The relationship of one aspect of conversational style, the degree of directness in the sending and interpretation of messages, to ethnicity was investigated in a comparison of the communication styles of Greeks and Americans. It was hypothesized that Greeks tend to be more indirect in speech than Americans, and that English speakers of Greek ancestry may have Greek communicative styles. These hypotheses were tested through observation of interactions, interviews with Greeks and Americans with bicultural experience about their interaction experiences, and a questionnaire based on an actual conversation. It is concluded from the findings that conversational style, which is strongly influenced by family communicative habits, is more resistant to change than more apparent marks of ethnicity such as retention of parents' language. Furthermore, understanding the patterns of retention or loss of ethnically-related communicative strategies can offer insight into the assimilation from Greeks to Greek-Americans. (MSE)