A study on the difficulties faced by the front office staff at the hanoi old quarter hotel in communicating in english and some recommended s

THUONGMAI UNIVERSITY ENGLISH FACULTY GRADUATION PAPER A STUDY ON THE DIFFICULTIES FACED BY THE FRONT OFFICE STAFF AT SUPER HOTEL HANOI OLD QUARTER IN COMMUNICATING IN ENGLISH AND SOME RECOMMENDED SOLUTIONS Supervisor: Mrs Tran Thi Bich Lan Student: Duong Thu Nga Class: K50N2 Student’s number: 14D170105 Hanoi - 2018 HÀ NỘI - 2016 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My research has been completed with the support of a great number of people First and foremost, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and appreciation to my supervisor at Thuongmai University, Mrs Tran Thi Bich Lan (Head of Department) for her acceptance to be my supervisor, and for providing me with insightful and valuable comments throughout my research She has always been there whenever I needed her help and support My sincere thanks also go to all those who contributed, directly or indirectly, to this research Particularly, I am thankful to the Front Office Staff of Super Hotel Ha Noi Old Quarter and some foreign customers who participated in the study Without them, the study would have been impossible ABSTRACT The research was based on the data collected from the questionnaires for the Front Office Staffs in the Super Hotel Ha Noi Old Quarter with the aim of finding out their difficulties when communicating with customers in English The questionnaire has been designed and sent to 20 Front Office Staffs to research some barriers prevent them from a successful English communication with foreign guests especially Japanese guests Research results showed that the causes of problems occurring during English communication with customers are the differences in intonations of each country, cultural differences, etc From the difficulties and the situation of communicating in English with customers and the main reasons I also would like to recommend the solutions to improve the communication skills of English receptionist staff at Hotel Super Hotel Ha Noi Old Quarter I hope that this study would be an useful document for you to refer and study LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLE Charts and tables Chart 1: Percent of having difficulty when communicating Pages 20 with guests in English Chart 2: question 3’s answer Chart 3: question 5’s aswer Chart 4: Problems of Japanese speaking in English Chart 5:the most difficult communicating tool Table 1: question 1’s answer Table 2:Different between Br.E and Am.E Table 3:The biggest barrier prevents you from a successful 21 28 28 30 20 25 27 communication with them Table 4: Problems of Japanese speaking in English 28 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Abbreviation Br.E Am.E Meaning British English American English TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ii ABSTRACT iii LIST OF CHARTS AND TABLE iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS v TABLE OF CONTENTS .vi CHAPTER 1:OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY .1 1.1 Rationale 1.2 Previous studies 1.3 Aims of the study 1.4 Research Subjects .3 1.5 Scope of the study 1.6 Research methodology .4 1.7 Organization of the study CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .5 2.1 What is communication.? 2.2 The importance of communication in our life 2.3 Types of communication 2.3.1 Types of communication based on the communication channels used: 2.3.2 Types of communication based on style and purpose 10 2.4 Process of communication 10 2.5 Importance of English communication skills 12 2.6 Importance of English communication skills in hospitality career 14 2.7 Barriers to effective communication .15 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH FINDINGS 18 3.1 Communication environment 18 3.2 Survey 18 CHAPTER 4: RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 32 4.1 Get acquainted with the many intonations of multipal English speakers around the world 32 4.2 Recognizing the special things of Japanese when they speaking English .32 4.3 Improving the technical terms related to hospitality 32 4.4 Improving your pronunciation 32 4.5 Using body language if necessary 33 CONCLUSION 34 REFERENCE CHAPTER OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY 1.1 Rationale There is an undeniable fact that today communication skill and especially communication in English plays a very important role in the development of human society Over the millions of years of evolution, there are a myriad of forms of communication: from simple images, characters, howls of human ancestors, to this day, the human language of communication really boom under a myriad of different forms, different languages It is estimated that there are around 5000 languages in the world Of those, although only second only to China in terms of number of users, English is still considered as a global language It is difficult to define ever since English has been implicitly regarded as the common language of all humanity in all fields: economics, entertainment, tourism, information technology But anyone who is using English partly understands the reason why English is so widely used It is because of that widespread that communication in English is seen as an indispensable element of modern man Whether you live in any country, work in any field, any profession, any age, level, you are more or less already exposed to English in your life or work yourself Many deny this Some people say, "We are workers, working with machines from morning to night so we are never involved in English communication." I think that this is not accurate because at least the machine and the production line they are using also have a "Start / Stop" button Is that not English? Or even the elderly at home all day know the button "On / Off" on the control console they hold in hand The "Start / Stop" or "ON / OFF" buttons on devices have only a few characters, but it is also a form of communication in English between the manufacturer and the user in the form of a script, which helps the user to understand the function of those devices These are the examples of the English-speaking people who are somewhat least exposed to English in their daily lives So for those who work in the field of business, travel, entertainment, services where communication in English is considered to be paramount, English acts as a passport It is imperative to exist in this modern society One of the areas that require high levels of English is the hotel industry - this is also an important aspect that I would like to mention in this study The hotel, especially the hotel reception, is a profitable business for candidates with a multitude of skills, where English communication skills are a prerequisite for employers to screen candidates for positions If you compare the two candidates with the same level of qualifications, but one is more capable of communicating in English, who you think will be the potential employee? I believe you have your own answer Being a hotel receptionist means you have to face countless difficult situations when dealing with problems there is a lot of experience in the profession but English communication with guests is not always convenient, especially in hotels where the majority of customers are not native English speakers In this research I want to address two issues The first is the role of English communication in life and general areas The second is a research study on difficulties in English communication of the receptionists at the Hanoi Old Quarter Hotel in Japanese’s Super Hotel Japan chain It analyzes the difficulties and develops research solutions to address the difficulties encountered and to help facilitate communication During my work here I found many difficulties that receptionists encounter when communicating in English with customers who are mostly non-English speaking people from such countries as France, Italy, India, Japan and especially the majority of Japanese guests That is why I decided to choose the subject of my study as "A study on the difficulties faced by the Front Office Staff at the Hanoi Old Quarter Hotel in communicating in English and some recommended solutions" 1.2 Previous studies Studies on communication Communication is considered as a natural process In daily life, communication brings people together In business, well communication is a key leading to success In a global environment, communication is a very useful tool to develop diplomatic relations among countries • In “Origins of Human Communication” of Michael Tomasello, this is also mentioned: ” Human communication is grounded in fundamentally cooperative, even shared, intentions In this original and provocative account of the evolutionary origins of human communication, Michael Tomasello connects the fundamentally cooperative structure of human communication (initially discovered by Paul Grice) to the especially cooperative structure of human (as opposed to other primate) social interaction.” 1.3 Aims of the study My research is to find solutions that help hotel receptionists overcome the difficulties they encounter in the English communication process in work both in spoken and written languages My research aims at the following basic goals: • Cover background knowledge of communication • Analyze the situation of communication in English by the reception staff at Super Hotel Hanoi Old and the difficulties encountered by the staff • Provide solutions to improve English communication skills for the hotel receptionists 1.4 Research Subjects The research subject is to find out the real difficulties faced by the Front Office Staff at the Hanoi Old Quarter Hotel in communicating in English 1.5 Scope of the study There are so many different material resources and researchers that require a lot of time and effort while my personal experience is limited Therefore, this study can only focus on a specific array of English communication in the hotel, where I have been working directly As a result, I can get a more detailed view of the current state of English communication in this area and the difficulties that receptionists face when communicating with clients And the hotel that I choose to carry out my research project is the Super Hotel Hanoi Old Quarter I hope this study will be a useful document to improve the English communication of the front staff in the hotel 1.6 Research methodology To finish this study, I adopt / use the following methods • Researching on reference books and websites • Observing the English communication at the Front Office of Super Hotel Hanoi Old Quarter • Interviewing and conducting the survey questionaires to the Front Office Staff at Super Hotel Hanoi Old Quarter with a view to finding out their attitudes toward the matter and the difficulities they met when communicating in English with customers • Conducting the survey questionaires for customers who are not native speakers with a view to finding out their opinions about some barriers when communicating in English with the Front Office Staff 1.7 Organization of the study A table of contents with page numbers in which they are presented will help readers have a clear overview of the research proposal It also helps the readers find the part they need more easily and quickly.The study is divided into four chapters: • Chapter 1: The overview of the study including rationale, previous studies, aims of the study, research subjects, scope, research methodology, and the organization of the study • Chapter 2: All the theories related to the study are presented This chapter provides the readers with the overview of communicating knowldedge and English communication • Chapter 3: This presents the results of the survey questionaires for the Front Office Staff and customers when they communicate in English with each other More specifically, this chapter is consisted of analysis of the findings obtained from the survey questionaires and evaluation from Front Office Staff and customers • Chapter 4: The last chapter focuses on the recommnended solutions for the Front Office Staff to improve their English communication 2% No one chose “Never” According to survey results in question 1, most staff has good communication skills and confidence in their English communication skills However, in question there seems to be a contradiction when 85% of the respondents choose "Sometimes" when asked "How often you communicate with the customer in English" We normally find that people with good English communication skills have fewer obstacles when communicating with customers They are ready to solve every problem of the customer confidently and professionally with their rich vocabulary and English listening skills, excellent reflecting ability Ranked No 128 of 613 hotels in Hanoi, Super Hotel Ha Noi Old Quarter is considered as one of the hotels with professional staffs and good foreign language skills However, good foreign language does not mean that there is no difficulty in working Especially when communicating with foreign guests Those difficulties can be vocabulary, vocabulary, word usage, contextual communication, cultural differences What exacly are those difficulties? The result of Question will give us a part of the answer Question 3: Chose one of these guests make you the most difficult to communicate with in English American British Japanese French Another Chart 2: question 3’s answer I received an unexpected result Look at the pie chart above you can see that: - 50% of respondents choosed "Japanese" - "French" accounted for 26% - 20% of respondents chosed "British" and 4% left chosed "American” This survey question has provided us with extremely important data in the study of the difficulties encountered by the front desk staff of the Super Hotel Ha Noi Old Quarter when communicating with customers in English From the data collected I will analyze each specific factor The differents between British English (Br.E) and American English (Am.E) English is a complex language consisting of a huge vocabulary system, hundreds of grammar rules and difficult tenses For the hotel staff, perhaps the biggest challenge in working and communicating with foreigners is through a variety of different types of English accents With over 360 million native English speakers, English ranks third in popularity worldwide From North America to Europe, Africa and Australia, the locals speak English are every where However, unlike other languages used in the world, like Chinese, English speakers can understand each other when communicating no matter where they come from There are different types of voices in the world when speaking English Most popular are English-American and American-English In general, there are main differents between Br.E and Am.E • Pronunciation: varies in both vowel and consonant, as well as emphasis and intonation • Vocabulary: different in nouns and verbs, especially the use of phrases verb • Spelling: different in the form of prefixes and suffixes Between these two voices which one is harder depending on each person's communicating habits In Vietnam, in the English teaching and learning program of the Ministry of Education, we usually teach mainly British-English with formal style In reality, however, we find that the words we were taugh in school are so complex and rarely used by foreigners That why we not understand the words that foreigners actually using This is the same for English grammar So it is difficult for someone using English inflexibly to talk with Americans or AmericanEnglish speakers The specifics of American-English are liberal and free The speaker does not use the words too sophisticated and formal The words are often simplified to create a comfortable communication That’s the reason why sometimes American speed is too fast for us to hear On the other hand, for those who think that communication with BritishEnglish speakers is difficult, the main reason probably comes from the use of special English words Difference in the use of English and American words sometimes causes misunderstanding for two people in a conversation For example, the word "first floor" In English, in a building, the ground floor is called the "ground floor", so the upper floor is called "first floor" In contrast, Americans use "first floor" to call the ground floor However, British English and American English agreed on basement calling (basement) Not only the difference in vocabulary, the differences in pronunciation also makes it difficult for us to communicate with speakers The table below compares the difference in the pronunciation between the two these types of voices: Characteristic s British English – Br.E American English – Am.E - Pronounced very strong and clear, the tongue bent back into - Consonant /r/ is completly disapeared The last consonant R Example: · Car [(Br.E) kaː] [Am.E) kaːr] · Floor [(Br.E) flɔː] [Am.E) flɔːr] · Board [(Br.E) bɔːd] [Am.E) bɔːrd] · Bare [(Br.E) beə ] [Am.E) ber] Lighter pronounces, which tend Still pronounced "t" clearly and to replace "t" with "d" Consonant /t/ between vowels Vowel /æ/ accuratly Examples: · Item: [(Br.E) · Bottle [(Br.E) · Computer [(Br.E) · Letter [(Br.E) ‘letə] [Am.E) ‘ledər] - Change into / a aɪ.təm bɔtl ] ̩ ] kəm’pju:tə] [Am.E) [Am.E) [Am.E) aɪ.dəm ] ba:dl] kəm’pju:dər] - Pronounce half “a” and “e” The secret to pronounce this vowel is opening mouth as is preparing to say “a”, but from that position, try to sound “e” Examples: Fast [(Br.E) fɑːst Staf [(Br.E) stɑːf Cat [(Br.E) - Is pronounced ̩] top, hot, god) fæst] [Am.E) stæf] ̩] kɑːt] [Am.E) kæt] round mouth is / ɒ / Vowel o (box, [Am.E) - Is pronounced into /a:/ Examples: Document [(Br.E) dɒkjʊmənt ] [Am.E) dɑːkjʊmənt] Occupied [(Br.E) ɒkjʊpaɪd ] [Am.E) ɑːkjʊpaɪd] Copy [(Br.E) kɒpi ] [Am.E) kɑːpi] Monitor [(Br.E) mɒnɪtə ] [Am.E) mɑːnɪtə ] Either [ˈiːðər] Either [ˈaɪðər] Neither [ˈnaɪðər] Neither [niːðɚ] Via Via [vaɪə] [viː.ə] Other Privacy/’praɪvəcɪ/ Privacy [’prɪ:vəcɪ] examples Direction/daɪ'rekʃn/ Direction [dɪ:'rekʃn] Clerk [klɑːk Garage[gæridʒ Schedule [ˈʃɛdjuːl] ̩] ̩] Clerk [klɝːk] Garage [gəˈrɑːʒ] Schedule [skedju:l] Table 2:Different between Br.E and Am.E The difficulties when communicating with French France is also the familiar market of the Super Hotel Although not the main market, the number of French tourists staying at the hotel is the largest Among 20 receptionists, only two of them can speak French But due to not really good at French, the main language of communications with these guests is English Many studies have shown that although the European Union’s member, the French are not good in English and rarely using English in their life A report in November showed that the French were the worst English speaking country in the EU The "despair" of the English skills of this country’s people was strengthened after President Francois Hollande sent a letter to US President Barack Obama and signed "Friendly, Francois Hollande" The word "Friendly" does not mean anything at the end of the letter, and instead of "best wishes", "Sincerely", or "Yours faithfully" Not only are students with poor English results, French adults seem to have turned their backs on this language Last year, the poll found that the biggest complaint from TV or radio viewers was that the language was too much of an "unnecessary English word" In addition, foreign travelers feel that if they not learn some basic French communication, they will be ignored All of this has created a huge rumor that the French not speak English at all In fact, after a long time working at here and interacting directly with French guests, I find that this rumor is not really correct Honestly speaking, the French still speak English Especially is young people They can communicate in English fluently However, for older people, most of them just can only speak French Communicating in English with older French people is impossible That’s one of the difficulties Super Hotel’s receptionists facing with Besides, the difficulty when communicating with French guests in English also comes from the pronunciation of the French If you search for "French humberger", you will find so many funny videos about how the French can not pronounce exactly the sentence "I would like to buy a humberger." Most of them are not able to pronounce the consonant in front of every English word like [h] in the word "humberger" Furthermore, when I talk to the French people, I find that most of the [θ] sounds in the word "thank" [θæŋk] are read by the French [s] This makes it difficult for the receptionist to solve customer problems Another difficulty is that in French and English there are many similar words, but the way to read a little different When speaking English, the French sometimes use the French words as a habit instead of the English words Sometimes the listener does not understand and is confused Examples: [librairie / library] [spécialement / especially] [caméra / camera] The difficulties when communicating with Japanese According to the survey, up to 50% of respondents said they find it’s difficult to communicate with the Japanese customers This is understandable because 90% of customers are Japanese However, to understand the difficulties when communicating with Japanese customers in English, we need to analyze the results in the following questions (From question to question 6) Question 4: Which is the biggest barrier prevents you from a sucessful communication with them? Skills No./20 Pronunciation Listening Pronunciation and Listening 13 Others Table 3:The biggest barrier prevents you from a successful communication with them Question 5: Do you think Super Hotel’s Japanese guests communicate well in English? Column1 Yes No Chart 3: question 5’s aswer Question 6: What are the problems of their English skills? Pronunciation Speed of speaking Restriction in Japanese consonants and vowels Others reasons Chart 4: Problems of Japanese speaking in English Problems Pronunciation No./20 Speed of speaking 10 Restriction in Japanese consonants and vowels Others reasons Table 4: Problems of Japanese speaking in English Based on the results obtained from question to question 7, it is possible to provide a general assessment of the receptionist's English communication with Japanese clients facing many difficulties Firstly, the question was designed to help respondents assess their own weaknesses in communicating in English with clients Looking at the results table, it is easy to see that although they have a lot of experience in the customer service industry and serving foreign customers, most of them still have to admit sometimes their listening skills and speaking skills not really fluent This is considered as the biggest problem that prevents them from reaching a successful English communication with customers Next, question was designed for respndents to assess the English communication skills of Japanese customers 87% of them disagreed with the opinion “The Japanese customers communicate well in English” Many research documents have also shown that Japanese are not good at English I will analyze the reasons after analyzing the research results in question below After collecting the results from questio 6, I got the following results: 50% of them think that the reason makes Japanese customers are not good in communicating in English is the “Restriction in Japanese consonants and vowels” As we all know English has a very rich vowel and consonant system English has basic vowels and 21 consonants Besides, English has totally 12 single vowels and double vowels Not only that, the pronunciation of thoes vowels and consonants is extremely difficult and complicated Meanwhile, the Japanese consonant and vowel system is quite simple Japanese only has basic vowels and 10 consonants The pronunciation is also quite simple One noteworthy point is that Japanese does not have the "L" consonant as in English This makes it’s difficult for the listener to hear the Japanese’s English Instead of sounding just like the "L" sound They say "R" That is why there is so much misunderstanding in English communication with the Japanese Finally, I would like to close the analysis of the survey results by questions and Question 7: Which is the most difficult communicating channel/tool are you using? Email Telephone Talking face to face Another Chart 5:the most difficult communicating tool As we know, nowaday communication tools are extremely rich Each tool has its own characteristics and requires specific skills As a result of the 7th question, 85% of respondents said they often find it’s difficult to communicate in English by telephone with customers 11% chose "email" and 4% chose “talking face to face” Most respondents chose "telephone" for the following reasons: - Talking on the phone is difficult to hear properly - Can not see oral expression and face’s emotions like direct communication - Difficult to understand the psychology of the person on the other - When talking face-to-face, you can use hand writing in case you not understand meanwhile talk by telephone can not that Besides, communicating in English with customers by email is also a hard challenge for any one who is not really good in writing and using formal writing style Question 8: Please suggest somes methods to solve the problems when communicating with guests in English I received some useful suggestions from respondents Most of them have the same following ideals: - If you want to communicate well in English with any clients from any countries, the first thing is to improve your own English skills - Besides, consolidate vocabulary for yourself - Adding to that is observing from the facts about how Japanese, French, Indians or any other countries to understand the characteristics of their English pronunciation, avoiding the being confused when listening to any un-native English accent CHAPTER RECOMMENDATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 4.1 Get acquainted with the many intonations of multipal English speakers around the world As mentioned above, there are about different English intonations in the world Each region has different phonetic and pronunciation If you talk to a voice you have never heard before, it will be very difficult to communicate So the first thing you have to is search for videos on the internet to get acquainted with the English accents from so many countries in the world 4.2 Recognizing the special things of Japanese when they speaking English A suggestion for receptionists at the Super Hotel is to familiarize yourself with the English pronunciation of Japanese guests, so you should practice listening as much as possible to understand how Japanese people pronounce English words In Japanese, many words are borrowed from English, but they are read in Japanese intonation For example, the word "restaurant" in English is read as [res.tə.rɑːnt], the Japanese read [resutoran] (the consonant / t / at the end of the word has disappeared) 4.3 Improving the technical terms related to hospitality Normally the words used in the hotel will be very polite and formal and requires a good knowledge in this type of communication Knowing thoughfully the technical terms used in the hospitality will be a good tool for you to be fluent and professional in communicating with customers in English 4.4 Improving your pronunciation Before you learn how to say it, you will need to learn to listen Some sounds may be difficult to distinguish when you are listening Who says sleep or slip? Does he have chin or shin? If you can hear the difference, it will be easier to say the difference When you want to hear authentic English instead of pronunciation exercises, you can watch the video on the internet and immitate the way they pronounce professionally The better you get at hearing words, the better you will be good at speaking 4.5 Using body language if necessary To create a friendly atmosphere in the hotel, body language is extremely necessary Body language will help to send the messages that sometimes English or any languages in the world can not However, in the multipal cultural environment we need to carefully select the type of body language communication Not all countries have the same body language To be able to use body language in a professionally and politely is nothing else than to observe and study hard CONCLUSION To sum up, communication and especially communication in English plays a very important role in life and in every jobs Especially for working environments that require frequent English communication as a hotel, the receptionist must have good English communication skills Not only in oral communication but also in writing communication Although this is a relatively stressful working environment, it requires a lot of knowledge Sometimes there are pressures and difficulties when dealing with diversified cultures and intonations, but this is also a good environment for each employee to practice and cultivate useful skills including English communication Understanding the problems during communication will help us find effective solutions to overcome weaknesses and improve our English communication skills for a successful communication with customers REFERENCE https://www.activia.co.uk/blog/why-are-communication-skills-important https://biteable.com/blog/tips/how-to-make-good-speaking/ https://careerprocanada.ca/listening-skills-important-success/ https://www.cleverism.com/skills-and-tools/communication-skills/ https://www.duarte.com/presentation-skills-resources/pronunciation-mistakes/ http://epublications.uef.fi/pub/urn_nbn_fi_uef-20131057/urn_nbn_fi_uef20131057.pdf https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/englishspeakingskills.html ... to analysis and the findings obtained from the survey questionaires and evaluation from Front Office Staff and customers to find out the necessary information and the discussion of the findings... in communicating in English is the “Restriction in Japanese consonants and vowels” As we all know English has a very rich vowel and consonant system English has basic vowels and 21 consonants... of their English skills? Pronunciation Speed of speaking Restriction in Japanese consonants and vowels Others reasons Chart 4: Problems of Japanese speaking in English Problems Pronunciation