According to Infante, 1997. Communication accommodation theory (CAT) is defined as " Asserts that during communication, people try to adjust their style of speech to others. They do this in order to gain approval, increase communication efficiency, and maintain positive social identity with the person to whom they are talking." In other words, how we perceive someone will determine how we will act around a certain individual. Convergence and divergence are two types of speech styles used in the communication accommodation theory. This paper will explain the two types of speech styles and share experiences that will help us understand the theory in greater detail.
             Convergence is the way that we adapt to someone by speeding up or slowing down the rate in whick we speak to each other. For example, when I go on an interview I may try to change the rate in which I speak to the interviewee in order to give them the feeling that I would be the best candidate for the job. Or when a salesman tries to connect to a potential buyer of their product in order to get a sale. It does not matter who we are, most of us have dealt with a form of convergence sometime in our lives.
             Divergence is just the opposite of convergence. Many people choose not to adapt to situations in communication. Sometimes people deliberately decide to keep a distance between others in the world of communications. For example, a family moved to the United States and had a baby boy. Wile the boy was growing up they only spoke the foreign language in the household. As the boy started off to school and needed to learn English, the family decided that only the foreign language was going to be spoken al all times. The boy was then home schooled so he would not adapt to the English language.
             Or, when I meet a new person I will not change how I act or speak to make them like me. I say how it is and if that is not good enough then I guess it was not me...