The entire conversation took place in a friend’s (BS) common room on campus. It was between a group of relatively close friends who have known each other for a year or more, and the interactions were very relaxed and casual. All of the participants are college students, one freshman and four sophomores. Three of the participants are Caucasian women (SN, NB, & JC) , the other two are men; one is Korean (BS) and the other is Mexican (AS). AS is gay, which had influence on the conversation. The other participants sexual orientations were not mentioned. The setting and relationships between the participants made a great impact on the style of the conversation as well as the organization (or lack thereof).
One of the most prominent features of …show more content…
Since the conversation took place in BS’s room (and because of his personality) it seemed natural that he would lead the conversation. Out of all the participants, he probably spoke and interrupted the most, although everyone made their fair share of interjections. BS and SN’s large amount of interruptions, especially of each other, shows a few different aspects of their dynamic and their individual personalities. SN is very excitable and, when comfortable, will interject whenever she has a thought or opinion she wants to share with someone. She does this usually while BS is talking, “BS: Definitely the generation before our generation felt very entitled , so therefore// we/ . SN: //No I think we’re/ the complete opposite, like, we’re --we’re the entitled ones,” (BS & SN, Convo. 2016:3). This argumentative style of conversation could be taken as rude in another setting, but because of their specific relationship and knowledge of each other’s conversational habits it is accepted as a norm. There were also cases where one speaker would overlap another to voice their agreement with the original speaker. I found that this was similar to Tannen’s idea of “enthusiastic listenership” (Tannen …show more content…
As the dominant speaker, for the most part, I observed that BS took time to sort of form his sentences out loud as he said them, almost as if he were saying thoughts as they came to him and editing them when they didn’t sound how he wanted them too. This is especially evident in the beginning where he utters, “What do you guys think about the whole, um, this is what was brought up during lunch time. The, uh, like, um, eating disorder awar//uh, the awareness week for--for…,” (BS, Convo. 2016:1). His attempts to be heard and understood by the whole group may reflect on his ideas about his position in that specific group and in others too. Tannen suggests that, “our styles are influenced by social groupings that determine whom we hear and talk to growing up,” (Tannen 2000:393). This could be a reflection of how men interact with each other or maybe of how Korean Americans interact. I don’t have much information on stereotypes for Koreans in conversation, but typically men will try to be louder and more opinionated in order to maintain a dominant position in a group. The word “like” was used 112 times in the transcription (Convo. 2016). It was used to begin sentences, set up a quotation (i.e. “He was like…”), but most often to fill pauses between words. For example, NB says, “Yea, no I feel like it’s kind of--it’s, like, something that has to happen in a place where there
One of the most prominent features of …show more content…
Since the conversation took place in BS’s room (and because of his personality) it seemed natural that he would lead the conversation. Out of all the participants, he probably spoke and interrupted the most, although everyone made their fair share of interjections. BS and SN’s large amount of interruptions, especially of each other, shows a few different aspects of their dynamic and their individual personalities. SN is very excitable and, when comfortable, will interject whenever she has a thought or opinion she wants to share with someone. She does this usually while BS is talking, “BS: Definitely the generation before our generation felt very entitled , so therefore// we/ . SN: //No I think we’re/ the complete opposite, like, we’re --we’re the entitled ones,” (BS & SN, Convo. 2016:3). This argumentative style of conversation could be taken as rude in another setting, but because of their specific relationship and knowledge of each other’s conversational habits it is accepted as a norm. There were also cases where one speaker would overlap another to voice their agreement with the original speaker. I found that this was similar to Tannen’s idea of “enthusiastic listenership” (Tannen …show more content…
As the dominant speaker, for the most part, I observed that BS took time to sort of form his sentences out loud as he said them, almost as if he were saying thoughts as they came to him and editing them when they didn’t sound how he wanted them too. This is especially evident in the beginning where he utters, “What do you guys think about the whole, um, this is what was brought up during lunch time. The, uh, like, um, eating disorder awar//uh, the awareness week for--for…,” (BS, Convo. 2016:1). His attempts to be heard and understood by the whole group may reflect on his ideas about his position in that specific group and in others too. Tannen suggests that, “our styles are influenced by social groupings that determine whom we hear and talk to growing up,” (Tannen 2000:393). This could be a reflection of how men interact with each other or maybe of how Korean Americans interact. I don’t have much information on stereotypes for Koreans in conversation, but typically men will try to be louder and more opinionated in order to maintain a dominant position in a group. The word “like” was used 112 times in the transcription (Convo. 2016). It was used to begin sentences, set up a quotation (i.e. “He was like…”), but most often to fill pauses between words. For example, NB says, “Yea, no I feel like it’s kind of--it’s, like, something that has to happen in a place where there