Lời cầu chúc nhân dịp sinh nhật cưới hỏi và lễ năm mới hoặc giáng sinh trong văn hóa việt và anh

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES --- --- PHẠM THỊ ANH ĐÀO WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW VIETNAMESE CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY.. FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

PHẠM THỊ ANH ĐÀO

WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW

VIETNAMESE CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

(LỜI CẦU CHÚC NHÂN DỊP SINH NHẬT, CƯỚI HỎI VÀ LỄ NĂM MỚI (HOẶC GIÁNG SINH) TRONG VĂN HÓA VIỆT VÀ ANH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH)

M A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Field Code: 60 22 15

HA NOI - 2010

FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES

-  -

PHẠM THI ANH ĐÀO

WISHES ON THE OCCASION OF BIRTHDAY, WEDDING AND NEW

VIETNAMESE CULTURE: A COMPARATIVE STUDY

(LỜI CẦU CHÚC NHÂN DỊP SINH NHẬT, CƯỚI HỎI VÀ LỄ NĂM MỚI (HOẶC GIÁNG SINH) TRONG VĂN HÓA VIỆT VÀ ANH: MỘT NGHIÊN CỨU SO SÁNH)

M A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Linguistics Field Code: 60 22 15 Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyễn Văn Độ

HA NOI - 2010

TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE

2.3 Methods of data analysis 15

3.4 COMPARISON OF THE ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE WAYS OF WISHING 35

3.4.1.3 Social factors governing the way of extending a wish 36

ENGLISH SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES

VIETNAMESE SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES

LISTS OF TABLES

Table 1: Age group correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents Table 2: Gender correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents Table 3: Living area correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents Table 4: Occupation correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents Table 5: The content of Vietnamese birthday wishes

Table 6: The content of Vietnamese wedding wishes

Table 7: The content of Vietnamese New Year/Christmas wishes

Table 8: Rank of importance of occasions

Table 9: Rank of importance of social factors

Table 10: Components of Vietnamese acts of wishing

Table 11: The content of English birthday wishes

Table 12: The content of English wedding wishes

Table 13: The content of English Christmas and New Year wishes

Table 14: Rank of importance of occasions

Table 15: Rank of importance of social factors

Table 16: Components of English acts of wishing

PART A: INTRODUCTION

0 1 Rationale of the study

English nowadays is considered the international language; it is the most widely spoken language which is used in many fields such as economics, trade, tourism, diplomacy, politics, and press In Vietnam, as a result of the open door economic policy, the number of people learning English for various purposes is on the rise English is not only taught as an important subject at thousands of foreign languages centers but it is also a compulsory subject in various primary and high schools

Although English has been taught in Vietnam for many years, not until recently has the focus of improving linguistic competence for learners been on syntax, lexical and phonological components of the language Many people still believe that being good at English means being good at linguistic components Thus, cultural factors are paid little attention to

However, today, in our modern world in which globalization is expanding, the need of integrating and communicating across nations is indispensable Successful communication requires not only purely linguistic competence but also the knowledge of social norms, social values and relations between individuals known as communicative competence Communicative competence presupposes ability to use the language correctly and appropriately This pragmatic competence is as crucial as linguistic competence The lack of it may lead to impoliteness, misinterpretation, cultural shocks, and even communication breakdown

Hence, the knowledge about cross culture communication is really essential On this basis, this study is done to help Vietnamese learners of English to understand English ways of expressing wishes The focus of the study will be on similarities and differences between Vietnamese and English forms of wishing

0 2 Aims of the study

The thesis focuses on studying the similarities and differences between English and Vietnamese ways of wishing in respect to the following aspects:

- To investigate the content of expressions used in wishing and non-verbal components

of wishes

- To find out social factors having influence on extending a wish and some cultural differences in extending wishes in Vietnam and Britain

- To help Vietnamese learners of English have more awareness of English wishing and

of how to use it appropriately

- To offer some suggestions to ELT (English Language Teaching)

0 3 Scope of the study

The study mainly focuses on verbal communication and the analysis of the data collected from the survey questionnaires on extending a wish Similarities and differences between the English and the Vietnamese in assessing the interference of social factors in wishing are discussed Also some common accompaniments and nonverbal cues together with wishing are taken into account

0 4 Methods of the study

The main method of the study is the quantitative one with techniques:

- Consulting reference books

- Discussing with teachers and friends

- Conducting survey questionnaire

- Studying relevant publications

- Resorting to personal observation

0 5 Design of the study: This study is divided into three main parts:

Part A: Introduction – including the reasons of the study, aims of the study, methods, scope

of the study and the design of the study

Part B: Development, including 4 chapters

- Chapter 1: Literature review

- Chapter 2: Research methodology

- Chapter 3: Discussion on findings

- Chapter 4: Implications for ELT (English Language Teaching)

Part C: Conclusion

PART B: DEVELOPMENT

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

1.1 Speech acts and wishing

1.1.1 Speech acts and their classification

The concept of speech acts was first developed by Austin in the first edition of the book “How to do things with words” published in 1962 He did not use the term “speech acts” but “performative sentence” or performative utterance” which indicated that “the issue of an utterance is the performing of an utterance” (p6) The term itself was first used by Searle who claimed that “talking is performing acts according to rules” (p22), and that “speech acts […] are the basic or minimal units of linguistic communication.” (p16)

According to Yule (1996:47-48), actions performed via utterance are generally called

speech acts and, in English, are commonly given more specific labels such as requesting,

apologizing, offering, etc The circumstances in which actions are performed to communicate

are generally called speech events – activities in which participants use language to interact in

some conventional way to reach some outcome

In analyzing a speech act we study how an utterance affects the behaviour of the Speaker and the Hearer According to Austin (1962) a speech act consists of three related acts:

- Locutionary act is the actual form of the utterance When we perform a locutionary

act, we have to produce an utterance of a particular form having a particular meaning and following the rules of a given language Yule asserts that a locutionary act is the “basic act of utterance” and the meaningfulness of linguistic expressions is the determinant of this kind of act For example, a sentence “It’s very hot here” can be counted as a locutionary act as it includes meaningful units of the English language

- Illocutionary act relates to the concrete purposes of an utterance This makes

illocutionary acts different from locutionary acts Thus, uttering the same sentence: “It’s very hot here”, the speaker does not only utter it but may also suggest a request (e.g to turn on the central heating)

The illocutionary act is performed via the communicative force of an utterance When

we utter a sentence, we assign to it the so-called illocutionary force The illocutionary force may be understood as some kind of intended message that a speaker assigns to the sentence he

or she utters As Nguyen Hoa (2001: 151) puts it, “one type of illocutionary force is what is commonly referred to as implication.” For instance, when we ask someone “Have you got the time?” the illocutionary force we assign to this utterance seems to be a question about time rather than whether the addressee has a clock or watch or not

- Perlocutionary act is the result or affect that speaker can achieve by performing the

locutionary act According to Mey (1993: 112), these ultimate effects are dependent on the context of the utterance and are unpredictable The hearer may correctly understand the speaker’s intention and do what his/ her interlocutor wants, or the same hearer may deliberately ignore the speaker’s want or desire When we utter the sentence “It’s very hot here”, we hope the act of turning the central heating on to be done by some hearers This also means the illocutionary act is performed

Of these three types of speech acts the illocutionary act appears to be the most crucial and discussed because the same utterance can potentially have different illocutionary force Take the sentence “I’ll be at the office at noon” as an example for this The locutionary act of this utterance can be represented as a promise, a threat, a warning or simply a prediction Thus, the most useful way to distinguish between these is the attitude that the speaker holds towards the prepositional content of what he says However, in order to help hearers really recognize the intended illocutionary force, two things should be taken into account: Illocutionary force indicating devices and felicity condition

* Illocutionary force indicating devices include performative verbs that directly show the illocutionary acts However, speakers do not always perform their speech acts explicitly so Illocutionary force indicating devices that hearers can consider are words, stress, intonation, voice quality and so on

* Felicity conditions are expected or appropriate circumstances which speech acts depend on in order to have effectiveness recognized by hearers Therefore, the utterance should be said to right person, in the right place, at the right time with rational behaviour

In spite of those devices, it is not easy for hearers to recognize intended forces of various utterances Thus, these forces can be classified into small sets by Searle (1969) including declaratives, representatives, expressives, directives and commissives

* Declaratives: speech acts that change the conditions existing in the world via

utterance In other words, they bring about a new state of being For example, when the chairman says “I declare the meeting open”, implied that a change really takes place People start to make speeches or address the meeting and so on

* Representatives: speech acts that state the speaker’s belief in some case For

example, a sentence like “The earth is flat” is a statement of fact in which the speaker believes

* Expressives: speech acts used to express the speaker’s feeling and attitude about

something They can be statements of joys, disappointment, likes, dislikes such as “what a great day!”, “Your shirt is very nice” We can make an expressive in English by using an exclamation or simply an emotionally charged statement

* Directives: speech acts used to get the hearer to do something They are commands,

orders, requests and suggestions The function of directive may be realized by forms like imperative sentences, questions or even statement of which illocutionary act is of a directive For instance, a sentence “Oh, It stops raining!” is interpreted as a suggestion that let us go out

* Commissives: speech acts that speakers use to commit themselves to do something in

the future They function as promises, refusals, threat, pledge, etc For example, the sentence

“Maybe I can do that tomorrow” shows that the speaker makes a promise of doing something

It is important to remember that the appropriate forms used for commissives vary according to social relationship between the participants in a speech event

There is another approach to speech acts suggested by G Yule that is made on the relationship between structure and function of the utterance When uttering, people can choose different kinds of structures to show the functions of their utterances depending on certain communicative purposes The combination of three structural forms (declarative, interrogative and imperative) and three general communicative functions (statement, question, command/request) creates two types of speech acts: direct and indirect

According to G Yule (1996:55) “coherence there is a direct relationship between a structure and a function, we have a direct speech act, whenever there is an indirect relationship between a structure and a function, we have a direct speech act.”

For example, we have two following structures which transfer the same function that the speaker wants the hearer not to stand in front of the television

1 Move out of the way

2 You’re standing in front of the TV

Structure 1 (imperative) + Function (command/request) = direct speech

Structure 2 (declarative) + Function (command/request) = indirect speech

In the example, different structures (imperative, declarative) can be used to accomplish the same function: a command or request, but only the imperative structure represents a direct speech act and the declarative structure represents an indirect request

In English, it is observed that indirect speech acts are more polite than direct ones in performing some kinds of speech acts especially in requesting

In brief, speech acts are acts performed via utterances which help us understand clearly

“what kind of things we can do with words” as well as identify “some of the conventional utterance forms we use to perform specific actions” (Yule 1996: 58)

1.1.2 Wishing as a speech act

It is no doubt that wishing becomes a vital need in our daily life, especially on special occasions such as New Year, birthday, wedding, etc because it helps people convey and express their feeling and emotion to each other

Wishing like thanking, promising, inviting, requesting, etc is known as one of the most important communicative

According to Wierzbicka “a wish as a speech act expresses a certain mental wish, but not just any wish, it must be a wish claimed at something good that would happen to the addressee” (1987: 227)

Thus, in terms of the speech act theory, wishing is considered to be an act of showing good feelings towards the addressee through utterance(s) For example, when we utter the

sentence like “I wish you a healthy, joyful and happy future”, we do not only produce a

meaningful sentence but we also want to convey our desire to the hearer, and we expect that our communicative intention will be recognized by the hearer In other words, a wish may be a

locutionary act, an illocutionary act or a perlocutionary act

In brief, wishing has all the characteristics of a speech act

1.2 Politeness, face and wishing – a face threatening act

1.2.1 Politeness

* Politeness is the universal concept of human communication across cultures It is also both a communicative and cultural one Many linguistic researchers have given their own definitions of politeness, but most of them share the common theme that politeness is a feature

of language use and a pervasive ritual in human social interaction and how language expresses the social distance between speakers and their different role relationship

According to George Yule (1996:70):

Politeness, in an interaction, can be defined as the means employed to show awareness

of another person’s face

In this sense, politeness can be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness Showing awareness for another person’s face when that other seems socially distant

is often described in terms of respect or deference Moreover, languages differ in how they

express politeness In English, phrases like I wonder if I could… can be used to make a

request more polite

According to Robin Lakoff (1990:38):

Politeness is a system of interpersonal relations designed to facilitate interaction by minimizing the potential for conflict and confrontation inherent in all human interchange

In short, within an interaction, there exists a type of essential concept face, which is worth

proper consideration

* Types of politeness

+ Positive politeness: a face saving act which is concerned with the person’s positive face will tend to show solidarity, emphasize that both speakers want the same thing, and what they have in common

The tendency to use positive politeness forms, emphasizing closeness between speaker and hearer, can be seen as a solidarity strategy Linguistically, such a strategy will include personal information, use of nicknames, and sometimes even abusive terms (particularly among males), and shared dialect or slang expressions Frequently a solidarity strategy will be marked via inclusive terms such as “we” and “let’s” in this following example

Come on Let’s go to the party Everyone will be there We will have fun

+ Negative politeness: a face saving act which is oriented to the person’s negative face will tend to show difference, emphasize the importance of the other’s time or concerns, and even include an apology for the imposition and interruption

A deference strategy is involved in what is called “formal politeness” It is impersonal, as if nothing is shared, and can include expressions that refer to neither the speaker nor the hearer The language associated with a deference strategy emphasizes the speaker’s and the hearer’s independence, marked via an absence of personal claims, as in this alternative version of the party invitation

There’s going to have a party, if you can make it It will be fun

George Yule (1996:66) also adds that “It is worth noting that negative politeness is typically

expressed via questions, even questions that seem to ask for permission to ask a question (for example, Might I ask… ?)

For example:

I know you are busy, but might I ask you if –em-if you happen to have an extra pen that

I could, you know-eh-maybe borrow

In short, there are different kinds of politeness as regards the assumption of relative social distance As we see the example above, it is different from the way a student asks to borrow a pen from his teacher

Excuse me, sir, would you mind lending me your pen?

1.2.2 Face

* Many linguists define face in different way From Yule’s point of view:

As a technical term, face means the public self – image of a person It refers to that emotional and social sense of self that everyone has and expects everyone else to recognize

In addition, according to Richards (1994: 135):

In communication between two or more persons, the positive image or impression of oneself that one shows or intends to show to the other participants is called face

In any social meeting between people, the participants attempt to communicate a positive image of themselves, which reflects the values, and beliefs of the participants For example,

Ms Smith’s face during a particular meeting might be that of “a sophisticated, intelligent,

witty, and educated person” If this image is not accepted by the other participants, feeling

may be hurt and there is a consequent “loss of face” Social contacts between people thus involve what the sociologist of language, Goffman, called face – work, that is, efforts by the participants to communicate a positive face and to prevent loss of face The study of face and face – work is important in considering how languages express politeness

* Face wants

According to Yule (1996:61):

Within social interaction, people generally behave as if their expectations concerning their public self – image, or their face wants, will be respected If a speaker says something that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self – image, it is

described as a face-threatening act (FTA)

Yule also believes that

Given the possibility that some action might be interpreted as a threat to another’s

face, the speaker can say something to lessen the possible threat This is called a face saving

act (FSA)

Yule takes an example:

Imagine a late night scene, where a young neighbour is playing his music very loud and an older couple is trying to sleep One of them proposes a face-threatening act and the other suggests a face saving act

Him: I am going to tell him to stop that awful noise right now

Her: Perhaps you could just ask him if he is going to stop soon because it is getting a

bit late and people need to get to sleep

Because it is generally expected that each person will attempt to respect the face wants of others, there are many different ways of performing face saving acts

1.2.3 Wishing as a face - threatening act (FTA)

Yule (1996:61) has stated that

Within their everyday social interaction, people generally behave as if their expectations concerning their public self – image or their face wants will be respected

Actually, every speech act is potentially an imposition on somebody else’s sense of face – their desire to be unimpeded in their life As we know, if a person says something that represents a threat to another individual’s expectations regarding self – image, it is described

as a face-threatening act (FTA) In fact, in some cases, a wish can be a face-threatening act (FTA) Let us have a typical example:

An employee wishes his boss as follows:

Chúc gia đình sếp sang năm mới tiền vào như nước sông Đà, tiền ra nhỏ giọt như cà phê phin

It is considered as a normal wish on Tet holiday Therefore, it will be a perfect wish if the boss’s wife is not famous among the neighbourhood as a very mean person, or vice- versa, she perceives this as a mocking wish and gets angry In this case, the employee says a wish that represents a threat to the hearer’s expectations regarding self – image For this reason, this wish is described as a face-threatening act

1.3 Relationship of language, culture and communication

1.3.1 Definition of language

It is no double that one of the most distinguished features of human, which makes them far more different from other species, is the discovery of an employing language We all agree that language plays an important part in our daily communication Therefore, it is necessary to define what language is

According to Jackson and Stockwell (1996:1):

Language is the particular form of verbal communication used by a group of speakers

From this point of view, Jackson and Stockwell focus on verbal communication, which is one aspect of intercultural communication (verbal and non-verbal communication) Basing on the above definition, Richards (1996:196) has put out:

Language is the system of human communication, which consists of the structured arrangement of sounds (or their written representation) into larger units, e.g morphemes, words, sentences, utterances In common usage, it refers to non-human systems of communication such as the language of bees, the language of dolphin

In short, language, we have seen, is a system of conventionalized symbols by which we communicate with each other

1.3.2 Definition of culture

There have been numerous definitions of culture As defined by Richards (1996:94), culture is

the total set of beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, social habits, etc of the members of a particular society

According to Nguyen Quang (1998:3):

Culture is a shared background (for example, national, ethnic, religious) resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values Culture refers to the informal and often hidden interactions, expressions and viewpoints that people in one culture share The hidden nature of culture has been compared to an iceberg, most of which is hidden water Like the iceberg, much of the influence of culture on an individual can not be seen The part of culture that is exposed is not always that which creates cross – cultural difficulties: the hidden aspects of culture have significant effects on behaviours and on interactions with other

UNESCO also defined culture as a complex system of symbols that controls the behaviours and communication in a community Therefore, it includes a system of value to judge an event

or a phenomenon in that community

(the receiver) The study of communication is central to sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and information theory

Generally, communication refers to the conveying of and the receiving of a message – meaning between two or more people (interpersonal communication) In order to illustrate the definition of communication, Nguyen Quang shows that:

Communication is the process of sharing meaning through verbal and non-verbal behaviour

In fact, each linguist has his own point of view about communication Above all, definitions of communication are focused on the transfer of meaning In an interactional communication, it requires at least two people: a sender and a receiver It is obvious that language and communication have the close relation

1.3.4 Relationship of language, culture and communication

Language interacts with every aspect of human life in society, particularly with communication Language and communication are closely related with each other in which language is a medium of exchange ideas or a bridge of communication, the system of human communication Each language is a working tool in a certain period and in a community where

it is used

Language is also closely related with culture Society is made up of interpersonal and group relations and it has shared background resulting from a common language and communication style, beliefs, values and perceptions, the combination of which is called culture From this point of view, it can be well assumed that language is a part of culture and culture is interwoven with language Referring to the relationship between culture and language, Edward Sapir stated that:

Language has a setting The people that speak it belong to a race (or a number of races) that is, to a group which is set by physical characteristics from other groups Again, language does not exist apart from the socially inherited assemblage of practices and beliefs that determines the texture of our lives

Language is the heritage and reflection of a culture, the vehicle with which people transmit their culture By speaking and exchanging words the people from a given society/ groups are

creating and shaping their culture with characteristics different from those of other groups’ cultures

The interrelation of language and culture is so close that no part of culture and particular group can be studied without reference to the linguistic symbols in use In addition, no proper

interpretation of a language can be made without looking into its culture To know another’s

language and not culture is very good way to make a fluent fool of one’s self as said by

Winston Brembeck In respect to that, there is a deep and indissoluble link between language and culture

In brief, language, culture and communication are interwoven That is the reason why through the face value of the communication of a group of people, their culture might be more profoundly revealed

1.3.5 Wishing as a need of communication

There is no double that wishing is a sensitive speech act often used by almost of all people from young and old, in almost every place in the world In fact, it is impossible to communicate without a wish For example, when you attend a birthday party, it will be really ridiculous of you if you do not wish the other(s) In such cases like this, a wish is not only a means of communication but a positive politeness also Thus, wishing is considered a necessary need of human in social communication that helps people in the same society maintain and enhance their relationships and people in different countries have a sense of cultural awareness of different customs, traditions and behaviors

CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

2.1 Subject

The survey consists of four parts to fulfill two main aims of the thesis One investigates the factors that influence the Vietnamese and English in their wishing, the occasions and the way they express their wishes The other concentrates on the situations: how they wish different people in different cases The informants of the survey consist of 25 Vietnamese native speakers and 25 English native speakers They belong to different groups of age, gender, living area and occupation

- Female

2.2 Instrument of data analysis

To start the survey, 50 survey questionnaires were distributed to 25 Vietnamese native speakers and 25 English native speakers The informants are requested to fill in the information needed

For contrastive analysis, the followings are taken into account:

- Wishing situations

- Wishing patterns

- Characteristics in wishing

- Strategies in wishing

These aspects are considered in three situations with three cases

- Christmas (British)/ New Year (Vietnamese)

- Wedding Five cases are: (The person wished)

- Close friend

- Colleague

- Acquaintance

- Brother/sister

- Boss The informants are required to number the factor(s), the occasion (s), influence(s) their wishes according to level of importance They are also asked to point out the things they often use together with wishing

2.3 Methods of data analysis

The major method of the study is quantitative one All the statistic data are illustrated through graphs so that readers can clearly recognize the similarities and differences in two groups of strategies

To help the readers have an explicit observation all the findings, the results will be firstly analyzed from Vietnamese informants to English ones, and finally the similarities and differences between the two different groups

CHAPTER 3: DISCUSSION ON FINDINGS

3.1 SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRES AND INFORMANTS

3.1.1 Structure of survey questionnaires

The instrument of providing data is the survey questionnaires that meet the aims of the study The survey questionnaires are designed in Vietnamese and English and delivered to twenty five English informants and twenty five Vietnamese ones

There are five parts in the survey questionnaire, each of which serves a particular purpose of the thesis (the Vietnamese and the English survey questionnaires are attached in the Appendix):

Part 1: This part is designed to obtain information about the informants who are asked to do

the questionnaires

Part 2: The purpose of this part is to find out how the content of wishes varies depending on

social relations Three situations are included in the questionnaires and the informants are asked to answer the following questions:

- Situation 1: What would you say to wish the following person at his/ her birthday party?

- Situation 2: What would you say to wish the following person at New Year/Christmas?

- Situation 3: What would you say to wish the following person at his/ her wedding?

In each situation, wishes are addressed to five different persons who represent:

Part 3: In this part social factors governing the way of extending a wish are considered The

informants are suggested to answer the following question

Which factor(s) influence(s) your wishes? (Please number in order of importance)

- Power status

- Age

- Gender

- Family members

- Others

Part 4: This part focuses on the rank of importance of occasions for wishing

Part 5: This part focuses on components of the act of wishing that are most common in

English and Vietnamese It includes the following questions:

- Expressing in words

- Sending cards with wishing words

- Giving presents with wishing words

- Presenting flowers with wishing words

- Money with wishing words

3.1.2 Grouping of informants

There are two groups of informants in my study The first group consists of twenty five Vietnamese native speakers, all of whom have never acquired any other languages except their mother tongue, Vietnamese Therefore, their ways of interacting represent Vietnamese speech norms The other group consists of twenty five English speakers Fifteen of them are students, five are teachers, and five are workers All of them come from different parts of England The informants are differentiated according to the factors of age, gender, occupation, and residential area where they have spent most of their life

3.1.2.1 Age

Among 50 informants, nine of them are under the age of 20, 19 are between the age of 20 and

30, 14 are in their thirties and 8 are in their forties These data are presented in Table 1:

The number of males and females participated in the survey is relatively equal Nearly half of them are men (21) and the other 29 are women

Table 3: Living area correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents

As seen in the table above, the number of rural citizens who take part in the survey accounts for over 40% Nearly 60% for the informants are living in urban areas

3.1.2.4 Occupation

Table 4: Occupation correlation between English and Vietnamese respondents

In this survey data analysis, I divide occupations into two categories: the social (teacher,

interpreter, writer, journalist, etc.) and the technical (IT engineer, architect, etc.)

3.2 VIETNAMESE FINDINGS FROM THE QUESTIONNAIRES

3.2.1 Comment on the content of Vietnamese wishes in three situations

3.2.1.1 Vietnamese birthday wishes

The analysis of the data has shown that most Vietnamese informants concentrate on wishing each other happiness, promotion and luck The statistical survey of the data is presented in Table 5 In general, most people are commonly receiving wishes of happiness on the occasion

of being one year older The reason for this has to do with traditional Vietnamese values and beliefs; the Vietnamese believe that without happiness a person’s life can not be regarded as a enough

- Chúc bạn bước sang tuổi mới luôn vui vẻ, thành đạt trong cuộc sống

(I hope when you come to your new age, you will be always happy and successful in life)

- Chúc bạn sinh nhật vui vẻ, ra trường tìm được công việc yêu thích

(I hope, my dear friend, you will have a happy birthday, and after graduating you will find

a favourite job)

- Chúc bạn thêm một tuổi mới thêm nhiều niềm vui mới

- (I wish you a brand new and more happiness)

b Colleague

The data in Table 5 shows that most people wish their colleagues promotion, and happiness

and promotion (32% each) There is no surprise in finding that promotion is so popular among

other wishes to colleagues as promotion is considered the key thing to achieve in the working

place Also, happiness is another thing to wish to colleagues on their birthdays (20%) Meanwhile, luckiness is not favored when wishing colleagues Only 4% of the informants have mentioned luckiness in their wishes and another 4% mentioned promotion and luckiness

For example:

- Chúc mừng sinh nhật bạn (Happy birthday!)

- Chúc anh /chị bước sang tuổi mới có nhiều thành công

(I hope when you come to your new age, you will have much success)

- Nhân dịp sinh nhật, chúc anh /chị luôn vui vẻ, hạnh phúc và thành đạt

(At your birthday, I wish you will be always happy, joyful and successful)

c Acquaintance

The data show that much of the wish focuses on happiness (40%).The wish of happiness and

promotion ranks second with 36% “votes” from the informants Luck seems to receive the

least attention as only 4% mention this aspect in their wishing

For example:

- Chúc anh chị sinh nhật vui vẻ

(Hoping you will have a happy birthday)

- Chúc anh/ chị sang tuổi mới luôn hạnh phúc, thành đạt

(I hope when you come to your new age, you will have much success)

d Brother/ Sister

As a matter of fact, Vietnamese people appreciate the relationship between family members

In all cases, family members get the highest priority But others also receive a variety of

wishes such as close friends 24% of the informants wish their brother/ sister happiness

It is notable that the Vietnamese like to use metaphors when expressing their wishes as in the examples below (this expression is so language-specific that I can only translate the meaning

of this wish not its form)

For example:

- Chúc em bước sang một tuổi mới luôn vui vẻ yêu đời

(Hoping you will be always happy and love life when you come to a new year)

Many, i.e 20%, mention luck and promotion in their wishes

- Chúc em gái sang tuổi mới gặp nhiều may mắn, học hành tiến bộ

(Wish you, my sister, luck and academic success in your new age)

e Boss

Compared with other addressees, the boss receives the least “amount” of happiness as only 16% of the informants choose to wish their bosses happiness Meanwhile, it is understandable that many people (32%) focus on promotion in their wishing

For example:

- Chúc anh/ chị sang tuổi mới ngày càng hạnh phúc và thành đạt

(I hope when you come to your new age, you have much success and happiness)

- Nhân dịp sinh nhật anh/chị, em xin gửi tới anh/ chị lừi chúc hạnh phúc, thành đạt trong công việc

(At your birthday, I wish you to be always happy and successful at work)

- Chúc anh/chị ngày càng hạnh phúc và thành công trong sự nghiệp

(At your birthday, I wish you to be always happy and successful in your career)

3.2.1.2 Vietnamese wedding wishes

To some, wedding is the most important occasion in a person’s life It is the turning point, the great change in life which makes a boy a man and a girl a woman This may be the right occasion to wish the newlyweds a bright future together The data provided by the survey

questionnaires show that on this occasion most people often wish: happiness, being together

forever, and wishes of having children early (see Table 6) It is known that the wish to have children early is typically Vietnamese There were the times when the Vietnamese used to wish each other to have many children: “con đàn cháu đống, đầu năm sinh gái cuối năm sinh trai” (large family with many children and grandchildren, at the beginning of the year having

a daughter and at the end of the year having a son)

However, happiness is the most frequently mentioned wish

Happiness and having

- Chúc hai bạn trăm năm hạnh phúc

(Hoping you will always be happy)

Happiness prevails when people congratulate their colleagues with wedding 68% of the

informants mention this wish in the questionnaires Being together forever and having

children soon rank as the second and the third alternatives with 20% and 12% votes

respectively