They do not feel they can participate in the conversation on an equal footing. Listening to Americans small talk leads some foreigners to the erroneous conclusion that Americans are intellectually incapable of carrying on a discussion about anything significant. Some foreigners believe that topics more complex than weather, sports, or socials lives are beyond the American's ability to comprehend. The typical conversation between Americans takes a form that can be called repartee . No one speaks for very long.
Speakers take turns frequently, often after only a few sentences have been spoken.
Americans tend to be impatient with people who take long turns. Americans engage in a little ritual interaction. These things are said under certain circumstances Americans learn to recognize, and, like any ritual interchanges, are concerned more with form than with substance. That is, the questions are supposed to be asked and the statements are supposed to be made in particular circumstances, no matter what the people involved are feeling or what they really have in mind. A third form of interaction, one Americans tend to avoid, is an argument .