Americans' Conversations

The typical conversation between Americans takes a form that can be called repartee. No one speaks for very long. Speakers take turns frequently, often after only a few sentences have been spoken. "Watching a conversation between two Americans is like watching a table tennis game," a British observer said. "Your head goes back and forth and back and forth so fast it almost makes your neck hurt."

Americans tend to be impatient with people who take long turns. Such people are said to "talk too much." Many Americans have difficulty paying attention to someone who speaks more than a few sentences at a time, as Nigerians, Arabs, and some others do. Americans admire conciseness, or what they call "getting to the point."

Americans engage in little ritual interaction. Only a few ritual greetings are common: "How are you?" "I'm fine, thank you," "Nice to meet you," and "Hope to see you again." These things are said in certain situations Americans learn to recognize, and, like any ritual greetings, are concerned more with form than with substance.

That is, the questions are supposed to be asked and the statements are supposed to be made in particular situations, no matter what the people involved are feeling or what they really have in mind. In many Americans' opinions, people who rely heavily on ritual greetings are "too shy" or "too polite," unwilling to reveal their true natures and ideas.

Americans are generally impatient with long ritual greetings about family members' health—common among Latin Americans—considering them a waste of time.