Vocalics and Repartee

Video Transcription

Hi. I'm Julie Tietz. And welcome to Conflict Resolution, Putting the Pieces Together. Today, we're going to talk about vocalics and repartee, so how we use our tone of voice and volume and turn taking or interruption in communication and how that applies across cultures.

Vocalics is a form of non-verbal communication, where we are using our tone of voice or volume to communicate to each other. And it's related to sounds within our voice. You might think that it would be a form of verbal communication. But again, we are considering more the sounds that are within our voice, rather than the words and what they mean.

And also, placeholders are considered part of vocalics. And placeholders are when we have those moments where we are going within our conversation or communication. And applying vocalics to various cultures, we have to know that the appropriate use of tone and volume and place holders varies across different cultures.

In repartee, we are talking about having that back and forth conversation style that has that quick wit, where we are going back and forth in our conversation between each other and in a short, turn-taking style. And turn-taking is defined as where we have a pattern of conversation that's appropriate to our culture and whether or not we let individuals take a long time to talk or whether or not they take a short period of time to talk and let the other person speak then.

And also, we are talking about appropriate use of interruption. So if we have to wait until somebody is done speaking until we say something, or if we can just jump in and interrupt, if we want to, at any time. And again, appropriate use of turn-taking interruption, repartee varies across cultures. So each culture has their own level of how to use repartee and turn-taking and interruption.

So looking at this across cultures, we know that the appropriate use for vocalics and repartee varies across cultures. So each culture has their own way of utilizing these forms of nonverbal communication. And when we are in contact with an individual or a group of people that are not from our culture, we can send unintended meanings.

So for example, I'm having a conversation with somebody and they're talking to me in a really loud tone of voice. And that tone of voice, in my culture, means that somebody is angry. And that person that is speaking to me in that louder tone of voice, from their cultural perspective an appropriate use of vocalics, it means that they're excited and they have something really important to say.

And so we really need to listen. And I am taking a emotional and instantaneous response to that, because I don't know that that tone of voice in their culture means something different than my culture. I'm thinking that they're angry at me and they're mad and I'm getting a little intimidated and scared by their tone of voice. And unless I had specific training or experience or immersion within that other person's culture, I wouldn't know that.

So let's look at our key points here on vocalics and repartee before we go. It's a form of non-verbal communication that uses tone and volume, in relation to vocalics, and turn-taking and interruption in relationship to repartee. And each culture has their own appropriate uses of vocalics and repartee.

And sometimes when we don't have specific training or experience with another culture and we're communicating with somebody outside of our own culture, we can send unintended meanings or they can send unintended meanings to us.

Here are your key terms before we go. Feel free to pause and look at them closer. Thank you so much for taking the time out to view this. I hope that you're learned something and I can't wait to catch you again next time.