influence of some factors in western culture on english learners’ communication in vietnam

b.a degree in english Influence of Some Factors in Western Culture on English Learners’ Communication in Vietnam Supervisor: §Æng Quèc TuÊn Date of birth: 10-10-1985 Hanoi, April 2008...

b.a degree in english

Influence of Some Factors in Western

Culture on English Learners’

Communication in Vietnam

Supervisor: §Æng Quèc TuÊn

Date of birth: 10-10-1985

Hanoi, April 2008

Influence of Some Factors in Western Culture on English Learners’ Communication in Vietnam.

( Graduation Paper submitted in Partial Fulfilment for

B.A Degree in English)

I certify that no part of the above report has been copied or reproduced by me from any other person’s work without acknowledgement and that the report is originally written by

me under strict guidance of my supervisor.

Date submitted: 08/05/2008

Student Supervisor

NguyÔn D¬ng Lan Anh §Æng Quèc

TuÊn

I am indebted to all teachers at the Faculty of English-Hanoi Open Universitty who have given us a place to study to improve our knowledge.

I would like to thank survey respondent in my class (K11G group) and from students in Faculty of English Department, who contributed to the data of this thesis.

I take this opportunity to thank all my friends who have stimulated and helped me develop ideas for the thesis.

The support extended me by members of my family has been immeasurable I am profoundly grateful to my parents and my brothers for their heartfelt support and stimulation Without them, my work would be less meaningful.

Hanoi, May 2008

Nguyen Duong Lan Anh

Tables of contents

Part A: Introduction

I Rationale……… ……1

II Aims of the study……… 2

III Scopes of the study……… ……2

IV Methods of the study……… …….2

V Design of the study……… …… 3

Part B: Development Chapter I: literature review I.1 Overview of culture……… 4

I.1.1 Definition of culture……… … 4

I.1.2 Culture and the meaning it represents……… …….5

I.2 Communication……… …… 6

I.2 1 The definition of communication ……… ……….6

I.2.2 Models of communication……… ……… 7

I.2.2.1 Verbal communication……… ………….7

I.2.2.1.1 Overview of verbal communication………… ………….7

I.2.2.1.2 Culture and verbal communication……… 8

I.2.2.2 Nonverbal communication……… ……8

I.2.2.1 What is nonverbal communication? 8

I.2.2.2 Culture and nonverbal communication……… 9

I.3 The cross-cultural communication……… 10

I.4 The roles of culture in communication……… 12

I.5 The relationship between language and culture…… 13

I.6 Summary……… ……14

Chapter II: The study II.1 Some similar features between Western and Vietnamese communicating cultures……… ……… 15

II.1.1 In eyes contact……… ……… 15

II.1.2 In gesture……… ………16

II.1.2.1 Gestures express emotion status… ……… 16

II.1.2.2 Gestures express human’s relationship…… ……… 16

II.2 Some differences in communicating culture between Vietnam and Western countries……… ……….17

II.2.1 In Giving and Accepting Compliment Behaviors……… 18

II.2.2 In Greeting……… …… 19

II.2.3 In Making Requests……… .……… 22

II.2.4 In Giving invitation……… ……… 25

II.2.5 Non-verbal communication……… ……….27

II.2.5.1 In eye contact……… ……… 27

II.2.5.2 In Facial Expressiveness………….……… 29

II.2.5.3 In Using Gesture and Body Positioning……… ….31

II.3 Summary……….…… 34

Chapter III: Some difficulties of Western communicating cultures on Vietnamese Learners of English III.1 Misunderstanding in communication……… ………… 35

III.1.1 What is the misunderstanding?

35

III.1.2 Misunderstanding in Behavior… ……… 36

III.1.3 Misunderstanding in response… ……… 38

III.1.4 Misunderstanding in Nonverbal Communication…….…….39

III.2 Culture Shock……… ……….40

III.2.1 What is Culture Shock?……… …………40

III.2.2 In Giving Refusal……… 40

III.2.3 In Using Language……….42

III.3 Some difficulties in learning English……… 44

III.3.1 In learning styles……… 44

III.3.2 In relationship between teachers and students … 46

III.3.3 In Non-Verbal Communication……… 47

III.4 Summary……… .… 48

Chapter IV : Some Suggestions IV.1 How to overcome misunderstanding and culture shock? IV.1.1 Misunderstanding………

……….49

IV.1.2 Culture shock……… .…….51

IV.2 Some suggestions for teachers and students…… 53

IV.2.1 Keeping eye contact……… 53 …

IV.2.2 Facial expression in the classroom………… 53 …

IV.2.3 Greeting and Addressing Friendly………… 54 …

IV.2.4 Some other suggestions……… …… 54

IV.3 Summary……… …… 55 Chapter III: conclusion ……… …… 56

References……… .……… 57

Influence of Some Factors in Western Culture

on English Learners Communication in ’ Communication in

In Vietnam, English is rather popular, people at different ages and in differentfields learn English with the aim to enhance the effectiveness ofcommunication On the other hand, learning English is a good chance todiscover the people, lifestyle, tradition of other countries and to exchangeculture as well as providing opportunities for people so that they could live,work and study oversea However, most of learners of English and peopleusing English are affected by some cultural factors of language incommunication

As we know, culture is the essence of communication and each countryhas its own culture which is reflected in language, so the communicationactivities of each nation reflect the culture of that nation

Many Vietnamese people who learn and use English are affected so much

by cultural factors in communication This brings a lot of advantages inconversational process, however, it causes some troubles for both sides such asmisunderstanding or refusing This may lessen the effectiveness of theircommunication and sometimes causing bad consequences or leading them toembarrassing situations

II Aims of the study

To solve these problems, in the framework of the study, I research

‘Influence of Some Factors in Western Culture on English Learners’ Communication in Communication in Vietnam ’ Communication in with the aims to help learners of Englishunderstand and know more about some similarities and differences inVietnamese and Western cultures that cause advantages as well as difficulties

in communication Since then, English learners can master some knowledgeabout the culture of English and Vietnamese people in conversational processand using English more correctly and effectively They know about theessence of the problem and then they cannot only speak English morecorrectly and effectively but they can also communicate in English styles.This may help people avoid the misunderstanding in communication, and thenenhance the effectiveness in communicative activities

III Scopes of the study

Because of space and time, the framework of my study can not cover thewhole field of culture and all the objects In my graduation paper, I would like

to focus on the following items:

 Similar features between Western – Vietnamesecommunicating cultures

 Differences between Western – Vietnamese cultures

 Some difficulties and suggestions

IV Methods of the study

As the parts of the searching objects are concerned to foreign culturewhich Vietnamese people do not have chances to get in touch with constantly

so in the study, I mostly rely on documents, books, sources from internetrelated to the scope of my study Besides, I combined the result of the analysiswith the suggestions from the supervisor, teachers and friends in my Faculty

to make a complete study

V Design of the study

To gain the above aims, my paper is divided into three parts:

Part A: Introduction

This part provides an overview introduction about the rationale, aims,scope, methods and design of the study

Part B: Development

This part consists of four chapters

- Chapter I (Literature Review) aims introducing the

comprehensive view about theory, definition of communication, culture and

behavior and giving the relationship, role of culture and behavior to preparefor the following analyses.

- Chapter II (the study) which focuses on the cultural

similarities and differences of Vietnam and some other countries

- Chapter III: Some difficulties of Western communicating culture on Vietnamese learners of English

- Chapter IV: Some suggestions to overcome the difficulties

Part C: Conclusion: This part is the summary of my study

References

Part B: Development Chapter I: literature review

I.1 Overview of culture

I.1.1 Definition of culture

Human beings have created culture since the dawn of the man’ Communication ins society.Each society has its own culture that is far from being similar to othersbecause culture comes from society and it reflects the society in which it isformed

The term ‘culture’ Communication in has been concerned with such a long time and attracted

much interest from scientists to do a thorough research The concept as well

as the content of the term ‘culture’ Communication in, however, is so extensive that many

scientists have still not understood clearly and profoundly Therefore,anthropologists, sociologists and linguists, have applied the definition ofculture in a variety of ways over the years, and up to this time they stillcontinue to argue about how it should be defined

Culture, according to Edward Burnett Tylor writing from the perspective

of social anthropology in the UK in 1971 ‘Culture is that complex whole

which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society ’ Communication in

Linton, R (1945) The Culture Background of Personality New York.

‘Culture is a configuration of learned behaviors and results of behavior

whose component elements are shared and transmitted by the members of a particular society ’ Communication in

Lederach, J.P (1995) define culture as follows: ‘Culture is the shared

knowledge and schemes created by a set of people for perceiving, interpreting, expressing, and responding to the social realities around them’ Communication in

(P.9) More recently, the United Nations Educational, scientific and cultural

organization (UNESCO) (2002) described culture as follows: ‘…Culture

should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material, intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and that it encompassed,

in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living together, value systems, traditions, and beliefs ’ Communication in

According to Tran Ngoc Them (1997:27), in Vietnamese language,

‘culture is an organic system of material and spiritual values that mankind

has accumulated and created in the process of practical activities, in the interaction between man and his natural and social environment’ Communication in.

From these above definitions, we can see how diverse and various theconcept of culture is Though all the authors expressed their view differently,however, all definitions mention the distinct traits of spirit and material ofeach society It shows that each culture has a unique characteristic and theculture of a society is reflected in communication

I.1.2 Culture and the meaning it represents

In fact, people who are in contact with members of a different culture willrealize that a knowledge of the sounds, the vocabulary, and the grammar oftheir foreign language is indispensable when it comes to sharing information.However, that does not guarantee that understanding will take place Thecritical factor in understanding has to do with cultural meaning What doesseem clear is that the language learner must first be made aware of himself as

a cultural being, a product of his cultural environment He shares abackground (for example, national, ethnic and religious) which results from acommon knowledge and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and

values Cultural meaning is expressed in the cognitive structures as well asnorms of behaviors people utilize when using language Language learning is

obscured without some recognition of cultural values just a Winston Brem

Beck says: “To know another s language and not his culture is a good way to’ Communication in

make a fluent fool of one s self ’ Communication in ”

But learning a new language, learners meet with cross-cultural difficultiescreated by the part of culture which is not always exposed to them This refers

to the informal and often hidden patterns of human interaction, expressions,and viewpoints that people in one culture share The hidden aspects of culturehave significant effects on behavior and interaction with others It is obviousthat a clear understanding if these will help a lot in mastering a new languagefor communicative purposes

I.2 Communication

I.2.1 The definition of communication

In daily life, we talk and exchange the information with each other in ourcapacity as the social and conscious creatures These activities occur sofrequently and usual that few people are aware of and exchanging activities,

we perform the communicative activities To this day, there are many differentdefinitions stressing on many aspects of communication in order to serve thevarious researching goals

According to Saville – Troike (1986: XVIII), ‘ Communication is the

sharing meaning process through verbal behaviors and nonverbal behaviors.’ Communication in He argues that the nonverbal behaviours are not only the factors

of the body language, but also the paralinguistic factors, such as the speed ofspeech, the volume height, and some factor of object and environmentallanguage

Stanley J.Baran (2001: 4) defines the communication in its simplest form

‘communication is the transmission of a message from a source to a receiver’ Communication in.

The definition of communication from Wikipedia, an encyclopedia:

communication is a process interaction among human beings It is the act of

‘

passing information and the process by which meanings are exchanged so as

to produce understanding ’ Communication in

Nguyen Quang (1998b, 38) communication is the process of sharing‘

meaning through verbal and nonverbal behavior ’ Communication in

In a word, so far people have been using the world communication‘ ’ Communication in as

if they agree on what it means Yet the word has many definitions The

communication theorists have proposed more than one hundred distinctdefinitions of communication Not every model can show all aspects of aprocess as complex as communication.

I.2.2 Models of communication

Communication is the transfer of information from one person to another

According to Nguyen Quang ‘Communication is the process of sharing

meaning through verbal and nonverbal behavior’ Communication in Therefore, it can be

classified into two kinds those are verbal communication and nonverbalcommunication

I.2.2 1 Verbal communication

Nguyen Quang defined: ‘Verbal communication is spoken

communication, including the use of words and intonation to convey meaning ’ Communication in

Verbal communication is one way for people to communicate face Verbal communication requires the use of words, vocabulary, numbersand symbols and is organized in sentences using language

Mastering linguistic skill is not reserved for the selected few It is a skillthat each and every one should develop for personal growth and to improverelationships and interactions

Everyone’ Communication ins brain is forever having thoughts and they are primarily withwords Words spoken, listened to or written affect your life as well as others.They have the power to create emotions and move people to take action Whenverbal communication is delivered accurately and clearly, you activate themind and encourage creativity

You create your reality with your senses, the eyes, ears and feelings andwords and symbols are used to create the meanings This is why you areencouraged to read and watch informative materials, listen to motivationalaudio programs and attend classes or seminars that relate to your line of work

or objectives Positive and uplifting spoken or written messages motivationand inspire

You can do the same to inspire others Motivation comes from withineach individual but you can become the source and when you are able toaffect their thinking, you can help them improve their lives

I.2.2.1.2 Culture and verbal communication

Culture influences communication style Although this point may seem

obvious, cultural styles can create misunderstanding in conversations amongpeople from different cultures.

For example, consider the following conversation between an Italian and

an American: The Italian made a strong political statement Italian wanted to

involve the American in a lively discussion The American, rather than openly

disagreeing, said, ‘well, everyone is entitled to an opinion I accept that your

opinion is different than mine’ Communication in The Italian responded, ‘that is all you have to say about it?’ Communication in In general, the American did not enjoy verbal conflicts over

politics or anything else The Italian actually became angry when theAmerican refused to get involved in the discussion He later explained to the

American, ‘a conversation is not fun unless it becomes heated!’ Communication in

What does this example say about culture and its influence oncommunication? Surely, there are many English who do get involved in verbalconflicts over polities, just as there are some Italians who would not becomeinvolved However, the above conversation represents types of communicationpatterns that are related to cultural differences In short, culture influences onverbal communication in particular

I.2.2.2 Nonverbal communication

I.2.2.2.1 What is non-verbal communication?

Many of us grew up hearing that actions speak louder than words Thewisdom of this idiom is that nonverbal communication can be as powerful,sometimes more powerful than words

According to the linguist Andrew Wright in ‘How to communicate

successful’ Communication in (1987), surprisingly, only 7-10 percent of our attitudes are

conveyed by words while 90-93 percent of our communicative messages aretransmitted by nonverbal language Besides, psychologists claim that theimpact you make on others depends on what you say (7%), how you say it(38%), and by your body language (55%) Your sound also conveys amessage, 93 percent of emotion is communicated without actual words

We all communicate nonverbal channel which carries less than 35 percent

of the social meaning of a message, according to Gambles This means that

more than 65 percent of the meaning is communicated nonverbally

According to Wood (1992:105): ‘Nonverbal communication as major

dimension of human communication It includes all aspects of communication other than words ’ Communication in

K-Neill Foster, Ph.D (VI) wrote: ‘Nonverbal communication is the

conveyance of information from one entity to another without the use of verbal expression It results in understanding being exchanged by those

entities without the exactitude of human speech in any form ’ Communication in

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: ‘Nonverbal communication is

usually understood as the process of communication through sending and receiving wordless messages such messages can be communicated through gesture; body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact ’ Communication in

In brief, there are various points of view about ‘what is nonverbal

communication?’ Communication in from these above point of view, we could further understand

about the complex notions of communication

I.2.2.2.2 Culture and nonverbal communication

Edward T.Hall said ‘culture hides much more than it reveals, and

strangely enough, what it hides, it hides most effectively from its own’ Communication in.

Language studies traditionally emphasized verbal and writtencommunication Since about the 1960s, however, researchers seriously began

to consider what takes place without words in conversations

It should be obvious by now that the study of nonverbal communication isdirectly linked to the study of culture

You will recall that earlier we noted culture was invisible, omnipresent,and learned Nonverbal communication has these same qualities T.Hall alerts

us to the invisible aspect of culture and nonverbal communication byemploying the word silent Much of our nonverbal behaviour, like culture,tends to be elusive and frequently beyond our awareness People in Japan willwork long hours without giving it much thought because their culture valueswork Americans will automatically look at people when they are speaking tothem In both instances, the actions are habitual

Culture is all-pervasive, multidimensional, and boundless; it is everywhereand in everything The same is true of non-behaviour Our clothes, jewelry,facial expressions; the hundreds of movements we can make; where and how

we touch people; our gaze and eye contact, vocal behaviours such as laughter;and our use of time, space , and silence are just some of the behaviors weengage in that serve as messages Hence, as with culture, examples of non-verbal behavior are virtually limitless

Another parallel between culture and nonverbal behaviour is that with a fewexceptions, we are not born with it – we learn it First, a word about theexceptions before we develop the notion of learning Research now supportsthe view that because we are all from one species, a general and commongenetic inheritance produces universal facial expressions for most of our basicemotions (fear, happiness, anger, surprise, disgust and sadness) However,

most scholars would agree that where, when, and to whom we display thisemotion are learned, and hence are influenced by both context and culture.

I.3 The cross-cultural communication

People all over the world use language to communicate and exchange

messages with each other When people communicate in the same culture,they can easily understand each other because they process a shared cultureand there are only personal problems between them However, in modernsociety, the demand of communicating with people of other culture is realityand necessity The development of globalization makes communication ofpeople become faster and easier People require more and morecommunicating with people of other cultures The communicative styles ofpeople affect the other and the communicators will also be affected by thecultural style of the other The process in which communicators are affected

by other cultures is called cross-cultural communication‘ ’ Communication in

Levin and Adelman (1992) consider cross-cultural communication as ‘the

process whereby one culture affects interaction with a person from a person from another culture ’ Communication in

Therefore, if two people of two different cultures communicate with each

other, they will be affected in two sides: the resemblance and the difference.For this reason, the cultural differences are actually important and must beconcerned in the communication process In the communication process if theinterlocutors know and understand profoundly about the cultural differencesbetween them, they could easily avoid making mistake and misunderstanding.When two people of the two different cultures come into contact without anyprior knowledge of the other’ Communication ins culture, it is certain that the conversation easilybecome breakdown and it makes bad impressions for both sides Thefollowing example of a dialogue between a Vietnamese student and a Britishprofessor can show and demonstrate the above idea

Linh: Good-morning! Where are you going?

John: Good-morning! I am going to the market.

Linh: Ah! What are you going to buy?

John: Er,…

( cited from ‘An English Encyclopedia for Students )’ Communication in Through the above example, we can understand the importance of culturalfactors in cross-cultural communication In terms of cultural aspect, theEuropean in general and the English in particular always have a strong sense

of personal privacy They feel offended and embarrassed when be asked aboutage, salary, family and other private questions In contrast, the Eastern ingeneral and the Vietnamese in particular consider questions about personalprivacy as necessary and normal so they always ask their partners the private

questions Griffin (1976) said that ‘to know another language, his culture is a

very good way to make fluent foot one s self ’ Communication in ’ Communication in

The communicators usually face many problems when using another

language due to such cross-cultural in communication They may sometimesspeak foreign language fluently as the native people, but it is difficult for them

to understand clearly and correctly some messages in some certain situations

In the recent years, international communications become more and morecommon all over the world Consequently, people are paying more attention tocross-cultural in communication Studying cross-cultural communication isthe essence demand of many people who like to use foreign languagecorrectly and fluently without any influence of cultural factors

I.4 The roles of culture in communication

One factor that we can not unconcern about in communication is theculture As we know, culture is the essence of communication, so it is certainthat being master of grammatical rules, possessing a copious vocabulary andunderstanding how to pronounce correctly does not absolutely mean that theforeign learners can succeed in communicating with native speakers In otherwords, in communication process, culture is the direct factor having a deepinfluence on the surface and the nature of communication as well If thelearners are reckless the cultural differences between two countries, it willlead to the incorrect judgement, misunderstanding and drive thecommunication process into breaking down

Wood (1987:199) claims that ‘communication is closely linked to culture,

because communicating expresses, sustains, and alters cultures Your culture directly shapes how you communicate, teaching you whether interrupting is appropriate, how much eye contact is polite, and whether conflict is desirable ’ Communication in

In communication, there is also a culture background with all the tacit

rules behind and under it, including visible factors such as appearance, foodand drink, etc, and invisible like communicative style, concept, belief, and allother values, etc

Furthermore, people are not born knowing how, when, and to whom tospeak, just as they are not born with attitudes about different orientations,

religions, genders, and races People acquire attitudes as they interact withothers, and then they reflect cultural teachings in how they communicate All the differences of culture will be revealed through communicatingbetween people in this culture with those in another one Thus, culture has animportant role in communication process.

I.5 The relationship between language and culture

Language is not simply a formal system of sounds, words, and syntacticalstructures; language also reaches into the domain of human interaction Everynative speak assimilates individual social experiences characteristic of his ownculture

The system of language is a part of the shared cultural knowledge of socialgroups, and ways of communicating are an important part of the observablebehavior of people in social groups

In ‘Vietnam, nhung van de ngon ngu va van hoa’ Communication in (2000:159a) Ngoc

Them wrote: ‘if language together with work creates the mankind, language

and work themselves are original points of all cultures ’ Communication in He considered therelationship between culture and language through the relation of etymology,the origin of concepts of words and the place they were appeared

It is obvious that culture and language have a relation that can be apartfrom If we detach language from culture or culture from language, we can notunderstand anything about that language as well as its culture

Culture, with its own capture, relates directly to language in the way peopleact and communicate with each other as well as I the certain context in whichpeople live and work The relationship between culture and language is theinteractive relation We can understand that people use language as a device toexpress their feelings, ideas and behaviours Therefore, a profound knowledge

of a language and culture can help learners communicate easily with its nativespeakers without any confusion and misunderstanding

In brief, language is indispensable element contributing to building up aculture and, on the contrary, culture is reflected through language As a result,language and culture have an interwoven relationship and they always existtogether under a certain background

I.6 Summary

In this chapter, I have mentioned about the concepts of many authors aboutculture and communication, models of communication In addition, cross-culture communication, the roles of culture in communication as well as the

relationship between culture and language are presented logically through theframeworks of linguists, anthropologists and sociologists.

Chapter II: The study II.1 Some similar features between Western and Vietnamese communicating cultures.

II.1.1 In eyes contact

Though people face with some barriers caused by the differences incultures, they are also influenced by the common psychology Eye contact isnot an exception The results of searching on the eye contact have concludedsome general rules which both English and Vietnamese people use

In an ordinary conversation between two persons, normally, we often useeye contact in one third of the whole time When beginning a conversation,

we see the receivers’ Communication in eyes Then, after knowing that they are concentrating onthe talk, we see at something Sometimes, we see back whether they arelistening, understanding us or not When stopping to talk, we see the receiverback at once To the receiver’ Communication ins side, most of the time listening, he sees at thesource

This above process is an ordinary one of a speech However, in somespecial cases, there are some changes

When starting to talk, we see the opposite in some seconds and then see atsomething But if we are attracted by partner, we would see him longer If weare just newly fiends, we should not see him too long because he does not like

it But only by seeing us a little bit longer can he recognize how we careabout him

We also look fixedly at others when we are angry Normally, the receiversoften recognize this by seeing our gloomy face with wrinkled brows

When we are worried or afraid of somebody, normally, we do not dare tosee him or being seen by him But if we are afraid of him too much, we seehim with wide open eyes

II.1.2 In gesture

This phenomenon is the gestures of English and Vietnamese people withthe same figures and also the same meanings

II.1.2.1 Gestures express emotion status

Most people have the same emotions such as: sad, joyful, unhappy, etc Wecan give out some gestures in common between the Western and Vietnameseorder to understand more about people’ Communication ins characteristics, emotions through

their behaviors.

When invited to take a seat, people only sit in the edge of the chair Orwhen talking, people knock their foot in the ground with the same rhythm.This gesture is not good when communicating because it expresses theanxiety with the hope to finish the dialogue immediately Or people rise up theneck from time to time like the necktie is too tight Sometimes, people passthe fingers through the hair, they wonder whether they are tidy or not

These gestures express the emotions of people Besides, we could alsoexamine the status of the eyes and facial expressions

II.1.2.2 Gestures express human s relationship ’ Communication in

In the process of communication, people have exchanged the culture oftheir country with each other And some gestures become popular in Englishand Vietnamese cultures

Handshake: the handshake is the etiquette of people Handshake is notonly applied for new comers but also for friends

The manners of a handshake:

 A tight handshake: expresses the gladness, enthusiasm

 A handshake with two hands: expresses the respect

 A handshake combining with a clap on the shoulder or holdingthe receiver with the other hand expresses the familiar statusbetween two people

As the Vietnamese, English and American people only have a handshakewhen meeting and saying goodbye to someone They do not use handshake onother occasions

Clap is the behavior which uses the hand tapping slightly on arms, palms,shoulders, backs of the others This gesture expresses the familiar status ofpeople

The arms round the shoulders, this gesture is often used between closefriends, relatives or lovers

Obviously, the culture between Vietnamese and Western countries hassome similarities, and they are shown through communication process

II.2 Some differences in communicating culture between Vietnam and Western countries.

It is impossible for living humans not to communicate and each of uscommunicates in an infinite variety of modes Humans have beencommunicating for thousands of years, and they have awareness of the

cultural factors affecting the communication process There are many thingsthat we do in our own culture that we rarely ask questions about We do thingswithout thinking about them because we have always done them in the sameways When we are in another culture or with people from a different culture,

we see that people do things in many different ways In general, the culturesbetween English and Vietnamese have a significant difference The Englishculture belongs to the Western one while the Vietnamese culture pertains tothe oriental one Therefore, the communication activities of each nation havebeen affected by the cultural factors of that nation Following are a few cases

of certain cultural differences

II.2.1 In Giving and Accepting Compliment Behaviors

Compliment is considered as a social behavior exiting in all cultures and

at any age And it is understood as a positive consideration of one individual,one group or one community to others Therefore, compliment is a dynamicand diversified behavior with high subjective feature

In Vietnam, compliment is used rather popular in communication However,complement has also different meanings It can express a sincerity, anencouragement, and sometimes it also expresses a toadyism to someone Huy

is a manager of Song Hong Corporation, said ‘I feel very difficult to say

“thank you when someone praises me And I still prefer to say oh, no, not at” “

all Though I feel very happy, I do not think I am a modest person when I”

receive the compliment by saying thank you “ ” ’ Communication in

In the Vietnamese culture the modest character is regarded as the goodmorality and the expression of civilized standard Therefore, to respond to the

compliment, Vietnamese people often say: “no, not at all , you should not” “

say that , I still need to try so much” “ ”., or you overpraise me!“ ” Theresponses are usually very informal in Vietnamese behavior The followingexample can illustrate the way Vietnamese people respond to the compliment:

Hơng: Chào cậu Cậu đi đâu vậy?

Hoa : Chào Hơng Mình đang sang nhà Tùng để hỏi bài.

Hơng: Vậy à! Hôm nay cậu có áo mới trông xịn ghê!

Hoa : Đâu có, áo hàng chợ ấy mà.

Particularly, if a boy compliments a girl that “today you look verybeautiful” To respond that compliment, the girl will keep silence with a redface and will feel shy and different

Vietnamese seem to prefer roundabout and in direct patterns and this isexpressed clearly in their way to giving agreement, especially whenmentioning the emotion.

On the contrary, in the Western culture in general and the English culture inparticular, people have the opposite responses to receive the compliment Inany case, when they are complimented, they usually say “thank you” toexpress their gratitude to the sincere compliment Because they believe that

“honesty is the best policy ”

To Western people, the compliments have become a pattern incommunication This pattern expresses the polite principles in propriety.Following these and also express the approval attitude to the evaluation.Therefore, in many communication cases “thank you” is used to respond as animplication of “receiving” and “agreeing” For example:

Peter : Oh, today you wear the red skirt, I like it so much.

Phiola: Really! Thank you I also like it.

The English people think that there is nothing like a warm, sincerecompliment to make our day A compliment is like a gift, if someone wants topresent it to us, the best way to accept a gift, just say “thank you”

Obviously, the different cultures have a very great effect on the way peopleexpressing, their attitudes to the evaluation

II.2.2 In Greeting

The cultural pattern of the Western countries, especially in England andAmerica, are the consciousness of the individual freedom, and respects for theprivacy, On the other hand, the Eastern countries, especially Vietnam andChina dignify the collectivism, the awareness of interests of individual privacy

is disregarded Accordingly, there are many things that the Vietnamese peoplecan put to the public while the English and American consider as the privacy

of individuals and can not open to the public For them, the individual rightwill be violated if someone asks them with the private questions

In Vietnamese, greeting is quite complicated every form of address is based

on a family relationship such as an uncle, aunt or little sister or on the age andthe gender A common Vietnamese greeting usually begins with ‘chµo’ Communication in and it

is followed by an address term indicating the relative power between twointerlocutors

For example, a young woman greeting her uncle by saying “chµo b¸c ¹

” He is usually addressed by his occupational marker rather than by name In

many cases “chào” with relative personal pronoun added after is used for all.The common greetings are listed below as an example

- Chào bác : to a person older than young parents

- Chào chú : to a man younger than your parents

- chào cậu : to young mother s younger brother’ Communication in

- chào cô : to a younger woman (aunt)

- chào bạn : to a friend of your age

(Vietnamese for foreigner (1994:85)

The Vietnamese tend to use both forms of open-ended and close-endedquestions (yes-no/question) They usually concern with health, work, and

meal in the greetings For example, “Bác đã ăn cơm cha? , Bác dạo này ra ” “Bác dạo này ra sao rồi ạ? , Bác dạo này vẫn khoẻ chứ ạ? ” “Bác dạo này ra ”.…

The formality or informality of greetings in Vietnam is easy to realizebecause it depends on the honorific terms used in the greetings When

meeting each other, the Vietnamese usually greet: “Bác đi đâu đấy ạ? , Cô ” “Bác dạo này ra

đang làm gì thế? , Chào chị ” “Bác dạo này ra ” to express the thoughtful attitude to the

partner Oviously, the questions like those are only considered as theexchanges in the propriety activities without any practical meaning Thequestioners also do not take care of what their partners do or where they aregoing And the answers usually base on the kinds of questions to give out the

correct answers, for example, Đi làm , Đang giặt quần áo “Bác dạo này ra ” “Bác dạo này ra ”.,etc However,some questions which are used like a greeting can have many meanings, and

also need the suitable respond, for example, “Chị đi làm về rồi đấy ạ? ” or

“Chị vẫn khỏe chứ? ” but they require no answer If someone asks you like

that, it is impolite to say you are sick and launch into a description about yourillness Avoid this and just give the standard reply

In Western, the limit and difference of private things are expressedmainly in their greetings and greeting routine as well as the leave takingbehavior The British, outwardly, are quite reserved, which may cause them

to appear cool and indifferent or overly formal in their greeting way In fact,they show a very friendly and helpful character to foreigners The greetings

in English are considered as following a certain formula They tend to usecommonly the open-ended questions in greeting The questions usually

mention to health and work such as: “How are you?” or “What have you

been doing?” etc Generally, their greeting questions are not too curious and

going into detailed problems.

In the viewpoint of Fith (1973), he said that greetings in English are

commonly expressed in three linguistic forms: A question, an interjectionand an affirmation The question and affirmation forms are regarded asformal ones, which are used to greet the older generation or seniors On the

contrary, the interjection form such as: hello , hey , hi “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ”.…is seemed as

informal one and more commonly used in the young generation like studentswithin the same age group On the contrary to Vietnamese, for the English

and American, the greeting patterns like “where are you going?” or what “B¸c d¹o nµy ra are you doing?” are considered as so curious and put hand into other’ Communication ins

business Where they go or what they do is their private businesses so it iseasy to be regarded as impolite greetings The greetings of British and

American are seemed like the formula They are usually say: “hello , hi ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ”.

or “how are you? , ” “good morning!”., “good afternoon! , good evening ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra !”.…

And the answers usually are : “hello! , hi! ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” or fine, thank you, and you? , “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” good morning, good afternoon, good evening

“B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” Generally, when the Britishmeet at the first time, they usually know the name of each other through theintroduction of the third person or themselves’ Communication in introduction In case theywant to know the name of others, they use the very polite patterns as follows:

“May I have your name? , I wonder what your name is? ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” In some informalcircumstances such as the relationship between student and teacher, teacherand patient,…The former can ask the latter’ Communication ins name directly as “ What s your’ Communication in

name?”.

Frequently, it is the cultural concept that presents the most problem The

English Mr , Hello , Goodbye “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ”., for example, have no equivalents inVietnamese Similarly, concepts common in their own language may have noequivalent in English Greetings in English for example, do not contain thesubtleties found in Vietnamese that convey formality, intimacy or respect ForVietnamese students of English, the very difficult cultural problemsconfronting them is how to greet their teachers and friends, how to dointroductions They often hesitate to greet their teachers as Mr/Miss or Mrs

while Vietnamese teachers are called “thÇy ” for a male and “c«” for a female.

In Vietnam, we do not use the first name to greet each other as the

Western countries Nguyen Quang (38,1998b) has found that: “In Vietnam,

one of the most difficult things for many new comers to do is to use people s’ Communication in

first name ” For example, Nguyen Minh, people often greet him “chµo anh Minh” While in Western countries, Rott Smith, people often greet him “good- morning, Rott” It is the culture in English-speaking countries and it is one

way to show closeness and friendliness

Obviously, greetings are indispensable parts to establish conversations andrelations Moreover, they are also seen as a social ritual and contribute animportant role to maintain relationships in the society In brief, greetings aresocial phenomena, which appear frequently in social interactions

From a number of above greetings in Vietnamese as compared with thoseused in English, I assume that the age of interlocutors in the most importantfactor in selecting linguistic forms of greeting in Vietnam

II.2.3 In Making Requests

Requesting form in Vietnamese and English has great differences ManyEnglish complain that they have worked in Vietnam for a long time, but theystill cannot get use to the way Vietnamese people making requests, evenannoyed and irritated In stead of giving direct requests, Vietnamese peopleusually take precautionary measures first by giving rambling questions such

as “Where is your wife? , How are you these days ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ?” with these questions,English people feel really annoyed and unpleasant when being asked for helplike that

By giving such friendly questions, the speaker hopes that the hearer willfeel pleasant and be willing to help him That is the habit in communication ofVietnamese people In the contrary, the Western do not like doing in the sameway because they do not think that these questions are sincere and polite, suchquestions are private ones

According to Nguyen Quang “Cultural differ as to whether directness or

indirectness is regarded positive” (38, 1998b) In the mainstream the English

culture , the ideal form of communication includes being direct than indirect

Many English perhaps, believe that “Honesty is the best policy” and their

communication reflects this Honesty and directness in communication arestrongly related There are several expressions in English that emphasize theimportance of being direct for example:

 Get to the point

 Do not beat around the bush!

 Let s get down to business.’ Communication in

However, in Vietnam, when making requests, people tend to express in

indirect way In general, they avoid using direct imperative requests such like:

“Tell me the time” or “I disagree with you” or “You are wrong” It may be

considered rude to insist on getting to the point They often use indirect

question, for example, Can you tell me the time “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ? ” Vietnamese people are

interested in using indirect requests because they are tactful expressions, for

instance: “Are you free?” (to ask for help) or “The floor is in a bit of mess ” (to

request somebody to tidy up the floor) It is easy for Vietnamese people tounderstand the inside message

Moreover, the Vietnamese like using too lengthy request which makes

foreigners feel hard to catch the main idea such as “I am sorry to trouble you,

I know it is an awful imposition but I do not suppose I could possibly ask you, sir, if you could see your way of telling me more or less …” The Vietnamese

have a misconception that like in Vietnamese culture, using this expression inEnglish will create a close and friendly atmosphere before giving request andthat it is a good way to show speaker’ Communication ins politeness, whereas, the British alwaysget to the point Therefore, they are not only failed but also made the foreignerpartners feel annoyed and uncomfortable

The restriction in using imperatives without sub element and the

preference in using questions to make requests in English created

Contrastive features between British and Vietnamese culture Let’ Communication ins consider the following requests of the British we will find the above statement

reasonable

Will you close the door please? ( “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” Green, 107)

Do you want to set the table now “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ? (” Green, 118

Would you mind closing the window “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” Green, 118) (

Why don t you be quiet? “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ’t you be quiet?” ” (Green, 127)

Why don t you close the window? ( “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ’t you be quiet?” ” Green, 127)

If we translate these utterances into Vietnamese, none of them could be

considered as a request For Vietnamese people, the utterance like “Why don t’ Communication in

you close the window?” is “hái-tr¸ch , hái-nh¾c nhë , hái-phª ph¸n ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ” “B¸c d¹o nµy ra ”.sentence (why don’ Communication int you close the window when it is necessary; you shouldhave closed the window; I don’ Communication int understand why you don’ Communication int so that)’ Communication in Certainly,that kind of sentence has the same meaning in English, but in most suchsituations, it can be considered as a request

Using negation in making request also reveals some cultural differences

between English and Vietnamese According to Leech, in English, negation in

request shows that the hearer does not or close not want to do a certain action,

and the speaker asks or checks whether it is true or not For example: You “B¸c d¹o nµy ra couldn t possibly close the window, could you?’ Communication in ” This is a very politeutterance, because both subjunctive mood (could) and emphasis question(could you) which express politeness are used at the time.

In English, negative request is considered as the most polite one This is astrategy of negative politeness to show pessimistic of speaker The speakerdoes not think that their request can be done Thus, he creates more ways torefuse for the hearer The British, American, Australian often use negationform in situations which do not bring benefit for the hearer (requesting,borrowing, criticizing) However, in Vietnamese, most requests with negationform are unnatural They express unpleasant or unsatisfied attitude of thespeaker

It is possible to say that there are great differences in making requestsbetween Western and Vietnamese culture

II.2.4 In Giving invitation

Invitation has an important role in our daily However, each of the countryhas different ways, for the Birtish an invitation with interrogative structure isconsidered a polite utterance because it shows that the speaker does not forcethe hearer to accept and that he respects heare’ Communication ins freedom he simply wants toknow what the hearer thinks and likes For example, to invite someone to takesome more food, the Bristish often says: “Are you sure?” However, suchinvitation is hard to be accepted in Vietnamese, even as an ordinary invitation

In this situation, the Vietnamese often uses different invitations If the Bristishuses interrogative form for inviting, the Vietnamese uses imperativestructures Vietnamese people believe that the best way to express theirsincerity and hospitanility is force entreat And the invitee will feel hard to

refuse For example: “B¸c ë l¹i ¨n víi chóng em bøa c¬m hay b¸c chª nhµ

chóng em nghÌo?” In English, the sentence “You wouldn’ Communication int like to come to

dinner tonight, would you?” is a real invitation But in Vietnam, it can not beconsidered as an invitation The hearer innediately understands that thespeaker does not want to invite her to go to the party An acceptable invitation

in this situation is: “Tèi nay em ®i xem phim cïng víi anh chø?”.

Beside, the Vietnamese does not consider negative-form question as an

invitation, for instance, “Would you like some tea? (Anh kh«ng thÝch uèng trµ

sao?) ” In Vietnamese linguistic culture, invitations which expressed by