Getting Through
eBook - ePub

Getting Through

The Pleasures and Perils of Cross-Cultural Communication

  1. English
  2. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  3. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

Getting Through

The Pleasures and Perils of Cross-Cultural Communication

About this book

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.

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Yes, you can access Getting Through by Roger Kreuz,Richard Roberts in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Languages & Linguistics & Languages. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Information

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Title page
  3. Copyright page
  4. Dedication
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Preface
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. About the Authors
  9. Prologue: Setting Sail
  10. 1 Culture and Its Consequences
  11. 2 Pragmatics and Its Principles
  12. 3 How Speech Acts
  13. 4 The Elements of Pragmatic Style
  14. 5 The Mechanics of Cross-Cultural Communication
  15. 6 Pragmatics in Action
  16. 7 Pragmatics in a Changing World
  17. Epilogue: Smooth Sailing
  18. References
  19. Index