The Influence of Culture on Listening

One of the things I found interesting in this week’s reading was the influence of culture on listening. In this part of the chapter Harris and Sherblom spoke about studies comparing German and American participants listening behaviors. As a result, the studies showed German participants “conceptualized listening as interactive and focused on the person in a way that supports monitoring and conversation”. While on the other hand Americans saw “listening as a sustaining activity that affects the listener’s knowledge structure and set of attitudes”. It was inciting to see how different cultures form different types of listeners and how dependent the society or culture we live in is on our listening skills/styles. I never looked at listening as something that can be affected by the culture you’re influenced by. I know for me the way I listen to others was mostly influenced by my family and childhood social groups. I grew up in a family where both my parents were people who were always came to fro advice or to be talked to. So for me, sometimes, I feel when it comes to listening to others they are the ones who helped me form some of my listening styles.