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

From:Tristan <kesuari@...>
Date:Thursday, October 10, 2002, 5:32
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