54]

 

 

People will stand closer together in large rooms and farther apart in small rooms. This is because it is easy to communicate when we are close to each other in a large room. While we need to stand farther apart in a small room to keep us comfortable. Apart from that, physical obstacles and furniture arrangement also affect the use of space. Because people tend to sit on something that is already in that room when communicating.

Example:

 

Dr. Azhan and his wife, Nora talks farther away from each other in the hospital since the patient beds are designed separately and not close to keeping the patients comfortable. [52:44 – 56:00]

  

 

People have different ways to communicate with others and based on their cultures or origins. The cultural background can result in great differences in the use of space when interacting with others from a variety of backgrounds.

Example:

People in the different country usually from Asia or the western always be awkward when meeting each other and prefer to take more personal space. It is because they meet people that have different cultures and have different attitudes rather than them.

The bias is larger for women than for men, according to the references. This is most likely because women apply make-up before going out, even to work or to see friends. Men, on the other hand, believe that dressed suitably for the occasion is sufficient for establishing respectability. They would prefer to spend more on suits and clothes more than make up. Due to their physical attractiveness and initial impressions, people always judge and change on how they talk or approach someone. Even in different stage of ages, people who is physically attraction will get a better service.

Someone who is physically attractive will give lot of positive aura from them. People always give good impression to someone that better looking. In my opinion, people who is want to start a conversation or representing organisation to negotiate economic collaboration, your initial impression and physical attractiveness will improve the person in charge's affection. As a result, that conversation and business collaboration will be successful. Put aside the qualities you can't deny that your physical appearance, as well as the way you represent the organisation as a whole, influenced the decision. Physically attractive person is more successful because people always search or find someone like them to be of face of a society or organisation.

 Physical beauty encompasses more than just physical appearances and first impressions; it also encompasses one's attitude and communication style. Even if your communication skills aren't particularly strong, if you communicate with confidence, ease, and fluency, others will pay attention to you, and if you speak to them with knowledge and logic, they may be persuaded by what you're saying.

4. Physical attractiveness is relevant to relationships that are formed and maintained through digitally mediated communication channels.                                       

Due to the pandemics, we can only connect with the others only by the internet. We request access to their Facebook or Instagram accounts so that we can see how they seem. As a result, the images you submit to Instagram and how you structure the account will pique our interest in learning more about our friends. When your physical attractiveness is high enough, others will always give a good impression and more excited to know and talk to you.

The movie shows how all the actors communicate with each other using language in each scene. They talk or give instructions using symbols, letters, and words so that people can understand the point that they deliver.

Malay and English are the main languages that used in this movie. Apart from that, this movie also shows the way people communicate using language on the online platforms and not just face-to-face.