Reading Response

749 Words2 Pages

Usually differences of ethnics, cultures and religions lead to sorts of misunderstanding between people from different societies. People are usually judged according to their behavior in public spaces which might be a result of their culture, education, or social class. An article, “The Arab world” (1996), written by Edward T. Hall, an American anthropologist and writer, discusses the cultural misconceptions between Americans and the Arabs. The article points many of social behaviors acted by Arab individuals that seem weird and sometimes astonishing and inconvenient to the Americans and Westerners. In addition, Hall includes examples of plenty of social behaviors that he thinks are the theme of the Arabic culture along with few personal experiences that led him to conclude that it is really difficult for Europeans and Americans to understand Arabs. Despite the presence of some good points, the article is greatly biased and prejudiced against Arabs, and it is clearly noticed that the author has a misconception of the Arabic and Middle Eastern culture.
To begin with, although some of the points mentioned in his article are valid, most of the author’s thoughts are assumptions that are not supported by evidence, researches, statistics or even individual studies. Hall heavily depends on his limited personal experience with some Arab people or so he thinks. He stereotypes these experiences on all Arabs and concludes that Arabs are much different from Americans and are difficult to be easily understood. Hall states that the concept of privacy is not really present in the Arabian thought. In the “Arab World” Edward T. Hall explains his point of view by mentioning a personal experience where he got irritated while sitting in an empty h...

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...trusion, which is more likely the case in most civilized societies. Stopping dangerous action in streets is a civilized behavior is not only acted by Arabs, but by any individual who cares about the safety of people of his society.

All things considered, I think that the author formed a far from reality negative opinion about Arabs in his mind through events he experienced with some Arabs. It is quite unjust to judge around 350 million Arabic individual occupying 22 countries spread along 2 continents based on few personal experience. Arabic culture – just like any other culture – has negative sides as well as many positive sides. People should stop prejudicing others and start learning to think deeply before making judgments.

Works Cited

Langer G., (2011). “One in Four U.S. Women Reports Workplace Harassment”, Retrieved on May 15, 2014 from: www.abcnews.go.com

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