there needs to be a focus on people’s culture, rather than individuals while providing knowledge about im/politeness
Impoliteness and how it relates to cultural variation has been an area of interest for many researchers, and many articles have been written about their relationship. In this essay, the research work done by Garcés-Conejos Blitvich and Maria Sifianou will be analyzed regarding how impoliteness is affected by variations in culture. Garcés-Conejos Blitvich is an author known to have published several articles in the field of sociology. She has a specific interest in human interactions in society. Most of her articles are related to human communications and interactions, and she explores ways in which these interactions are affected by technology, globalization, variations in culture, and personal identity, among other factors. In these articles, the author is interested in helping the readers understand that impoliteness, among other forms of human interactions, changes over time, as influenced by the factors mentioned above. She attempts to help the readers to create awareness to the readers that approaching the issue of human interaction with a fixed mind can result in misleading conclusions on the issue, and that people should be open to any changes and variations that human interactions and communications come with. This way, she intends to make social interactions better by enabling people to adapt to the changes that occur in human interactions, without feeling that these changes are meant to affect the human interactions negatively. She has 32 publications so far. Some of her major research contributions include the work she did with Patricia Bou-Franch on the analysis of digital discourse that provides new insights on digital communication and language, and future directions concerning the same concepts. This article was published in January 2019, and it has provided rich insight into digital communication and language. The article is major because of the awareness it creates on digital communication, especially on the need to appreciate the modern ways of communication. The importance of people embracing and appreciating digital communication and language is that this form of communication makes human interactions faster, simpler, and more interesting. The other important contribution that this researcher has made together with Patricia Bou-Franch is the article on “Relational work in multimodal networked Facebook interactions” that was published in May 2018. In this article, the two authors add to the previous research works on relational work by highlighting the need to expand the previous research to improve sociability in the social platforms that can afford networked interactions. The gap filled by their contribution makes the article major.
Maria Sifianou is a professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She also has a deep interest in human interactions in the fields of im/politeness conceptualizations, in/civility, and globalization. She has expertise in pragmatics, discourse analysis, mediated discourse, and intercultural communication, among others. She has 45 publications that are in line with her areas of interest. Some of her major research contributions include the article she wrote to explain the concept of impoliteness in the context of Greece. This article was published in December 2019. It is a major research contribution because it explores and enhances understanding of impoliteness in the context of a society, rather than an individual level, which is a research area that has been neglected by many researchers. She provides knowledge that helps the reader to have a deeper understanding of the concept of impoliteness from a different perspective. Additionally, Maria, together with Patricia Bou-Franch, wrote an article that brings the relation between facial expressions, identity, and im/politeness. This article was published in 2017. In the article, the researchers identified a research gap on how the three factors are related, and therefore the article provided an analytic view on how the three are related, and thus, helping in understanding that relation. This article is major because it enables the society to have a different perspective of im/politeness, and thus enhancing good human relations in a way that one would not be mistaken for being impolite if their personality shows no impoliteness is intended from their expressions and reactions. The two authors have worked on a number of major articles together, and most of these articles are concerned with im/politeness, communication, and human relations in general. Another article that the two have worked on together is entitled “Im/politeness and discursive pragmatics,” which was published in 2019. The article provides knowledge on the exploration of im/politeness from a practical and discursive perspective, rather than a theoretical perspective. This article provides research contributions that have enabled researchers to view impoliteness from a practical view, rather than a theoretical view that leaves some research gaps behind. In a nutshell, the two researchers have a common field of interest, and their research work as a unit is an evidence that they have a deep interest in matters relating to human interactions, such as im/politeness.
This essay builds on the research work of Sifianou & Blitvich (2017) in argument that there needs to be a focus on people’s culture, rather than individuals while providing knowledge about im/politeness because people’s culture has an influence on their personalities and character. Moreover, the essay claims that there is indeed a significant variation between cultures, and this variation should be considered while trying to understand im/politeness among different cultures. These two arguments will lead to a conclusion as to whether or not that the difference between positive politeness strategies and the negative politeness strategies depends on a culture’s definition of what politeness and impoliteness entails. The essay will provide a theoretical overview that will summarize the key details on the aspect of im/politeness and culture, a description of the research methodology that will be used for the research, and an analysis of the evidence obtained that will lead to a conclusion.
Theoretical overview
A simple definition of culture is a set of values, norms, and beliefs that a group of people shares in common. It, therefore, has a significant influence on the behaviors of individuals in the society. As children grow up in a given environment, they learn the dominating values, norms, and beliefs in that environment. Therefore, they live and behave according to these values they learn. In line with politeness and impoliteness, consequently it follows that an individual will act either politely or impolitely according to what they have been taught, and what they know is right and wrong. It might not be a person’s fault if what they believe to be right according to their culture, is wrong for someone else. A good example is the comparison between the Japanese culture and the western culture. According to the Japanese culture, while greeting a person, maintaining eye contact is a rude expression. Also, a Japanese can consider it a rude expression when they are greeted without bowing. The Japanese are conservative when it comes to the preservation of culture. They tend to stick to the traditional culture and find it hard to adopt the new ways of doing things, unlike the westerners. The western culture is very accommodative, and, therefore, it easily adapts to new changes that emerge with time. According to the western culture, it is not a disrespectful gesture to keep eye contact while greeting someone. Maintaining eye contact shows that one is focused on the person they are introduced to. Moreover, bowing is not necessary in the western culture. It does not have any important significance compared to the significance it has in the Japanese culture.
In an instance where a Japanese meets a westerner for the first time, there is a very high probability that there will occur a misunderstanding between them in terms of what is impolite, and what is polite. Unless the westerner is informed earlier, they might not bow while greeting the Japanese, and they probably will maintain eye contact. On the other hand, without prior information, the Japanese will feel offended by the westerner’s act. In this situation, a big misunderstanding occurs between two people of different cultures, not because they intend to be impolite or to feel offended, but simply because they have different beliefs, values, and norms. Ideally speaking, none of the two people are on the wrong, because according to their cultures, they are doing the right thing. From this illustration, a clear conclusion can be deduced; that is focusing on individuals while studying im/politeness leaves a huge gap that needs to be filled. This is because although there are general moral values that govern humanity, the beliefs of different societies make it very difficult to determine what is polite and impolite for people from different cultures. Implying that if a conclusion is made based on individual studies, the conclusions made for such research studies might not apply for all cultures. That is why it is important to have a perspective of cultural variation while trying to understand and distinguish politeness and impoliteness. Several researchers have studied im/politeness focusing on an individual’s actions towards another individual, and putting more attention to the opinion of the person to whom the action is done. However, the research that focuses on individuals leaves out the influence that culture has on these individuals. This is the gap that Sifianou & Blitvich (2017) have attempted to fill in their article on how cultural variation relates to im/politeness. It is the same gap that, when filled, will bring a balance between the older perspectives of im/politeness that majorly focused on individuals and the hearer’s opinion on the speaker’s actions, and the current trends on im/politeness.