How middle class white women are trained to be "nice" and "polite" and "sensitive" and to interpret utterances that way means nothing in other communicative circles and cultures.
This is what I'm talking about when I say that folks are saying that tone/politeness is relative to groups. I've lived in different parts of the US and outside the US. Yes, there are peculiarities of politeness unique to groups (ideas of personal space and eye contact come to mind immediately), but in my observation, there are a lot more commonalities, and we seem to ignore them completely or dismiss them.
Thanks for the references! I'm sure I'll look into them if my research interests ever move into this area.
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Date: 2010-02-15 01:08 am (UTC)This is what I'm talking about when I say that folks are saying that tone/politeness is relative to groups. I've lived in different parts of the US and outside the US. Yes, there are peculiarities of politeness unique to groups (ideas of personal space and eye contact come to mind immediately), but in my observation, there are a lot more commonalities, and we seem to ignore them completely or dismiss them.
Thanks for the references! I'm sure I'll look into them if my research interests ever move into this area.
Btw... Love the lilacs. ^_^