Linguistic Anthropology

The different types of contexts from unit one are the situation, the relationships, the timing, cultural context, current political beliefs which add meaning, and relevant history which adds meaning, in addition to the spoken word, which influence the way we interpret communication.

High Context: High Context communicators do not always say exactly what they are thinking or feeling because they believe that their real meaning will be understood, HC communicators also believe that being too direct is inappropriate.

Low Context: Low Context communicators believe that meaning and information are entirely in the verbal code which are the words that the person actually says. For the LC communicator, directness leads to trust and can show respect.

The little boy was sitting outside by himself one day and his neighbor who was a Japanese female came over to him to chit chat, and then commented that she was going to be out of town for a couple of weeks. After the boy talked to his mother about the conversation he had, his mom helped him interpret what their neighbor was implying which was that she needed someone to help take care of her garden. The neighbor used high context communication because she did not directly say that she needed the boy to take care of her garden while she was out. The neighbor assumed that the boy would understand that she was implying that she needed him to look after her garden.

The HC behavior that I personally would not demonstrate is the Japanese boy and his neighbor story. If I was the boy I probably would not have picked up on the neighbors hint because as a kid you do not fully understand a lot of the manners and ways that older people communicate. The way the story was told made the conversation seem very vague and I do not think that just mentioning that you are going out of town is enough for most people to understand that you want them to watch your garden. The neighbor should have been direct and just asked a favor from the boy. I believe that her behavior was a little bit rude because she should have had enough respect to ask her neighbor for a favor and not have his mother have to interpret that she needed the boy to watch her garden.