Chapter 8 Application Questions

#1        A good school? (Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Rashid are both parents of students in the district where Mrs. Thomas also teaches.)
Mrs. Thomas: Johnny has Mr. Smith as a teacher next year. I hear he is an excellent teacher.
Mrs. Rashid: He's very nice.
Mrs. T: Are you happy with the school district?
Mrs. Rashid: There are many lovely people in the neighborhood.

 Choose one dialog. Identify where the miscommunication occurs. Explain what each speaker might be thinking. 

 Explain what cultural factors may contribute to the miscommunication in the conversation.

The miscommunication in this dialog occurs when Mrs. Rashid responds to the question about the school district by saying “there are many lovely people in the neighborhood”.  It appears as if she is violating the Maxim of Relevance but upon closer observation of the statement, you can see that she is in fact responding “correctly” to the question.  The word “district” is defined as “a region or locality” according to www.dictionary.com.  When you take the definition of district into consideration than Mrs. Rashid’s statement makes much more sense. She is commenting on the school district as if Mrs. Thompson were referring to the physical locality of the school district itself.  However, social conjecture in America alludes to the fact that Mrs.Thompson is not referring to the neighborhood where the school is located, rather the quality of the school/s, the teachers and the school community. In America, the statement “Are you happy with the school district?” has a different connotation than what it literally translates to and this is an obvious cause of confusion for someone who is unaware of this social convention.