Then I touched Mrs R

Then I touched Mrs R.’s shoulders, kept talking and raised my tone a little because I was unsure of her reaction. At the same time, I used body language to communicate the action of drinking. I paused and repeated my actions, but this time I used some simple words which I thought Mrs R. would understand. Mrs R. looked at me and nodded her head. As I was giving her cup of tea, I maintained eye contact as I did not want her to feel embarrassed. Fortunately, using body language helped me to communicate with this lady. At the time I was worried that she would be unable to understand me since English is not my first language, but I was able to communicate effectively with her by verbal and non-verbal means, using appropriate gestures and facial expressions. Body language and facial expressions are referred to as a non-verbal communication (Funnell et al. 2005 p.443).