Re: CHAT: culture clash (was Re: Phonemic status of English interdentals

Roger Mills wrote:

>Tristan wrote:
>
>
>>My aunt, now retired but formerly a Christian missionary/nurse in
>>Thailand, told me a story of trying to teach some Muslim girls how to
>>make the sound when teaching them English. Apparently it was very
>>difficult to convince them to stick their tongues out for religious
>>
>>
>reasons.
>
>
>Possibly not religious, but also cultural. My teacher, who had experience in
>Burma, Thailand and Indonesia, claimed that Asians in general consider it
>rude to point directly at someone-- and sticking your tongue out counts as
>pointing.  He even went so far as to claim that was the reason Japanese
>"rounded" vowels feature very little lip-rounding (another form of
>pointing). (I take that with a grain of salt, however)
>
Well... isn't pointing considered rude everywhere? I guess they must
just take it considerably more seriously than us Westerners ;)

>Sitting with one leg crossed over the other, foot dangling in air (and
>pointing), is also rude-- it's my preferred way of sitting, and on more than
>one occasion I could tell that people opposite me were uncomfortable with
>it.
>
Oh my, someone else who sits that way... I've been sitting like that my
whole life and people have always commented...

Tristan