with“talk”over silence in the popularity of radio and television programs called“talk
shows.” Members of the dominant culture not only enjoy talking and avoiding
silence, but also“often experience problems when they go international and place
themselves in face-to-face contacts with more silent people of the world.”^172
U.S. Americans are not the only group who prefer talking rather than silence. In
the commercial world,“a silent reaction to a business proposal would seem negative
to American, German, French, Southern European and Arab executives.”^173 You will
notice that the German culture appeared on the list we just presented. The German
proverb that states that“Silence is a fence around wisdom”illustrates how some Ger-
mans might diminish the importance of silence. There is a link between cultures that
emphasize social interaction (Jewish, Italian, French, Arab, and others) and their per-
ception of and use of silence. Talking in these cultures is highly valued. In Greek cul-
ture, there is also a belief that being in the company of other people and engaging in
conversation are signs of a good life. The concepts of solitude and silence are over-
shadowed in Greek history and literature, which contain numerous allusions to rhe-
torical techniques and dialogues. The culture that produced Aristotle, Plato, and
Socrates is not one that will find silent meditation appealing. For people who follow
this Greek tradition, talking is often used as a means of discovering and communicat-
ing the truth.
Let us now look at a few cultural variations in the use of silence so that you might
better understand how a lack of words can influence the outcome of a communication
event. In the Eastern tradition, the view
of silence is much different from the West-
ern view. As you learned in Chapter 5,
Buddhists feel comfortable with the
absence of noise or talk and actually
believe that words can contaminate an
experience. They maintain that inner
peace and wisdom come only through
silence. This idea is brought out by the Buddhist scholar A. J. V. Chandrakanthan:
In the stories and discourses attributed to Buddha, one can clearly see a close link between
Truth and Silence. Wherever Truth is mentioned in references to Buddha it is always said
in relation to silence. In fact, popular Buddhist religious tradition attests that whenever
someone asked Buddha to explain truth, he invariably answered in silence.^174
Barnlund associates this Buddhist view of silence with communication:“One of its
tenets is that words are deceptive and silent intuition is a truer way to confront the
world; mind-to-mind communication through words is less reliable than heart-
to-heart communication through an intuitive grasp of things.”^175 Silence is also used
by many Asian people as a means of avoiding conflict.“A typical practice among
many Asian peoples is to refuse to speak any further in conversation if they cannot
personally accept the speaker’s attitude, opinion, or way of thinking about particular
issues or subjects.”^176 The Chinese represent an excellent example of how silence is a
part of many Asian cultures. Going back 2,500 years, Confucius stressed the impor-
tance of social harmony. Embedded in that philosophy is a belief that direct face-
to-face conflict should be avoided. Silence is one way to circumvent that conflict.
To help accentuate that point Confucius wrote,“Silence is the true friend that never
betrays.”CONSIDER THIS
How would you explain the African proverb,“Silence is also
speech”?Silence 333Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).