Answer:
1: Non-verbal communication is very ambiguous. Number of gestures and facial expression is very limited as compared to words and phrases.
2: Nonverbal communications differs from culture to culture.
3: There people and channels involved in communication are complex as well as compound (more in number). The environment (dining and business) makes the non-verbal communication complex
Explanation:
1: The limitation of non-verbal communication because of few gestures and expressions makes it very difficult to properly understand it. Non-verbal communication is just complementary to verbal communication. When stand alone, it cannot offer complete meaning.
2: In this situation, the people involved belong to different cultures, and different background (waitress). Because of this reason there is a clear chance of misunderstanding between people.
3: The situation is also complex because of the setting and context. There might have been some cultural etiquette of eating which Americans were not following. May be loud speaking before eating was what made the Japanese uncomfortable. May be it was frank communication between employees of different designations of the company. These factors make the situation complex. Moreover this non-verbal communication is taking place between people of three different groups/backgrounds i.e. business people from Japan, business people from America, and waitress. This situation adds more the misunderstanding between people in this scenario.
