Don T Say: Interpersonal Communication In Our American Culture

“You Don’t Say”
Insert Name
Interpersonal Communication In our American culture, we tend to say many things that do not make much sense to other cultures. We have numerous silly expressions known as idioms. If someone from a different culture came to America and heard our idioms, they could definitely become confused. There are so many idioms that could be completely misunderstood.
For example, Johnny and Gina were arguing and Johnny always brings up old grudges while they fought. One could say Johnny adds fuel to the fire by bringing up old grudges. It could be misinterpreted as literally throwing fuel on a fire while arguing. The actual meaning is, is that he makes the problem worse.
Another common saying is “I heard it through the grapevine.” When we say this, we mean that we heard a rumor from someone who got their information from another person, basically gossip. This could be misinterpreted as some crazy person listening to a grapevine.
When someone has to “get something of their chest,” they need to say something that has been on their mind or has been bothering them.
If taken the wrong way, this could mean the removal of something on their chest.
When I am driving down the road and someone cuts me off, I am screaming in my car, “I’m gonna give you a piece of my mind!” This expression means to tell someone how you really feel. This statement can be easily misinterpreted as someone taking a chunk of their brain and handing it to you saying, “Here, you can have
this.”
A boss gives you a report for you to look at and he says, “Go over this with a fine-toothed comb.” Naturally we, Americans, would understand that we are supposed to scrutinize the report very closely and carefully. I can just imagine someone who did not know what that phrase meant, sitting in their cubicle brushing the report with a comb.
Emily is trying to tell her husband about a guy hitting on her, but when she tries to approach the subject she shuts down. Her husband yells, “Spit it out already.” Her husband just wanted her to get her point across and say what she wanted to say. Emily could have misunderstood this and start spitting on her husband’s shoes.
One night when a group of friends is hanging out, they all began to tell secrets. Jason leaned over to Ling and asked her if she had any skeletons in her closet. Her eyes got huge. She thought he was asking her if she killed someone and put their bones in her closet. The actual question was if she had any disturbing secrets.
I never really thought about the different ways our idioms could be misinterpreted. As we grow up in our culture, we are taught the idioms just by hearing it all the time. It has become accustom to how we converse. Idioms have become a part of who we are as a nation.