A vietnamese – filipino cross cultural study on greetings and responses

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OFPOST-GRADUATE STUDIES CHU THỊ NGỌC A VIETNAMESE – FILIPINO CROSS CULTURAL STUDY ON GREETING

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF

PHI-M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF

POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

CHU THỊ NGỌC

A VIETNAMESE – FILIPINO CROSS CULTURAL STUDY ON GREETINGS AND RESPONSES

NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA VIỆT NAM – PHI-LÍP-PIN

TRONG CÁCH CHÀO HỎI VÀ ĐÁP LỜI

M.A Minor Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201

Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, Ph.D.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

TABLE OF CONTENTS i

DECLARATION i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Research problem and rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 2

1.3 Significance 2

1.4 Scope 3

1.5 Organization 3

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2 1 Cross-culture communication 4

2.1.1 Culture 4

2.1.2 Communication and Cross-cultural communication 5

2.2 Definitions of greetings 5

2.3 Functions and use of greetings 9

2.3.1 Function of greetings 9

2.3.2 Use of greetings 10

2.4 Review of studies on greetings in English and Vietnamese 14

2.5 Factors affecting choice of greetings 16

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 18

3.1 Research design 18

3.2 Participants 18

3.3 Data collection 19

3.3.1 Data collection instrument 19

3.3.2 Sending consent form and designing questionnaires 19

3.4.1 Data analysis instrument 21

3.4.2 Data analysis procedure 22

4.1 For the first dimension: power distance 23

4.1.1 For question number 1: Greetings and responses to a director/ manager 23

4.1.2 Question number 2: Greetings and responses to the staffs 24

4.1.3 For question number 3: Greetings and responses to a „VIP‟ guest of the company 25

4.1.4 For question number 4: Greetings and responses to a cleaner/ guard of the company 26 4.2 Dimension gender 27

4.3 Dimension age: Greetings and responses to an older or a younger student 29

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 35

5.1 Major findings of the study 35

5.1.1 Greetings and responses to director/ manager 35

5.1.2 Greeting and responses to the staffs in the company 35

5.1.3 Greetings and responses to a cleaner/ guard 36

5.1.4 Greetings and responses in other cases 36

5.2 Limitations 38

5.3 Suggestions 38

APPENDIXES I APPENDIX B III

LIST OF COMPANIES PARTICIPATING IN THE STUDY III

APPENDIX C IV

QUESTIONNAIRES FOR IV

I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own research, andthis thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university orinstitution

Hanoi, November 2016

Signature

Chu Thi Ngoc

First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor,Ph.D To Thi Thu Huong, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, patient guidanceand precious comments throughout the process of carrying out this study Had notbeen for her valuable support and her encouragement, I would not have finished myresearch

My sincere thanks are also to those working in companies in The Philippines aswell as in Vietnam for their constructive comments as well as their participationwhich was essential to the completion of the study

Last but not least, I want to send my gratefulness to my family and my friends whohave encouraged and support me during the process of doing this study

This research focuses on finding out what Filipino and Vietnamese working incompanies often say to greet and respond in daily conversations The frameworkused in this study was built mainly based on Hofstede‟s but with some adaptation;therefore, only four dimensions were applied to gain data The four dimensionsapplied were power distance, gender, age, and acquaintance Despite some minordifferences, there were mostly similarities were found between answers fromparticipants in two countries in particular situations

LIST OF FIGURE AND DIAGRAM

Figure 1: Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions

Diagram 1: Laver‟s diagram of the Factors that Constrain the Choice of Formulaic Greeting Phrases in British English

Table 1: A summary of greetings and responses to a director/ manager

Table 2: A summary of greetings and responses to the staffs

Table 3: A summary of greetings and responses to a „VIP‟ guest

Table 4: A summary of greetings and responses to a cleaner/ guard

Table 5: A summary of greetings and responses to an older colleague

Table 6: A summary of greetings and responses to a younger colleague

Table 7: A summary of greetings and responses to a male colleague

Table 8: A summary of greetings and responses to a female colleague

Table 9: A summary of greetings and responses to a first meeting colleague

Table 10: A summary of greetings and responses to a well-known colleague

Table 11: A summary of commonly used topics

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This chapter aims to provide with the most general information about what isincluded in the study and how it is carried out

1.1 Research problem and rationale

Nowadays, the tendency of studying abroad is becoming more and more popular.Many Vietnamese students have been taking courses in famous universities inEnglish-speaking countries like England, The United States, and Australia Therealso appears a trend of coming to some Asian countries where English is spoken as

an official language such as Singapore, The Philippines

As a country of the Southeast Asian area, The Philippines is the country that has quite aclose relationship with Vietnam Especially, in the globalization trend and the process

of building an Asian Economic Community, the understanding of the countries in thisarea is really necessary However, The Philippines has been familiar with most ofVietnamese only through some films or occasionally-held cultural exchangingprograms Although English is spoken widely in The Philippines, the ways the Filipinouse English may be different from that people in other English speaking countries due

to distinguished cultural features Besides, there have not been many studies onrelationship between the Vietnamese and the Filipino culture Deep understanding iseven more essential for students who want to learn and people who want to do business

in The Philippines and work with the Filipino, and vice versa Ferraro & Briody (2006)also cited what had been proved by other scholars about the importance of culturalunderstanding that „failures in the global business setting – including partnerships andjoints ventures – most frequently result from an inability to understand and adapt toforeign ways of thinking and acting rather than from technical or professionalincompetence‟ (Black, Gregersen, and Mendenhall (1992), Adler (2002); Thomas(2007); Maurer and Li (2006))

From those above mentioned reasons, the study was conducted under the title ‘A

Vietnamese – Filipino cross – cultural study on greetings and responses’ with the

hope to find out the similarities as well as the differences in greetings and responsesfrequently used in these two languages, which is the very first cultural matter peopleshould know when trying to understand a country and a culture This study paidmore attention on how people working in companies greet each other verbally fromthe cultural approach

1.2 Aims of the study

This study is conducted with the hope to make some comparisons between the waysVietnamese and Filipino people greet each other, especially among those working incompanies Main focus is going to be put on verbal language in the businesscircumstance The results of this study may be useful for any Vietnamese studentwho wants to take a business course in The Philippines; or for the Filipino whowant to study, travel or do business in Vietnam Besides, the findings in this studycan be used as a reference for other researchers who have interest in language orculture field

To implement these aims, these three following questions will be used:

1 What are the common greetings and responses in English used by Filipino businessman in the company?

2 What are the common greetings and responses in Vietnamese used by Vietnamese businessman in the company?

3 What are similarities and differences in greetings and responses in these two languages?

1.3 Significance

This study, on the one hand, hopes to provide the Vietnamese students‟ knowledge

of the greetings and responses that the Filipino and the Vietnamese working incompanies often use in their everyday business contacts; therefore, they can not

only widen their background knowledge but also make a careful preparation fortheir learning abroad and future working plans.

On the other hand, enterprises probably find the findings of the study useful in theirplan of doing business in Vietnam or in The Philippines

Moreover, as there has not been any research in investigating this issue yet, theresearch wishes to bring Filipino and Vietnamese people closer through their deeperunderstanding in culture Hence, people from these two countries can get benefits ineducational, economic and cultural exchanges

1.4 Scope

The study is going to compare the phrases of Vietnamese and Filipino greetingsmade by businessmen and staffs in their companies to see the similarities as well asthe differences Here, the Filipino greetings and responses are delivered in Englishwhile Vietnamese is used in Vietnam

1.5 Organization

The main body of this thesis consists of five chapters:

Chapter 1: Introduction: presents the rationale, the aims, the significance, the

scope and the design of the study The research questions are also raised in thischapter

Chapter 2: Theoretical background: provides the definition of major related

concepts and reviews the related works that compose the theoretical background ofthe study

Chapter 3: Methodology: gives a more detailed description of methodology used.

Who took part in, which method was used to collect and analyze data

Chapter 4: Findings and discussion: demonstrates the results after analyzing the

collected data and gives brief summary answer for the research questions

Chapter 5: Conclusion: summarizes the whole research, gives some implications,

and discusses the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

This chapter introduces the different definitions of greetings and its functions.

Moreover, this chapter will provide a deeper insight into the common greetings and

responses used by Vietnamese and Filipino.

2 1 Cross-culture communication

2.1.1 Culture

There are hundreds of definitions of culture from different approaches The writerfound that Mahadi (2012) cited a series of different definitions of culture He quotedRoohul-Amini‟s definition (1989) that "culture has multifarious meanings Culturemeant farming" (p 15) From the sociological perspective, culture is the total of the

„inherited and innate ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values, and knowledge, comprising orforming the shared foundations of social action‟ Likewise, from theanthropological and ethnological senses, culture „encompasses the total range ofactivities and ideas of a specific group of people with common and sharedtraditions, which are conveyed, distributed, and highlighted by members of thegroup‟ (Collins English Dictionary 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003) Edward Sapir(1956) considered culture as „a system of behaviors and modes that depend onunconsciousness‟ Whereas, Rocher (1972, 2004), an anthropologist, believes that

„culture is a connection of ideas and feelings accepted by the majority of people in asociety‟ (p 142) Undeniably, culture is learned and shared within social groups and

is conveyed by non-genetic ways (The American Heritage, Science Dictionary2005)

On the other hand, Hofstede‟s opinion of culture (2005) stated that „culture consists

of the unwritten rules of the social game It is the collective programming of themind that distinguishing the members of a group or category of people from others‟(p.3) He also claimed the elements of cultures consist of values, beliefs, andmaterial products

2.1.2 Communication and Cross-cultural communication

According to Business dictionary, „communication is a two-way process ofreaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchangeinformation, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning‟ In otherwords, communication is considered as a means of connecting people or places Inbusiness, it is „a key function of management – an organization cannot operatewithout communication between levels, departments and employees‟

According to Krauss (2002), verbal communication often used signs and symbolsand it was the symbolic content of verbal communication that decided theextraordinary effectiveness He also stated that language is only one of the symbolsystems which are employed in human communication

Cross-cultural communication, also known as intercultural communication, is „thesending and receiving of messages across languages and cultures It is also anegotiated understanding of meaning in human experiences across social systemsand societies‟ (cited by Arent (2009)) In the globalization, awareness of culturaldiversity become more and more necessary to help people avoid misunderstandingand achieve communication purposes

2.2 Definitions of greetings

Greetings are an important part of the communicative competence for being amember of any speech community „They are often one of the first verbal routineslearned by children and certainly; one of the first topics introduced in foreignlanguage classes‟ (Duranti (1997, p.188) There are numerous definitions ofgreetings from different approaches such as ethnology, linguistics, sociology andethnography, some of which were mentioned in this study

In the Cambridge dictionary, greeting is „something friendly or polite that you say

or do when meet or welcome someone‟ In plural, it is „a message that says youhope someone is well, happy, etc.‟

Being investigated by another researcher, Firth‟s viewpoint as cited in Li‟s study(2010), greetings were „a system of signs that convey other than overt messages‟

This can be understood that when greeting a person, the speaker can use both verbaland non-verbal language to convey the message.

In one linguistic journal, Duranti (1997) reintroduced the definition of greetings byFirth (1972) and Goffman (1971) in ethological field that greetings in all societieswere about continuity of relationships, but they said that the representation,conceptualization, and perception of continuity by humans seemed to be morecomplex than that found in other species

In another way of accessing definition of greetings, Williams (2001) reviewed ongreeting exchanges from three perspectives: at micro level was linguistic aspectwhich focused on linguistic behavior, from sociolinguistic aspect which lookedmore at social interaction and at a broader level which interpreted the linguisticbehavior of greetings along with interaction as representing culture

As being cited by William (2001), from the first point of view, linguistic definitionintroduced by two linguists, Schegloff and Sacks (1973), saw greetings as „a speechevent composed of two parts side by side, serial, and sequential‟ such as Greeting-Greeting: (A: Hi B: Hi) Or greeting- request for information (A: Hi B: Do you have

a class today?)

Whereas, in the sociolinguistic approach, the famous sociolinguists Goffman(1971), saw greeting exchanges as „access rituals‟ consisting of two kinds, passinggreetings and engaging greetings In general, greetings were defined as „consisting

of several interlinking behaviors: Verbal, non-verbal, term of address and social

context‟ Besides, greeting phenomenon was referred to as ritual with verbal form

(may be one of three linguistic units: question („How do you do?), interjection

(„Hello‟) or affirmation („Good morning‟)) and non-verbal form (composed of

body language)

Lastly, in anthropological linguistics approach, greetings were defined by Fieg andMortlock (1989) as “ritualistic expressions” which are affected by social factors,particularly cross-cultural differences (as cited in Williams, 2001)

To sum up, each definition accessed to „greetings‟ from one aspect so that theygave us multi-dimensional review on this concept Depend on the studyingapproach, particular ways of defining „greetings‟ should be applied The researcherfinds the latest definition of Goffman (1971) the most suitable with what are going

to be dealt with in this research Hence, the study will be able to investigate howpeople in two cultures greet each other using verbal language, based upon differentsocial factors, especially among people in business context

In English, especially in business, people often use formal ways to greet each other.There are some common ways like

- A: „How do you do‟ - B: I‟m doing well (very formal),

- A: „How have you been?‟ - B: talk about their current life (people who have already met)

- A: „It‟s nice to meet you‟ or „Pleased to meet you‟ (for the first time meeting)

- „Good morning/ good afternoon/ good evening‟

People can also use casual greetings like „hello/ hi‟ or use small talks:

- A: „How are you?/ how are things?‟… - B: Good/ not bad/ Fine, thanks, and you?

- A: „What‟s up?/ what‟s new?/ What‟s going on?‟,… - B: Nothing/ not much (more

than asking about wellness) What‟s about you?

- A: How‟s it going? / How are you doing? – B: It‟s going well/ I‟m doingwell

How about you?

- A: Long time no see (what‟s new?) - B: Long time no see,

For The Philippines, they are the third largest group of English speaking people inthe world, after the United States and the United Kingdom Nolan (1996) onceclaimed that the Filipino style and tone of business had much difference from that in

On the other hand, in a journal about this issue by Yaw Sekyi-Baidoo & Louisa A.Koranteng (2008), the Achebe‟s (1976) and Owusu-Ansah‟s hypothesis (1994) wasapplied Those authors concluded that English general greetings used in a different(non-native) cultural context composed of not the same ethnographic factorsperhaps resulted in different forms as well as pragmatic meanings from whatbelonging to native context Hence, it can be inferred that although English is used

in The Philippines as an official language, the use may be varied

In particular, Filipino also address superiors with the English „sir‟ or „ma‟am‟ in

business context and find uncomfortable with a more informal approach The word

„po‟ meaning „sir‟ is added when talking to a superior or to an elder no matter

which gender he or she is In spite of this, Filipino show their respect to all withoutconcerning station, superior or subordinate relationship to address their partner.Colleagues are said to be addressed by the first name Mr., Mrs., or Miss or the titlessuch as Dr (doctor), Engr (engineer) Those greetings may be accompanied withnon-verbal greetings such as „a hug and kiss between close female friend, holdinghand between male friends, making eye contact, raising and lowering their

eyebrows‟ („Cultural clues, do‟s and taboos: Communication guidelines for the

Philippines‟)

In Vietnam, greetings is considered an indispensable and important part in theireveryday life Vietnamese greet each other not only to welcome but also to establish

and maintain relationship with people surrounding According to Vietnamese

dictionary (2013), to greet means to speak or use actions to show one‟s respect and

closed behavior There are two types of greetings in Vietnamese: direct and indirect

greetings

In the first type, direct greetings are used to open or to end a meeting to express

polite, modest and gentle behavior of speakers (Phạm Thị Thành, 1995) They often

have the structures such as

- Chào Sp2

- Chào Sp2 ạ!

- Sp1 chào Sp2

- Sp1 chào Sp2 ạ!

They all include the word „Chào‟ and sometimes the word „ạ‟ at the end of the

greetings to show respect to the listener This structure is different from that inEnglish in which greetings missing subject or modality On the other hand, thisfeature is created because Vietnamese want to create closed relationship betweenspeakers

In the second type of greetings in Vietnamese, indirect greetings are represented bymore forms and used more frequently Hence, this type shows Vietnamese typicalfeatures of traditional values Indirect greetings may use questions about health,family or hometown to greet, for instance:

„Khỏe không?‟ („How are you?‟) or „Công việc dạo này sao rồi?‟ (How‟s your

work?‟);

Indirect greetings can also use calling exclamations such as Ô, chị! („Oh, you‟!), A,

mẹ đã về! („Ah, you‟re here, Mom‟)

Or congratulation such as Chúc mừng bạn! („Congratulation!‟), or invitation like

„Mời bác vào xơi cơm ạ‟ (have lunch/ dinner with us‟); or even comments like „Ai

mà diện thế nhỉ?‟ (Who is this beautiful girl?‟).

In the cities nowadays, instead of asking like „bác đi đâu đấy?‟ (where are you

going?) or „bác ăn cơm chưa?‟ (have you had lunch?), people working in offices or

companies tend to greet their colleagues by asking about health or the status of job

Responding to those greetings are answers from the listener Similar to situation inThe Philippines, Vietnamese can simply perform non-behavior actions like nodding;handshaking or a question or thanking to the aforementioned greetings In somecases, the younger may bow to greet the older when greeting

2.3 Functions and use of greetings

2.3.1 Function of greetings

Greetings is the very first thing to appear in a conversation Greetings was considered

as the first step to „establishing rapport‟ (Pachter, 2013) According to Li (2010),greetings was considered under different aspects First of all, when viewing inpragmatic viewpoint, Li (2010) chose to follow the idea that greetings could be

regarded as illocutionary acts (Austin‟s theory and it belonged to category of

„expressive‟) This means that greetings should not be understood literally Besides,

Li (2010) treated greetings as linguistic routines of politeness From this viewpoint,

he chose to follow Brown and Levinson‟s politeness theory to explain the functionand use of greetings According to the two authors, greetings were restricted bysocial factors (adapted from model of Laver J (1981) cited in Qian (1996)) andwould be guided by polite norms in certain cultures

2.3.2 Use of greetings

2.3.2.1 Hofstede’s cultural dimensions

In business context, the Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions (1972) have been appliedand cited in many studies especially ones in business marketing The six dimensions

he investigated were power distance, individuality, masculinity versus femininity,tolerance of uncertainty, and long term versus short term

Figure 1: Hofstede’s cultural dimension model (1972)

a Power distance

The power distance dimension can be defined as „the extent to which less powerful

members of a society accept and expect that power is distributed unequally‟ In

large power distance cultures, everyone has his or her rightful place in a social

hierarchy Further, „the colder the climate, the smaller the power distance‟

According to Hofstede‟s study result conducted originally in 1972, the Philippines got 94 points for power distance index (0 – 100 points) This means that in The Philippines, the awareness of power distance is quite obvious and they are a

hierarchical society Similarly, in Vietnam, a hierarchy country (score of 70), the concept of power distance is also common among people Hofstede considered

hierarchy in an organization as a factor reflecting inequality, „subordinates are

supposed to be told what to do and the ideal boss is a benevolent autocrat‟.

b Individualism

It can be defined as „people looking after themselves and their immediate family

only, versus people belonging to in-groups that look after them in exchange for loyalty‟ In other words, the fundamental issue addressed by this dimension is „the degree of interdependence a society maintains among its members‟.

The Philippines got 32 points for this dimension It can be inferred that this country

is collectivism oriented This is manifested in a close long-term commitment to themember group, be that a family, extended family or extended relationships Therelationship between employer and employee is recognized in moral terms (similar

to a family link), which to some extents, are the same as that practice in Vietnamsociety (score of 20)

c Masculinity

The dominant values in a masculine society are achievement and success; alongwith quality of life, caring for other people is the values which domain in a feminine

society The main issue in this dimension is „what motivates people, wanting to be

the best (Masculine) or liking what you do (Feminine)‟.

For this dimension, the score of the Philippines is 64 scores It can be inferred fromthis rank that this society is a masculine society Whereas, Vietnam scores 40 on thisdimension and was said to be a „Feminine‟ country according to Hofstede‟s

definition In such masculine countries, Hofstede pointed out that people „live in

order to work‟ People in such kind of society emphasize equity, and solve

competition, performance and conflicts by fighting them out On the contrary, in

feminine countries like Vietnam, people „work in order to live‟; therefore, instead

of being decisive and assertive, managers in a feminine society strived foragreement and equality Besides, Vietnamese are thought to pay more attention insolidarity and quality

d Uncertainty avoidance

This dimension can be defined as „the extent to which people feel threatened by

uncertainty and ambiguity and try to avoid these situations‟.

According to the statistic, The Philippines got 44 points while Vietnam got 30 sothat those two countries were considered having low preference for avoidinguncertainty, which meant that they remained a more relaxed attitude in whichpractice outweighed principles and in some cases could deviation from norms beaccepted Hofstede clarified that schedules in organizations were flexible, hard work

was undertaken when necessary but not for its own sake, „precision and punctuality

do not come naturally, innovation is not seen as threatening‟.

e Long term orientation

This is a dimension which tells us „how every society has to maintain some links

with its own past while dealing with the challenges of the present and future‟.

The Philippines got very low score on this dimension with 27 scores, which means

that „they are more normative than pragmatic‟ Filipino were considered to have

great emphasis on traditions and tend to pay little attention to save for the future Incontrast, with the score of 57, Vietnam was ranked as a pragmatic culture InVietnam‟s society, people had a belief that the truth depended much on situation,context and time

f Indulgence

Hofstede defined „indulgence‟ as „the extent to which people try to control their

desires and impulses‟ based on the way they were raised.

With quite low score on this dimension, The Philippines got 42 scores and Vietnamgot 32 scores, these two countries were said to have tendency of considering theiractions to be restrained by social norms As being claimed by Hofstede, people intwo countries was pointed out to have the thought that it was wrong to indulgethemselves.

2.3.2.2 Laver’s diagram (1981)

There is also another models including social factors affecting greetings that isLaver‟s diagram (1981) of factors constraining the choice of formulaic greetingphrases (Quoted in Qian (1996: 37) These factors can be illustrated in the followingdiagram

Well-acquainted

Kin

Marked setting

Adult

Diagram 1: Laver’s Diagram of the Factors that Constrain the Choice of Formulaic

In this diagram, from the top to the bottom, the expressions of greeting on the right

be seen that the social influence may be listed as age, kinship, power, setting, anddispensation.

From these two models, the author chose to adapt and combine both of them tomake a framework to build situations where greetings would be investigated in twocultures

2.4 Review of studies on greetings in English and Vietnamese

There have been various researchers spending their interests in greetings in differentlanguages in the world In particular, some students have conducted contrastivestudies to find out the same and different features in Vietnamese and Englishgreetings from cultural perspectives

Tam (2009) has focused on different situations in which people would greet eachother in not the same ways She mentioned seven situations including:

1 The first situation: (friends) (the equal relationship) Two friends

meet each other on the street Both of them are in a hurried…they say…

2 The second situation: (friends) (the equal relationship) Two friends

meet each other on the street Both of them go to the party but they do not

hurry

They have time to chat They say…

3 The third situation: (friends) (the equal relationship) A person is

invited to his or her friend‟s birthday party His or her friend opens the door

for him or hers They say…

4 The fourth situation: (boss and employee) (the unequal relationship).

An employee is called by his boss They meet each other and say….

5 The fifth situation: (boss and employee) (the unequal relationship).

The boss goes across employee‟s room He enters with some reasons They

meet and say…

6 The sixth situation: (two strange people) Two unacquainted students

sit beside each other in the first day of the new school year They say….

7 The seventh situation: (two strange people) At the party, a person

recognizes another to be friendly (same gender) They meet and say……

In addition, Hang (2009) focused on forms and topics to make a contrastive study ingreeting between two cultures In term of form, she cited the results of a research

which showed that English greetings can be divided into eight forms: the greetings

on the run (between two people who have a close relationship), the speedy greetings

– common for colleagues,), the chat – similar to the speedy greeting but enclosed

with a topic, the long greetings – to warm up the relationship after a long time, the

intimate greeting – between two people who know each other well, the all-business greeting – between people who have non-social relationship, the introductory greeting – between people who meet at the first time and the re-greeting – when you

see a person many times during the day Whereas, Vietnamese greetings, based on

the presence of performative verbs, were divided into two kinds: locutionary and

illocutionary greetings (or direct and indirect greetings) The unique feature in

Vietnamese greetings she has found is that the speaker can express his or her

emotion toward the listener through a politeness intensifier „ạ‟.

In this study, Hang (2009) found some main differences between English andVietnamese greetings First of all, in term of forms, English salutation was simplerand more standard than Vietnamese one thanks to its informality Second, addresseeforms in English were proved not to be as complicated as ones in Vietnamese Also,these two cultures shared some common features like accompanying with a gesture(kissing, hugging or hand shaking), using the form of question (usually in informalsettings) Secondly, when investigating topics, in English greetings, such personalmatters were not talked about while in Vietnamese, people tended to show careabout what the addressers were doing

Whereas, Hanh (2010) gave a contrastive comparison between English andVietnamese greetings in term of strategies and topics In the first part of her study,she discussed about the different ways to greet in two cultures When accessing toVietnamese greetings, she based on two criteria: presence of performative verbs(direct and indirect greetings) and hierarchical order (greeting to senior partner,greeting to junior partner and greeting to equal partner) In English, she used timeand formality to classify English greetings Based on time, English greeting can becategorized into greeting at any time of the day (hello, Hi, how are you?), greeting

at specific time (specific in a day, on special days or in ceremonies,…) while based

on formality, she conveyed situations such as meeting at the first time, have knowneach other

Then Hanh (2010) made a comparison to compare Vietnamese and Englishgreetings based on strategies (as eight one mentioned above) Apart from comparingand contrasting based on strategies, Hanh (2010) pointed out some additionaldifferences in topics due to differences in culture like English greetings containedmore neutral and impersonal topics than Vietnamese (weather, food, sport) Thismight cause some problems when Vietnamese learners tried to translate Vietnamesegreetings into English.

To sum up, all the studies mentioned above gave quite detailed description ongreeting in two cultures such as forms, situations, topics; however, they have notfocused on studying greetings in any specific field but mentioned in general.Therefore, this study hope to give a clearer and detailed description about greetings

in business circumstance in Vietnam and in The Philippines

The results of those research will be taken as a reference for the researcher to build

a framework

2.5 Factors affecting choice of greetings

As mentioned above, the framework will be built mainly based on Hofstede‟scultural dimensions (2001) combined with Laver (1981) model and to buildsituations for investigating the ways the Filipino use English and Vietnamesebusinessman greet each other Moreover, the researcher will pay more attention toverbal language rather than non-verbal language or combination of both whenpeople greet

From the Laver‟s diagram, some factors were investigated when finding out socialfactors affecting greetings including kinship, well-acquainted, age, and position(dispensation of rank) When referring to Hofstede‟s framework, such factors aspower distance and individualism, gender, were applied, combined with age,acquaintance dimensions to collect data As phrases of greetings were the onlyconcern in this study, other factors including uncertainty avoidance, long termorientation, and indulgence related to the behavior during working process wouldnot be exploited

a Power distance

In this research, the way the manager/ director/ team leader and the staffs greet eachother will be investigated.

d Acquaintance

Situations when people meet at the first time, or when they have known each otherare going to received specific concern In those cases, how people greet each otherwill be examined

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

This chapter is written with the purpose of specifying how the research will beconducted It consists of four main parts: Participants, instruments, data collectionprocedure and data analysis procedure

3.1 Research design

From cross-cultural viewpoint, this survey research belongs to descriptive design.Specifically, it is a survey research which uses questionnaires to find out whatpeople in business environment say to greet and respond to each other

Survey research was proved to be suitable for applied social research because itcould fulfill the tasks of a short paper-and-pencil feedback form or an intensive one-on-one in-depth interview (Trochirn, 2006)

3.2 Participants

Due to the aim of this study, the researcher recruits 86 participants from companies

in The Philippines and the same amount of respondents in Vietnam Since the studyhas to be conducted to find out different ways of greeting and responding that staffs

in these companies use to greet each other, the fields in which Filipino companiesinvestigated is the same as that in which Vietnamese companies chosen Inparticular, the companies chosen in two countries are doing business on fields such

as information technology, housing and serviced apartment providing, and callingservice They are companies agreed to join in the research and they are enterprises

in The Philippines where Vietnamese students are working This choice also helpsthe researcher make parallel comparisons in analyzing process

The number of companies joining in this study was only four in each countrybecause of some limitations Firstly, they are the enterprises who agreed to answerthe survey questions although the researcher sent the consent form to manycompanies in advance Secondly, the study just focuses first on such majors thatVietnamese students are learning in the Philippines, which affects choosingassistants for the researchers; and another main problem that affects the research

much is transportation The travelling in the Philippines is not as convenient as that

in Vietnam due to its mountainous geographic feature Hence, the amount ofrespondents to the questionnaires were limited as well

In addition, the staffs in each company were chosen diversely They can be thedirector, the manager, the office employees or even the cleaner or the guard so thatthe requirements of this study would be fulfilled It could also increase the authentic

of the data collected

3.3 Data collection

3.3.1 Data collection instrument

As having mentioned in the first part, the main kind of instrument to have been used

to collect data from conversations between staffs in chosen companies wasquestionnaires

In fact, at first, the researcher had a plan to conduct observation through videorecording However, the researcher could not get permission from those companiesdue to security reason That was the reason why survey questions were finally used.Questionnaires with available answers were designed to find out what people oftensay to greet and respond each other in different specific situations This instrumentwas chosen because they were said to be easy to construct, extremely versatile,

„process-able‟ and “can be used successfully with a variety of people in a variety

of situations targeting a variety of topics” (Zoltán Dörnyei , 2003, p.1, p.9-10).

These features are suitable with this research Besides, due to limitation of time,

effort as well as financial problems when conducting a research in two far distantcountries, questionnaires helped to minimize those difficulties (Zoltán Dörnyei ,2003) Therefore, in a short time, one researcher can gain information from manyparticipants

3.3.2 Sending consent form and designing questionnaires

The researcher sent a consent form in advance to some companies to have theirpermission to join in the survey In this consent form, all the necessary informationabout the researcher as well as the study was clearly informed so that the

participants could know both the advantages and the risks they may face whenparticipating.

Then, after reading the literature review and regarding the framework built,multiple-choice questionnaires were designed to collect data Before answering thequestions, the respondents need to provide their gender To answer the threeresearch questions, the survey questionnaires were designed in English and inVietnamese, and in turn, delivered to Filipino and Vietnamese businessmen andcompany staffs

The researcher paid attention to such factors as: power distance, gender, age andacquaintance, from which different situations were divided in detail Beforeanswering the questions, the participants had to say which gender they were Theorder of questions in two versions was the same to make the analyzing processconvenient

In part 1, for the first dimensions, power distance, the questions from number 1 to

number 4 were used to gain information About how the director/ the manager/leader – employees/ other team members greet each other, how the staffs greet a

„VIP‟ guest of their company and how they greet the cleaner or the guard in theircompany

For the second dimension, gender, question number 5 and 6 focused on it What

they use to greet a female or male colleague was investigated

The third dimension, age, was made clear with the question number 7 and 8, what

they say to greet an older and a younger colleague than them

The two last questions in part 1 studied the last dimension, acquaintance, which

depended on the closeness of two staffs First time meeting and well- acquaintedcolleagues greeting each other similarly and differently was the focus of thesequestions

For the answers given in advance, they were written according to level of formality,using small talks and some were added the word „po‟ at the end This is taken fromthe researcher‟s experience, it had been observed that Filipino tended to use the

word „po‟ much in their daily life The respondents can also give more responses toeach particular question.

In part 2, how people respond to others‟ greetings in each particular situation was

studied For the first dimension, power distance, the questions number 1 and 2 were,

in turn, used to find out what people respond when their boss/ manager/ team leaderand their staff greets them However, in Vietnamese version, there is an extraquestion investigating two sub-cases in which the manager/ team leader was olderand younger than the respondents Question number 3 dealt with responses to aguest and response to a cleaner and a guard was investigated through questionnumber 4 Question number 5 and 6 focused on what people answered when theirfemale or male colleague greeted them Question number 7 and 8 belonged to

dimension „age‟ – the relationship between people at different ages, between the

older and the younger The two last questions were built based on kinship betweenthe speaker and the listener

In English version, the questions in part 1 and part 2 were in form of multiplechoice whereas in Vietnamese version, open-ended questions were used

Part 3 focused on topics of small talks commonly used by people in companies and

the questions in this part also aimed at finding the embedded messages behinds

those greetings

3.3.3 Delivering questionnaires

The questionnaires used in this study were designed in the form of google documentand sent to participants through their emails in order to reduce the limitation ofgeographic obstructing Apart from that, the responses could be automaticallyupdated whenever there is a new respondent

3.4 Data analysis

3.4.1 Data analysis instrument

Quantitative method were used to cope with the collected answers in part 1 and part

2.In each situation investigated, the frequency of different answers were counted tosee what the most commonly spoken greetings and responses For answers in part 3,

qualitative method was used to gather the answers Then, a comparison were madebetween responses in each circumstance in two countries.

3.4.2 Data analysis procedure

First, the researcher gathered the information she got from participants in both twocountries Then, the frequency of phrases of greetings and responses in particularsituations were counted

After having clear summaries of answers in each countries, the data were comparedbefore the researcher makes comparisons and gives final conclusion

CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

In this chapter, the statistical analysis method was used to analyze data from thequestions in part 1 and part 2 The responses in part 3 were analyzed by quantitativeand qualitative method The gained data was synthesized and changed into clearlynumerical forms The findings of the study were also provided in this chapter inaccordance with the research questions

In The Philippines, there were 34 male and 52 female respondents Whereas, therewere 32 male and 54 female respondents in Vietnam

4.1 For the first dimension: power distance

This dimension was made clear through the questions from number 1 to number

4 in part 1 and the same in part 2

In English and Vietnamese version, the most commonly used greetings were

recorded They were the phrases or choices that appeared the most frequently

4.1.1 For question number 1: Greetings and responses to a director/

manager A summary was made through the following table

Boss/

manager/

team leader

Sếp/ cấp