A Contrastive Analysis of Compliments in American English and Vietnamese

Let’s take a look at these four sentences that I encountered in this book (write them on the board):

1). The author details, Connie is always checking for the opinions of other's. Her self-esteem is dependent on other's reactions to her. She was so consumed by her beauty that became her central focus. It is irresistible for her to look at her beauty and the details of her reflection on mirror.

Linguistic tone – Some languages have a different tone to ours and may sound either more aggressive or passive, and once translated can mean something different.

I’m Vietnamese, but I cannot speak the language. Both of my grandparents are immigrants who came to Vietnam after the war. My dad was born in Vietnam and my mother was born in Louisiana. All of them speaks fluent Vietnamese, but only my mother speaks English. Growing up, it became harder and harder for me to communicate with my family in a sense that they did not know what I was saying and vice versa. Granted, I went to a Vietnamese school when I was younger but later dropped out once my family became busy with life.

All three of the authors expressed how certain terms directed towards certain people, derive either negative or positive connotations. Individually, the authors write an opinion on the matter through various analogies. According to Tannen, words can provoke a contrary intention. She uses the word bossy, as an example that a simplistic

In Amy Tan article “Mother tongue”, Amy Tan was talking about her love and fascination of language in daily life. Amy Tan explores the various forms of English that people from around the world use as they immigrate to the U.S. and how they are classified by the way they speak. Her mother plays a big role in telling of how her perspective on language has been changed. The author’s analyze the purpose and evaluate the effectiveness in her writing using persuasive devices to influence her audience. Through the article Amy use the various different rhetorical strategies such as the pathos and logos.

Communication is all about sharing, what one person says isn’t always what the other person hears or interprets. Where people from the same backgrounds with similar experiences will see and hear things in a similar way, where as one person from a certain culture entertaining a visitor from another culture or country may say something which is totally misinterpreted from the visitor. This can be down to language barriers, slang/jargon etc, an example of this would be an English man saying in

Vietnamese language is unique, a combination of phonetic inflection and tonal variations. Luan (2011), states that Vietnamese language “reflects contributions from many ethnic groups” and further describes it as “a singing and musical language”. China had a major influence in Vietnam’s language, having occupied Vietnam for 1,000 years. During Chinese rule, Vietnamese language assimilated many Chinese words, changing pronunciation to align with Vietnamese language structure. Even after the Chinese rule ended Vietnamese still used Chinese characters in writing until the 1900’s. Vietnam adopted many cultural ideas from China, the lunar New Year is celebrated in both countries. While keeping in common the celebration of the lunar New

Another big difference of both countries is food. Vietnamese foods include: rice or noodles, meat, and vegetables in every meal. Almost every Vietnamese meal is sit down rather than grab and go. Vietnamese cuisine mostly focuses on varieties of vegetables and herbs in every dish. A Vietnamese dinner normally includes white rice, a small plate of typical sauce, a bowl of soup, a dish of vegetables, and two dishes of animal meat, which could be pork, beef, fish, and chicken. The vegetables can be made with plenty of different methods: boil, steam, fry, grill, or sometimes we eat raw. The main spices Vietnamese people use to make their food are garlics, peppers, sugar, monosodium glutamate, chicken bouillon, and fish sauce. That makes a harmonious mixture of sweet, spicy, salty taste.

The contractor testified that the house was completed and that the work had been done properly.

A life coach , and counselor , Laura trice, in her Ted Talk, “Remember to Say Thank You” Advocates that individuals should “Praise each other” in order to create more self confidence and create less neglection. Trice uses the combination such as the use of theoretical questions, anaphora, personal stories, in order to help convey her message with the use of a tranquil and very optimistic tone to help inspire others to learn to praise one another.

Do, Minh Hong T. Tieng Viet: Introduction to Vietnamese Language and Culture. 3rd ed. Sacramento: Cosumnes River College, 2004. Print.

In Tan’s earlier years, her mother’s English limited her own perception of her; Tan even states that she was ashamed of her mother’s English at the time. There were several instances recalled by Tan in which her mother was treated differently because of her grammar while speaking to unfamiliar business people. While in department stores, banks, and even restaurants, Tan’s mother was ignored and given mediocre

De Jong and Berg (2013) explain that complimenting uses the positives about a client to reinforce what is important to the client. Being so new to interviewing, I cannot say I chose to give the compliments, but it did seem natural at the time. I feel like it was successful in reinforcing that, despite the struggle with the new rules, Julia was looking out for the best interest of her clients and wants to do her job well. Julia reacts each time with a slight smile, a head nod, and a “mmm-hmm” of agreement. I wish, at 9:11, I would not have continued by telling her how she must be feeling without asking if that was a proper summarization of her thoughts. Because of this, I give myself a three out of five on complimenting.

They don’t call other’s name without Mr. Ms. in Vietnamese. Even for younger people, they have a word for it. They have very interesting verbal communication style which is they avoid to say no in their conversation because it would be disrespectful. For instance, if someone invites you to a party and you won’t be able to go, but still you should say “yes” at the moment. Even if they said yes, they might not show up. The host won’t get mad or upset in a situation. In their culture, it’s better for them just not showing up with “yes” answer instead of saying “no” in person because they want to keep their face positively. They highly use an indirect communication method. Indirect communication method is common culture in Asia. Still, yes answer which means no would not be acceptable in Japan. Vietnamese also avoid to correct others’ mistake or praise only one person in front of others. They rely on more non-verbal communication than vernal communication. Men use handshake and bowing slightly, but women are not very comfortable to handshake with a man, but it has changed for a younger generation. It’s not necessary to have eye contact like the US. They don’t also use hand gesture much. For verbal communication, it’s very important for them to keep their tones. If a person have a loud voice, they might take it as a negative impression. They want to keep a