Harold Nicolson Quotes
One can never be certain what is in the mind of the oriental but we must leave the oriental no doubt what is in our mind.
The inscrutability of the “oriental” was not racial as Nicholson and many others thought as most Asians who became Westernized tend to behave and respond to the Western culture in which they were brought up. However, many of the “oriental” cultures place a premium on inscrutability and avoidance of candor. Therefore, often they interact with Westerners and are unsure of the certainty of what they hear and observe. Or they hear it in ways that in their culture would not indicate strong feeling when that was intended by the Westerner. For example, Arab oratory tends to repeat something intensely felt several if not many times. A Western Diplomat who thinks he “makes himself clear” might slow down and emphasize each word distinctly—a sign of strong emphasis in Western oratory—but if only stated once or twice might not be taken as seriously meant. So communicating between cultures has often caused difficulties which people have assumed were racial characteristics but were cultural.
Harold Nicolson, 1886–1968, British Member of Parliament & Parliamentary Secretary, Quoted in Bernard Lewis & Buntzie Ellis Churchill, Notes on a Century, 2012
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Sir Harold George Nicolson KCVO CMG was a British politician, diplomat, historian, biographer, diarist, novelist, lecturer, journalist, broadcaster and gardener. His wife was the writer Vita Sackville-West.
