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This is not a native/nonnative problem, but more a high vs low content languages, with native English being at the bottom of low content. Low content tend to s

This is not a native/nonnative problem, but more a high vs low content languages, with native English being at the bottom of low content. Low content tend to stay in the abstract, and leave out the details. High content give detailed descriptions and let the abstractions to be deduced by the listener. This often leaves low content speakers wondering how things are being communicated, while they've had the issue described in great detail earlier, but incorrectly discarded the information as meaningless small talk. High content speakers, on the other hand may struggle to decipher something that isn't really meant to communicate anything, or they may feel being kept in the dark and made guess then punished for guessing incorrectly.

Gauge_Irrahphe 5y ago
Further problems are caused by figurative speech, as high content languages often use concrete analogies to convey something abstract, while low content speakers use abstract metaphors to convey something concrete. This also causes miscommunication, sometimes to the point of misinterpreting what is meant literally and what is meant to be figurative.
Dave_Rosenthal 5y ago
Interesting concept that I wasn’t familiar with. But for anyone else googling it, the concept is a spectrum of high vs low ‘context’ (not ‘content’) culture/language.
- Gauge_Irrahphe 5y ago
  I changed it on purpose (such as low vs. high "bitrate" languages) because I feel the "context" explanation is a misinterpretation of what actually occurs. As in the commonly discused example of saying "no": High content language speakers say no by giving an explanation of why fulfilling the request would be difficult (a relatively large amount information is transmitted) which, to their surprise, is taken as a yes by the low content speaker. And adapting to this is difficult, because high content speakers prefer their information, while low content speakers feel inundated and prefer their simplicity.

Gauge_Irrahphe 5y ago

Further problems are caused by figurative speech, as high content languages often use concrete analogies to convey something abstract, while low content speakers use abstract metaphors to convey something concrete. This also causes miscommunication, sometimes to the point of misinterpreting what is meant literally and what is meant to be figurative.

Dave_Rosenthal 5y ago

Interesting concept that I wasn’t familiar with. But for anyone else googling it, the concept is a spectrum of high vs low ‘context’ (not ‘content’) culture/language.

Gauge_Irrahphe 5y ago
I changed it on purpose (such as low vs. high "bitrate" languages) because I feel the "context" explanation is a misinterpretation of what actually occurs. As in the commonly discused example of saying "no": High content language speakers say no by giving an explanation of why fulfilling the request would be difficult (a relatively large amount information is transmitted) which, to their surprise, is taken as a yes by the low content speaker. And adapting to this is difficult, because high content speakers prefer their information, while low content speakers feel inundated and prefer their simplicity.