I found that this chapter removed many of the assumptions that I had previously held concerning my competencies in english, particularly in conversation analysis. According to the author, native speakers in a language have a grasp on the intricacies of interruptions, attention getting, topic nomination, topic shifting, avoidance, topic repair, and clarification. However, I feel as though I not only fail to properly express myself in these areas on a regular basis but also was largely unaware that these were topics that could be learned at all. I merely assumed that since most individuals are like me and have not mastered the finer points of conversation that it simply could not be done or perfection at conversation was an inborn trait. I found that it was much more useful to simply learn to deal properly with all aspects of awkward misinterpretations, interruptions, attention getting, and the like as it arose since being a master in conversation also does little to ensure you will be able to properly employ any of these strategies since there is no way to gauge the other individual in the conversation's competencies. Awkward conversation seems inevitable, and when I fail to get another's attention or fail to effectively shift a topic I have never considered this a result of not employing the proper cultural phrases, intonations, and gestures but rather a result of the other person's disinterestedness. I believe that this ignorance also spilled into my understandings of other cultures as well since I assumed that the secondary meanings and pragmatics of phrases in America translated into similar understandings in other cultures and vice versa. Of course I realized that there are certain ridiculous phrases that cannot even be translated such as "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" and still keep their meaning, but i did not fully comprehend the cultural phrases that pervade every aspect of daily living such as a conversation between me and my roomate:
"Yo!" = I have entered the house
"whatsup?" = how was your day?
"same-old same-old" = My day was normal and nothing has changed between now and the last time I described it to you
"dinner?" = would you like to make dinner soon or have you already eaten?
"we'll see" = No I have not had dinner and am not yet sure when I would like to eat or if I would like to eat the same thing that you want
Although I always knew that direct translations of exchanges such as this do little in the way of conveying the same intent in another culture, i always assumed that they would remain within the same parameters. That is to say that a form of the question "how are you" (aka whatsup) would mean "how was your day" in other language and cultures when in fact it could be that their understanding of "how was your day" is phrased in a question like "did the birds sing today" or some similar phrase. Moreover, I would argue that exchanges such as these make up a large percentage of what a person says on a daily basis. The author suggests that the solution to this problem lies in teaching proper cultural phrase exchange and meaning while teaching vocabulary and grammar of the foreign language to students. However, I think that this is an impossible task as these types of exchanges are dependent upon not only the status of the two individuals in each other's lives, their occupations, their genders, etc. such that the same exchange that I had with my roommate would be entirely different if I were speaking to my mother, my brother, a friend that I do not live with, a guest of little significance, a guest of great importance, the plumber etc. and each exchange would have the same meaning with no words that actually reflected that meaning. In addition, such phrases that are spoken to individuals in each capacity change either more or less frequently according to the culture and in some cases the previous phrase that was used becomes more of an insult or cultural taboo. As a result this cannot be properly taught due to the disconnect between the time of study and immersion into the other culture which may cause unintended affronts. For example, saying "welcome home woman" as opposed to "welcome home sweetheart" may cause strife as a result of the improper teaching of English to the speaker.
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