One of the topics in chapter four that I find to be very
interesting is "Language and Cultural Difference".
Since I was born and lived in Israel for the first 26 years of my life, it is still difficult for me to understand how people communicate here, especialy in areas such as: "the directness with which thoughts can be expressed, the amount of emotional expressiveness that is appropriate, and the extent to which formality is expected." (p.91)
Since I was born and lived in Israel for the first 26 years of my life, it is still difficult for me to understand how people communicate here, especialy in areas such as: "the directness with which thoughts can be expressed, the amount of emotional expressiveness that is appropriate, and the extent to which formality is expected." (p.91)
Even more, I was surprised to find out that the United
States considered being a low-context
culture, because, I feel that people here are less "strait forward"
than in Israel and much more formal. In other words, I feel
that It is more important to Americans to not hurt one's feeling so they, most of the times, hold
back from speaking the truth. They don't say what they really think about each
other or a situation to someone's face, but some still do it behind their back. Americans
are likely to think that Israelis are very rude. In Israel the most important
thing is that you speak the truth. If a person is trying to be polite and just
give hints, they will strait forward tell him to just say it the way it is,
just get to the point.
I enjoyed your topic on cultural language. Wow that’s amazing! Living in Israel I am sure that you can definitely see the differences in your cultural language compared to Americas. I do like the concept that you used when speaking the truth. I think a lot of people in America might feel like it may be rude to speak the truth in certain situations. Maybe, it might not have to do with what they’re speaking, but more of how they say it maybe? I don’t know anything about the Israel culture, but I have to agree. I feel like Americans do have an issue with being straight forward, especially coming from my mom’s background, which is German, and she refuses to bite her tongue!
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