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FAUZAN MUKTASID
20160111024001
Cross Culture Understanding “Nonverbal Communication ”

NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN JAVANESE CULTURE

All of my families' ethnicity is Central Java. We are big kingdom of Javanese

family. My family moved in Papua in 1970. So, it’s been almost a half of century.
Even though my ethnic background is Javanese, but I’ve never been to Java island. I
was born on 1998 in Merauke. In Javanese culture, people tend to use polite
expression to communicate to others, especially people who lived in Central Java
which is famous as a Keraton Kingdom. In my region, in Kebumen, we have a very
unique accent called ngapak or medok, like is English, there is a native speaker who
speaks very fluently. So thus in Java, ngapak or medok accent is used to call a person
who speaks Javanese very fluently and creates a strong sound in [k] sound e.g. in the
word bapakke or mamakke. However in the way to interact with society, Javanese
also use nonverbal utterances which are communication using nonverbal signs such as
body movements, intonations, and using "bubble" or personal space.
In Javanese culture, non-verbal communication is very strong, especially for
respecting people, or older people, such as communication movements carried out
between superiors and subordinates or servants in which subordinates or servants tend
to bow and duck to show that their position is not higher than their master, the one
they talked to. Silent expression is also often used in communication. Silence can be
interpreted as various kinds of approval, apathy, knowing, confused, contemplation,
disagreement, and other meanings. In Javanese tradition, subordinates have more
silent communication while superiors convey messages so much that subordinates'
silence can be interpreted as compliance, and agreement.
Personal space is also being used in Javanese communication which is "a bubble"
in a communication amongst people. The division of the bubble as can be seen
bellow:
Table 1: Personal Space

No Name of the bubble Range People

Lovers, parents, children and

Intimate zone 15-46 cm
relatives
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2 Private zone 46 cm- 1.2 m Office relations

3 Social Zone 1.2 m- 3.6 m foreigners

Big group of people e.g in a

Public zone > 3.8 m
4 speech event.
 2

Lastly is intonation. Javanese people also use intonation when they speak. One
word can has different meaning when it has different intonation in an utterance.
Javanese people tend to use high intonation in making an order or emphasizing e.g
when my mom say makan in low intonation it means the food is ready, but when she
uses high intonation, it means that she forces me to eat.

Internet source: https://skripsi-konsultasi.blogspot.com/2009/07/komunikasi-non-

verbalhtml?m=1