Speaking and social distance

Good points from you and the comments as well. But you may want to edit the text...it has some typos eg. : ...of a given social group *can it can* suggest an unwillingness... ^_^

executer, Thx for the heads up.

That was an interesting article. Many of your observations are similar to ones I have made to myself while living in Taiwan. I can definitely relate to the point about western men not socializing with chinese men. While language plays a big role in creating a rift in communication I believe the larger barrier is cultural. Specifically the difference between western and chinese values and beliefs.

Just to add an observation of my own--it's interesting to see how the Chinese try to learn English in the same manner as they learn their native language; specifically the focus on memorization and repitetion of set phrases (chengyus for example). Also, because the Chinese seem to revere overly intellectualized/embellished ways of expressing things they believe that this is something that we value as well when speaking informal English. While I have made some generalizations since Western society does place some emphasis on sounding smart with big words--I don't believe we do it as much as the Chinese do. If you look at the large difference in language usage between spoken and written forms of Chinese I think this fact becomes really clear.