Quotes About Communication

Cause if you shoot a bullet someone dies. If you drop a bomb many die. You hit a woman, love dies. But if you say the F-word... nothing actually happens.

For a German and a Finn, the truth is the truth. In Japan and Britain it is all right if it doesn't rock the boat. In China there is no absolute truth. In Italy it is negotiable.

Whatever the culture, there's a tongue in our head. Some use it, some hold it, some bite it. For the French it is a rapier, thrusting in attack; the English, using it defensively, mumble a vague, confusing reply; for Italians and Spaniards it is an instrument of eloquence; Finns and East Asians throw you with constructive silence. Silence is a form of speech, so don't interrupt it!

In one recorded case, the English speaker said "I assume," the French interpreter translated it as "I deduce," and this was rendered by the Russian as "I consider"—by which time the idea of assumption had been lost!

is a good deal of scientific support for the hypothesis that higher levels of thinking depend on language.

What is said may be grammatically accurate or erroneous in the extreme, but it will be colored by the person's view of reality, which is itself influenced by the rigidity of his or her own language structure.

Multi-active cultures are very flexible. If Pedro interrupted Carlos's conversation, which was already in the process of interrupting Sven's tennis, this was quite normal and acceptable in Portugal. It is not acceptable in

It is in the Anglo-Saxon countries that humor is used systematically. Relaxed in Canada and New Zealand, it can be barbed and provocative in Australia. In the United States, particularly, sarcasm, kidding and feigned indignation are regarded as factors that move the meeting along and help get more done in less time.

Britain, though, that humor is most intertwined in business talks. The British hate heavy or drawn-out meetings and will resort to various forms of humor and distracting tactics to keep it all nice and lively.

However, two nationalities in particular avoid jokes and other forms of humor during the actual business sessions. Germans find it out of place during negotiations. Business is serious and should be treated as such, without irrelevant stories or distractions. If you do not concentrate on the issue, you are not showing respect to your interlocutor.

Americans using expressions like "You are killing me" or "Say that once again and I'll walk away from this deal" will cause great consternation among their Japanese partners.

Cultural and religious differences may make it impossible for some people to laugh at the same thing.

the Zulu language has 39 words for green.

don't let what you don't know keep you from witnessing to what you do know.

He didn't say that. He was reading what was given to him in a speech.

It's developing a relationship with actors that makes it work.

If I wasn't an actor, I'd be a teacher, a history teacher. After all, teaching is very much like performing. A teacher is an actor, in a way. It takes a great deal to get, and hold, a class.

Currently, without examples of civility, Americans tend to treat opposing views as the positions of enemies.

Serious disputes are seldom resolved without a genuine change in the parties' thinking. And a false consensus may be more productive of conflict than an honest disagreement.

Oh, I can't talk to you the way I've wanted to; I've been tellin' lies but I'll tell you the truth. Darling, I'm tired and I should be leaving, leaving. You know I'm tired and I should be leaving, leaving tonight.

There are words and words and none mean anything. And then one sentence means everything.

It is a wholly deplorable state of affairs when specialists in any discipline talk only to each other, and accordingly I have sought to write a book which will communicate some of the fruits of research in a manner which will make them accessible to all.

Then, what's the matter?' I wonder, in fact, how many times I have said that or something equal to it to a woman passing palely through my life. What're you thinking? What's made you so quiet? You seem suddenly different. What's the matter? Love me is what this means, of course. Or at least, second best: surrender. Or at the very least, take some time regaling me with why you won't, and maybe by the end you will.

Humans generally get out the gist of what they need to say right at the beginning, then spend forever qualifying, contradicting, burnishing or taking important things back. Yor rareley miss anything by cutting most people off after two sentences.