Sex Lies And Conversation Summary

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The unifying idea behind the personal essays of Tannen, Munoz, and Tan is that in each story the writer expresses their own unique take on communication through personal experiences, and the tone that they establish . However, the common unifying theme is that each of the characters have their own subset of English that is their own which they use to communicate to others with Tannen's "Sex, Lies and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men and Women to Talk to Each Other" begins with an example featuring a married couple and a group of women, in which the man talks while the woman is quiet. This is then revealed to be the reverse in private, with the wife driving the conversation, and the husband listening. Tannen then goes on to explain the differences in communication between men and women, an analogy to Tan and Munoz's separation of languages based upon if they were in public or private. She goes on to explain how mannerisms that are common and…show more content…
She recounts her childhood of speaking English in public, or to officials, while she used her mother's incomplete English while she was in her presence, due to her being raised in that environment. Amy Tan provides examples of how this form of broken English serves to be a detriment to her mother, who, while intelligent, possessed an incomplete mastery of the Enlish language. This left you Amy in a position to interpret for her mother. Amy Tan as a second generation immigrant learns a partial Chinese upbringing, due to symbols representing ideas, instead of concrete words that you need to understand the relationship of. Leading to a more visual understanding of words, rather than a analytical. Tannen addresses her personal essay in a largely analytical research format. She establishes the scenario, and then goes into explaining in detail the research the

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