An initial investigation of u s and vietnamese cultures in contrast through everyday conversations

LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES TABLES Table 1: Answers for question1 of Vietnamese students and American students Table 2: Answers for question 2 of Vietnamese students and American students

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NGUYỄN THI ̣ HOÀNG MY

AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION OF U.S AND VIETNAMESE CULTURES IN CONTRAST

THROUGH EVERYDAY CONVERSATIONS

(BƯỚC ĐẦU NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU VĂN HÓA MỸ - VIỆT THÔNG QUA

CÁC CUỘC ĐỐI THOẠI HÀNG NGÀY)

M.A MINOR THESIS Field: English Linguistics

Code: 60 22 15

Hanoi, 2012

3 Aims and Objectives of the study 2

1.1 A brief overview on Contrastive Analysis 5

1.4.2 Types of friendships 12 1.4.3 Friendship in the U.S culture 14 1.4.4 Friendship in Vietnam culture 15

2.1 Data collection instruments 16

3.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire 20

4 Suggestions for further study 36 REFERENCES

APPENDICES

LIST OF TABLE AND FIGURES

TABLES

Table 1: Answers for question1 of Vietnamese students and American students Table 2: Answers for question 2 of Vietnamese students and American students Table 3: Answers for question 3 of Vietnamese students and American students Table 4: Answers for question 4 of Vietnamese students and American students Table 5: Analysis of conversations for situation 1

Table 6: Analysis of conversations for situation 2

Table 7: Analysis of conversations for situation 3

Table 8: Analysis of conversations for situation 4

Table 9: Summary of Vietnamese-American contrasts

FIGURES

Figure 1: Iceberg model of Culture

Figure 2: Answers for question 1 of Vietnamese students and American students Figure 3: Answers for question 2 of Vietnamese students and American students Figure 4: Answers for question 3 of Vietnamese students and American students Figure 5: Answers for question 4 of Vietnamese students and American students

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY

Human beings have been endued with a powerful engine to assist them in the process

of expressing their thoughts, feelings and transmitting emotions as well as information

to others: language However, there is a question remaining: “Why are misinterpretation, communication breakdown and cultural conflicts still inevitable?”

Hymes, D (1966) coined those in one term: “communicative competence” which

literally denotes the capability of using one language appropriately under any circumstances The fact is that language and culture are so closely interlaced, which means the impossibility of separating them

The focus of the study is on conversations upon everyday topics, which will, to some extent, raise an awareness of cultural similarities as well as differences among speakers, aiming for a successful and fruitful interplay, or at least a reduction in the effect of discrepant socio-cultural factors

The study on everyday conversations, specifically the topic of friendship, made by

American and Vietnamese students, has been selected to investigate as it was one of the great interests to the researcher and of great help to language insiders and outsiders

It is undeniable that how American native speakers react on friendship-related

situations in everyday life is far different from how Vietnamese people, language speakers, do Thereupon, a contrastive analysis of the ways American and Vietnamese deal with disparate cases is regarded practical, necessary and worthy for a mutual understanding

second-2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The present study focused on the contrast of American and Vietnamese cultures

through everyday conversations, particularly the topic of friendship, within the

framework of contrastive analysis, conversation analysis as well as the looks at the

relationship between culture and language Therefore, the study was aimed at pointing

out the answers for the two questions:

(1) What are the similarities between American culture and Vietnamese culture reflected through the topic “Friendship” in daily conversations?

(2) What are the differences between American culture and Vietnamese culture reflected through the topic “Friendship” in daily conversations?

3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

This study was aimed at promoting communicative competence through everyday conversations between the U.S and Vietnamese cultures, which was done based on the theoretical background of contrastive analysis, conversation analysis and the points of view of language-culture tie Thereupon, the main objective of this study was to analyze and reflect the similarities as well as differences between the two targeted cultures

4 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

Since theoretical background is vital to the processes of data analysis, the writer expected to deal with a variety of sets of theories concerning contrastive analysis, conversation analysis and viewpoints on culture-language relationship, etc

Due to the constraint of time and personal ability, the writer had no ambition for covering a wide range of everyday conversations; instead, some featured situations

related to Friendship were chosen to take into consideration This study was intended

to discover how university students of American and Vietnamese cultures reacted to the same circumstances

The database of this study consisted of elicited written questionnaires and audio-tapes

of natural conversations

5 METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY

The study has been carried out based on a combination of different methods of quantitative and qualitative approach which are as follows:

- Document;

- Synthesize;

- Analyze and contrast

Questionnaires and audio tapes of native American and of Vietnamese university students were adopted to collect the data for analysis and discussion

6 DESIGN OF THE STUDY

The study is comprised of three parts:

Part I, “Introduction”, includes the rationale, objectives of the study, research

questions, research methods, the scope and the design of the study

Part II, “Development”, consists three chapters:

- Chapter 1 – Theoretical background - presents the preliminary knowledge of

some basic theories and a review of related literature to the study

- Chapter 2 - Methodology - describes the research method, data collection

instruments, and detailed information about the research procedures

- Chapter 3 - Findings and Discussions - analyzes the initial data collected and

interviews The chapter mainly focuses on contrasting the similarities and differences between the two mentioned cultures through the analysis of conversations made by American and Vietnamese university students

Part III, “Conclusion”, a recapitulation of the research including the theoretical

frameworks, methodology and major findings, together with the limitations and suggestions for further study

PART II: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

1.1 A brief overview on Contrastive Analysis

1.1.1 Definition

In an attempt to minimize the problems that foreign language learners encounter on

their acquisition process, linguists proposed the conceptual theory of contrastive analysis The term „Contrastive Linguistics‟ was first suggested by Whorf (1941), meaning of „a comparative study which emphasizes on linguistic differences‟ However, not until the publication of „Linguistics Across Cultures‟ by Lado, R (1957)

was the in-depth excavation into this field commenced Later on, the original term

changed to „Contrastive Analysis‟ (CA) as we know it today

As Fisiak (1981:1)‟s redefinition, CA is „a sub discipline of linguistics concerned with the comparison of two or more languages or subsystems of languages in order to determine both the differences and similarities between them.‟ In other words, CA is

the systematic study of a pair or more of languages with a view to identifying their structural differences and similarities

The goal of CA is to find out the differences between the first language and the target language; simultaneously, via contrastive analysis, problems can be predicted and considered

Robert Lado (1957) noted:

„Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and

culture- both productively and when attempting to speak the language and to act in the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language and culture as practiced by natives.‟

1.1.2 Macro-linguistic Contrastive Analysis

In a way, CA can be perceived from different perspectives: micro-linguistically or macro-linguistically While micro-linguistic CA lays emphasis on describing the language elements without any recourse to external factors, macro-linguistic CA is a field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense Macro-linguistic CA is a formal description of how people communicate, including cultural and behavioral features associated with languages based on the interrelationships

Macrolinguistics in CA can be characterized by:

(i) A concern for communicative competence rather than linguistic competence

(ii) An attempt to describe linguistic events within their extra-linguistic settings

(iii) The search for units of linguistic organization larger than the single sentence

(James, C 1980:98)

Also, James, C (1980:101) paraphrased six variables first mentioned by Hymes (1974)

into „who says what to whom, where and when, how and why.‟

It can be interpreted that macro-linguistic CA looks at discourse analysis, the study of text and conversational interaction, as one of its concerning disciplines Therefore, the theory of conversation analysis is closely related to macro-linguistic CA in particular and in this contrastive study in general

1.2 An brief overview on Conversation Analysis

1.2.1 Conversation

Making conversations is one of the daily bases activities of human beings It is apparent that all of us get involved in conversational interaction, also, on which living human societies depend to function properly According to C Goodwin and Heritage

(1990:283), social interaction was elucidated as „the primordial means through which the business of the social world is transacted, the identities of its participants are affirmed or denied, and its cultures are transmitted, renewed and modified.‟

Undoubtedly, like an indispensable part, conversations help people socialize and develop and nourish their mutual relationships

1.2.2 Conversation Analysis

Studies have shown that when people converse, their communication is more than just the systematic use of linguistic items; that is, something else other than language itself

„Conversation Analysis‟ is seen as a unique way of analyzing language and social

interaction This kind of study on talk-in-interaction has long been a phenomenon of great interest for researchers of a wide range of fields Conversation analytic approach has become most influential for its contributions to provide deep insights that can unravel many linguistic problems (Levinson 1983: 364).It takes, as one of its subjects, the study of mundane social interaction in naturally occurring settings on the basis of rigorous and systematic methods The assumption that social actions are meaningful, and are produced and interpreted as such, leads to the desire to discover, describe and analyze their natural organization or order, which constitutes and constructs this orderliness Conversation analysis, therefore, licitly investigates all areas of socially motivated talk (Liddicoat, J A 2007:17) Its primary concern is the discovery, description, and analysis of how conversation is produced and understood

In order to provide real-life data from different subjects, audio taping technologies have been employed to record naturally occurring actions in real-world settings, combined with direct observation and notes by researchers This gives rise to an extensive analysis of the rules and orders of talk New approaches to the study of language and communication with respect to culture focusing on meanings-in-context, natural classification systems by members of a culture, their perceptions and conventions also brought about changes in conversation analysis

1.3 Language and Culture

1.3.1 What is „language‟?

Kramsch, C (2004) defined language as „the principal means whereby we conduct our social group‟ Another view from Sapir (1921) was that „language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means of voluntarily produced symbols.‟ Language is a part of culture and a part of human behavior

Fulfilling many other tasks, language was denoted with three major functions as stated

by Krech (1962) Firstly, language plays a role of the primary vehicle of communication, such as expressing thoughts, greeting, conducting religious services and so on Secondly, it reflects the personality of an individual and his cultural properties and also forms the shape of personality and culture in return Last but not least, language enables the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group

It is undeniable that language plays a paramount role in developing, elaborating and transmitting culture and language, allowing us to provide everything needed to facilitate communication

1.3.2 What is „culture‟?

The term „culture‟ has a wide range of definitions Culture can refer to a process, a way

of life and also a product

Tylor, E (1871) first gave the definition of culture which has been widely quoted:

„Culture… is that complex whole which includes knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, law, custom and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.‟

According to Clifford Geertz, however, culture was viewed as a symbolic meaning system It literally served fully as a semiotic system in which symbols function to communicate the meanings from one mind to another

Goodenough proposed that „A society‟s culture consists of whatever it is one has to know or believe in order to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do

so in any role that they can accept for any of themselves‟ (as cited in Wardhaugh,

Figure 1 Iceberg model of Culture

It is Nguyen, Q (1998) who defined the term „culture‟ was “a shared background resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values.‟ In other words, culture is the heritage from generation to generation

The term 'culture' is seen as whatever a person must have in order to function and live

in a particular society

1.3.3 The relationship between language and culture

It is obvious that the relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted They are regarded as two back-to-back sides of a paper and both cannot exist outside the social contexts

Language is employed to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties Different ideas stem from differing language use within one‟s culture and their interconnection commence at one‟s birth When an infant is born, regardless of his or her origin, compared to any other infant born, in fact, is quite similar This idea has been around for thousands of years and was discussed by Confucius However, not until the child is

exposed to their surroundings do they become individuals belonging to their own cultural group

It is such a definite assertion that language is one part of culture and under the impact

of culture To be more precise, language is a major component and supporter of culture

as well as a vital instrument for transferring messages, a cultural-bound duty That is not to mention about the fact that language is influenced, shaped by culture and reflects culture Without language, culture would not be possible

A significant point was brought up by Emmitt and Pollock (1997), who stated that even though people are brought up under similar behavioral backgrounds or cultural situations but, nevertheless, speak different languages, their world view may be very different Everyone‟s views are dependent on the culture which has influenced them, as well as being described using the language which has been shaped by that culture The understanding of a culture and its people can be enhanced by the knowledge of their language Different thoughts are brought about by the utilization of different forms of language Different languages will create different limitations; therefore, a person who shares a culture but speaks different languages, will have different world views

LANGUAGE

CULTURE

Language to talk

Culture of talking CULTURE OF

COMMUNICATION

1.4 An overview on Friendship

1.4.1 Definition

„Friendship is a relationship between two people

who hold mutual affection for each other.‟

(Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

In real life, friendship can be established by any reasons, anywhere and anytime, such

as on starting a new job, moving from place to place and so on Friendship is of the voluntary relationship which includes the practices of starting up, sustaining and ruining, together with the expectations that friends have for each other Most of us take this kind of relationship for granted and see them as a law of nature; while others do not In any case, it is globally agreed that friends ought to have shared commitment, priority to the other‟s request and supporting assistance

Linguistically speaking, there is no doubt that the word „friendship‟ exists in every

language of the world; however, somehow this term is too broad for us to understand fully In the attempt to translate the original word into our own mother tongue, we encounter an enormous problem: there are a huge number of corresponding connotations That leads to a way to uncover cultural differences: review the philological roots of those various verbal equivalents and trace their implications

1.4.2 Types of friendships

In the old Greeks‟ time, the great philosopher Aristotle initiated the very first

classification of friendships in his book Nicomachean Ethics As he proposed, there

were three types of friendships

- Friendship of utility: This kind of friendship based on the usefulness that

people see in each other that they think they can take advantage of Therefore,

it is not expected to last very long because as soon as the practical purpose is

no longer present, the link between those friends for benefits ends

- Friendship of pleasure: The name suggests the key factor for the existence of

friendship: pleasure It depends on the amount of pleasure, informally „fun‟, that the involvers get from the relationship In other words, they enjoy each other‟s companionship However, this friendship is still of danger zone if the participants no longer find the other person pleasant to be with

- Friendship of the good: also known as Friendship of Virtue This friendship is

based on the respect and admiration that the participants have for each other The compatible values, goals, perspectives and visions on both people‟s lives

is required to assure a powerful and long-lasting relationship That is the reason why it takes much longer time to build; simultaneously, it is harder to break

Whereas friendships of utility and pleasure exist for the utility and pleasure for oneself, the friendship of virtue is for the friend

At present, the concept of „friendship‟ can vary across a different, new scale Wikipedia, for example, provides the following levels of friendships:

- Acquaintance: not a true friend; sharing of emotional ties is absent Normally,

acquaintances are the ones we see once in a while after a long time

- Best friend (or close friend): The kind of friendship owns the strongest ties

between the participants

- Bromance: A mixed term of „brother‟ and „romance‟ is newly established to

denote the close relationship (non-sexual) between men

- Casual relationship: Two people sticking together for the purpose of sexual or

near-sexual affinity, not for the demand of sharing a formal relationship This can also refer to a "hook-up"

- Comrade: A very common term in military service or political connotation.

- Internet relationship: A form of friendship or romance which takes place

over the Internet These friendships are also based on the thought that they may never meet in real life, they know each other for who they are, instead of the mask they may use in real life

- Open relationship a relationship, usually between two people, that agree each

partner is free to have sexual intercourse with others outside the relationship

- Pen pal: People who have a relationship via postal correspondence They may

or may not have met each other in person and may share either love, friendship, or simply an association between each other

The classification of friendship was identified on the basis of a number of factors, such

as how close the involvers were and how the relationship was formed, which shared both similarities as well as differences between cultures

1.4.3 Friendship in the U.S culture

A study done by Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E Brashears (American Sociological Review, 2006) suggested that American society was believed

to be witnessing a significant reduction in the quantity and quality of close friendships Causes were varied but the three most commonly blamed were gender confusion, divorce and technological development of mass media communications

Diep, T.X (US and Vietnamese cultures in contrast through everyday conversations,

2009) pointed out some features of American people towards making friends

- Firstly, Americans respect other people‟s privacy and hope those people do the same thing for them They hesitate to make questions that may invade others‟ personal issues Thus, it is much more difficult for American people to have close friends Nevertheless, once they can get rid of their reluctance and

understand each other thoroughly, they will certainly become best friends and cherish their friendship

- Secondly, Americans are often quite initiative in striking up a conversation with strangers, which creates an intimate atmosphere They are prone to keep the conversations at savoir-vivre level with topics on traffic, weather or news

on public media

- Thirdly, in spite of being open in starting a talk-in-interaction, Americans are rather critical towards the politeness For example, they will not be happy if you visit them at home without a phone call in advance; or, you open the door without knocking

- Fourthly, despite being widely known for their sociality and friendly appearance, American people only consider their relationships as a circle of acquaintances

1.4.4 Friendship in Vietnamese culture

Diep, T.X (2009) also asserted that Vietnamese people easily open their heart to other people as soon as they can overcome their reservation and find the interlocutor trustworthy In spite of the fact that there may not many clearly-stated taboo topics for conversations, the Vietnamese people are usually careful about the choice of conversation contents Moreover, in contrary to the U.S culture, in Vietnamese culture,

it may be easier for two Vietnamese people to become close even if they only share a few interests or characteristics in common Gradually, their friendship will be nourished and gain better mutual understanding

2.1 Data collection instruments

2.1.1 Survey questionnaire

The questionnaire was designed with four real-life situations with suggested solutions The purposes of the survey questionnaire are 1) to explore how American and Vietnamese people with the different cultures react to the same situations, 2) to compare the data collected from audio tape to enhance the reliability of the study

2.1.2 Audio taping

Audio taping of naturally occurring talks is the main instrument in the process of data collection as the study emphasized on interactive conversations The purpose of these tapes is to re-confirm the results obtained from the survey questionnaire

2.2 Participants

Apart from the direct informants, since the study was intended to investigate two cultures, the writer called for the help from six assistants (two in two disparate states of the U.S: Georgia and Indiana, and four in Hanoi) Assistants in the U.S included one Vietnamese student studying in Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia) and the other in Wabash College (Crawfordville, Indiana) Assistants in Hanoi were four students enrolling in two universities: National Economics University and Thang Long University

2.2.1 Survey questionnaire

Copies of the survey questionnaire were delivered to 80 informants: 40 American and

40 Vietnamese college students whose age ranged from 17 to 25 All informants in the U.S were native American, and in Hanoi were native Vietnamese American informants from different departments selected were joining same classes with the writer‟s assistants Meanwhile, Vietnamese informants were students from two different universities; 20 of whom also were attending same classes with each of the writer‟s assistants

2.2.2 Audio taping

Among 80 informants, the six assistants observed and randomly recorded their natural conversations in real-life on four mentioned situations Each assistant in the U.S was in charge of recording two situations; each assistant in Hanoi took care of one situation

2.3 The procedure of data collection and analysis

2.3.1 Survey questionnaire

In the U.S, due to the strict school regulations, in both colleges, an online version of the survey questionnaire was sent via a mass email to the selected informants After

getting replies from informants, assistants were to work out the numbers of answers for every question, then sent via email to the writer

In Hanoi, a hardcopy of the questionnaire was given to informants during their recess

by their classmates (assistants) Next, the four assistants collected the answered questionnaire papers and did the same work as the U.S assistants Lastly, they sent the calculation via email to the writer

2.3.2 Audio tapes

The data were collected from mundane talk occurring in natural settings in 2012, in Georgia and Indiana (the U.S) and in Hanoi (Vietnam) In the U.S, the assistants decided the situations of which they were in charge of recording corresponding real-life conversations Each situation was observed and recorded without the notice of the informants In Hanoi, the assistants took care of their own recordings of assigned situation in which the recordings were also unknown

The collected audio tapes, then, were sent to the writer to transcribe analyze However, due to the spontaneousness in occurring of the talks and time constraint, each assistant could only tape one conversation for one situation That made, in total, two recordings for each case, one in English language and one in Vietnamese language

The Vietnamese corpus was from 08 native speakers of Vietnamese living and studying two different institutions in Hanoi The corpus contained four conversations, each of which was approximately more or less than one minute The first conversation was between a twenty-year-old girl, sharing room with the writer‟s assistant and a young man neighbor them on the same floor in a rented house The setting was that the man had a habit of turning up the music at midnight or later, which often woke the girls

up The assistant‟s roommate decided to approach the neighbor‟s room to „negotiate‟ The second tape was a conversation among two students, one female and one male, who were supposed to be classmates or in the same department at college The girl was standing in front of the school gate, coincidentally next to the assistant, waiting for the boy Unexpectedly and luckily, the conversation was recorded on that day The third conversation was between two quite close classmates attending the International Finance class (National University of Economics) five people One of them asked the other to let him copy the homework which, for some reasons, he did not do before going to class The last conversation was recorded between the writer‟s assistant and her roommate This situation was quite similar to what the assistant had to suffer in real life; therefore, it was rather easy for her to get it in tape

The English corpus consisted of four tapes, all of which were recorded in the U.S (including Georgia and Indiana) All informants were native speakers of English from North America and studying as undergraduates The first tape contained a conversation between a girl, roommate of the writer‟s assistant, and the landlord The girl sought for the intervention of the land-owner to reinforce her already-sent-out warning previously The second tape was made with the help of the assistant‟s close friend and his Photography (Wabash College) classmate 4 They met each other in a small private party in a friend‟s house The setting of the third conversation was in the History of Arts (Wabash College) between two classmates of the assistant One of them was spending the whole night playing computer games, without studying Therefore, in the next morning, he begged his classmate, a relatively good student, to let him „borrow‟ the homework The final conversation was rather authentic as it happened between one

of the assistant and his roommate He said that they have been sharing room for almost two semesters now and disputes are inevitable What they normally did was just similar

to the tape

These data were claimed to come from actual interactions between native speakers of English in natural everyday settings Generally, they were transcribed on the basis of the conventions used in conversation analysis This, according to Psathas (1995: 45),

was appropriate and allowable in conversation analysis, as „Data may be obtained from any available source, the only requirement being that these should be naturally occurring, rather than produced for the purpose of study.‟ By and large, the data could

be assumed to consist of naturally occurring interactions, and were very much similar

to those happen in everyday exchanges between native speakers

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

With the aim of investigating the reaction of native American and native Vietnamese towards different situations, the writer conducted a survey questionnaire and its results are presented as following

3.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire

The survey questionnaire was released with four questions representing four everyday life situations, together with four options for each The analysis below will present the results for every single question as well as the comparison between American and Vietnamese students‟ answers

B Ignore the noise and find ways to get back to sleep

C Phone and make a request that the neighbor turn down the volume; or call for the landlord‟s help; or the police

D Others (please specify): ………