Interpretation Of Texts By Different Readers

Interpretation of texts by different readers

The readers of a text are, receptors of a message. Thus, each reader, when reading a text, is receiving a message transmitted by an issuer, which often intends to create an effect for those who read it. The fact that two readers read and interpret the same text of different ways can be contradictory, since both are receiving the same message. However, the interpretation and reading of the texts is not as simple as it seems;Each reader follows a process upon receiving the message through the interpretation, decoding and acceptance of the latter.  In this way, the same text is often interpreted differently by each reader. 

The factors that affect this interpretation are sex and age, experiences lived, the degree to which they are influenced by what they are reading, the country of origin and residence and, finally, customs, culture and societyto which they belong. From the provisions previously, it will be analyzed how the article “Is it good to shower every day?”It is read and played by two different readers. The first selected reader is a student of an international school located in the province of Toledo, Spain. His age is 18 years old and has lived around 9 years in England, so a girl from the third culture could be considered. The second receiver selected to read and interpret the text is a businesswoman and mother resident in the province of Toledo, Spain. His age is 46 years old and has lived around 7 years in the province of Madrid, Spain.

The article in question discusses the claim that a daily shower can be harmful to health. Regarding the provisions of the article, two points of view have been found, and therefore two almost opposite interpretations by the two readers. On the one hand, the first reader shows its approval in what is established in the text. Being in complete agreement with the unnecessity of showering daily. On the other hand, the second reader expresses the importance that he believes to shower daily, presenting a denial to change that habit.There are numerous reasons why each reader, so remarkable, have interpreted the article in a different way. 

First, the fact that the first reader is a girl from the third culture due to her stay for 9 years in England and the current one in an international school in Spain where she interacts with students from all over the world, implies that she possesses aOpen mentality. The latter is one of the reasons why it presents a will to change the habit of showering daily. Since he is able to take into account different points of view and accept new perspectives, despite having been accustomed to showering daily throughout his life. However, the second reader, for social conventions and for the simple fact of not having contact with people of different cultures that can make it more flexible to changes in their customs, does not agree with the provisions of the article. 

In turn, age is also a factor that clearly influences this case, since the number of years during which the first reader has been exposed to this habit is much smaller than in the case of the second reader. Thus, we can observe how in this case, time practicing a habit is proportional to how much rooted and assumed this is by the individual, resulting to be more resistant to changes.In addition, the first reader has lived in England and coexists with international students. 

This implies that, because in the cultures of the people with whom the second reader is related. However, the second reader has always lived with people who share the same habit of showering daily, so it is more shocking to modify it by not identified in any person around them. Thus, the fact of having accepted something as a daily obligation from an early age and being in force for all the people of our society makes it difficult to change certain customs, despite being scientifically demonstrated its ineffectiveness.

In this way, in the case of the second reader, it is reflected how individuals behave from cultural patterns, being very influenced by the context where these cultures and societies to which they belong.  Thus, sometimes, from culture you can predict the way in which a reader will interpret a text taking into account their search to execute social routines. It is estimated that approximately 60% of the individuals of a culture behave according to the system of meanings shared by the members of the same. In turn, the existence of an intercultural consideration in the case of the first reader is present, from which he considers different cultural norms belonging to different cultures to form his own. 

In conclusion, it has been observed how each of the factors established at the beginning prone to influence the reading and interpretation of the text, effectively, affected both readers.  In this way, the first reader has presented a more collectivist personality than the second reader, which has presented a more individualistic.