Cultural Thursday

The Look of Confusion

 

This is a pretty hard topic to start talking about, mostly because I'm not exactly sure how to explain it. But, if you're an exchange student to America, specifically around San Angelo, Texas, and you have an accent that isn't very common around here, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Let's say you're talking to an American student and they look at you, confused, and ask you to repeat what you said. You do, but they ask you to repeat again. You do and they just kind of nod awkwardly even though you asked something simple, like "how are you?" I call this the look of confusion, hence the title of this post.

The look of confusion means the person didn't understand you. This doesn't, however, mean that the person in question doesn't want to get to know you. In America, I've noticed that in school and at home if you ask someone to repeat something more than a few times, the person gets irritated and asks "Weren't you listening?" Listening is a big thing here. It's become part of our culture to make people think we're listening even if we're not or we don't understand. If this happens to you, (I hope it doesn't because it's annoying, but if it does) now you know that we're not trying to be mean, it's an unconscious part of our culture.

(This is basically the face)