Language Shock: understanding the culture of conversation

A linguistic anthropologist takes readers on a personal and humorous journey through language, showing them how to understand differences between cultures, while using anecdotes from his own experiences in foreign lands. The key to communication, says linguistic anthropologist Michael Agar, is understanding the context and culture of conversation. In Language Shock, Agar reveals how deeply our language and cultural values intertwine to define who we are and how we relate to one another. From paying an electric bill in Austria to opening a bank account in Mexico to handling a parking ticket in the United States, he shows how routine tasks become lessons in the subtleties of conversation when we venture outside our cultural sphere. With humorous, insightful stories from his extensive travels, Agar engages us in a lively study of "languaculture" and enriches our view of the world.

The key to communication, says linguistic anthropologist Michael Agar, is understanding the context and culture of conversation. In Language Shock, Agar reveals how deeply our language and cultural values intertwine to define who we are and how we relate to one another. From paying an electric bill in Austria to opening a bank account in Mexico to handling a parking ticket in the United States, he shows how routine tasks become lessons in the subtleties of conversation when we venture outside our cultural sphere. With humorous, insightful stories from his extensive travels, Agar engages us in a lively study of "languaculture" and enriches our view of the world.

Publishers Weekly

Agar, an anthropologist and ethnographer, wants Americans to break out of their cultural superiority complex and to join ``the growing global conversation'' embracing multicultural voices. Leaning on linguist Benjamin Whorf's theory that each language shapes its speakers' ways of seeing, acting, thinking and feeling, Agar relates personal encounters with language and cultural differences, drawing on his stay in Austria during the Kurt Waldheim Nazi scandal in 1986, his work as a public health official treating heroin addicts in Kentucky in 1968, travels in Mexico and Greece and village kinship systems in India. The informal, highly anecdotal narrative sketches a theory of ``languaculture,'' Agar's coinage emphasizing the inextricable links between language and culture and the way we build mental ``frames'' to organize our expectations. Agar, who teaches anthropology at the University of Maryland, serves a smorgasbord with tasty tidbits instead of a full meal. (May)

Modern society is loaded with cultural differences. Michael Agar's fascinating new book, Language Shock, shows how we unconsciously bring such differences to life - through our everyday language. It is with language, ultimately, that we express who we are and what is important in our world. In fact, language is so deeply rooted in culture (and vice versa) that linguistic anthropologist Michael Agar combines the two into what he calls languaculture. With so much present conflict, from personal to global, based on words as well as weapons, the exploration of languaculture is of a vital and timely importance. As the old song goes, "You can't have one without the other" - not if you want to communicate in today's culturally complex world. . Michael Agar takes the reader on a fascinating, and often humorous, journey as he demonstrates not only how to find the culture in language, but also how to use it to pursue a different, richer point of view. He incorporates his own experiences, ranging from paying an electric bill in Austria to handling a bank account in Mexico to dealing with a parking ticket here in the United States. In Agar's hands, potentially problematic situations become instead enlightening glimpses of languacultural differences. Put into practice, Language Shock encourages readers to develop an increased understanding of others, both at home and abroad, and shows how these differences can be wonderful, rather than threatening. Preface 1. Culture Blends 2. The Circle 3. The Circle and the Field 4. Cultural Signifieds 5. Similarities and Differences 6. Situations 7. Culture 8. Speech Acts 9, Speech Act Lumber and Paint 10. Coherence 11. Variations on a Frame 12. Sailors and Immigrants 13. Notes 14. Index A FEW years ago I was talking to a Black colleague at the University of Maryland, a faculty member from another department.