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Intensive Listening ADV 5 Unit 4
Intensive Listening ADV 5 Unit 4
A : Good evening and welcome to our continuing discussion of cultural differences in how people express anger. On the line, I have Celina
Gaspari, a sales manager calling in from the city of Rosario in Argentina. Good evening, Celina
B: Good evening.
A: And Joseph Chu, a computer technician calling from the city of Tainan in Taiwan. Good morning to you, Joseph. Sorry to ______
A: Joseph , is there any way to generalize about how people in Taiwan handle anger? I mean, I’ve heard that culturally, it’s unacceptable
C: Well, it depends on the situation. But in Chinese culture, we’re probably _______ ________ ________ ________ _________
_________ (7).
B: Definitely. But Argentina is somewhat unique in that there are lots of people - myself included – whose background is Italian. I think the
way people express anger in other Latin American countries may be somewhat different.
A: In what way?
B: Well, I used to live and work in Lima, the capital of Peru-for about seven years. Our boss – a guy named Alejandro – was, like me, from
Argentina. But most of our colleagues were Peruvian. I remember one day having _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ (5)
with my boss – like any Argentinean might do. Alejandro and I were good friends and colleagues, so we _______ _______ ________
________ (4) . And all of a sudden this Peruvian woman, Amparo, leaves the room – but she has this funny look on her face. So I was
concerned and stepped outside to see if everything was OK. It turns out she completely freaked out about our argument. She thought it
was really serious. I had to _______ _______ ________ (3) and explain that was just how Argentineans talk to each other when they
disagree about something . I'm sure that, to her, we sounded _______ ________ ________ ________ _________ _________ (7), but to
us it was nothing.
A: That's really interesting. Reminds me of the many films depicting Italian families arguing over dinner.
B: Exactly.
C: Well, generally speaking, I think it would be very unusual for someone _______ ________ ________ ________ _________ _________
(7) , like in the case of Celina's story, a boss or a manager. That would just not be considered appropriate. Speaking for myself, if I were
mad at my boss about something, I _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ - or _______ _______ ________ ________ (9).
C: I might _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ _______ (11) to a colleague
about what happened. But I'd try not to let it show in any way – to my boss, I mean. I'd definitely _______ _______ _______ _______ (4).
A: What if one of your friends or colleagues did something that made you mad? Don't people in _______ _______ ________ ________
________ _______ (6) about something?
C: Of course. People sometimes get really angry about politics, for example. And I wouldn't want to suggest that everyone is the same.
A: Of course not.
C: But you asked about generalizations. I would say we're a little slower to anger here than people in some other places. We tend to
_______ _______ ________ ________ (4) - you'd have to be pretty upset about something before you'd actually express any anger,
B: Excuse me for interrupting, but I just had to say ... That's definitely not true in Argentina. I am I may be over-generalizing a bit, but I'd
say people from Argentina _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ (5).
A: Clearly two very different way of handling anger. So Joseph, give us an example.
C: Let's say you're supposed to meet a friend for lunch and he makes you wait a long time before he finally shows up. Most people here
wouldn't _______ _______ ________ ________ (4) with that friend. But if that happens all the time with the same friend - well,
you'd probably finally say something. But you'd certainly _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ ________ (6) or
A: So it sounds like people in Taiwan generally keep things inside rather than _______ ________ ________ ________ _________
_________ (8).
A: And I guess things would have to get really bad before anyone actually _______ _______ ________ ________ (4) about something,
right?
C: Right. But even then _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ _______ (10)
would be really unusual. As I mentioned before, people here are fairly reluctant to express their anger.
A: Celina, based on what you told us earlier about you and your boss, I would guess the total opposite is true for Argentineans.
B: That's right. Between friends, not getting angry ever would be pretty unusual. If your friend does something that makes you angry, you
say something.
C: You _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ ________ (6) - but not as much as people probably do in other places. You
might even bring something up that bothered you- but nicely. I can't imagine anyone actually going ballistic with a friend or colleague.
A: What about people who don't know each other - people who are complete strangers? For example, what would happen if you were
driving your car and _______ _______ ________ ________ ________ (5)?
C: Ah, road rage. That's one situation that might _______ _______ ________ (3) . Some people might even open the window and say
A: Even you?
C: Me? Well, I might get mad, but I probably wouldn't do or say anything about it. But that's just me.
B: We _______ _______ ________ ________ (4) whether the window is open or not. It's no big deal.