Smiles are Universal
Smiles have no language barrier. The messages in a smile are the same irrespective of a person’s origin in the world.
Here are some images of Sion, a shy girl from Korea, to show that the language of the smile is universal. It does not matter which region of the earth that you come from, the smile messages are identical. These smile messages that are automatic. They cannot be created from our logical neocortex. Smiles clearly predate our migration from where ever the scientists say we originate. Smiles most likely predate human existence. I have to assume that we got the ability to communicate with smiles from the reptiles. Here are the images of Sion, a Korean girl who claimed to be shy, taken in December 2019 at a Hong Kong hostel.
Now, I am in another Starbucks in Kuta, Bali. The waitress had a beautiful smile. She was serious about doing her job to a standard but also had a fun approach to life. I encouraged her jolity:
Here is something interesting. I have travelled Asia many many times. I can often tell which country people are from. But I got this wrong. I thought I was talking to the girl above when I was served at the table. It was the other waitress. I got them mixed up. To Asians, we Westerners look alike. To us, Asians look alike. We are not able to discern the minor subtle differences in their faces. It is difficult to differentiate between Mary and Maria if they are wearing similar uniforms. My first girlfriend had an identical twin sister. That was difficult. Here is the second waitress of the day:
She has just served me a second hot chocolate as they do not have decaf in this Starbucks. She put this message on my cup: “Andy. Enjoy your choco.”
Here is a similar way of passing joyful messages. In Omsk, Russia, a café waitress working alone, was having a quiet day. We chatted instead of me writing this book. One of these messages appeared on a packet of cups. It had been left as a happy message by a fellow worker the day before knowing that she would find it. They all seemed to have nicknames that were animals. Her nickname was ‘fox’.
Here is fox giving me a message. Note the joy in the smile. From memory, I gave her a hug prior to leaving her rather quiet cafe.
My mother used to do similar when I went away. I would find numerous paper ‘happy’ messages in strange places such as in my socks or in sleeping bag. Many would not be found for weeks. I had happy messages from my mother appearing for weeks during my term away. here is a lesson for other to follow.
I accidentally went back to the same Bali Starbucks on another overseas trip. I was greeted by more smiles and giggles. I was not forgotten. I was a memorable customer.
In the same Bali Starbucks, I mentioned to a girl waiting for her drink that they were a bit slow and that I waited ten minutes. Everything here runs on ‘Bali’ time. The pace of work is slower as informed by a male from Jakarta in the queue. A conversation started. The girl was from Russia vacationing with her husband. It is good to see people still getting married. Russians are not up against the same woke propaganda that we suffer in the west. We chatted about Russia and much more for an hour:
The second picture is a facinating image of eye contact between a couple with a strong bond. They have no issue looking into each other’s eyes. Study the image again and see if you can get the ‘feeling’ of closeness, trust, respect, and adoration. These are Russians and they don’t have the man hate propaganda of the West. I have a policy of deleting any image that is blurred. However, the third picture shows animation in the way we communicate.
The girl spoke good English, although she did not speak it regularly. The male struggled with English, but he was fully engaged. He said he understood from my smiles and facial expressions. I had to direct some of my speech at him so that he did not think I was ‘after’ his wife. She translated some of the conversation to him. At the end, they wanted a selfie with me. They told me that I had been the highlight of their day! How can you be! Russians meet an Australian in a cafe in Bali and I am the highlight of the day! Of significance, although Siberia is the other side of the world from the United Kingdom, we are essentially the same people.Do not believe the propaganda about Russia and Russians. The propaganda will fool you. We are essentially the same people. Look at this couple, they could come from any part of Europe.
Here are some African women from Pixabay as I am not in Africa today. Study the smiles. Look for only and instant at each image, then look away. Does your mind detect messages in each smile? Avoid analysing logically. Just let your subconscious detect the message and wait to see if your subconscious subsequently informs your conscious through feelings.
My feeling is that the above pictures are the smile given when asked to smile for a camera. They are not forced smiles. I feel that they are smiles of joy at being considered worthy of a photograph. You may be able to read more into the smiles.
As you can see, the messages in the smile are universal. They must have arrived from the earliest days of human existence. Spoken language appears to have arrived 70 000 years ago. Civilization only arrived 12 000 years ago. Written language only arrived 6 000 years ago. Modern humans evolved around 300 000 years ago. Homo erectus is an extinct species of human that lived between 1 900 000 and 135 000 years ago. My guess is that the smile dates back way further than two million years — and sometimes we forget to smile. To me, the smile communication is more important than the words imparted. In every communication, I aim to get joy that is manifested in a smile.
I got back to the hotel in Bali and was greeted with this pair of smiles:
The girls wanted a selfie with me. The only fake camera smile is mine:
At the airport, I was greeted by another Indonesian smile at the check in counter:
I am now in Reykjavik, Iceland. Ziqing, (pronounced more like ‘searching’ adjusted to ‘seching’.) below, was in my hostel room. He is from southern China, somewhere between Wuhan and Shanghai. We had facinating conversation. His smile before the camera was pointed at him had greater warmth.
In the same Reykjavik hostel is a Bei, a Chinese girl with a big smile. She had a ‘smiley’ personality and showed an amazing range of smiles.
Don’t forget to look away and look back at the picture so that you better detect the messages contained in the smile. Bei has only a slight touch of reticence in one image, then her natural joy of the communication with a new stranger is evident. You cannot detect the smile messages unless you switch off your logic and just try to pick up the message discretely.
This next image is a smile from Chile at the same Reykjavik hostel. It shows a slight reticence as one expects when a camera is pointed at someone. When a camera is pointed at me, I am aware that my face will be saved for others to analyze, so the smile demonstrates that concern. This is counterproductive to giving a great smile. I did not get chance to get a more relaxed smile from Chile. However, anyone anywhere in the world can interpret the smile.
The next photograph has three English smiles. It is of my younger brother, younger sister, and myself. You may detect a sense of togetherness in the image.
This next picture is fascinating. The girl is German. What is interesting is that she had a big glowing smile as she walked into this Iceland hostel kitchen. Rarely do people walk into strange rooms with glowing smiles. Her friend says that she is noted for her smiles. In conversation, it turns out that her parents are deaf. It is likely that she magnifies her facial expressions to communicate with her parents as words and logic have been eliminated.
This is a fellow traveler on a day out in Chisinau, Moldova. His mother is French and his father Colombian.
Here is a market trader in Chisinau, Moldova. She is smiling at an Australian of British origin. We speak different languages. We have no communication with words. She might speak Moldovan to me and I would chat away in English, but it did not hamper the business of trade. I purchased an old Moldovan note from the Soviet era. I did not worry too much about haggling over the price. A little charity disguised as trade is acceptable. I assumed that the two boys behind her were her sons. They each had more of a shyster smile. The mother has more of a genuine smile. I had no reason to doubt the authenticity of the notes.
This was considered humorous by all who saw it in a hostel in Chisinau, Moldova.
Here is a chemistry student working in a café in Ekaterinburg. She was born Ukrainian in Donetsk, Ukraine which is now Donetsk, Russia. We need to have closer ties with Russia as they are essentially the same people as us.
Here are two Palestinian children. It may have been created to portray dismay. However, the joy is evident in the smiles.
Here is a famous North Korean.
Here are two famous Americans.
Here an Indian in a service station in Perth, Australia.
