Summary Of Why Can 'T He Hear What I' M Saying By Deborah Tannen

Antoinette Aguilar

Professor Nelson

English 100

19 February 2015

Gender Roles and Understanding

Have you ever been in a situation where the opposite sex just doesn’t understand you? There’s constantly miscommunication between women and men. Sometimes women have non-verbal q’s that men don’t understand. In some cases women want men to automatically know what they are trying to say, feel or think. Even with men, they want women to automatically know what they are saying with little words or sometimes with just a gesture.

Children learn how to communicate at a young age and bring it to adulthood. This may be positive or negative, bringing those habits to adulthood. Young boys and girls are taught how to interact, be social and

Tannen gives a personal example from her own life with her husband. She explained how one word might mean something to her but to her husband means something else. Tannen says, “‘Do you want to go to my sister’s? He answered, “Okay.” To me,”okay” didn’t sound like a real answer; it seemed to indicate he was going along with something.’” (Tannen 203) Her marriage led to a divorce and Tannen believed it was because of the miscommunication between her and her husband. According to huffingtonpost.com, sixty-five percent of marriages lead to divorce due to the communication between husband and

Each culture has their own expectations, reactions and expectations. For example, in certain cultures speaking to loudly isn’t appropriate but in other cultures speaking to quietly isn’t appropriate as well. Some gestures that cultures do isn’t appropriate to other cultures. Kissing women on the cheeks is common but is unacceptable to many other cultures. Another gesture is handshaking, it may seem like a common thing to do when you meet someone or even greet someone. Both of these gestures can be frowned upon or inappropriate. There will always be miscommunication between cultures because they aren’t educated on other