Turn bad news into the best thing ever

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PART 1: INTRODUCTION1. RationaleIt goes without saying that language plays an important part not only in recording and understanding culture but also in communication among people who share or do not share the same nationality, social or ethnic origin, gender, age, occupation. What is more, “language is closely related to the way we think and to the way we behave and influence the behavior of others” (Karmic 1998:79). Hence, culture can be well-understood or grasped with the help of language and culture exchanges (i.e. cross-cultural or intercultural communication). To support this point of view, Durant (1997: 332) claims that “to have a culture means to have communication and to have communication means to have access to a language.”Although well aware of the ultimate objective of learning a foreign language toward successful communication, many Vietnamese learners of English hold that a good command of a foreign language or success in foreign language learning lies only in mastering grammar rules and accumulating as much vocabulary as possible. As a result, even possibly producing grammatically well-formed utterances, they may experience unwanted culture shock, and communication breakdown when running into a real and particular context of situation. This unexpected incidence occurs due to their insufficient knowledge and awareness of social norms and values, roles and relationships between individuals, especially those from the target culture. It is worth noting that different languages and cultures have different expressions of behavior and different realizations of speech acts by language users. This has suggested a considerable number of researchers, both local and foreign to conduct their studies on cross-cultural pragmatics and/ or communication such as thanking, requesting, complementing, etc. However, little attention has been paid to the speech act of giving bad news using hedges. In daily life, no one likes to give their relatives or friends bad news because rarely does he/ she find it easy to reduce listeners’ feeling of sadness, to lessen the hurt, but sometimes even the best, brightest and most talented, the informers are left with no choice. Nevertheless, to convey bad news such as informing the death of the husband in an accident to his wife if the speaker goes straight to the point with: 1 “Your husband died in the accident.”he/ she may cause such a sudden shock to the wife (the hearer) that she can hardly stand it. Conversely, the wife in the above case will feel less painful if the news is given this way:“As you know, among 212 passengers, only two survived. And I regret to inform you that your husband is not among the lucky two”Needless to say, hedges such as “as you know”, “I regret to inform” have been resorted to for the effect of minimizing the shock. Hedging is used in a certain context for specific communicative intent such as: one strategy of politeness, vagueness, and mitigation. Therefore, a desire to have a further insight into major similarities and differences in using hedges before giving bad news by native speakers of VNSs and ENSs has inspired the writer to develop her research entitled “A Vietnamese-English cross-cultural study of the use of hedging before giving bad news” . It is hoped that this study can provide Turn bad news into the best thing ever Turn bad news into the best thing ever Bởi: Joe Tye “Though hidden from plain sight, on the other side of every challenge is the opportunity to experience immense personal growth Starting now, make the effort to view all challenges that come your way as hidden opportunities This simple shift in mindset will make a tremendous difference in the number of accomplishments you experience throughout your life.” Josh Hinds: Live Big: It’s Your Life Several months ago, within a three day period I heard from three friends who each had lost their executive level positions As you might expect, they were angry, anxious and depressed, and worried about what the future might bring That’s human nature, and we’ve all been there, one way or another Without really being aware it was happening, they had begun the process of “awfulizing” – visualizing mental images of their families living under a bridge because they were unable to support them When I assured them that they would very soon look back and say it was the best thing that could have happened, I think they understood the message at an intellectual level, but in their hearts really didn’t buy it Over the past week I heard from all three friends Two of them have just started new jobs, and the third is trying to decide which of several job offers he wants to accept In every case the new job is closer to their heart’s passion than what they were doing before, and they get a pay raise to boot Sooner or later something like that is going to happen to all of us because, to paraphrase the title of Harold Kushner’s wonderful book, bad things happen to good people And when they do, you would ideally look back and say it was the best thing that ever could have happened – and if you can’t say that, at least be able to have found some blessing from the experience 1/1 PART 1: INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale It goes without saying that language plays an important part not only in recording and understanding culture but also in communication among people who share or do not share the same nationality, social or ethnic origin, gender, age, occupation. What is more, “language is closely related to the way we think and to the way we behave and influence the behavior of others” (Karmic 1998:79). Hence, culture can be well-understood or grasped with the help of language and culture exchanges (i.e. cross-cultural or intercultural communication). To support this point of view, Durant (1997: 332) claims that “to have a culture means to have communication and to have communication means to have access to a language.” Although well aware of the ultimate objective of learning a foreign language toward successful communication, many Vietnamese learners of English hold that a good command of a foreign language or success in foreign language learning lies only in mastering grammar rules and accumulating as much vocabulary as possible. As a result, even possibly producing grammatically well-formed utterances, they may experience unwanted culture shock, and communication breakdown when running into a real and particular context of situation. This unexpected incidence occurs due to their insufficient knowledge and awareness of social norms and values, roles and relationships between individuals, especially those from the target culture. It is worth noting that different languages and cultures have different expressions of behavior and different realizations of speech acts by language users. This has suggested a considerable number of researchers, both local and foreign to conduct their studies on cross-cultural pragmatics and/ or communication such as thanking, requesting, complementing, etc. However, little attention has been paid to the speech act of giving bad news using hedges. In daily life, no one likes to give their relatives or friends bad news because rarely does he/ she find it easy to reduce listeners’ feeling of sadness, to lessen the hurt, but sometimes even the best, brightest and most talented, the informers are left with no choice. Nevertheless, to convey bad news such as informing the death of the husband in an accident to his wife if the speaker goes straight to the point with: 1 “Your husband died in the accident.” he/ she may cause such a sudden shock to the wife (the hearer) that she can hardly stand it. Conversely, the wife in the above case will feel less painful if the news is given this way: “As you know, among 212 passengers, only two survived. And I regret to inform you that your husband is not among the lucky two” Needless to say, hedges such as “as you know”, “I regret to inform” have been resorted to for the effect of minimizing the shock. Hedging is used in a certain context for specific communicative intent such as: one strategy of politeness, vagueness, and mitigation. Therefore, a desire to have a further insight into major similarities and differences in using hedges before giving bad news by native speakers of VNSs and ENSs has inspired the writer to develop her research entitled “A Vietnamese-English cross-cultural study of the use of hedging before giving bad news” . It is hoped [...]... will, be turned into new trends Nevertheless, there are steps that the creator of a new idea or the enthusiastic very early adopter of a concept can take to increase the odds of turning the cool new thing into, indeed, a new trend 4 ❙ COOLFARMING The Four Steps of Coolfarming This swarm-based innovation process happens in four steps: STEP 1 The creator comes up with the cool idea STEP 2 The creator... into the next big thing? The good news is, there are indeed steps you can take to be cool, and to convert your ideas into a cool trend This book addresses the basic questions of what the magic of cool is It shows you how to “coolfarm” your ideas, how to make trends cool, and how to become cool yourself Coolfarming tells how to convert creative 2 ❙ COOLFARMING dreams into cool products by enlisting the. .. finding the next big thing The trick is not to look for the trend, but to look for the Edisons, the cool people creating the cool trends Coolhunting means finding trends by finding the trendsetters It means being on the lookout for the four-step process involving 8 ❙ COOLFARMING (1) creator, (2) COIN, (3) CLN, and (4) CIN The earlier in the process you can identify the trendsetters, the better By the time... buddies, then extends it to a CLN by integrating feedback from early adopters of his product, and finally grows it into a global CIN of loyal customers The basic principle of coolfarming is to not directly invite others in, but to advertise the idea and let others find the group and the idea They will come because the idea appeals to them, and because they respect the flag bearers This means that the community... free forever Rather, they are risk takers who are convinced of the potential of a new idea or concept, and they are willing to invest their own resources, be it time, social capital, or money, in the new HOW DO YOU TURN A COOL IDEA INTO A TREND? ❙ 17 idea without knowing yet how they’ll be paid back for their investment If they are right in their assessment, they will be paid back in the end, perhaps... together And the rest, as the saying goes, is history CLNS Once the cool idea has been turned into a product by the COIN, people in the COIN bring the product to their friends and family In a two-way learning process, this extended group, the Collaborative Learning Network, learns the basics of the product from the COIN members, makes suggestions for improvements, and points out deficiencies of the. .. of the project, the problem owner will FIGURE 1–3 Conventional project management monitor progress and intervene if she decides that the project does not follow the plan anymore In the end, the AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR STUDENTS AT SECONDARY SCHOOL TURN THESE SENTENCES INTO THE PASSIVE VOICE 1.Tom wrote this report yesterday. 2.People plant a lot of flowers in Da Lat. 3.Our form teacher holds a class discussion every month. 4.Miss Hoa teaches my sister English. 5.People use milk for making butter and cheese. 6.They have given Tom a present. 7.Does Mr. Green often take them to the cinema on Sundays? 8.Do they hold a meeting every month? 9.The weather has turned all the leaves yellow. 10.Have they asked you several questions? 11.People play football all over the world. 12.People speak French and English in Canada. 13.She is going to invite him to her birthday party. 14.I don’t like people telling me what to do. 15.No-one can do that work. 16.Who wrote it ? 17.Did you send her a present yesterday? 18.The builders were building the new bridge when we came. 19.He will open the shop tomorrow. 20.A famous writer wrote that book. 21.Jack won’t pay the bill. 22.Someone built this house in 1990. 23.My sister cleans the room everyday. 24.A lion killed Mary’s dog last week. 25.Does Tom always do his exercises carefully? 26.Her mother doesn’t cook meals in the kitchen. 27.The teacher punished Tom because of his laziness. 28.Did Henry sing English songs beautifully? 29.About thirty million people are watching this programme. 30.No-one has ever met him before. 31.People used oil-lamps years ago. 32.When did they open that hospital? 33.No-one has made any comments on that event. 34.What do they call the new hotel? 35.We must wash this kind of cloth in warm water only. 36.People consume gas faster than they produce it. 37.Nobody has seen him anywhere this week. 38.Did anyone see you come in? 39.I remember that my father took me to town to see that film. 40.Someone told him he could not take the examination. 41.The hosts gave us a very warm welcome. THE ENGLISH GROUP - HOAØNG VAÊN THUÏ SECONDARY SCHOOL AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR STUDENTS AT SECONDARY SCHOOL 42.Has anyone ever taught you how to behave? 43.Thieves broke into the house. 44.They have awarded the best student a scholarship. 45.They made him stay behind after class. 46.They built that old red house in the year 1822. 47.They have already announced the result of the exam. 48.They have sold thousands of CD machines since 1983. 49.Someone might find a solution to the problem soon. 50.Our hosts treated us very kindly last Saturday. 51.They told me that they could borrow some money. 52.He made her cry yesterday. 53.Who wrote this letter? 54.What did they pay you for doing the job? 55.Someone should tell him never to do it again. 56.The form teacher wants John immediately. 57.You must pay the bill at once. 58.Didn’t they tell you to be here by six o’clock? 59.Our father often takes us to the zoo at weekends. 60.How can we keep our fields in good condition? 61.You must give more care to your work. 62.Did you give Lan a dictionary on her birthday? 63.You have to give the book back. 64.Mozart wrote more than 600 pieces of music. 65.He is painting his house green now. 66.They cut my hair every two months. 67.We haven’t seen Peter yet. 68.Ben and John are painting the fence. 69.People speak English all over the world. 70.They were building a new school here when we came. 71.He will send his parents a package. 72.She has bought two new dresses recently. 73.You must write these music lessons in ink. 74.We saw our friends outside the church. 75.The little girl puts the gift on the shelf. 76.They can see various kinds of strange flowers,trees and plants at the Botanical Gardens. 77.She took off her raincoat. 78.He can’t enjoy the display of fireworks. 79.They are growing vegetables in this field. 80.The school children have had a meeting in class. 81.No-one has opened this box for ages. 82.Lan took her mother to the airport. 83.An English expert is training our national football team. 84.Nam can answer my questions. THE ENGLISH GROUP - HOAØNG VAÊN THUÏ SECONDARY SCHOOL AN ENGLISH COURSE FOR IT’S THE BEST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ME… What are they saying? Write sentences using superlative adjectives and the present perfect with ever: EXAMPLE: It’s the best goal I’ve ever scored ! good goal / score NOW IT’S YOUR TURN: good mark / get big fish / catch beautiful bad music / hear picture/ draw delicious cake / eat difficult exercise/ serious accident / have high summit / climb delicious cake / eat intriguing book /read great film / shoot