Time passes so fast and the module has ended with our presentations going at full blast. Of the whole module, I would say presentation has been the most interesting of all. Having to sit through presentations (almost everyone's, apologies to those whose presentations I missed!) of our project and learning about so many different things, it has really taught me how each and everyone's understanding of speech events and language use can be so different in so many ways! I have definitely learnt alot about cultural differences and definitely feel that the more understanding we achieve about each other's language due to the influence by various cultures, the more we would definitely live in harmony with one another's differences.
Last of all, I would like to thank Dr Deng for setting up this module and also my apologies for not attending some classes due to my weak body and accidents! (So much things happening for a year!) Bidding for this module was definitely quite hair raising! I saw there was only so little slots available and the points just kept going up and up. I was hoping to get it and I did! I'm glad the module was fun and enjoyable and unlike all others I have taken. In any case, I'm still happy that I took this module and am actually quite sad that its over so fast! Though I'm happy yet again the assignment deadlines are gone.
And also, I'll like to thank Christine and Ghafur for putting up with my incessant troubles and worries. You guys have been a great team to work with! My apologies for all the troubles I gave you all!
To all my other classmates, hope you all enjoy the module as much as I did and hope we keep and apply what we learnt about each other's cultural differences and be tolerant towards each other! To people like Say Wee and Eileen, remember to say Hi to me if we meet each other again at ADM! Ha! Good luck for all the coming examinations and I wish everyone good luck and all the best!
Having done this topic individually like E-learning week, I really do have difficulty trying to link up all the stuff I read in the powerpoint slides, the notes and the tutorial questions. But nevertheless, I willl still try my best here!
The CARS model is actually quite interesting to look at. In fact, I feel that this topic should have been placed right at the start of the module. Letting us understand how a research article is done and the different parts involved with it. In fact, looking at the different parts that we need to write on and elaborate upon, it somehow gives me a feeling that we all should have known it quite obviously from the start. The more you write and read on other articles, I think these would have naturally come around as we make reference to other articles to write. But for someone who has a quite poor grasp of the English Language (having got myself a C6 and taking the English class during my first year), I feel this would have been a good guide for me to write any future articles. Though as much as my friends can tell me how I should write an article, I'm still at a loss at starting and going on always. This is still a good guide for me. I'm glad this came along though I should have read up more about such things earlier in my life.
About Letters of Application, it is yet another lesson of the various cultural influences that bring upon the different discourse encountered throughout life. Like in the Arabic letters, there is this line "I supplicate Allah, the Glorious..." which truly shows how huge the impact of the religion has upon the region that even in an official letter towards an educational instituition, religion can be used as a form of persuasion towards the recipient. However, in the English letters, the writer expresses his great interest to the job by asking for a response by providing his phone number and telling the recipient that he is eager to contribute positively to the company. I am, yet again, still very much amazed by how all these cultural differences lead to the world we have today. All the different views and ideas about life and the world's events. All these make me wonder if people would really start to understand how language can be used in so many different ways, both good and bad. Understanding each other's language is really just one step closer to harmony between everyone.
Having to identify conversations between male-to-male, female-to-female and male-to-female was certainly quite interesting. Doing the acitvity made me think about how males would speak to one another and how females would do so and how people of the opposite gender would converse with each other. Between males, the language use is certainly more coarse and topics are usually quite technical, like for example cars, computers, games, etc. I cant imagine a conversation between males would not include those topics.
Male to male interactions to me would be much more simpler and direct and involve less emotions. The males would talk less about how they feel about our daily lives and about their relationships and similar matters. Whereas for female-to-female interactions, I would imagine the conversation topics would include pop idols, males whom they find cute, gossip about other people they mutually know of, beauty products and many other aesthetics and emotional matters. Matters like the latest fashion or problems they faced or about their individual boyfriends would what I can think of to be present in this conversatoin.
However, male-to-female conversations would certainly turned out to be much more different as compared to these two. It would definitely differ from whom one party is speaking to. For instance, if the male was interested in the female, topics like going out on a date, places they loved going the most or maybe the things they like to do would come up more often. And the male might speak more in this context to find out more about the female and if the female was interested in the male, she might speak more with the male. However, if the female find the male dull and boring, she might not speak to him much and probably talk of only superficial matters like , for example, the weather and school work, or maybe probably just respond to the male's words for the sake of giving a response?
In fact, the behaviour in a conversation between male-to-male, female-to-female and male-to-female would differ alot depending on the parties involved in the speech event. Male-to-male talk could be quite lengthy if they were to talk about women while female-to-female conversations could get quite short if they were to talk of the latest technologies. The same would go for male-to-female conversations as well. They might be very good friends and talk alot more as compared to two parties who are not very familiar with each other and probably are merely acquaintances. The length, the behaviour and the topics being exchanged in a conversation would certainly very much depend on the relationship between both parties of the discourse and it would be very much interesting to see a research on the effect of relationship on a speech event between people of different gender.
First of all, I would like to take the chance to apologise to Dr Deng for disrupting the class and having to leave early. Nevertheless, I am sad that I had to miss the second class activity that would otherwise help us understand better about the things taught during the last lesson. But as such, I would do my best to write up my weekly reflections with the best of my ability.
Nowadays, the computer is so closely related to our everyday lives that it is almost impossible to live without it. Take the usual lectures for instance, every lecture we have attended has made use of the all-time-popular Microsoft Powerpoint software to create their lectures and uploaded them as notes for students to download. The computer has really evolved so much that even the older generations are encouraged to learn to use the computer. The language used while communicating with other using the internet is still fairly new I would say. It only took less den a decade for the internet to have progressed to this stage and communication via this medium is still very much developing over the years. Over this time, linguists has already completed so much studies over the years.
The use of netlingo has progressed much over the years and almost everyone (especially the younger generation) using the internet would have used some form of netlingo. Some popular examples would include "gtg" - got to go, "brb" - be right back, "cu" - see you and many others! Even I use some of these abbreviations and certainly use emoticons like "=)" or "=(" in my daily online conversations with my friends online. The use of these netlingo is certainly very much part of the younger generation's online communication I would say.
The study on Gender and Identity interests me the most. It is certainly most surprising when we were shown that in the first study, the females actually would use more profanity as compared to the males but the second study showed otherwise. But it would be much more complete if the study were to be done with regards to the environment in which each party was brought up in and the company they had. For example, for myself, I was brought up in a mixed environment where I have both very refined relatives and very, i would say, "unrefined" ones.
Since young, I heard so much coarse language in a few dialects and of course could see the difference between who uses them more, and in this case, the males are definitely using it more. But this is due to the environment in which they were brought up in. The family was poor and had to work since young and probably this was only one of the many reasons in which the language use was much more "wide-spread" as compared to the standard language use. On the other hand, the more refined ones were educated and has more ability to support the education costs and thus, I see the use of more standard language from them. Therefore, I think it would be more helpful if the study would include factors like where the both parties were from, how their environment was like, etc. It would be interesting to see how these factors affect the way a person spoke over the internet.
E-learning week has certainly proven to be very much different from the usual routine we always go through. This week requires so much more self discipline to read through the lectures provided and try to figure out what the lecturer is trying to bring across to us. This has proven hard for me as I am having difficulty just reading through notes without much explanation. Anyway, back to the topic!
Personally I use the Approbation and Modesty Maxim mainly when I speak to most people around me. For example, some friends are upset about certain matters and talk to me about it. I'll be using the Approbation Maxim and say things like "You are just different from the people around you so don't let that affect your feelings" or "You are merely trying something new which is good!", depending on what the situation calls for.
I think these Maxims are certainly very useful in analysing how others are speaking to you and how a conversation is being held. Each week as more and more terms are taught to us, I feel that I start to take note of how people talk to each other more often than I realised and as each conversation is being held, sub-consciously, I start to analyze the turns taken by each party and start to think why and how this conversation is being held.
And then, there's the Negative and Positive Politeness Strategies. I find myself using these two strategies often at times! Like for example, I am asking my usual clinque of friends out for dinner and one of them says that he/she is not free, I'll be using the positive politeness strategy and trying to tell the person who's going, where we are heading to, how long have we not met up and etc to try and persuade the person to come. As for Negative Politeness Strategy, I do use them when I meet up with people who I am still not very close to. Everything being taught is so closely inter-related to each other and only after each lesson every week, do I see that even our normal conversation is so complicated within.
Indeed there are many ways to bring across a certain point but across various cultures, it would be very hard indeed. Imagine trying to speak to an American with "Singlish" or trying to speak one dialect to a person of another dialect group (i.e. Hokkien Language to a Hakka). During the lecture, the video has a situation where someone was trying to differentiate the meaning of "being pissed" in two very different countries. One meant being drunk while the other meant being angry. I had no idea being pissed meant being drunk either. But this would once again show the diversity of discourse throughout the world and stress upon the fact that everyone would really need to understand each culture's use of language to avoid most misunderstandings.
The activity on the Australian and the Thai reaction towards an elderly neighbour has certainly opened my eyes to how different cultures react differently towards the same situation. The different teachings and many other environmental factors in the country really would depict how one would react to the same situation.
About Power Distance, this is certainly something which I can see very very clearly in my family and certainly in other very traditional family. My father has always the last say and sometimes is quite stubborn to changes but I do luckily have my sister to help out in persuading my father that sometimes what he has in mind is not always the best. When we were all young, we were beat "senseless" if we were to do anything that would let others gossip about my parents not teaching us well or when we do anything wrong. Now, the situation is quite different though. My parents do listen to what we have to say and decide upon the next course of action and I could really see how power distance could change with age too! It would be interesting to compare this on a national level amongst several sensitive powerful figures and their past interviews shown on television.
I never knew how writings could be so different across cultures. Probably I have not been exposed to many literary writings by various cultures. I think the environment an individual is in somewhat plays a big part in how the writing is done. The activity we did in class is rather beneficial in bringing out these differences. For example, Arabians write in an assertive way and the Chinese write in a "roundabout" manner. While I have not done Chinese writings for a very, and I really mean very, long time, but I personally quite like the descriptive writings that Chinese writings offer. Perhaps all these allusions to the scenery give off a romanticized feel to the language and offers more than plain, direct speech.
It would be interesting to see how an English man and a Chinese man trying to converse with each other and one is trying to get to the point while the other is beating around the bush even though the topic of the conversation is the same. Imagine the frustrations felt by the Englishmen while listening to the Chinese talk about the scenery and not getting straight to the point. The Chinese might have been proud of all his descriptive language all the time!
In the handouts provided, in 3.7, the Chinese man talks about his own life experience and his thoughts and feelings to the Australian on the other end. However, the Australian might be thinking that the writer is probably writing a load of nonsense to him. To a Chinese, it is rather a cultural and social matter to introduce themselves and establish rapport with the recipient through sharing matters about themselves. Ultimately, the aims are the same but in such a globally connected world, there is a strong need for everyone to accept and learn each other's culture, including discourse. If not, there would certainly be many misunderstandings.
It is interesting to see how a simple telephone conversation can be interpreted in so many ways but in particular, I'm intrigued by the way people talks over the telephone in Netherlands. I would see that happening in corporate front reception or maybe over a helpline we call for our various mobile services. And I definitely do not identify myself when I answer a call. My phone openings goes somewhat like this (if I was answering, with our Singlish):
Me: Eh yo!! How you doing man? What's up?
Friend: Okay lor. Feeling damn sian cuz of work. Anyway right!! *main topic*
This is my usual response to any phone calls. But it depends on what I am talking to as well! If I was answering an unknown number phone call, it'll go like this:
Me: Hello? *very very suspiciously*
Unknown: Hi! Is that *so-and-so*? I calling from ABC company.
Me: *toot toot toot* *hunged up*
Well yes! My phone opening might as well be my closing too. I usually just listen out for who is on the line as I cant be bothered with people who got my number through unknown means.
During the class, we spoke about listener response. I myself feel that it is important for both parties of a conversation to respond to each other with "hmmm"s, "ohh"s or "yes"s. If not, how do we actually know that the other party is listening and taking in what you are talking about? That is why I am very surprised when it was mentioned that Swedes do not have much listener response. How do they actually know that the other party is listening? Or when they talk, they just want someone to direct their subject to? I probably would be very very offended if I was on the phone with one of them.
Once again, culture plays a huge part of how we converse over the telephone and what we say first in a phone opening. After going through this, I began to wonder what people of other nationalities think of our phone openings as compared to theirs. Whether they were offended, confused or just plainly unable to hear or tell any differences. I certainly would not have paid any attention to phone openings until now and I am still, very, amazed by how our simple conversations can be categorised in such a way. I cannot wait to see what the next lesson topics would be.
Speech Acts! After the lesson on Speech Events, what we went through just two lessons back were only the tip of the iceberg! I thought that was quite enough to categorise the way we talk and react to one another but lo and behold, Speech Events came along and started to categorise what kind of conversations we were having. Everything we said, every conversation we held, every response we had, each was a speech event. I was quite intrigued by how everything we said was a start, a part or the ending of a speech event.
Thinking of that, the class activity where we need to come up with a speech event and break them up into the various components was, well, tough for me. I only had one speech event I could prominently think of and that was speaking with canteen operators. I'm glad Huiling from my group had an interesting interview not long ago and we could use that for the activity. *On a side note, Say Wee's handwriting is SUPER ORGANIZED and NEAT compared to ours!*
Nevertheless, the activity made me think much more about my conversations with my friends and family throughout the past weeks after the lesson ended. A simple conversation with my family or friends was a speech event and suddenly, I had so many speech events to list down! Talking about the fishes with my sister, asking my friends out for dinner, telling my mother about my cough, talking to friends who ride about my motorcycle, etc etc. There was so many I came up with while riding to work that afternoon.
And still, to categorise them into the 10 components still prove hard for me and I doubt I will get used to this in a couple of days. Until then, more practice and thoughts about Speech Events for me now. See you all coming Friday!
Ending off the post, I would like everyone to see this video, along with my interpretation with the 10 components. It is very very meaningful and it kind of shows the change of culture and value to the younger generation nowadays. Have we really done our part AT ALL?
Genre: Comparison Topic: How fortunate each mother is Purpose or function: To let others know how great a job their children are doing Setting: Seemingly an old folks' home if I am right Key: Joyous but melancholic Participants: A few mothers whose children are supposedly well off except for one. Message form: Speech and probably some exaggaration of the truth
Act Sequence:
It is hard for me to write out this part but here goes!
Mother 1: *talks about her children's accomplishment*
Mother 2: *continues on the conversation with her side of the story and asks another mother*
The sequence continues on with each mother until they reach the last one who has yet to say anything and gives an extraordinarily meaningful answer which strikes all of the mothers hearts.
Rules of Interaction: All participants are required to share the succes of their children and show others how happy and fortunate they are to have them.
Norms of Interpretation: When the elderly gathers together, the usual would be to talk about what they were doing and how they are coping with their lives. In an old folks' home, there are many parents who were physcially "dumped" by their children who seemingly have no time for them and having to do a lot of work. They would naturally feel lonely and unwanted and when they come to gather together, the usual topic would be how their children were doing. This is the same for my mothers with all my aunts, not that they are in an old folks' home or anything but this what they always talk about during Chinese New Year. In my opinion, these mothers are using the success of their children to cover up how lonely they actually feel and how much they yearn for their children's attention. Being a Chinese, filial piety is of utmost importance and having being born into the world and brought up by your parents without complaints, they would expect their child to do the same. In the current world, values and morals are somehow mixed up with money and materials possessions. In the video, money is viewed as part of filial piety but in the end, it is quite obvious what actually holds more value than money.
I hope what I wrote was somehow correct as I am still having difficulties putting the right words to the right places but do tell me if anyone of you feels I'm wrong somewhere or I'm able to do a better job. Thanks for reading all the way to the end anyway! Hope everyone learnt something from the video. I did.
It is truly surprising how much a simple action could have so much meaning! I was having fun in the lesson trying to figure out what my usual reaction was to some of the phrases given in the questionnaire. Some of us imagined themselves to be talking to a close friend of theirs while others imagined talking to their parents or even total strangers on the street doing surveys. The tone involved in the conversation depended on whom we were talking with.
For instance, when a close friend compliments you on your dressing, in my own behavior, I would usually reply with “Of course I’m looking good! Who do you think I am?” However, if a not-so-close friend gives the compliments, the reply would usually be of the thanking and returning categories. Why is there such a difference in behavior? Probably it is human’s natural instinct to be wary of people who have yet to enter your inner sanctum of trust and still build a wall around themselves or, MAYBE, it is only polite to do so because we are not so close to the other party, not knowing whether they can take the joke.
As mentioned in class, Chinese in particular tend to be more of thanking and denigrating themselves while receiving compliments and Westerners tend to be the opposite. However, this proves to be wrong after consolidating all our responses from the questionnaire after the group discussion. I believe this to be a teaching passed down from our ancestors in Ancient China, the teachings of humility. In Western countries, I have an inkling that the teachings are to accept all compliments or criticism with grace and elegance. That leaves much to say and probably requires more research in this area, for myself that is.
I would also like to touch on how a particular speech act performed in various languages by different speech communities. It was not as obvious before but now that it is mentioned, there is a Mandarin variety show on television that has people of different nationalities gathered together and getting them to speak Mandarin in various ways. Some of these include tongue twisters, which I personally find it to be very entertaining. The host also tried to get these foreigners to speak “Singapore-Style”, or Singlish, as most of us know it as. The way in which others are unable to comprehend the Singapore lingo is how we are unable to comprehend other lingos used in other countries. After the class on Friday, I really do see how speech acts are performed in various speech communities and it is really interesting to see how our simple conversation can be termed in so many ways.
