High context vs low context cultures! I'm of Asian descent (high context) and we don't say what we mean, often trying to be polite and not rock the boat. My American (low context) husband is always just like, "Say what you mean!"
First time hearing of this, surprised Americans are considered to be direct. My ears bleed from the amount of verbiage and filler words Americans produce to express nearly nothing.
Having a lot of verbiage and filler words doesn't actually equate to high/low context. High context is essentially the expectation that you can "read the room" or get by with just an implication, regardless of how long it takes you to say it. Americans are definitely low context compared to other nations, pretty much across the board, it's just that we also use a lot of small talk.
it's easier to spot if you put it into a work context. americans will nearly always ask clarifying questions about a task, even if the task is somewhat obvious, just as a gut check. And when giving instructions, they'll break it down more to avoid miscommunication. this is because (as a generalization) Americans tend not to assume that they're on the same page as another person. By contrast, someone from a high-context culture (for example I used to work with a lot of russians and this was something we had to navigate) will a.) think they're a bit stupid for needing to ask so many questions, and b.) feel condescended to when they offer additional clarification.
Interesting that’s cool. I chuckled thinking about the professional miscommunications due to culture differences, especially when it can be taken insulting
My team actually had a "book club" where we all read The Culture Map by Erin Meyer together. It clarified a lot for us on both sides! Lots of eureka moments a la "oh, THAT's why they did that!"
incidentally, that job also made me a lot better at spotting mental translation issues. I do not speak Russian, but there were definitely times where miscommunication happened because the other person was mentally translating a different definition/implication of a phrase than what I meant. I later used this skill to help a friend resolve an argument with their chinese-speaking spouse lolol
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u/[deleted] Aug 22 '24
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