Getting Through: The Pleasures and Perils of Cross-Cultural Communication

by Roger Kreuz, Richard Roberts

Overview

Understanding how culture affects the ways we communicate—how we tell jokes, greet, ask questions, hedge, apologize, compliment, and so much more.

We can learn to speak other languages, but do we truly understand what we are saying? How much detail should we offer when someone asks how we are? How close should we stand to our conversational partners? Is an invitation genuine or just pro forma? So much of communication depends on culture and context. In Getting Through, Roger Kreuz and Richard Roberts offer a guide to understanding and being understood in different cultures. Drawing on research from psychology, linguistics, sociology, and other fields, as well as personal experience, anecdotes, and popular culture, Kreuz and Roberts describe cross-cultural communication in terms of pragmatics—exploring how language is used and not just what words mean.

Sometimes this is easy to figure out. If someone hisses “I'm fine!” though clenched teeth, we can assume that she's not really fine. But sometimes the context, cultural or otherwise, is more nuanced. For example, a visitor from another country might be taken aback when an American offers a complaint (“Cold out today!”) as a greeting. And should you apologize the same way in Tokyo as you would in Toledo? Kreuz and Roberts help us navigate such subtleties. It's a fascinating way to think about human interaction, but it's not purely academic: The more we understand one another, the better we can communicate, and the better we can communicate, the more we can avoid conflict.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780262340618
Publisher:	MIT Press
Publication date:	09/01/2017
Series:	The MIT Press
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Roger Kreuz is Associate Dean and Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Psychology at the University of Memphis. He is the coauthor (with Richard Roberts) of Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language, Getting Through: The Pleasures and Perils of Cross-Cultural Communication, and Changing Minds: How Aging Affects Language and How Language Affects Aging (all published by the MIT Press).

Richard Roberts is a Foreign Service Officer currently serving as the Public Affairs Officer at the US Consulate General in Okinawa, Japan. He is the coauthor (with Roger Kreuz) of of Becoming Fluent: How Cognitive Science Can Help Adults Learn a Foreign Language and Getting Through: The Pleasures and Perils of Cross-Cultural Communication, both published by the MIT Press.

Table of Contents

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

About the Authors xix

Prologue: Setting Sail xxi

1 Culture and Its Consequences 1

The Road to Communication Failure Is Paved with Good Intentions 1

Why Did She Say It Like That? 3

The Case of EgyptAir 990 7

Best Foot Forward, but in Someone Else's Shoes 10

The Granular Nature of Common Ground 15

All Aboard for Entrainment 18

The Importance of Being Bicultural 23

2 Pragmatics and Its Principles 27

Let's Get Pragmatic 27

Reading the Dials 31

Culture Club 35

Reading the Air 40

Saving Face 43

Say the Magic Word! 47

This Is Off the Record 52

3 How Speech Acts 59

What Shall We Talk About? 59

But Do You Really Mean It? 63

Beating around the Bush 68

You Call That a Question? 73

Pragmatics and the Final Frontier 76

4 The Elements of Pragmatic Style 81

That's a Good One 80

What the &#?@!!? 85

It's a Shame 90

Shooting the Breeze 95

Me and Vous and Everyone We Know 98

It's Only a Number 104

5 The Mechanics of Cross-Cultural Communication 109

Really! Go On … 109

No Doubt! 113

Changing Gears 117

Getting a Word In 122

Don't Stand So Close to Me 126

Posture, Gaze, and Gesture 131

6 Pragmatics in Action 137

Hello and Good-bye 137

No, No, I Couldn't Possibly 142

The Honor of Your Presence Is Requested 146

I'm Sorry … So Sorry 150

How Typical! 153

This Old Thing? 158

7 Pragmatics in a Changing World 165

Return to Sender: Improper Address 165

A New Type of Facework 169

Flaming, Shaming, and Trolling 173

Sign Up! 177

Cant Help It 181

We Wouldn't Say It That Way 185

Epilogue: Smooth Sailing 193

Notes 195

References 233

Index 267

What People are Saying About This

Diana Boxer

What a pleasure and surprise to read this wonderfully accessible volume on cross-cultural language use! The fact is that in this increasingly globalized and transnational world, nothing could be more important than knowing—more than what to say and when—what NOT to say and why not. The authors write about timely issues from the perspectives of their own cross-cultural and cross-linguistic lived histories.

Susan Fussell

Kreuz and Roberts provide a thoughtful and engaging introduction to the challenges of interaction across language barriers, packed with insights that will be valuable to all who find themselves talking at times to people from other linguistic communities.

Endorsement

"Roger Kreuz and Richard Roberts explore cross-cultural communications, pulling together research from across the social sciences and sprinkling in their own funny anecdotes. The delightful result offers fascinating insights into how we use language."

—The Commercial Appeal, USA Today

From the Publisher

What a pleasure and surprise to read this wonderfully accessible volume on cross-cultural language use! The fact is that in this increasingly globalized and transnational world, nothing could be more important than knowing—more than what to say and when—what NOT to say and why not. The authors write about timely issues from the perspectives of their own cross-cultural and cross-linguistic lived histories.

—Diana Boxer, Professor and Distinguished Teaching Scholar, Department of Linguistics, University of Florida; author of The Lost Art of the Good Schmooze

Kreuz and Roberts provide a thoughtful and engaging introduction to the challenges of interaction across language barriers, packed with insights that will be valuable to all who find themselves talking at times to people from other linguistic communities.

—Susan Fussell, Professor, Cornell University; editor of The Verbal Communication of Emotions

"Roger Kreuz and Richard Roberts explore cross-cultural communications, pulling together research from across the social sciences and sprinkling in their own funny anecdotes. The delightful result offers fascinating insights into how we use language."

—The Commercial Appeal, USA Today