The Simple Talk

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.