Cultural Miscommunication

I found this reading to be very interesting.  There is so much to learn about cultures, even in the delivery of language. 

I can remember being in the MTC with a sister who was from England.  She informed all of us that the word "Bloody" was a bad word.  Of course, the Elders from the states went on to use that word in every possible sentence, to tease her, because to them it wasn't a bad word.  She took it in the good fun it was meant to be taken in but as we read, language can lead to a lot of miscommunication, hurt feelings, assaults, etc.

In the lecture, Brother Ivers mentions that Americans are very direct when speaking and other cultures are offended by this.  I have seen this in my own life.  First of all, I have a pretty strong personality and secondly, I was raised by a Marine who taught me to just be strong and speak up.  When I lived in a predominantly Hispanic community I had several encounters where people would tell me that I was one of the most intense people that they had ever met.  I didn't quite understand because I felt that I was just an honest and straight forward person.  Now, years later, I feel like this article shed some light as to why some might have felt that way.  I did not mean to be intense, I just had a lot of respect for the people and felt like they deserved to have my most authentic self.

I think cultural miscommunication might be a bit more tricky to learn about versus something that might be a bit more obvious like table manners.  Never the less, if people are immersed in or around another culture, they need to take the time to learn these little details about the culture too.