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Language Shock: Understanding The Culture Of Conversation
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.
288 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1994
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
November 30, 2009
I expected this to be an interesting book about the intersection between linguistics and sociology/anthropology. It is, sort of, but only to the extent that the entire thesis of the book is that there *is* an intersection, which is kind of a duh that doesn't need proving.
It took the author 100 pages to make the point that conversation is different from grammar. Seriously. That's as far as he got in 100 pages. I am not going to read any further to find out what shocking truth he will reveal in the remaining 150 pages.
I have no idea who his intended audience is. It seems to be aimed at narrow-minded xenophobes with no intuition, because he assumes his reader has never thought about the fact that...culture is relative. I know. It is a concept that blows the mind. Who would have thought. It turns out, I don't like authors treating me as though I am stupid and narrow-minded.
The author also openly speculates in several places about how his book is going to become a best-seller that will change the world, and he is in other ways just way too present in the text. Did this guy not have an editor?
Maybe this book was ground-breaking when it was first published in 1994, but I seriously do not think so. Even way back when I was in college in 1994 we were familiar with cultural relativism.
It gets two stars because the minuscule driblets setting out the history of and schools of thought within anthro-linguistics (he says "languaculture") were interesting and well-explained. Had the entire book been written at that academic level it would have been excellent, but a few paragraphs every 20 pages or so was not enough to make it readable.
It took the author 100 pages to make the point that conversation is different from grammar. Seriously. That's as far as he got in 100 pages. I am not going to read any further to find out what shocking truth he will reveal in the remaining 150 pages.
I have no idea who his intended audience is. It seems to be aimed at narrow-minded xenophobes with no intuition, because he assumes his reader has never thought about the fact that...culture is relative. I know. It is a concept that blows the mind. Who would have thought. It turns out, I don't like authors treating me as though I am stupid and narrow-minded.
The author also openly speculates in several places about how his book is going to become a best-seller that will change the world, and he is in other ways just way too present in the text. Did this guy not have an editor?
Maybe this book was ground-breaking when it was first published in 1994, but I seriously do not think so. Even way back when I was in college in 1994 we were familiar with cultural relativism.
It gets two stars because the minuscule driblets setting out the history of and schools of thought within anthro-linguistics (he says "languaculture") were interesting and well-explained. Had the entire book been written at that academic level it would have been excellent, but a few paragraphs every 20 pages or so was not enough to make it readable.
December 1, 2012
This book and I didn't get off to a good start. In the end, I still didn't like the book very much, but at least I don't hate it as much as most of my fellow students seem to do.
This book is supposed to be an overview of the history of anthropology, and other fields of study that have influenced it (like linguistics, sociology, etc.). Agar mentions interesting studies, but overall the book is hardly scientific (e.g. no sources mentioned). It puzzles me that one of the supposedly most difficult courses in my university prescribes this book. It doesn't seem like a book aimed at a student audience.. I got the feeling Agar wrote this to get random people interested in anthropology. Without extensive side material and good classes, I feel this book fails as a scientific effort.
Agar has definitely had some nice experiences in his life, however. As a story teller he's not half bad (though he still has some issues there, as well). I do enjoy reading about his experiences, particularly because he's lived in Vienna for quite a while, so I expected to be able to relate to that. Maybe it's the time difference, but he and I had very different experiences. Still, I liked reading about Agar's experiences in getting used to other cultures, even if at times he really seemed overly American (and ignorant).
What I did not like was his attitude at times, mostly in the beginning. For instance his criticism on the Sie/du-issue in German. This is mostly fueled by the fact that English doesn't use this distinction, I do think. To say that most people would be happier if this distinction were to disappear altogether? Well, I seriously doubt it. I've encountered difficulties with Sie/du as well, but taking them out of the language would just create a myriad of other problems in a culture where this system is embedded, and used as a means to show, amongst other things, respect. It's a throwaway comment of Agar's, but at times it seriously made me wonder to which extent I should trust this guy as a narrator.
Sometimes he's just an ass, too. When talking about De Saussure for instance, he mentions that the guy's work was published by his students, and that it was based on their notes. This is common knowledge, but his comment saying that he hopes his students wouldn't do that, because he'd seen the kind of notes they make.. well, that's both unnecessary and disrespectful. These little things bothered me while reading.
The book is also written in 1996, and quite dated in some aspects by now. The most obvious issue being that the Yugoslavian war has ended, but you do wonder what else we would question in the light of the other newfound knowledge from the past 15 years.
In short: some personal anecdotes were interesting, but on the whole.. don't bother. There are surely better introductions out there.
This book is supposed to be an overview of the history of anthropology, and other fields of study that have influenced it (like linguistics, sociology, etc.). Agar mentions interesting studies, but overall the book is hardly scientific (e.g. no sources mentioned). It puzzles me that one of the supposedly most difficult courses in my university prescribes this book. It doesn't seem like a book aimed at a student audience.. I got the feeling Agar wrote this to get random people interested in anthropology. Without extensive side material and good classes, I feel this book fails as a scientific effort.
Agar has definitely had some nice experiences in his life, however. As a story teller he's not half bad (though he still has some issues there, as well). I do enjoy reading about his experiences, particularly because he's lived in Vienna for quite a while, so I expected to be able to relate to that. Maybe it's the time difference, but he and I had very different experiences. Still, I liked reading about Agar's experiences in getting used to other cultures, even if at times he really seemed overly American (and ignorant).
What I did not like was his attitude at times, mostly in the beginning. For instance his criticism on the Sie/du-issue in German. This is mostly fueled by the fact that English doesn't use this distinction, I do think. To say that most people would be happier if this distinction were to disappear altogether? Well, I seriously doubt it. I've encountered difficulties with Sie/du as well, but taking them out of the language would just create a myriad of other problems in a culture where this system is embedded, and used as a means to show, amongst other things, respect. It's a throwaway comment of Agar's, but at times it seriously made me wonder to which extent I should trust this guy as a narrator.
Sometimes he's just an ass, too. When talking about De Saussure for instance, he mentions that the guy's work was published by his students, and that it was based on their notes. This is common knowledge, but his comment saying that he hopes his students wouldn't do that, because he'd seen the kind of notes they make.. well, that's both unnecessary and disrespectful. These little things bothered me while reading.
The book is also written in 1996, and quite dated in some aspects by now. The most obvious issue being that the Yugoslavian war has ended, but you do wonder what else we would question in the light of the other newfound knowledge from the past 15 years.
In short: some personal anecdotes were interesting, but on the whole.. don't bother. There are surely better introductions out there.
October 7, 2014
Michael Agar shows in his book "Language Shock: Understanding the Culture of Conversation" the interaction between language, culture and daily behaviour for insiders and outsiders. Insiders know implicit (and explicit) the meaning behind words and sentences that outsiders with only knowledge of a language may not be aware of. He shares his open mind for several environments/cultures wherein he has lived. He makes a strong plea for open mindedness to a foreign cultures otherwise unknown/uncommon behaviour may be regarded as a defect in another culture resulting in rejection or worse.
Michael uses a organic/lingering style with many personal examples. This style has its merits and its shortcomings.
Conclusion: recommended - a readable introduction to foreign combination of language/culture and way of living
Michael uses a organic/lingering style with many personal examples. This style has its merits and its shortcomings.
Conclusion: recommended - a readable introduction to foreign combination of language/culture and way of living
December 20, 2011
Honestly, I would've given this 4 stars if I'd read it before other linguist texts. It's a good start for linguists, and teaches you some memorable rules about observation. Agar writes this at an elementary level that anyone can understand, which is good in some ways. The repetitions, coined and unusually-melded terms, and long rhetorical lectures, however, are excessive to even an amateur linguist reader. When I picked this book up, I expected it to be a focus on discourse and speech as it differs from textual language. Those things are there, but buried in a sort of fable, where the moral is to respect other cultures. If this is written for bigots who believe in international stereotypes, Agar must believe he's reaching them. I wonder, though, if the close-minded yet curious reader demographic for this book exists. As goodreads user "Trena" pointed out in this review, Agar seems to be targeting xenophobes and pleading with them to open up their minds to cultural differences. Maybe he thought he would be marketed to business travelers, as the address to his brother in the final chapter suggests.
Aside from the slight misdirection of purpose, the text does have some good concepts for ethnography and anthropology interests. The frames concept is my favorite and the most solid solution for everyday communication issues, whether sociological or individual. Like any good professor, he's a good story teller. There are dozens of stories that support his points and are memorable, including his Waldheim transcripts (an anachronistic Austrian political issue). He also gives due credit to Whorf, Saussure, Malinowski, and even Margaret Mead.
Though it's a bit dated, I would recommend this to anyone not yet familiar with linguistic terminology. This might make a good first step for novice linguists, anthropologists, etc. Referring back to my first paragraph, I'd love to recommend this to xenophobes, "number-one" types as he calls them, with hopes that they might learn to be more accepting of other cultures. Let's be honest, though, would they read a prescriptive text about how to adjust their attitude? I doubt it.
Aside from the slight misdirection of purpose, the text does have some good concepts for ethnography and anthropology interests. The frames concept is my favorite and the most solid solution for everyday communication issues, whether sociological or individual. Like any good professor, he's a good story teller. There are dozens of stories that support his points and are memorable, including his Waldheim transcripts (an anachronistic Austrian political issue). He also gives due credit to Whorf, Saussure, Malinowski, and even Margaret Mead.
Though it's a bit dated, I would recommend this to anyone not yet familiar with linguistic terminology. This might make a good first step for novice linguists, anthropologists, etc. Referring back to my first paragraph, I'd love to recommend this to xenophobes, "number-one" types as he calls them, with hopes that they might learn to be more accepting of other cultures. Let's be honest, though, would they read a prescriptive text about how to adjust their attitude? I doubt it.
April 27, 2014
This is a book to which I've returned on several occasions since first reading it 15 years ago. Michael Agar explains with accessible and insightful metaphors and anecdotes how the words we acquire help define how we relate to the world, how culture and language are intertwined in what he calls a "languaculture."
One of the purposes of the book is to help show how it is possible to understand the differences in perception within our own culture, how a white professor from a small town could see institutions helping him get to where his is today while his Black colleague knows "The system is not your friend," that "He'd worked his way up from poverty to a Ph.D...in spite of the walls American institutions had built," and how those two disparate views could be simultaneously valid.
With examples from all parts of life and experience he unpacks the different layers of meaning that support our world views, whether we see a multicultural pluralism, information sharing and growing, or competing clusters of States where Americans are Number Ones, "the best" and others are defined as being "less than the best and anyone who would call into question who they are when they're already the best is a fool or a masochist or even, as they used to say in America before perestroika, a Communist. Ronald Reagan was elected, in part, on a wave of number-one sentiment."
By examining how we talk Anthropologists have learned a great deal about who we are. This is a wonderfully understandable introduction to the breadth of anthropological investigation into the nuts and bolts of conversation. Ultimately he shows that by learning about our differences groups of people can form bonds that prevent bloodshed born of misunderstanding, "Hatred nurtured for generations and economic inequity won't just disappear. But the repairs can't start without connections, without understanding another point of view, without languaculture."
One of the purposes of the book is to help show how it is possible to understand the differences in perception within our own culture, how a white professor from a small town could see institutions helping him get to where his is today while his Black colleague knows "The system is not your friend," that "He'd worked his way up from poverty to a Ph.D...in spite of the walls American institutions had built," and how those two disparate views could be simultaneously valid.
With examples from all parts of life and experience he unpacks the different layers of meaning that support our world views, whether we see a multicultural pluralism, information sharing and growing, or competing clusters of States where Americans are Number Ones, "the best" and others are defined as being "less than the best and anyone who would call into question who they are when they're already the best is a fool or a masochist or even, as they used to say in America before perestroika, a Communist. Ronald Reagan was elected, in part, on a wave of number-one sentiment."
By examining how we talk Anthropologists have learned a great deal about who we are. This is a wonderfully understandable introduction to the breadth of anthropological investigation into the nuts and bolts of conversation. Ultimately he shows that by learning about our differences groups of people can form bonds that prevent bloodshed born of misunderstanding, "Hatred nurtured for generations and economic inequity won't just disappear. But the repairs can't start without connections, without understanding another point of view, without languaculture."
September 4, 2018
I read this book with a group of first year college students taking a course about language and culture. While Agar's first couple of chapters ignited a healthy conversation about "American first" rhetoric and language use, the author's limited perspective (masculinist, white, etc.) and the dated nature of the book (published in 1994) made the students (and I) question how useful his frameworks for language and culture are - even as they are very broad. Agar has a conversational and rhetorically-wise writing style, which makes the work accessible, though as a non-anthropologist, I found his evidence lacking.
August 11, 2017
I really enjoyed this book. It made me think about and consider my own experiences in learning another language and culture. Things I wished I had understood before I had gotten I to it. I appreciated the title's play on "culture shock," seeing as this book was very much about how between the grammar and the culture there is a level of communication we should be aware of, but usually aren't.
January 15, 2022
read for a class but got behind so i speed read most of the second half
it’s easy to read and there’s some insightful points but it gets really irritating when he gets to his 50th new version of “culture is...” and starts dropping “languaculture” at least twice per paragraph in the last few chapters
it’s easy to read and there’s some insightful points but it gets really irritating when he gets to his 50th new version of “culture is...” and starts dropping “languaculture” at least twice per paragraph in the last few chapters
November 29, 2025
The more I read, the more I appreciated just how highly relevant this 1989 published book still is. Agar tells why you and someone else can converse in the same language, using correct grammar, and still completely misunderstand each other. It can be even worse if one is from another culture, especially if one person considers the other culture to be in some way inferior. Agar discusses what causes such rifts and how they may be reduced or at least survived. The author was an American foreign exchange student as a child as he concludes with a quote that was the motto for the agency, American Field Service (AFS), that sponsored the foreign exchange student program: "Walk together, talk together, people of the earth, for only then shall you know peace." Cross-cultural communication is littered with land mines, hence wars. Agar's case studies define the problems; his framework regarding language and culture projects a more productive path forward. This book gave me tools for navigating relationships and for understanding current headlines.
January 30, 2019
I love this book so much. Agar has a way to tell stories that take you on a journey, and how he provides a historical overview of the field of linguistics, anthropology, etc that is so easy to understand.
May 15, 2018
Interesting book I read for multicultural communication class. Interesting look at "languaculture" and how to communicate with other cultures within our own language and outside of it.
March 3, 2019
Accessible and clear exploration of the link between language and culture. No need to be a linguistics student to read this book!!
December 18, 2023
I had a ✨terrible time✨ reading this for class
October 10, 2012
Agar can help you to refine and re-define how you understand those big, high-order abstractions, 'language' and 'culture'. Is 'language' one 'thing' and 'culture' another 'thing', that you can separate and isolate from one another? How do linguistic anthropologists like Agar understand this? Hint: In this book, Agar coined a new word: 'languaculture'. (I'd prefer spelling it with a hyphen: 'langua-culture'.) He gets into the nitty-gritty of human behavior, and keeps it lively as well as informative. A great guide to the principles behind better inter-languacultural communication. Awhile since I've read it & looking forward to re-reading.
September 7, 2015
This is a book I wish I had read twenty years ago.
The book is a wonderful introduction to anthropological linguistics. I confess that I was familiar with some of the ideas in the first half. But as I read it, I began to enjoy it more as it answered questions I did not know how to ask but needed to know the answer to. The more I read, the more I enjoyed it. I found myself chuckling with pleasure thru out the latter part of the book. I loved it and my list of books I want to get to just grew exponentially.
The book is a wonderful introduction to anthropological linguistics. I confess that I was familiar with some of the ideas in the first half. But as I read it, I began to enjoy it more as it answered questions I did not know how to ask but needed to know the answer to. The more I read, the more I enjoyed it. I found myself chuckling with pleasure thru out the latter part of the book. I loved it and my list of books I want to get to just grew exponentially.
December 9, 2010
An ethnographer's point of view: what is language and what is culture? This is fascinating to me. This author really examines interactions between individuals who speak the same language but have differences in culture that are only revealed through relationship and interactions between individuals who do not speak the same language. The style is not academic, but narrative, with humility and humor.
August 14, 2009
for my language & culture course. jokey tone, nice ideas, some weird vocabulary choices -- sometimes putting things in plain english ends up sounding super weird. probably not a book i'd ever read again, but it was engaging.
October 13, 2012
Not much revolutionary here: Author believes languages must be seen from within frames (family, neighborhood, prevailing culture, religion, etc. What's fun are the examples he uses. He also writes engagingly but everything considered not a must-read.
August 29, 2014
If you're an English as a second language speaker with a big love for semantics, word origin and the related areas, this book's not to miss! Another thing not to miss, never expect you'd easily copypaste some technical term for your academic paper
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September 23, 2009BLOW your mind. read this. for all ex-pats...read this at ONCE. linguists as well.
October 31, 2009
I guess I can't really say that I "read" this book because I never made it past the first chapter. The guy just never seems to be able to get to the point of what he's trying to say.
March 24, 2010
I loved reading about Schmah, and about how what people would define lies as is not really what they are. Excellent book!!
May 11, 2011
I really enjoyed this. A light and lively read--also a fantastic intro to cultural linquistics.
April 12, 2014
A lot of interesting sections in this book. I recommend it.
June 7, 2015
I read this for a class. Wow, I haven't said that in a few decades.
November 3, 2016
This is a super interesting read for anyone that is interested in language and culture. It is a bit ambiguous, but so are the subject areas being discussed. Definitely worth the time and effort.
September 1, 2020
I simply didn't like it :(
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