Application Question Unit 8

#1 A good school? (Mrs. Thomas and Mrs. Rashid are both parents of students in the district where Mrs. Thomas also teaches.)
Mrs. Thomas: Johnny has Mr. Smith as a teacher next year. I hear he is an excellent teacher.
Mrs. Rashid: He’s very nice.
Mrs. T: Are you happy with the school district?
Mrs. Rashid: There are many lovely people in the neighborhood.

The main miscommunication issue I notice is when Mrs. Rashid responds " There are many lovely people in the neighborhood." To an American person, this shows that the person wants to change the subject of the conversation without sharing an opinion about what is asked. In this case the school district. It's almost like someone bringing up an event that is embarassing to someone in the room and before the conversation goes any further, that person may say "How about this weather we're having? Beautiful." To sarcastically change the subject. The response made by Mrs. Rashid may give Mrs. Thomas the feeling that Mrs. Rashid dislikes the neighborhood and doesn't want to continue further talk about it. Mrs. Rashid, on the other hand, may have misunderstood Mrs. Thomas when she said "District". Mrs. Rashid may have thought "district" as in the place or community, "neighborhood" where they live, not the school.
Another possiblity is that in Mrs. Rashid's native contry, it may be considered extremely rude or perhaps against the law to say anything negative about any government institution or place of education.  In this case, Mrs. Rashid felt it necessary to only say nice things about where she lives and the people who live there to avoid any negative attention from others.