The Power of Talk- Who Gets Heard and Why Eassy

This article talks about differences in the way of communication, the differences of linguistic style between different cultures, different countries and between men and women, which is caused by many factors, such as cultures, childhood, and natural character, etc. In general, communication is not a simple thing, we can’t make sure in any cases, the people who talk to us understand what we actually mean if we said the same thing in the same way. In my opinion, controlling communicate skills and accommodating diversity linguistic styles can help us to communicate better with each other.

Talk about gender this factor,Tannen (1995) said men will be more confidence than women in public, and usually like to strive for higher status, passion for playing in large group. In contrast, women may be ignored, interrupted, and passed over for promotions, even if they’re highly ability, because women’s linguistic style are more conservative, they prefer to downplay their achievements, not so positive to show themselves (P140-141). In my opinion, gender differences will bring about different linguistic styles and communication methods, meanwhile, childhood also is a very critical factor to influence person’s linguistic style, since children are easily affected by surrounding friends, parents and a lot of things. Tannen (1995) mentioned that the difference of linguistic style between men and women mainly because of the way of speaking during children’s childhood. Tannen (1995) pointed out that girls tend to play with a single best friend or in small groups, and spend a lot of time talking. However, boys tend to play very differently. They usually play in larger groups in which more boys can be included (P.140). After reading the article, The Power of Talk: Who Gets Heard and Why (Deborah Tannen, 1995), I learn that men and women have different linguistic styles because of their different atmosphere of growth. Girls incline to play with a single best friend or in a small groups but the opposite is true for boys. They tend to play in larger groups in which more boys can be included. This kind of difference lead to different evaluation from their superior and women usually be in inferiority in the competition. Tannen (1995) considered that women might be overlooked or slighted.

Tannen (1995) gave us a lot of examples in the workplace which are in the emphasis on linguistic styles. These examples tell us that women tend to make apologies more than men, men prefer to minimize their doubts, women more likely to exchange compliments and etc. These kinds of linguistic styles make women lack confidence than men in the workplace. Tannen (1995) reminded us to pay attention to our linguistic styles all the time. However, I think that habits are difficult to change. Men and women need to increase the communication so that they can understand each other’s real thoughts.