VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES CHU THỊ NGỌC A VIETNAMESE – FILIPINO CROSS CULTURAL STUDY ON GREETINGS AND RESPONSES NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA VIỆT NAM – PHI-LÍP-PIN TRONG CÁCH CHÀO HỎI VÀ ĐÁP LỜI M. Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 HANOI – 2016 z VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FALCUTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES CHU THỊ NGỌC A VIETNAMESE – FILIPINO CROSS CULTURAL STUDY ON GREETINGS AND RESPONSES NGHIÊN CỨU GIAO VĂN HÓA VIỆT NAM – PHI-LÍP-PIN TRONG CÁCH CHÀO HỎI VÀ ĐÁP LỜI M. Minor Thesis Field: English Linguistics Code: 60220201 Supervisor: Tô Thị Thu Hương, Ph. HANOI – 2016 z TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS.
ii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. Research problem and rationale. Aims of the study .3 CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND. Cross-culture communication.
Communication and Cross-cultural communication. Definitions of greetings. Functions and use of greetings. Function of greetings.
Use of greetings. Review of studies on greetings in English and Vietnamese. Factors affecting choice of greetings. Data collection instrument.
Sending consent form and designing questionnaires. Data analysis instrument. Data analysis procedure. For the first dimension: power distance.
For question number 1: Greetings and responses to a director/ manager. Question number 2: Greetings and responses to the staffs. For question number 3: Greetings and responses to a „VIP‟ guest of the company. For question number 4: Greetings and responses to a cleaner/ guard of the company.
Dimension age: Greetings and responses to an older or a younger student. Major findings of the study. Greetings and responses to director/ manager. Greeting and responses to the staffs in the company.
Greetings and responses to a cleaner/ guard. Greetings and responses in other cases .III LIST OF COMPANIES PARTICIPATING IN THE STUDY. IV QUESTIONNAIRES FOR. IV VIETNAMESE – FILIPINO CROSS-CULTURAL STUDY ON GREETINGS AND RESPONSES IN BUSINESS.
IV z DECLARATION I certify that the work contained in this thesis is the result of my own research, and this thesis has not been submitted for any degree at any other university or institution. Hanoi, November 2016 Signature Chu Thi Ngoc i z ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Ph. To Thi Thu Huong, who gave me enthusiastic instructions, patient guidance and precious comments throughout the process of carrying out this study. Had not been for her valuable support and her encouragement, I would not have finished my research.
My sincere thanks are also to those working in companies in The Philippines as well as in Vietnam for their constructive comments as well as their participation which was essential to the completion of the study. Last but not least, I want to send my gratefulness to my family and my friends who have encouraged and support me during the process of doing this study. ii z ABSTRACT This research focuses on finding out what Filipino and Vietnamese working in companies often say to greet and respond in daily conversations. The framework used in this study was built mainly based on Hofstede‟s but with some adaptation; therefore, only four dimensions were applied to gain data.
The four dimensions applied were power distance, gender, age, and acquaintance. Despite some minor differences, there were mostly similarities were found between answers from participants in two countries in particular situations. iii z LIST OF FIGURE AND DIAGRAM Figure 1: Hofstede‟s cultural dimensions Diagram 1: Laver‟s diagram of the Factors that Constrain the Choice of Formulaic Greeting Phrases in British English Table 1: A summary of greetings and responses to a director/ manager Table 2: A summary of greetings and responses to the staffs Table 3: A summary of greetings and responses to a „VIP‟ guest Table 4: A summary of greetings and responses to a cleaner/ guard Table 5: A summary of greetings and responses to an older colleague Table 6: A summary of greetings and responses to a younger colleague Table 7: A summary of greetings and responses to a male colleague Table 8: A summary of greetings and responses to a female colleague Table 9: A summary of greetings and responses to a first meeting colleague Table 10: A summary of greetings and responses to a well-known colleague Table 11: A summary of commonly used topics iv z CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION This chapter aims to provide with the most general information about what is included in the study and how it is carried out. Research problem and rationale Nowadays, the tendency of studying abroad is becoming more and more popular.
Many Vietnamese students have been taking courses in famous universities in English-speaking countries like England, The United States, and Australia. There also appears a trend of coming to some Asian countries where English is spoken as an official language such as Singapore, The Philippines. As a country of the Southeast Asian area, The Philippines is the country that has quite a close relationship with Vietnam. Especially, in the globalization trend and the process of building an Asian Economic Community, the understanding of the countries in this area is really necessary.
However, The Philippines has been familiar with most of Vietnamese only through some films or occasionally-held cultural exchanging programs. Although English is spoken widely in The Philippines, the ways the Filipino use English may be different from that people in other English speaking countries due to distinguished cultural features. Besides, there have not been many studies on relationship between the Vietnamese and the Filipino culture. Deep understanding is even more essential for students who want to learn and people who want to do business in The Philippines and work with the Filipino, and vice versa.
1 z From those above mentioned reasons, the study was conducted under the title ‘A Vietnamese – Filipino cross – cultural study on greetings and responses’ with the hope to find out the similarities as well as the differences in greetings and responses frequently used in these two languages, which is the very first cultural matter people should know when trying to understand a country and a culture. This study paid more attention on how people working in companies greet each other verbally from the cultural approach. Aims of the study This study is conducted with the hope to make some comparisons between the ways Vietnamese and Filipino people greet each other, especially among those working in companies. Main focus is going to be put on verbal language in the business circumstance.
The results of this study may be useful for any Vietnamese student who wants to take a business course in The Philippines; or for the Filipino who want to study, travel or do business in Vietnam. Besides, the findings in this study can be used as a reference for other researchers who have interest in language or culture field. To implement these aims, these three following questions will be used: 1. What are the common greetings and responses in English used by Filipino businessman in the company? 2.
What are the common greetings and responses in Vietnamese used by Vietnamese businessman in the company? 3. What are similarities and differences in greetings and responses in these two languages? 1. Significance This study, on the one hand, hopes to provide the Vietnamese students‟ knowledge of the greetings and responses that the Filipino and the Vietnamese working in companies often use in their everyday business contacts; therefore, they can not 2 z only widen their background knowledge but also make a careful preparation for their learning abroad and future working plans. On the other hand, enterprises probably find the findings of the study useful in their plan of doing business in Vietnam or in The Philippines.
Moreover, as there has not been any research in investigating this issue yet, the research wishes to bring Filipino and Vietnamese people closer through their deeper understanding in culture. Hence, people from these two countries can get benefits in educational, economic and cultural exchanges. Scope The study is going to compare the phrases of Vietnamese and Filipino greetings made by businessmen and staffs in their companies to see the similarities as well as the differences. Here, the Filipino greetings and responses are delivered in English while Vietnamese is used in Vietnam.
Organization The main body of this thesis consists of five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction: presents the rationale, the aims, the significance, the scope and the design of the study. The research questions are also raised in this chapter. Chapter 2: Theoretical background: provides the definition of major related concepts and reviews the related works that compose the theoretical background of the study. Chapter 3: Methodology: gives a more detailed description of methodology used.
Who took part in, which method was used to collect and analyze data. Chapter 4: Findings and discussion: demonstrates the results after analyzing the collected data and gives brief summary answer for the research questions. Chapter 5: Conclusion: summarizes the whole research, gives some implications, and discusses the limitations of the study as well as suggestions for further research. 3 z CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND This chapter introduces the different definitions of greetings and its functions.
Moreover, this chapter will provide a deeper insight into the common greetings and responses used by Vietnamese and Filipino. Cross-culture communication 2. Culture There are hundreds of definitions of culture from different approaches. The writer found that Mahadi (2012) cited a series of different definitions of culture.
He quoted Roohul-Amini‟s definition (1989) that "culture has multifarious meanings. Culture meant farming" (p. From the sociological perspective, culture is the total of the „inherited and innate ideas, attitudes, beliefs, values, and knowledge, comprising or forming the shared foundations of social action‟. Likewise, from the anthropological and ethnological senses, culture „encompasses the total range of activities and ideas of a specific group of people with common and shared traditions, which are conveyed, distributed, and highlighted by members of the group‟ (Collins English Dictionary 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003).
Edward Sapir (1956) considered culture as „a system of behaviors and modes that depend on unconsciousness‟. Whereas, Rocher (1972, 2004), an anthropologist, believes that „culture is a connection of ideas and feelings accepted by the majority of people in a society‟ (p. Undeniably, culture is learned and shared within social groups and is conveyed by non-genetic ways (The American Heritage, Science Dictionary 2005). On the other hand, Hofstede‟s opinion of culture (2005) stated that „culture consists of the unwritten rules of the social game.
It is the collective programming of the mind that distinguishing the members of a group or category of people from others‟ (p. He also claimed the elements of cultures consist of values, beliefs, and material products. Communication and Cross-cultural communication According to Business dictionary, „communication is a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning‟. In other words, communication is considered as a means of connecting people or places.
In business, it is „a key function of management – an organization cannot operate without communication between levels, departments and employees‟. According to Krauss (2002), verbal communication often used signs and symbols and it was the symbolic content of verbal communication that decided the extraordinary effectiveness. He also stated that language is only one of the symbol systems which are employed in human communication. Cross-cultural communication, also known as intercultural communication, is „the sending and receiving of messages across languages and cultures.
It is also a negotiated understanding of meaning in human experiences across social systems and societies‟ (cited by Arent (2009)). In the globalization, awareness of cultural diversity become more and more necessary to help people avoid misunderstanding and achieve communication purposes. Definitions of greetings Greetings are an important part of the communicative competence for being a member of any speech community.