A study of common greetings in english and vietnamese

The combination of verbal greetings and nonverbal greetings in English and Vietnamese and their effectiveness in communication.. Based on these factors, this study aims to analyze a cont

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOIOPENUNIVERSITY

Nguyen Xuan Thanh

A STUDY OF COMMON GREETINGS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH CHÀO HỎI THÔNG DỤNG

TRONG TIẾNG ANH VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT

M.A THESIS

HANOI- 2013

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

HANOIOPENUNIVERSITY

Nguyen Xuan Thanh

A STUDY OF COMMON GREETINGS

IN ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ CÁCH CHÀO HỎI THÔNG DỤNG

TRONG TIẾNG VÀ TIẾNG VIỆT ANH

DECLARATION

Title: A study of comment greetings in English and Vietnamese

I hereby declare that no part of the enclosed Master Thesis has been copied or reproduced by me from any other’s work without acknowledgement and that the thesis is originally written by me under strict guidance of my supervisor

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to express my special thanks to my supervisor, Assoc Prof

Dr Phan Van Que (Ha Noi Open University, Ministry of Education and Training) for his invaluable guidance, instructive comments and encouragement throughout this study

My special thanks go to all my lecturers in English Department, Department of Post Graduate Studies, Ha Noi Open University for their precious assistance, enthusiasm, valuable knowledge which enlightened the arguments in the study

I also wish to acknowledge my friends, Mrs Vu Thi Kim Dung and Ms.Nguyen Thi Thu Hangfor her helpful suggestions, constructive ideas and encouragement which have been useful for the accomplishment of the paper

My acknowledgement goes to the informants, Vietnamese and English native speakers, who spent their precious time completing the questionnaires Finally, and the most, I owe my deep thanks to my family, especially my parents and my beloved wife, who gave me constant support, enormous encouragement and love throughout my M.A.course

Hanoi, October 2013

Nguyen Xuan Thanh

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I: INTRODUCTION 1

1 Rationale of the study 2

2 Aims and purposes of the study 3

3 Research questions 4

4 Scope of the study 4

5 Methods of the study 5

6 Design of the study 5

PART II: DEVELOPMENT 7

CHAPTER 1: Literature review and theoretical background 7

1.1 Literature review… 8

1.1.1.Language and Communication ……… 8

1.1.2 Communication and Greeting… 16

1.1.3.Greetings across culture 20

1.1.4 Greeting in Linguistics … 23

1.2.Theoretical background 24

1.2.1.Greeting defined… 24

1.2.2.Greeting classifined … 26

1.2.3 The role of greeting in communication 30

CHAPTER 2: Methodology 32

2.1.The situations for studying ……… 32

2.2.The common verbal greetings ……… 33

2.2.1.Formal and informal greetings ……… 34

2.2.2.Greeting on the run … ……… 37

2.2.3.Speedy greeting ……… 38

2.2.4.The chat……… 39

2.2.5.The long greeting……… 40

2.2.6.The intimate greeting ……… 41

2.2.7.The introductory greeting ……… 42

2.2.8.The all-business greeting ……… 43

2.2.9.The re-greeting ……… 44

2.3.The common nonverbal greetings……… 45

2.3.1 Handshaking ……… 47

2.3.2 Hugging/Embracing ……… 48

2.3.3 Waving ……… 50

2.3.4 The hi-five ……….…… 50

2.3.5.The bow ……… 51

2.3.6 The patting ……… 52

2.3.7 The nodding ……… 53

2.3.8 The raising eyebrows……… 54

CHAPTER 3: Findings and discussion ……… 55

3.1 Findings ……… 55

3.1.1 Greeting as perceivable informants ……… 55

3.1.2 The similarities and differences in greeting between English and

Vietnamese ……… 56

3.1.2.1.The similarities ……… 56

3.1.2.2 The differences ……… 57

3.2 Discussions ……… 61

3.2.1 The combination of verbal greetings and nonverbal greetings in English and Vietnamese and their effectiveness in communication ……… … 61

3.2.2 Considerations of factors affecting greeting ……… 66

CHAPTER 4: Implication ……… ……… 68

4.1 The culture shocked avoidance when greeting in English and Vietnamese……… 68

4.2 Suggested common sensitive situations when greeting in English and Vietnamese ……… 72

PART III: Conclusion ……… 74

1 Recapitulation ……… 74

2 Limitations of the study ……… 76

3 Suggestions for a further study ……… 77

REFERENCES I QUESTIONNAIRES IX

LIST OF TABLES

1 Table 1: Survey for background 7

2 Table 2: Greeting classification 27

3 Table 3: Verbal greetings classification 34

4 Table 4: Nonverbal greetings classification 45

5 Table 5: The uses of greetings (For both the Vietnamese and English native speakers) 56

6 Table 6: Frequency of greetings in use (English and Vietnamese native speaker subjects) - 80 participants VI

7 Factors affecting greeting (English subjects) - 40 participants VII

8 Factors affecting greeting (Vietnamese subjects) - 40 participants VIII

PART I: INTRODUCTION

It is not difficult to find evidence that greeting is such an important part of communicative skills, which is necessary for public speaking or any forms of community communications Greetings can be one of the first verbal routines learned by children and certainly one of the first topics learned in foreign language classes They are also of great interest to analysts of social interaction, who see them as established conditions for social encounters There is a considerable number of ethological, linguistic, sociological, and ethnographic studies of greetings However, despite its importance, topics on greetings have not received enough attention from the field of social sciences Many clear definitions of greetings can be found, and therefore no systematic ways for deciding what greetings are qualified in a particular speech community Then researchers have felt at ease identifying “greetings” in different languages and providing hypotheses about what greetings “do” for

or to people Eibl (Eibesfeldt’s 1977) had a great study on comparing humans

to humans with other species, adult-adult interaction with mother – during face-to-face encounters, child interaction greetings are defined as rituals of appeasing and bonding that counteract potentially aggressive behavior

Many efforts and studies on nonverbal communication has been important in counterbalancing the tendency of other studies of greetings and has revealed commonalities across cultures that would have been missed were researchers concentrating exclusively on verbal behavior It is easy to accept that all species share a concern for survival and safety, but it is less easy to believe that the meaning of such a concern could be the same across species

“Greetings in all societies are about continuity of relationships" is a famous saying of Goff-man(1971), but actually in use and application communicators can find the representation, conceptualization, and perception of continuity by

humans are likely to be much more complex than those found in other species

Characterizing greetings can be faced withsome difficulties regarding differences across and within communities in what people say during greetings Finally, greetings when displayed with pleasant actions might make sense in some contexts, especially in situations where verbal greetings are accompanied with smiles and other nonverbal as well as verbal displays of positive affect but it might not be generalized beyond such case

Biological can be interested in basically on greeting, their social functions, sequential organization, or illocutionary act have revealed a number of recurrent properties of greetings and have presented interesting hypotheses about the form and function of greetings

1 Rationale of the study :

According to a famous Italian film director, Federico Fellini (1982) said: "A different language is a different vision of life.” Language is an important part

of our functional activity and which we often indicate in diagrammatic form, the varying communication patterns used in meetings and during negotiations

As we know that different cultures have different ways of communication It

is so popular for the learners of the second language to face difficulties in using the target language appropriately Greeting is one of these problems Greeting is considered to be an important aspect in cultural life of each nation There are various ways of greetings in different cultures Differences across cultures are likely to lead to misunderstanding or failure in communication and greetings Each culture has its own characteristics in greetings Greeting

plays an important role in Vietnamese culture as this proverb stated: “Lời chào cao hơn mâm cỗ” or “Dao năng liếc năng sắc, người năng chào năng

quen.” This is a clear evidence showing Vietnamese people tend to consider

greetings extremely serious Pro Dr Le Quang Thiem claimed “The greeting presents not only feature of language but also culture, custom as well as person’s dignity.” Moreover, greetings can sometimes be used to determine a person’s manners in Vietnam Based on these factors, this study aims to analyze a contrastive analysis comparing Vietnamese greetings and English greetings to help people who learn English, can understand more and deeper English in the erea of greting as well as the foreingers who learn Vietnamese, can communicate more effectively and avoid culture shocks as well to know

the right ways of greetings and understand the culture of Vietnam better

Goffman(11/June/1922 –19/November/1982),a Canadianborn sociologist and

writer, said “Greetings provide the means of opening conversations appropriately, establish and maintain the relationship”(e.g.Hello or Hi) In addition, other functions of greetings are also to identify the presence of communicators and to show their concern However, most communication’s styles in different languages are not the same.That is the reason why imposing the rules of one language on another language can give negative effects causing awkwardness and misunderstanding

Therefore, with the effort to raise awareness concerning the importance of communication especially in greetings to improve communicative competence, to help communicate effectively in initial meetings and to avoid

culture shock in cross- cultural communication “A Study of Common Greetings in English and Vietnamese” is chosen to be the topic for my study

2 Aims and objectives of the study:

The aims of the thesis are:

• To study how to greet in English and Vietnamese (Verbal greetings and Nonverbal greetings) with illustrations

• To study the similarities and differences of greetings in English and Vietnamese

• To study how to combine words and gestures in greetings in English and Vietnamese

• To analyze some types of greetings that causes misinterpretations, misunderstandings and culture shock in English - Vietnamese cross-cultural communication

4 Scope of the study:

We can greet people in different ways depending on each individual, time frame,situations, feelings,direct or indirect,age, gender or social status etc.Greetings play a very important role in communication as it is considered

a deal breaker Further, greetingsat the first meeting can also decide how successful a business is In some cases, greetings can be just simply use the greeting words as the informal, formal greeting, speedy greeting or introductory greeting However greeting can also be more impressive when

accompanied with some gestures,such as shaking hands, high-five, waving, bow, etc

Culture is different across countries; therefore greetings also diverse This is also the reason why some common greetings in one country can be used in another country, however some greetings does not apply The main scope of this study is to find out the common greetings for verbal and non-verbal greetings both in English and Vietnamese in the limitation of this study which is based on the informants and questionnaires provided

5 Methods of the study

To achieve the statedaims, comparative method and contrastive methodare carried out throughout the study together with using the aspects of pragmatic and questionnaires

All the considerations and conclusions are largely based on the analysis of the statistic data and references The major approaches are:

- Have parallel comparisons

6 Design of the study:

The study consists of three parts:

- Part I, Introduction, covers rationale, aims, research questions, scope,

methods, comments on the questionnaires, comments on the informants, and studydesign

- Part II, Development, is composed of four chapters:

+ Chapter one, Theoreticalbackground, provides theoretical

discussions to background the topic in focus

+ Chapter two, Methodology,presents comments on common

greetings: definition, significance and classification with detailed discusses about verbal and nonverbal greetings in English and Vietnamese in comparison

+ Chapter three, Findings and discussions, analyses greeting

gestures perceived by Vietnamese and English native speakers, focuses on some factors effecting on greetings and certain situations, and discusses the findings on similarities and differences, especially areas of potential culture shock between the two cultures in cross- cultural communication

+ Chapter four, Implication, identifies some application from the

study to find out the similarities and differences when greeting in English and Vietnamese in major cross-culture and suggestions

to avoid culture shock

- Part III, Conclusion, summarize the study and discuss the limitation as

suggested for further studies

PART II – DEVELOPMENT Chapter 1: Literature review and theoretical background

This chapter will review the theories of languages and communication mainly

in verbal and nonverbal communication in some researchers' points of view and its importance in human interaction Various definitions about greetings

as well as categories will be introduced in this chapter The following table (Table 1) created from the survey will be used as the background for the study

Table 1: Survey for background:

Informants’s

Parameters

Vietnamese (N= 80)

English native speaker

1.1 Literature reviews:

1.1.1 Language and Communication

(Figure 2 – Language and Communication)

Animals may not be able to form words, but they can certainly communicate For example, birds use songs, and other animals use a combination of sounds and movements to communicate Primates have an advanced system of communication that includes vocalization, hand gestures and body movements But even primates stop short of what man has been able to achieve is spoken language The ability to form thoughts using spoken wordsseparates human from other species Even though we know that language first appeared among Homo sapiens somewhere between 30,000 and 100,000 years ago, the secret to how language evolved is still unknown, and mainstream theories fall into two distinctly different camps:

In the field of this study, there are some studies researched and found out the greeings in both English and Vietnamese that are the good references such as: The sudy of Tran Thi Bich Hanh of HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY- ENGLISH DEPARTMENT in 2010 named Vietnamese andEnglish Greetings: A contrastive analysis which listed out some common verbal greetings in English and Vietnamese

The study of Bui Thi Thu Thuy of Viet Nam National University in 2005 named A Vietnamese- English cross -culture study on gestures for greeting which listed out some common non-verbal greetings in English and Vietnamese

The sudy of Salman Dezhara of The University of Isfahan, Iran in 2012 named A comparative Study of Greeting Forms Common among Native Male and Female Speakers which showed out the effectiveness of gender on greeting in English

The study of Xia Yan of Kristianstad University in 2010 named Politeness Strategies in English Adjacency Pairs- A gender Differentiated Study on Greetings, Compliments and Directives which showed out how to greet with people from different genders and the line of culture-shocked when greeing

(Figure 3 – Language verified)

Estimates of the number of languages in the world are varied between 6,000 and 7,000(See Figure 3) However, any precise estimate depends on a partly arbitrary distinction between language and dialects In general natural languages are spoken or signed, but any language can be encoded into secondary media using auditory, visual, or tactile stimuli For example:

in graphic writing, braille, or whistling because human language is

modality-independent When being used as a general concept, "language" may refer to the cognitive ability to learn and use systems of complex communication, or

to describe the set of rules that makes up these systems, or the set of utterances that can be produced from those rules All languages rely on the process of semiosis to relate signs with particular meanings of which oral and sign languages contain a phonological system that governs how symbols are used to form sequences known as words or morphemes, and

a syntactic system that governs how words and morphemes are combined to form phrases and utterances

According to Wikipedia “The English word "language" derives ultimately from Indo-European "tongue, speech, language" through Latin lingua,

"language; tongue", and Old French langage "language””. Words are sometimes used to refer to codes, ciphers, and other kinds of artificially

programming.Languagesin this sense are systems of signs for encoding and decoding information This article specifically concerns the properties

of natural human language as it is studied in the discipline of linguistics

As the object of linguistic study, "language" has two primary meanings: an abstract concept and a specific linguistic system (e.g French) As the Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure, who defined the modern discipline of linguistics, first explicitly formulated the distinction using the French

word “language” for language as a concept, langue as a specific instance of a

language system, and parole for the concrete usage of speech in a particular language

When speaking of language as a general concept, definitions can be used to stress on different aspects of the phenomenon These definitions entail

different approaches and understandings of language too, and they inform different and often incompatible schools of linguistic theory.

Language can also be defined simply in different ways: Language is embedded in culture and the origin of spoken language is as old as humanity itself We could have an imagine people from the distant past living in families with a particular spoken tongue clustering together to form a clan Geographically together in security and subsistence they would harmonize as

a culture, protecting it with all their power to survive in a world as it was known to them and not very much different from the same principles philosophized today

Nowadays we are aware of spoken languages which have become extinct mainly because the people of that culture were incorporated or annihilated by others We also know that allmodern languages have its origin in similar older versions of somewhat different vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation e.g Old English, Old German, Orthodox Greek, etc and Latin, who now is not used as a spoken languageany more, but has richly contributed to so many languages and for that matter cultures

Then what would be the exactly right definition of language? Language is a

way to communicate ideas comprehensibly from one person to another in the

way that the other will be able to act exactly accordingly The transportation

of such ideas could be acquired by either verbal expression, signing in alphabet (written word) and perhaps if we can imagine two parties with different tongue, signing with gestures and images

The Parenting Literacy Newspaper 1999 said “Language is commonly defined

as an organized way of combining symbols in order to communicate It may consist of words (i.e., spoken sounds) or gestures (e.g., as in sign language,

or body language)” Some considerable research has already found that intellectual/cognitive development is correlated with language development Language is an important medium of thought that growth in the knowledge and skills of children and be correlated with growth in the number of words (i.e., vocabulary) that represent and convey facts and procedures In a sense, a child's vocabulary is the repository of their knowledge, whether in the form of concepts or words that refer to things in the child's world So, if people wish

to nurture there child's mental growth, they should learn more about their child’s language development

The spoken language’s first purpose is to communicate and because spoken language is only one of several means employed by infants to communicate

At first, infants do not understand the importance of words and they attempt

to communicate with their gestures, tone of voice, and non-speech sounds

This has prompted Kathleen Berger to observe that “The intent of infants is to communicate rather than use words” (Berger, 2000) Because it is very clear that one of the primary goals of education is to reduce the child's reliance on nonverbal forms of communication and strengthen the ability to communicate clearly merely by using words, e.g., as in essays or exams which is also referred to as becoming "literate" In addition, children must become proficient in the use of nonverbal forms of communication, as these constitute significant channels of information By adolescence, children can understand that the nonverbal aspects of the message may actually reverse the meaning of the verbal message

A widely held theory about language sat that language came about as

an evolutionary adaptation, which is when a population undergoes a change in process over time to better survive That is where the idea of natural selection comes into play, which is the notion that the specific physical traits of a

population make that population more likely to survive its environment, it is like the creation of turtle and its shell The idea here is that language was created to help humans survive? And why? The first, humans needed to communicate with each other in daily activities as hunting, farming and successful defending from the surrounding harsh environment Being able to communicate using language gave the human species a distinct survival advantage The second, language was needed for social interaction, especially those who subscribe to the adaptation theory

(Figure 4 – Worldwide Communication)

Communication (from Latin “commūnicāre”, meaning "to share") is the

activities which convey information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, ideas or information, as by speech, visuals, signals, writing, or behavior It is also the meaningful exchange of information between two or a group of living creatures As pragmatics defined, communication is as any sign-mediated interaction that follows combinatorial, context-specific and content-coherent rules Communicative competence designates the capability

to install intersubjective interactions, means that communication is an inherent social interaction

Another definition of communication can be considered is “Any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person’s information about that

person's needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes.”

Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the receiver doesn't have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; moreover, communication can occur across vast distances in time and space Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality The communication process is complete when the receiver has understood the message of the sender

Communication is defined as a process is“We assign and convey meaning in

an attempt to create shared understanding” This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing as listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating The use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life such as: home, school, community, work Through communication, collaboration and cooperation occur

“If there is one unifying theme that crosses all disciplines, it is communication” -(Fundamental beliefs about curriculum and assessment newspaper) Communication is our window to basic literacy and academic excellence which is reaching levels of excellence and accuracy of expression mandate mastery of formal English These are the capabilities that cultivate the potential in each student and the possibilities for our future

Although it could be sound trivial or even irrelevant to bring up such basic matters as language, meaning, and communication, these are the most

fundamental components of arguments - even more fundamental than propositions, inferences, and conclusions The human who uses language can’t make sense of an argument without being able make sense of the language, meaning, and purpose of what is being communicated in the first place

Language is a subtle and complex instrument used to communicate an incredible number of different thing, we can reduce the universe of communication to four basic categories: information, direction, emotion, and ceremony as for the purpose of our study The first two: information and direction,are often treated together because they express cognitive meaning while the latter two: emotion and ceremony, commonly express emotional meaning

The communication of information could be the most frequently thought of use of language, but it probably isn’t as dominant as most believe The basic means of conveying information is through statements or propositions (Any declaration that asserts some matter of fact, as opposed to an opinion or value)

- the building blocks of arguments Some of the information here sometimes may not be true because not all arguments are valid, however, for the purposes of studying logic, information being conveyed in a statement may be still either false or true

The informative content of a statement may be direct or indirect However, most statements in arguments will probably be direct as an example says

something in basic“All men are mortal.” Indirect information sometimes may

also be communicated if we read between the lines, for example, conveys information indirectly through techniques such as metaphors

Communicating direction usually occur when we use language to cause or prevent an action For example when we yell “Stop!” or “Come here!” it is unlike the communication of information, commands can’t be true or false

On the other hand, the reasons for giving command may be true or false and hence be amenable to logical critique

Finally, language may be used to communicate about feelings and emotions The expressions above may or may not be intended to evoke reactions in others, but when emotional language occurs in an argument, the purpose is to evoke similar feelings in others in order to sway the agreeing with the argument’s conclusion

I indicated above that the ceremonial use of language is used to communicate emotional meaning, but that isn’t entirely accurate Sometimes the problem with ceremonial language is that it can involve all three other categories at some level and can be very difficult to interpret properly A priest using ritual phrases may be communicating information about the religious ritual, invoking predicted emotional reactions in religious adherents, and directing them to begin the next stage of the ritual — all at once and with the same halfdozen words Ceremonial language cannot be understood literally, but neither can the literal meanings be ignored

1.1.2 Communication and Greeting

“We are great communicators” - Liz & John Soars

(Figure 5 – Human-The great Communicator)

The people, human beings, communicate during our whole life for our own purpose A child cries (means being communicates) to his parents as he needs changing his diaper, feeding or simply he wants his mummy Family members do communicating for help and emotional support and to maintain a good family atmosphere as relationships At work, people communicate for the purpose of exchanging ideas, negotiating, ordering, updating information… Leaders communicate about their visions to their staffs Executives communicate to the lower-level employees Organizations communicate to their customers and the public Press conferences, press releases, employee newsletters, catalogues, direct mail, phone calls, employee suggestion systems, meetings, formal performance appraisals, on-the-job feedback from managers, attitude surveys, speeches, conference room briefings, letters, memos and evaluation forms - all of these are examples of communication Base from these we can now come to an absolutely conclusion that communication is very important in our lives.First impressions are always important for many reasons of which greetings can be culturally diverse especially for the youth to be aware of this as they aim to communicate positively.If anyone has ever been greeted by someone who didn’t even look at him? Or when they asked, “How are you?” it was obvious that they really didn’t care about the answer It probably didn’t do much to

make communicators feel good, welcomed or that it even mattered we were there

On the other hand, if people have been experienced to be greeted by someone who sounded truly happy when seeing us? Who stopped what they were doing

to acknowledge us? Who had a smile on their face and asked how we were doing and actually waited for our respond? It probably made us feel special and that we mattered

It shouldn’t overlooked the importance of greeting others because it’s the first opportunity we have to focus entirely on another person and the way we choose to use those initial seconds determines the tone of our interactions When we greet someone warmly and focus on them with our undivided attention, the conversation will most likely reflect that warmness, on the other hands, when we greet someone indifferently or are too busy to bother, we set

up an interaction that will probably be of a similar tone then we lose the opportunity to reinforce good relations

When we can do greeting someone and in those first few seconds make them feel that they’re important to us and they feel good about themselves, of course, chances are that we’ll have a better relationship with them and they’ll probably like us more Making someone feel good in a matter of seconds is as easy as giving them a little extra, positive attention whenever we first see them

Greeting is known as an act of communication in which human being intentionally makes their presence known to each others, to show attention to, and to suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other While greeting customs are highly culture and situation specific and may change within a culture

that’s depending on social status and relationship, they exit in all known human cultures

Greetings together with introduction are the first step in every new act of communication It goes without saying that if we did address someone correctly in a strict accordance with norms and standards of their language, then we will make a good first impression And that is something we all strive for, isn’t it? After all, all we want is to make contacts, be it professional or otherwise

Communication as claimed by Lustig (Robert H.Lustig, an American

pediatric endocrinologist1998)“Is the process of exchange shared meanings”

And to create good share meaning, people have to use code or symbol In reality, the two kinds of code or symbol are verbal (spoken and written) and nonverbal (unspokenor gestures).These are referred to as forms of communication

People in general may never get a second chance to make that first good impression communicating confidence, sincerity and professionalism A good first-time greeting can land communicators an important job as well as be the foundation for international networking and before going to that important job interview or traveling abroad, a little research into some greeting etiquette is important Michael Powell gave some clear examples of how to have good

impressions in communication in his book named“Behave Yourself! The Essential Guide to International Etiquette.”

(Figure 6 – Communicators in greeting)

An example in The United States, for a good introduction, one gives a firm handshake and looks the other person in their eyes At times, hugs are also acceptable: from the “man hug” with the handshake and then pulled into a one arm hug, to both arms wrapped around for a “bear hug.” Compare it to Poland, we will find the same greeting of a firm handshake and eye contact but, women and close friends kiss (a total of three times on the cheeks) or older gentleman will kiss a woman’s hand On the other hands, people are very friendly in Mexico with a brisk handshake and firm snap Friends touch

on the elbow or bear hug with much back slapping, friendly cheek kissing, winking and even whistling For the Asian countries like Japan people will bow to expresses respect and humility The higher a person’s status, the lower

a bow should be In shops or casual interactions, a nod is sufficient In China they also bow or nod without smile The Chinese greeting is solemn, respectful and if people do a handshake, they will not be firmed

1.1.3 Greeting across cultures

(Figure 7 – Communication in culture)

Our planet is divided into many different continents, different countries with many different races of people, customs, and manners Each country has their own way of greeting others.People greet one another in all sorts of manners, and it can be completed in different ways depending on the relationship between the two individuals.Greeting customs vary around the world In a global relationship in economy, it is important to learn appropriate intercultural communication and practical greetings to facilitate good business relations While Western people commonly extend a hand, smile and look directly at the person when greeting someone, this greeting is mildly offensive

to people in several parts of the world and direct eye contact and smiling are often viewed differently in other parts of the world too Asian people greeting customs commonly do not include direct eye contact, but greet each other with a slight head bow Many Asians have learned to accept the Western handshake as a greeting, but traditionally Asians and many Middle Easterners avoid touching In addition, many cultures such as Muslims and Orthodox Jews avoid any kind of body or physical contact with a person of the opposite sex Greeting gestures from the Latin world, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal generally include an embrace and offer a kiss on each cheek to friends Whendealing with cross-cultural greetings, it is important not to rush to

judgment about an apparent social faux pas without really knowing the culture

Culture and communication’s relationship is often compared with the bond between the voice and the echo From culture and communication, we can have three branches of communication as follows:

+ Intra-cultural communication: the kind of communication for people who live in the same country and come from the same cultural background + Inter-cultural communication: the kind of communication for people who live in the same country but come from different cultural background

+ Cross-cultural communication: the kind of communication for people who live in different countries and come from different cultural background

Because of coming from different geographic locations and holding different values, beliefs… People in cross-cultural communication face more problems than in intra-cultural and inter-cultural branches.This due to the reason they have different ways of interpreting with social meanings conveyed in their interaction with the outside world

Culture is defined by Richards (Richards et al 1997: 94) as “The total set of beliefs, attitudes, customs, behavior, social habits, etc of the members of a particular society” Therefore, culture is community- specific which has its own sets of values that help distinguish one community from another When people from different cultural backgrounds meet each other they need to exchange ideas, information,greetings through communication, between them, which is called cross-cultural communication? Normally, they know how to behave appropriately within their own culture and community but

when they move to another, this social etiquette changes It is realized that there are often more problems and culture shocked in cross-cultural communication than in communication between people of the same cultural background Each participant may interpret the other's speeches or behaviors according to his or her own cultural conventions and expectations Moreover

in some cases when the cultural conventions of theparticipants are widely different,misinterpretations and misunderstandings can easily arise, even resulting in a total breakdown of communication An example for considering from Axtell: Two engineers, one from America, and the other from Germany, worked together in the program of exchanging engineers for purposes of product familiarization One day, at work, to compliment the German colleague on his new idea, the American made a circle with his thumb and forefinger, a sign used throughout North America to mean "O.K." The German abruptly put down his tools and walked away He refused any further communication with the American Finally, it was discovered that, to a German, when someone forms a thumb and forefinger in a circle, as the American had done, it signifies “You asshole.”(Axtell, 1998)

1.1.4 Greeting in Linguistics

(Figure 8 – Greeting in Linguistics)

Some researches show that greeting is an important part of communicative competence It is necessary for being a member of any speech community that are often one of the first verbal routines learned by children and certainly one

of the first topics introduced in the foreign language class.They are also of great interest to analysts of social interaction,who see them as establishing the condition for social encounters It is not surprising to find out that there is a considerable number of ethological, linguistic, sociological, and ethnographic studying of greetings Greetings can be described as the exchange of expressions, pleasantries or good wishes between two people or a group interacting for the purpose of fulfilling social obligations or for the purposes

of establishing interpersonal relationship

In some cases, greeting can be used as a prelude to the making of a proper conversation or to the introduction ofa topic for conversation.The review on greeting exchanges has three broad disciplines: linguistics, sociology, and anthropology These three disciplines view greetings across a spectrum of proximity from micro to macro Linguists represent the micro view and focusing on linguistic behaviors Sociologists take a step back by looking more at social interaction, whereas anthropologists have taken a larger view interpreting the linguistic behavior of greetings coupled with interactions representing culture

Some studies have shown that greeting is a normal sociolinguistic routine which means for the establishment of interpersonal relationship and also a serious business of topic introduction and development in the world

1.2 Theoretical background

1.2.1.Greeting defined

The definition of greeting is concerned in term of linguistics, sociology We have verified definitions of greetings from different scientists and researchers as: According to Eibl-Eibesfeldt (Born June 15, 1928, founder of the field of

humanethnology) “Greetings are defined as rituals of appeasing and bonding that counteract potentially aggressive behavior during face-to-face encounters”.

Found from Sacks1992, Schegloff (1968)’s works on conversational openings and closings:

A: Hello (greeting)

B: Hi (greeting)

Or question and answer:

A: Is that what you mean? (question)

Joddy Murray (1996) had a state that:“ A greeting is the verbal equivalent of catching someone’s eyes It catches the attention of the one being greeted, and it does so in several ways …”.

Base on these definitions above, we can see that the authors correlated with the concepts of Sociolinguistic and Pragmatics that greet is a part of politeness which is used primarily when people meet each other in order to

make the address feeling good, be friendly and minimize conflicts and proper greeting pattern should be chosen by the interlocutors appropriately according

to Sociolinguistic factors

In Vietnamese, greetings make people feel more friendlywith each others, easier to create a good relationship The ways people great also express their respect and sociability when they meet someone

In summary, it is quite hard to give complete and clear the definition of greeting Generally, each country will have different ways to greet, that is the reason why they have different concepts

Greeting can be defined simple way as Goody is “A word or gesture of welcome or salutation, or an expression, in words or gestures, marking a meeting of persons” Goody has shown out that, greetings have three major

functions: “(1) to open a sequence of communicative acts between two persons, irrespective of their positions; (2) as a means of defining, and affirming, both identity and rank; (3) a mode of deference upon or manipulating a relationship in order to achieve a specific result”.

According to Tillit (1990)(a singing school teacher, composer, publisher, and minister of the Church of Chris) and his colleagues, in the introduction to his speaking course, also give such ideas on the purpose of greetings as

followings: “To establish contact with another person; to recognize his or her existence, and last but not least, to show friendliness”

In brief, greetings, in almost every language, obviously help to establish and maintain a relationship in an initial meeting and to facilitate the conversation People, while meeting one another, perform greetings doing both verbally and nonverbally, or just only verbally and nonverbally It is commonly seen somewhere people say “Hello” or “Hi”, “How are you?”…with smiling

brightly or nodding slightly… or sometimes greeting is simply only a smile to each others

(Figure9 – Smiling greeting)

1.2.2 Greetings classifined

“Greeting is a way for human beings (as well as other members of the animal kingdom) to intentionally communicate awareness of each other's presence, to show attention to, and to affirm or suggest a type of relationship or social status between individuals or groups of people coming in contact with each other” (Greeting definition-Dictionary and Thesaurus) As can be created from many forms of communication, greeting habits are highly cultureand situation -specific and may change within a culture depending on social status and relationship The phenomenon as such exists in all known human cultures, though Greetings can be expressed both audibly and physically (verbal and non-verbal), and often involve a combination of the two and greetings are often used just prior to a conversation

Some epochs and cultures from different countries and kingdoms have had a very elaborate greeting rituals, e.g., greeting of a king Secret societies have clandestine greeting rituals that allow members to recognize common membership

Verbal and nonverbal communication may frame the meaning of conversations and cannot be separated during face-to-face talking or discussions People’s nonverbal signals are equally important as the words they speak and the tone of their voice Both verbal and nonverbal cues mutually send a message and define the relationship of ones with others

Table 2: Greeting classifined

Verbal greeting can be defined as“The spoken word and includes actual

words, intended and inferred meanings, tone and vocal inflection”.(By Live strong.com newspaper).

- Xin chào!

- Chào anh!

- Chào em!

Nonverbal greeting can be defined by Lustig (2001) (An American pediatric

endocrinologist at the university of California) is “Nonverbal greeting is a multi-channeled process that is usually performed simultaneously; it typically involves a subtle set of nonlinguistic behaviors that are often enacted subconsciously Nonverbal behaviors can become part of the greeting when someone intentionally tries to convey a message or when someone attributes meaning to the nonverbal behavior of another, whether or not the person intend to communicate a particular meaning.”

According to D.R Nguyen Quang “All the components of the message that, when taken together, constitute the communication which is not verbally coded but both vocally and non-vocally channeled Nonverbal greeting is composed of paralinguistic factors (nonverbal - vocal channel), such as rate, volume, etc., and extra-linguistic factors (nonverbal-non-vocal channel), such as body language (gestures, postures, facial expressions…) object language (including clothing, jewelry…) and environmental language (proxemics, settings…)”

People sometimes give each other nonverbal greetings to express their communication of which nonverbal communication is the body language and includes facial expressions It is used to replace or reinforce human’s verbal communication Sometimes people do directing traffic replaces verbal communication by pointing in the direction they need to drive.This situation can be due to the fact that the two people are too far away from each other to hear a spoken greeting but they still wish to acknowledge each other Sometimes a person will give a nonverbal greeting to another person if she is

devoting a lot of attention to a task A situational example, someone who's on the phone may not wish to interrupt the conversation by saying hello, so she gives the newcomer a nonverbal sign of greeting by waving, smiling, hands-shaking… instead of stop the conversation to say some greetings

(Figure 11 – Nonverbal greeting)

Nonverbal greetings are in some cases widely known as a wave of the hand with the palm facing out, a hand wave with the fingers moving down repetitively to the palm and back (usually given to young children), a wink of the eye or a simple smile and eye contact

Other nonverbal signs that greeters perform are part of the greeting ritual For example, men commonly shake hands with each other or give each other a pat

on the back Women may give each other a hug and a kiss on the cheek Women greeting men and men greeting women may also hug and kiss each other on the cheek, especially if they are related Adults greeting children may give them a hug, or even pick them up and swing them around

1.2.3 The role of greeting in communication

(Figure 12 – Greeting in communication)

There is a Western byword said that “You never get a 2nd chance to make a 1st impression.” That’s a very true statement in communication if we make a suitable and right greeting, however we can still make a great 2nd impression

if for some reason we botched the 1st one Impressions matter and 1st impressions really matter

Greetings are not only critically important part but also play a pivotal role of communication The first step to any form of interaction however, is through greeting, we can convey the massage very packed The message is:

- I value and respect myself as a person

- I recognize you and your personhood

- You are welcome

Greetings are perceived to certain specific purposes in human interactions as paving conflict resolution, creating an atmosphere of ease among people and creating a conducive climate of communication to flow.The level of self respect might be decided and that’s of others is usually judged by where or not a person greets the others.By greetings, we can determine how one is perceived by society In any case it is necessary and important to greet people before ask them questions, asking for assistance or start a conversation If we

skip that it can be easy to be misunderstood or perceived as rude, proud or snobbish

A greeting is an acknowledgment of someone else’s presence, for some this is automatic and for others it is too often neglected When people fail to greet, the end result can be a negative assumption or can be hurt feelings, in any cases that result in misunderstandings In different fields can have different way to follow , such as in business, a confident, direct greeting is the professional thing to do, in social settings, it is the courteous thing to do, in all interactions, it is the right thing to do

Greeting is oftentimes us first form of face-to-face communication If we have communicated with someone by phone or in writing prior to the actual meeting, the in-person greeting should validate the anticipated impression The goal is to be perceived as self confident and secure in one’s identity instead of insecure or arrogant