Comment by UncleOxidant
3 years ago
> What I've noticed is that my habit of interruption is received wildly differently by different kinds of people. It drives some people absolutely crazy
I think it hugely depends on which of the cultures you grew up in. I grew up in an interrupting culture family - interrupting was just the norm, nobody considered it rude. My wife grew up in a wait culture family. If I interrupt her she can get really mad. Over the years I've had to learn to use the wait-method when talking to her and it's made me more mindful of the two different cultures. I try to do more waiting than interrupting anymore since I now realize there's a large percentage of the population that considers interrupting to be rude.
There's also another thing that the waiters can consider an interruption, but I guess I never considered an interruption - saying something in agreement with the speaker as sort of an affirmation of what they're saying. My wife considers that an interruption, I consider it just participating in the conversation.
At least from my viewpoint, I agree with your wife. A nod of the head or a quick "uh-huh" gets your agreement across without the interruption that a fully stated sentence of agreement might cause.
Personally, I enjoy some "back and forth" (interruptions) during a discussion.
What ends up being maddening is when the interrupter is wrong about the direction that the talker intends the conversation to go, and you end up in endless digressions from the intended focus.