See on Scoop.it – Geography Education

Surprising alternatives to “so what do you do?”—from New Orleans to New York.

Seth Dixon‘s insight:

The types of questions that you ask when you are meeting someone new for the first time has some regional variations but there is much more to the geography of small talk than that as see in this 4 minute video.  People want to understand your cultural, ethnic, socioeconomic context by asking spatial questions about where you are from.  Identity and place are tightly woven and these neighborhood questions are almost invitations to share much more personal information, as if to ask, “how do you fit in this world?”  When you are being introduced to someone, what are the questions that you ask, and what type of information are you hoping to get?  Each person has their own little geography that has profoundly shaped who they are—so what’s your story? 


Tags: language, regions, folk cultures, community, place, neighborhood.

See on www.theatlantic.com