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That's Not What I Meant
That's Not What I Meant
That's Not What I Meant
Audiobook (abridged)1 hour

That's Not What I Meant

Written by Deborah Tannen

Narrated by Deborah Tannen

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

You know the feeling: You thought you said exactly what you wanted to, but somehow a different message comes across. You end up feeling misunderstood...and the relationship that you're building -- at home, on the job, on a date, or in an interview -- slips a little further out of your control.
Talk is the key to any relationship and conversational style is the key to any conversation. In That's Not What I Meant!, Dr. Tannen helps you recognize your own conversational style and understand the styles of others.
Whether you are dealing with a person who's too quiet or someone who's a conversational bulldozer, learning to understand conversational style will help you deal with any situation. Through this understanding, you can prevent small differences from sparking big arguments, really hear what was said -- and what wasn't.
That's Not What I Meant! will give you the tools to save any conversation -- or relationship.
LanguageEnglish
Release dateJun 1, 1991
ISBN9780743545488
That's Not What I Meant
Author

Deborah Tannen

Deborah Tannen is Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Her books include the New York Times bestsellers You Just Don't Understand, You're Wearing THAT?, Talking from 9 to 5, and You Were Always Mom's Favorite!. She has written for and been featured in numerous major newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Newsweek, USA Today, the Washington Post, and Time.

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Reviews for That's Not What I Meant

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 1 out of 5 stars
    1/5
    Audiobook only covers a few chapters but did not tell us ahead of time. Cheated me out of an audio book credit.

    2 people found this helpful

  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Classic book — great. But why not the full book?
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Eye opener. A pleasure to read.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    very short book. It started out good with examples, and scenarios that are relatable. however, it did not say ideas on handling those scenarios.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Conversational styles, metamessage, schismogenesis, and Sapir-Whorf hypothesis are just but a few of the newer insights I have learned from this lucid book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I read this book through reasonably fast, and the only reason why I could do this, was because the book was written in a manner that is easy to read. The points that she raised are fantastic, and I could really relate to the examples that she gave. It is a book that is well worth keeping, reading and absorbing.There is not too much by way of strategies for improving your communication. Initially, I was a bit disappointed, but then I realized that this is something that each individual has to work out for himself/herself. The danger with many self-help books, is that they promise a lot, and recommend strategies that are often impossible to implement, because they are too generic. So, while she does give some broad recommendations, she wisely avoids making this a universal self-help book that promises the world, and does not deliver on the promise. The lessons and examples are to be internalised, and practiced, if they are to work. That is the hard work that we, as readers, have to do!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It should be retitled "it is a freakin' miracle we can actually communicate with one another." Tannen doesn't go into a lot of tips to solve our miscommunication. What Tannen does do is offer us clarification and awareness into all the various ways we think we are communicating but may not be and how to better understand all the communication styles we encounter. Excellent primer for understanding and awareness of basic communication styles.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is a good book but told almost exclusively from a female point of view. One part talks about how we size up people with thoughts such as "she's nice, he's not". This is consistent throughout with almost all of the negative parts of an example being attributable to the man (particularly American men). Fairly ironic that this is a book about communication but neither the author or editor picked up on this.

    5 stars if you're female, 3 stars if you're male (which is why I gave it 3 stars).
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Does what it says on the tin. A somewhat interesting look at how individual ways of speaking can cause and exasperate misunderstandings in conversation. Only somewhat interesting because it reads like old news (it is, having been published almost thirty years ago--I'd guess that a much bigger section of the population has a passing knowledge of the information in this book today than did then--perhaps because of books like this) and comes off a bit bland and depressing. Despite the inclusion of some suggestions about how to overcome misunderstandings caused by conversational style, it's easy to come away feeling like you might as well not bother talking to anyone (which is not at all how I really feel about failures to communicate). I love linguistics and was hoping this would be a fascinating read, bit it missed the mark.