My Big Fat Greek Wedding: A Film Review
My Big Fat Greek Wedding: A Film Review Describe the differences in culture between Ian and Toula. Toula is Greek, and their customs are conservative when it comes to marrying and having children. According to the film, Greek girls are expected to marry Greek boys, have Greek babies, and feed everyone, while women who are not married work in a family business and are considered failures. Because of the social network, marriage and having a family is extremely important in Greek culture. In Greek culture, the father is the most important person, and in this case, Toula's father is the boss, with total power and everyone has to listen to him. Ian's American culture, on the other hand, is contrary to the Greek one. His family unlike Toula's is individualistic since it is small, quiet and they only see each other on special occasions. Toula's is a collectivist family since it is big and they are always together, they are also very loud and like sharing food which is one of their strongest family values.
How do these differences affect the communication between the couple and the families?
Toula is very attached to her family, and it has a significant effect on her relationship with Ian. She, therefore, has to secretly date Ian since she feels that she can't bring him to her family since they would reject him due to the cultural differences which are a communication barrier concerning their relationship. It is the cultural difference between them that causes communication challenge between their parents. In the scene where Toula's father says, "there are two kinds of people in the world, Greeks and individuals who wish they were Greeks." Therefore, it is clear that the family would disagree on marriage to not –Greeks and it is the reason why Toula can't communicate to her family concerning her relationship with Ian. There are also communication challenges about roles that women play since Toula's dad didn't want her to go to college. When Ian tries to talk it out with her father, he mentions that he did not say that educating women is a mistake, however, it would have an effect on their attitude for women's education. Both Toula and Ian use high and low context in the scene where Toula is working as a waitress in her family restaurant, and they use their face and eyes to communicate. Kinesis can also be depicted in the same scene when Toula uses gestures to communicate to Ian while dancing (48: 29).
Describe the conflict that caused the cultural difference and give three ways in which the conflict was resolved and how they can bridge their differences.
Conflict can be seen in the scene where her parents find out that she is seeing a man that is not Greek. The major conflict between Ian and Toula was the difference in Ian's spiritual well-being. The different ways that the conflict could be dealt with was a constructive or destructive approach. The destructive approach does not necessarily focus on the issue. There is an argument between Toula's dad and Ian concerning their relationship; they don't negotiate it as adults. However, they throw temper and tantrums at each other and proxemics is demonstrated as Toula's father temperamental tone (17.23). The second approach is constructive, where they avoided ultimatums. Ian's style of conflict resolution is accommodating and non-assertive. He is conscious that the solution was in his conversion to Greek by being baptized in the Orthodox so that they get married in the family church (1:37:17). The third approach politeness theory where both families share a meal and decide to come to terms of understanding and haptics is standard for Ian's family since they are quiet.
Work Cited
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
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