Language Shock by Michael H Agar

Language Shock by Michael H Agar

The key to communication, says linguistic anthropologist Michael Agar, is understanding the context and culture of conversation. In Language Shock, Agar reveals how deeply our language and cultural values intertwine to define who we are and how we relate to one another. From paying an electric bill in Austria to opening a bank account in Mexico to handling a parking ticket in the United States, he shows how routine tasks become lessons in the subtleties of conversation when we venture outside our cultural sphere. With humorous, insightful stories from his extensive travels, Agar engages us in a lively study of "languaculture" and enriches our view of the world.

Michael Agar graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor's degree and a doctorate. from the University of California, Berkeley, with a degree in linguistic anthropology. He was an honorary Woodrow Wilson Fellow, a recipient of the National Institutes of Health Career Award, and a former Fulbright Senior Specialist who taught at a number of institutions and worked at a number of research organizations throughout his career. In 1996, he was named emeritus professor of linguistics and anthropology at the University of Maryland. He worked as Ethknoworks, LLC in Northern New Mexico for the previous decade, until his death in 2017.