Understatement Is the Right of the Strong

Straightforwardness lies at the basis of American character, writes the professor, and to most Americans straightforward talk is an indicator of honesty and authority, while hints are associated with dishonesty and lack of confidence.

Professor Tannen justly explains this by the Americans’ unfamiliarity with the cultures of other peoples. In Japan, for instance, a boss acting in a typical situation sets a task before his subordinates by simply describing the problem facing him.

American men who are accustomed to direct orders regard directions received in an indirect form as attempts to manipulate them. This way, if the subordinate makes a mistake, he or she could be blamed for interpreting the instruction incorrectly.

But the “indirect form, argues Professor Tannen, is no more “manipulating” than the way one calls someone to the phone. When we phone and ask, for instance, “Is Alexander at home?” we are sure that, if he is, he will be simply called to the phone. Only a child answers: “He is” and continues to hold the receiver.

The professor’s study of “indirect” orders shows that they are more often given by people who have authority and confidence than by weak-willed superiors. When the master enters a room and says: “It is cold here” the servant hastens to light up the stove. But if the servant makes this remark on entering the room, the master will receive it “directly”, as a statement that the temperature is low.

The conclusion is that lack of confidence is more often experienced (and deeply concealed) by superiors who give orders.

This is surprisingly confirmed by the practice employed in the U.S. Navy. Professor Tannen tells a story about a naval officer who taught radio operations to young, civilian students during World War II. This time the example with temperature in the room is not fiction. Having entered the class for the first lesson, the seaman remarked: “It is rather hot”. The students nodded their heads. The seaman repeated his remark. “Yes, it is hot indeed,” replied the students, fanning themselves with their copy-books. The seaman had to explain that the statement of fact by a superior in the Navy means not an invitation to discussion but an order. He said: “It is rather hot” for the third time, and the whole class rushed to open the window.

The Danger of the Understatement

On a cold January evening in 1982, a passenger plane which had just taken off from National Airport in Washington crashed before the eyes of pedestrians into a bridge over the Potomac. Seventy-four people drowned in ice-cold water. Only five persons were saved. The reasons for the tragedy, according to the “black box” or in-flight recorder, was the navigator’s manner of communication. He had great experience of flying in snowy weather and tried to warn the plane’s captain of the possibility of repeated icing on the plane’s wings after the pre-flight de-icing. But, as most subordinates do when they have to point out something to their superior, he spoke in a roundabout way. “Look how heavily iced their wings are,” he said pointing to other planes before take-off. “This is very dangerous. This de-icing before take-off is useless.” “Yes,” agreed the captain who, as most superiors do, preferred not to recognized criticism for his decision to fly in such weather.

After the crash it was decided to teach crews of American air companies to state their considerations and apprehensions to their superiors directly, but experiments showed that most successful actions in the air (in particular, in extreme situations) are performed by crews which use not orders but mixed “indirect” speech. Such evidence contradicts the sad experience of the crash.

Assistance came from Japanese linguist Kunihiko Harado. His work shows that success depends not on teaching subordinates to send direct signals to the superiors but on teaching the superiors to show greater attention and sensitivity to indirect statements by their subordinates.

In other words, the Potomac crash was caused not by the navigator’s “indirect words” but by the captain’s “deafness”.