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English and Vietnamese Greeting

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English and Vietnamese Greeting
Running head: ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE GREETINGS

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Contrastive Analysis: English and Vietnamese Greetings Nguyen Thi Bich Hang University of Education

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE GREETINGS

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As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems leading to a failure of communication. Thus, if learners want to develop their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening and speaking, they should improve a wide knowledge about sociolinguistics. Usually in daily life, people tend to use the illocutionary act rather than the locutionary act. Therefore, learners have difficulties in using the target language appropriately in different contexts. A greeting is not an exception. It is considered as the important aspect in cultural life of each nation. There are many different ways of greeting. In Western countries such as France, Spain or Italy, people greet friends by kissing on both cheeks while in the Middle East, Muslims always hug persons of the same sex when greeting each other. What an interesting thing! How about Asians like us? The peoples in Asian countries are quite reticent. So, the way they greet is also discreet and respectful. In Vietnam, greetings are part and parcel of everyday life. Vietnamese ancestors said: “Lời chào cao hơn mâm cỗ”. The statement reveals that greetings played an important role in the old days of our country. According to Goffman, greetings provide the means of the opening conversations appropriately, establish and maintain social relationship (as cited in Li, 2009, p.1), for example “Hello” or “Hi”. In addition, the basic functions of greetings are also to identify the presence of communicators and to show their concern. However, modes of communication in all languages are not the same. That is the reason why imposing the rules of one language on another’s can cause negative transfer which leads awkwardness and misunderstanding.

ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE GREETINGS

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In this paper, I


References: 22 Huyen, Vu. (2009). Cách chào hỏi của người Việt và người Mỹ. Retrieved October, 28, 2009 from http://cnx.org/content/m28811/1.1/ Li, Wei. (2009). Different Communication Rules between the English and Chinese Greetings. Asian Culture and History, 1(2), 1-3. Retrieved November, 6, 2009 from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ach/article/viewFile/3056/2822 Li, Wei. (2009). Different Interpersonal Relationships Underlying English and Chinese Greetings. Asian Culture and History, 5(8), 1-6. Retrieved November, 6, 2009 from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ass/article/viewFile/3441/3115 M. Gass, Susan, & Neu, Joyce (1995). Speech Acts across Cultures: Challenges to Communication in a Second Language. Available November, 27, 2009 from http://books.google.com/books?id=hVr8gCyKJA0C&printsec=frontcover&rview=1 &source=gbs_navlinks_s#v=onepage&q=&f=false Ngan, N.T.H. (n.d.). Lời chào của người Việt. Retrieved November, 8, 2009 from Faculty of Philology: http://nguvan.hnue.edu.vn/NghiencuuKhoahoc/Ngonngu/tabid/89/ArticleID/56/De fault.aspx Srichampa, Sophana. (2003). Politeness strategies in Hanoi Vietnamese speech. MonKhmer Studies, 34, 137-157. Retrieved October, 28, 2009 from http://www.lc.mahidol.ac.th/Documents/Publication/MKS/34/sophana2004politen ess.pdf ENGLISH AND VIETNAMESE GREETINGS 23 Williams, K.E. (2001). An evaluation of greeting exchanges in textbooks and real life settings. Retrieved October, 10, 2009 from http://www.jrc.sophia.ac.jp/kiyou/ki21/kenw.pdf
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