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A Critical Analysis Of Sex Lies And Conversation By Tannen

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Language is powerful! Without language, nobody can communicate at all. Language is an essential and foremost tool to allow individuals to communicate, express feelings or thoughts, and share information or knowledge. More importantly, language is a powerful tool that not only brings people together but also separates them including, various aspects of language diversity, such as dialect, naming, and communication style.
Distinctive dialects bring individuals into a particular ethnic group. In the article, “The celebration of linguistic diversity,” the author says, “Our planet has over 7 billion people who speak between 6000 and 7000 different languages.” With a large number of languages, language barrier becomes a huge challenge. To solve this …show more content…

In the article, “Sex, Lies and Conversation,” Tannen illustrates male and female have different characteristics and traits in their communication starting at a young age. These characteristics and traits provoke them to view the purpose of communication and behave differently. For example, women regard communication as a fundamental factor to create and foster a relationship. While men view communication as a way to dominate in relationships. Women need more intimate in a conversation compared with men. In addition, women are more likely to face each other during a conversation, but men look everywhere. Due to the different communication patterns, men and women give rise to misunderstanding of each other (72). In the article, “Sex, Lies and Conversation,” Tannen says, “A young woman in college was frustrated: Whenever she told her boyfriend she wanted to talk to him, he would lie down on the floor, close his eyes, and put his arm over his face” (73). Talking face-to-face is a popular pattern in women’s communication style. On the contrary, men close their eyes to focus on listening. Therefore, the young women are frustrated because she assumes the opposite sex should think and act the way she does. However, men and women obviously behave in a different manner in communication. As a matter of fact, the communication styles differentiate women from

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The book was written in an articulated economical way that provides academic knowledge for both scholarly and personal audiences. As mentioned earlier, indirectness is the main reason behind communication misconceptions. Americans often associate dishonesty and uncompleted stories with indirectness. Tannen stresses that this view is not fair and unrealistic.

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Socio-linguist Deborah Tannen demonstrates how men and women communicate differently in her essay “Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other?” In her observations of communication styles, she discusses the way in which men and women communicate leads them to conflict because they have different understanding of their partners’ role. She also explains male and female communication differences not only cause ineffective conversation, but also push couples into a dilemma in their relationship; however, as men and women better understand the differences, their relationship improves. In the first part of her essay, Tannen discusses men and women do not have enough effective communication, which damages their marriage.

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