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October 03, 2005
Tannen article
I thought that this article was really interesting. I agree with what Tannen says about the male and female differences in many aspects. WHen she talks about how men are more reluctant to ask for directions than women, I think we all can attest to this. I always tell my father, my brother, my boyfriend, a male friend, if they don't know where we are going to just stop and ask for directions and mainly the response I get is "where can I stop...we will just find it." But I stop in a heartbeat.
Another point that Tannen brings up that I found interesting was the fact that peoples style of language are so different and sometimes can be misinterpreted. I never thought of that before. To know that just because someone pauses longer than I would isn't because they don't know what to say but because of their style of speaking really interested me. From now on I'll remember that and not just try to fill in the gap and think that the person I'm speaking to is not interested like the person in her example did and thought. Also it was interesting reading about how one person goes about explaining something because he or she feels that that is the best way to go about it but the other person takes it wrongly and misunderstands. I can't think of an example right now but I know I have probably done this a million times.
Overall, I thought this article was quite interesting and it really has opened my eyes up to different views on things.
Posted by lcisnelson at October 3, 2005 09:49 AM
Comments
The point that Dillard made about pausing was also something that I had never thought about before. But now that I do think about it, it is kind od a difficult thing to get around. How can we know what someone's style of speech is before we talk to them and how can we know what they expect from us? I will try the same thing as you, to try and not fill in what we see as an "awkward gap" quite so quickly.
Posted by: Katie at October 5, 2005 10:12 AM