Was he rude or something?

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.