Nghiên cứu về giao tiếp liên văn hóa: Việc đáp lại lời than phiền giữa người Việt Nam và người Anh

Nghiên cứu này nhằm mục đích điều tra các chiến lược ưa thích mà người Anh và người Việt Nam sử dụng để đáp lại lời than phiền. Hơn thế nữa, bài viết còn nhằm tìm hiểu sự khác biệt khi người giao tiếp sử dụng những chiến lược trong những tình huống khác nhau và những người đối thoại khác nhau.

v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ GIAO TIẾP LIÊN VĂN HÓA: VIỆC ĐÁP LẠI LỜI THAN PHIỀN GIỮA NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM VÀ NGƯỜI ANH DIÊM THỊ THU THỦY* Đại học Thái Nguyên, ✉ diemthuthuy.sfl@tnu.edu.vn * TÓM TẮT Trên tảng lý thuyết hành động lời nói, lời than phiền phần tất yếu sống hàng ngày môi trường đa văn hóa Quan trọng cần trau dồi cho người giao tiếp từ văn hóa khác với kiến thức cần thiết việc giải với lời than phiền Nghiên cứu nhằm mục đích điều tra chiến lược ưa thích mà người Anh người Việt Nam sử dụng để đáp lại lời than phiền Hơn nữa, viết nhằm tìm hiểu khác biệt người giao tiếp sử dụng chiến lược tình khác người đối thoại khác Với mục đích điều tra kỹ lưỡng chiến lược đáp lại lời than phiền, phương pháp định tính định lượng áp dụng q trình phân tích liệu Kết cho thấy, có 13 chiến lược ưa thích sử dụng người Việt Nam người Anh đáp lại lời than phiền thực có nhiều khác việc lựa chọn chiến lược họ Có thể kết luận rằng, số lưu ý văn hoá gợi ý cho người sinh sống, học tập làm việc môi trường đa văn hóa bao gồm Anh Việt Nam Từ khóa: đáp lại lời than phiền, mơi trường đa văn hóa, người Anh, người Việt INTRODUCTION At present, cross-cultural communication is one of the most significant current discussions which must be considered immediately in order to avoid misunderstandings and arguments among communicators Language, in fact, cannot exist independently but closely integrate with context it belongs to, which is clearly seen in the Levine’s iceberg theory with language considered as the “exposed part” of culture (Levine & Bigg, 2008) Thus, it seems that linguistic knowledge and cultural 72 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 background which are under mutual influences integrate with each other to serve communication purposes Similarly, complaints and responding to complaints which relate to both communication and culture are inevitable part of our daily life This is surprising because so often are these remarks and expressions of dissatisfaction that we not notice how much these expressions are used In fact, responding to complaints is an area the researchers have not considered though people sometimes complain and also frequently respond to others’ complaints NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v In addition, Vietnamese people’s strategies in responding to complaints are different from those the British This is because the ways in which a given function is realized may differ from one language to another, although communicative functions appear to exist across languages This is also the reason why we not understand the different cultures in communication language and we easily destroy the whole relationship, especially when responding to complaints which is apparently a sensitive issue With her deep concerns about this situation through this study and desire to fill the gap in the theoretical field, the researcher attempts to cast a closer look at Vietnamese and British culture to partly discover strategies that are used mostly to respond complaints THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 Speech act of complaining According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary (2010, p 305), complaining is defined as expressing dissatisfaction, or annoyance about the state of affairs or that someone has already done, failed to or is in the state of doing something wrong Therefore, complaining is considered to be the most frequently occurring communication acts and particularly, it involves something taken to feeling sorry for one-self According to Boxer (1993), Hatch (1992), people often complain to: 1) Share a specific negative evaluation, obtain agreement, and establish a common bond between the speaker and addressee “trouble sharing”, “trouble talk” For instance: I can’t believe I couldn’t get an A on this paper I worked so hard! Same here She doesn’t give away A’s very easily, that’s for sure 2) Vent anger or anxiety/let off steam 3) Open and sustain conversations Sharing with the same ideas, Wierbicka (2003) provides in-depth analysis of the group which owns complaining such as moaning, exclaiming, protesting, objecting, bemoaning, and lamenting People often complain to: 1) Say that something bad is happening: I say something bad is happening to me 2) Express the feelings caused by this: I feel something bad because of that 3) Appeal for something like pity or sympathy: I want someone to feel sorry for me because of that While a variety of definitions of complaining have suggested, the researcher will follow the definition introduced by Olshtain and Weinbach (1993) to design the complaining situations used in the questionnaire Complaining in this study does not refer to moaning or exclaiming (which express self-pity) but an act to express “displeasure, annoyance, blame, censure, threats or reprimand” 2.2 Responding to complaints Dealing with complaints is a kind of complimentary speech act: it follows the act of complaint In other words, complaining and responding to complaints might be considered an adjacency pair, in which the complaint comes first and then the response follows As listed in conversational openings, Schegloff (1972) proposes complaints and denial or complaints and apology are adjacency pairs However, the researcher has a desire to broaden the pair of complaint – denial or complaint – apology to a larger scale in this study Not only denial and apology can sustain the conversation which begins with a complaint, the responses to one complaint, we not just deny or apologize, we can employ and combine more than one specific act such as explaining, promising or threatening to show our attitudes, feelings or reaction to the complainers Someone complains when he/she is displeased, disappointed or may be depressed Therefore, using KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 73 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI appropriate speech acts to please the complainers is very essential THE STUDY 3.1 Research questions The study aims to answer the following questions: 1) What are strategies that Vietnamese people mostly use to respond to complaints? 2) What are strategies that British people mostly use to respond to complaints? 3) What are the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and British people’s strategies when responding to complaints? 4) What are suggestions for Vietnamese and British communicators in responding to complaints in order to avoid misunderstandings? 3.2 Research design Throughout the process of data analysis and finding discussion, all selected participants were mentioned neither in real names or pseudonyms The population of the research was the British and Vietnamese The first group consisted of 30 British people aging from 21 to 42 They are currently living and working in Britain The second group – 30 Vietnamese whose ages fluctuated from 20 to 43 are presently living in Vietnam Participants of the two groups are doing different kinds of work By choosing participants of different careers, ages and are living in their motherland, the researcher has a desire to collect the most valid and reliable data for investigation 30 native people for each country are not a very large number but those people are of various backgrounds, they can provide a generalization of their culture The study was conducted by carefully collecting materials from various reference sources to have full-blown information of using complaint response strategies Furthermore, the Discourse Completion Test (DCT) was used to collect the data in the study 74 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 with the aim of investigating the complaint response strategies mostly used by the Vietnamese and British authentically and reliably In addition, such methods as descriptive, analytic, comparative and contrastive were also utilized to describe and analyze, to compare and contrast the data base in order to bring out similarities and differences in strategies to respond to complaints of Vietnamese and British people DCT is defined as any pragmatic measure that obliges examinees to read a written situation description and then write what they would say next in the situation For instance, a DCT which consists of different situations is followed by an open-ended response “You say… ” (Blum-Kulka, 1982) According to Tran (2008), this term is developed by Blum-Kulka (1982) and used by such researchers as Olshtain and Cohen in their study of apologies in Hebrew and English DCT was chosen as the data collection method in this study, as it proved to bring some outstanding advantages over other methods such as ethnographic, role-play First of all, the DCT enables the researchers to elicit data from the large sample of subjects easily, using the same situations where contextual variables are controlled Second, it is an effective means of creating an initial classification of semantic formulas and strategies that will occur in natural speech (Cohen, 1996, p 25) The three social variables claimed by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) – the relative power (P), the social distance (D) and the absolute ranking of imposition (R) have a systematic effect on the choice of an appropriate polite expression in performing a FTA (FTAs – acts which threaten the face wants of the speaker, the hearer, or both of them) (Brown & Levinson,1987) in a given context As a result, a questionnaire of real-life situations was designed to elicit responses to complaints Situation 1: You receive a complaint about your messy room or desk How would you verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of the followings? NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v Situation 2: You receive a complaint because you make noise (loud music, loud talking…) which annoys the people around How would you verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of the followings? Situation 3: You are going out of the room but accidentally bumped into someone on the door step and receive a complaint from them How would you verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of the followings? Situation 4: You receive a complaint because you are too late in a luxurious party How would you verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of the followings? Situation 5: You receive a complaint because you break down a cup of tea How would you verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of the followings? Situation 6: You receive a complaint because you see his/her diary by accident How would you verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of the followings? The different communicating partners in each situation are: Your parent – The hearer has greater power then the speaker, and they are familiar with each other (P+; D-) Your friend – The speaker and the hearer are equal in power; they are familiar with each other (P=; D-) Your younger sister/younger brother – The hearer has lower power than the speaker, they are familiar with each other (P-; D-) Your boss – The hearer has greater power than the speaker, and they are unfamiliar with each other (P+; D+) Your colleague –The speaker and the hearer are equal in power; they are unfamiliar with each other (P=; D+) Your subordinate – The hearer has lower power than speaker; they are unfamiliar with each other (P-; D-) 3.3 Procedures of data collection The data collection procedure consists of three main steps, each of which is taken according to a designed timeline The three steps are listed as follows Step 1: Preparing In this step, the researcher prepared and designed the DCT questionnaire by referring to the colleague’s consultancy and other research related to the same issue Step 2: Piloting The researcher provided with all information related to study for participants before administering questionnaire After that, it was greatly important to select the appropriate sample because it played a decisive role in the result of the data collection procedure Participants were convinced that the data would be treated confidentially before given clear instructions to complete the questionnaire Step 3: Administering The questionnaire was delivered via gmail or via social network to British respondents because of time and distance The researcher’s cousin and his family are currently living in the UK and he helped the researcher deliver the questionnaire to his British friends at school, and to his neighborhood Face to face questionnaire administration method was employed for Vietnamese participants who are the researcher’s friends, colleague in many fields It took days to administer the questionnaire In total, 60 copies of questionnaire were given out 3.4 Data analysis The entire collected data from the questionnaire was analyzed in using qualitative and quantitative methods Descriptive statistics was employed The data obtained from the questionnaire was calculated and transferred into numerical form and after that presented in tables and graphs FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Findings from data collected The results from the questionnaire and interview KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 75 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI has presented preferred strategies of British and Vietnamese people in responding to complaints such as Apologizing, Explaining, Promising, Asking for help, Accepting, Rejecting, Complaining back, Threatening back and other combination strategies Meanwhile, some examples were given to illustrate for each strategy and to compare between two examined groups Moreover, the researcher analyzed favored strategies in responding to complaints by two perspectives thoughtfully The overall trend of British and Vietnamese respondents was shown through the data of chart Among thirteen strategies, Rejecting is the most favored strategy for British participants with 21%, while for Vietnamese participants the most favored one is Apologizing and Showing concern which accounts for 17.22% In contrast, Vietnamese participants rarely use Rejecting (2.98%) which is a FTA or Apologizing (3.01%) which is too short and brief, in their opinion In terms of British participants, Explaining and Showing concern is used least among thirteen strategies with only 2.34% It is interesting to note that none of British participants uses strategy – Asking for help while Vietnamese participants used this strategy frequently with 11.53% Surprisingly, British participants seem to be more open to Threatening back strategy as it 76 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 account for 8.43%; meanwhile, the same strategy is not used at all among Vietnamese participants In addition, Vietnamese participants have a general trend of combining strategies more than British participants From this table, all five strategy combinations are favored by Vietnamese participants with much higher percentage (8.52% to 16.77% compared to 5% to 2.34% to 5%) When being interviewed, Vietnamese participants explain that the longer and more detailed the utterances are the more sincere and repentant the complainers think about them Strategies Apologizing Explaining Promising Asking for help Accepting Rejecting Complaining back Threatening back Apologizing and Showing concern 10 Explaining and Showing concern 11 Apologizing and Explaining 12 Apologizing and Promising 13 Explaining and Promising NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v The findings from the DCT questionnaires reveal that the following strategies are used by British and/or Vietnamese respondents Strategy 1: APOLOGIZING: The British speaker uses expressions such as “sorry”, “excuse”, “forgive”, or interjections such as “oh”, “oops” to apologize for their wrong – doings Among data collected, here come some typical examples from the participants’ responses Table 1: Examples of Apologizing strategy British responses - - Vietnamese responses - Xin lỗi bạn - Chị xin lỗi - Xin lỗi sếp Sorry I’m sorry Strategy 2: EXPLAINING: Explaining is the act of describing the situation which caused the Speaker to misbehave By doing so, the Speaker intends to win sympathy from the Hearer For instance: Table 2: Examples of Explaining strategy British responses Vietnamese responses - Music makes work faster - I’m sorting my stuff - Ở bừa bộn tao chơi với mày - Chị chưa xem mà - Dạo em lười sếp Strategy 3: PROMISING: Searle (1969) defines the act of promising as an act that puts the Speaker under obligation Using Promising strategy when responding to complaints contemporarily eases the Hearer’s tension or anger Here are some typical examples collected from participants’ responses Table 3: Examples of Promising strategy British responses - OK, I’ll turn it down - I guess I could turn it down a little bit - I’ll sort it out later Vietnamese responses - Con dọn dẹp thu xếp lại - Tớ tắt - Con dọn gọn gàng vòng phút thơi mẹ ạ, ^^ Strategy 4: ASKING FOR HELP: This is a surprising response collected from respondents’ answers because the participant eases complainers’ anger or displeasure by asking for a favor from the complainer Therefore, the complainer might feel he/she is important to the Speaker since the Speaker seeks for their help The following are some examples: Table 4: Examples of Asking for help strategy British responses None Vietnamese responses - Anh bận lắm, em rảnh dọn giùm anh - Hehe, giúp anh tay - Mày hộ tao Strategy 5: ACCEPTING: By using an expression of acceptance, the Speaker shows that he/she is aware of his/her behaviors and acknowledges or agrees with the complaints Some typical examples are: KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 77 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI Table 5: Examples of Accepting strategy British responses - OK - I see - OK I see Vietnamese responses - Con hiểu - Cám ơn bạn nhắc Strategy 6: REJECTING: On the contrary to accepting, some respondents choose Rejecting as their responding strategy When using this strategy, the Speaker does a FTA towards the Hearer by ignoring, turning the complaints down or telling that the Hearer is wrong Here are some typical examples of Rejecting strategy: Table 6: Examples of Rejecting strategy British responses - Are you my mother or something? - Go away - Shut up and get out - It’s none of business Vietnamese responses - Kệ tao - Có thơi mà mày phải làm toáng lên - Im, đứa chả biết cảm thụ âm nhạc Strategy 7: COMPLAINING BACK: This is also a FTA and the Speaker chooses this strategy to save his/her face, nevertheless, by doing so, he/she threatens the Hearer’s face For example: Table 7: Examples of Complaining back strategy - - - - British responses Your table is a mess rather than mine Don’t be a nuisance I’m sure your bedroom in way worse Too bad, you don’t seem to mind when it‘s you playing loud music, eh? Vietnamese responses - Có đâu mà mày phiềnthế - Cái gì?? Thế mà bừa bộn á? - Đi đứng à? ^^ - Lần sau cẩn thận Strategy 8: THREATENING BACK: The name of this strategy has described its characteristics It is also a Face Threatening Act Using this strategy, the Speaker shows his/her displeasure towards the Hearer in a higher level than Complaining back or Rejecting By doing so, the Speaker directly threatens the Hearer’s face The following examples will clarify this strategy: Table 8: Examples of Threatening back strategy British responses - Fired! - Do you want to keep your job? - Go playing or I’II kick your ass Vietnamese responses None It is interesting to note that showing concern strategy is not used alone, but it is used together with other strategies These are the most commonly used combinations as follows 78 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v Strategy 9: APOLOGIZING AND SHOWING CONCERN: the Speaker uses apologizing expressions and show his/her care for the Hearer as in some examples below Table 9: Examples of Apologizing and Showing concern strategy - - - - British Sorry, are you ok? Oops, sorry Didn’t it hurt? Hey, are you alright? I’m sorry Are you ok? Vietnamese - Con xin lỗi ạ, bố có khơng ạ? - Xin lỗi em có khơng? - Tao xin lỗi, mày có đau khơng? Strategy 10: EXPLAINING AND SHOWING CONCERN: the Speaker describes the situation that caused them to commit the wrong doings and expresses their care for the Hearer For instance: Table 10: Examples of Explaining and Showing concern strategy British - I don’t know my music is bothering you Is it ok now? - I did not notice Are you alright? Vietnamese - Mình vội bạn có khơng? - Em sơ ý q sếp có khơng ạ? - Ừ vội tí, có khơng? Strategy 11: APOLOGIZING AND EXPLAINING: the Speaker uses apologizing expressions along with explaining the reasons for their wrong behaviors Table 11: Examples of Apologizing and Explaining strategy British - Sorry about that boss man! I’ll tidy it up toot sweet! - Yep, sorry I’m a bit snowed under Vietnamese - Em xin lỗi, em không cố ý đâu - Xin lỗi nhé, vội - Xin lỗi nhé, hôm mệt chưa kịp dọn Strategy 12: APOLOGIZING AND PROMISING: the Speaker uses apologizing expressions and eases the Hearer’s discomfort by promising or offering a remedy for their wrong doings Table 12: Examples of Apologizing and Promising strategy British - I apologize, I will make sure it’s tidied straight away - I’m sorry, I’ll move to another place - I’m sorry, I’ll adjust the loudness Vietnamese - Xin lỗi sếp, tí em dọn - Xin lỗi thủ trưởng, lần sau thủ trưởng đến đâu vào mà - Con xin lỗi, tắt nhạc Strategy 13: EXPLAINING AND PROMISING: the Speaker, on one hand, describes the reasons for their wrong doings and using promising expressions to ease the Hearer’s tension on the other hand KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 79 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI Table 13: Examples of Explaining and Promising strategy British Vietnamese - It’s organized chaos I know where my stuff is - Mấy hôm bận quá, tớ dọn I promise I’ll give it a clean later on this week - Dạo lười đi, để cuối tuần dọn - I’ve been too busy, but I will it soon - Con không để ý, tắt - I was tied up with few works, but will arrange it today From the afore – mentioned findings, it can be easily recognized some similarities in the way Vietnamese and British participants respond to other’s complaints Regarding non – verbal communication, like other speech acts such as greeting, apologizing, showing sympathy, and so on, people also can respond to complaints without using words On the other hand, they can keep silent, use gestures, facial expressions or body language Examining examples collected from the DCT, we can see that both Vietnamese and British respondents used emotional icons such as  or ^^ (DCT – B2) to imply that they would smile to show their attitude in some situations when being complained Clearly, responding to other’s complaints exists in every culture but it is recognized that carrying on a certain complaint response strategy may be appropriate in this country but can appear to quite in appropriate in another one From the data collected, the most essential difference of British and Vietnamese respondents is that the British would directly reveal their discomfort when being complained by Rejecting the complaints such as “Are you my mother or something?” or even Threatening back the complainers such as “Do you want to keep your job?” while the Vietnamese would admit their mistakes and combine several strategies to ease the complainers’ anger such as “Con xin lỗi, bố có khơng ạ?” or feel free to ask the complainers to help them such as “Em rảnh dọn giùm anh nhé!” Six daily life situations were given in the survey to elicit verbal responses from two examined groups In each situation, the researcher had the participants communicate with total six types of interlocutors to see whether the social status or the relationship between communicators affect their choice of language 1) When the Hearer has greater power than the Speaker, and they are familiar with each other (P+, D-): Complaints from parent The use of responding strategies when dealing with parents’ complaints British Vietnamese Apologizing 14.23% 0% Explaining 6.88% 1.22% Promising 12% 1.02% Asking for help 0% 0% Accepting 15.67% 0% Rejecting 16.32% 0% Strategies 80 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v Complaining back 0% 0% Threatening back 0% 0% Apologizing and Showing concern 8.76% 22.17% Explaining and Showing concern 5.23% 13% Apologizing and Explaining 6.33% 19.12% Apologizing and Promising 4.21% 19.67% Explaining and Promising 10.37% 23.8% From the table we can see that, with the complainers are parents, British participants tend to use all strategies except for Asking for help, complaining back and threatening back, but Vietnamese ones prefer to combine several strategies together This way makes their apology more sincere and repentant to the Hearer Similarly, Vietnamese ones not use strategies Asking for help, Complaining back and Threatening back Nevertheless, they neither use Accepting and Rejecting as well Interestingly, in spite of higher power of parents, British ones still reject the complaints which accounts for 16.32% while Vietnamese ones not reject the complaints from their parents at all Some British ones when being asked for the reason answered that when they are grown up, they want their privacy and individual to be respected and even parents can not tell them what they should do, they just what they want On the contrary, as a tradition of Vietnamese people, parents are among the most important people of one’s life and one should respect their parents’ advice That is the reason why they use several strategies to make their parents feel respectful Vietnamese respondents not use Apologizing strategy does not mean they hardly admit their mistakes but they tend to combine Apologizing with other strategies to make their responses more courteous As can be seen from the table, Apologizing and Showing concern, Apologizing and Explaining or Apologizing and Promising are those of the highest percentages among thirteen strategies with respectively 22.17%, 19.12% and 19.67% Explaining and Promising is mostly used among Vietnamese respondents with 23.8% while the same strategy is used at only 10.37% for British ones The most common utterance of Vietnamese respondents in this case is “Con xin lỗi, dọn dẹp ạ” (DCT – A1) or “Con không để ý ạ, bố có khơng ạ?” (DCT – A3) which sounds respectful and courteous In other words, British ones even have “It’s none of your business” or “Leave me alone” (DCT – A3) when responding to their parents 2) When the Speaker and the Hearer are equal in power; they are familiar with each other (P=, D-): Complaints from friends The use of responding strategies when dealing with friends’ complaints British Vietnamese Apologizing 12% 8.67% Explaining 4.31% 2.11% Strategies KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 81 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI Promising 2.22% 2.11% 0% 23.11% Accepting 12.13% 4.11% Rejecting 22.11% 0% Complaining back 23.14% 6% Threatening back 0% 0% Apologizing and Showing concern 4.59% 16.12% Explaining and Showing concern 3.12% 11.01% Apologizing and Explaining 9.98% 17.05% Apologizing and Promising 4.54% 2.09% Explaining and Promising 1.86% 7.62% Asking for help In this case, British participants choose Complaining back strategy as their favored strategy with the highest percentage – 23.14% while for the same strategy Vietnamese ones only employ it at percentage of 6% The Vietnamese‘s most preferred strategy in this case is Asking for help with more than 23% and for British, the percentage of this strategy is zero, which means the British not use Asking for help strategy at all British’s privacy value as well as the independence implanted in their mind might be the reasons for that behavior In addition, Vietnamese respondents use almost all thirteen strategies to respond to their friends’ complaints except for Rejecting, while British use Rejecting strategy up to 22.11% However, the two groups meet at one end when they either use Threatening back strategy when dealing with their friends As regardless friends, who are of equal power and close to the respondents, they tend to have casual utterances such as “Too bad, you don’t seem to mind when it’s you playing loud music, eh?” (DCT – B2) for British respondents and “Ui kệ, làm thời gian mà xếp cuối tuần tao dọn” (DCT – B2) for Vietnamese ones 3) When the Hearer has lower power than the Speaker; they are familiar with each other (P-, D-): Complaints from younger sister/brother The use of responding strategies when dealing with younger brothers/sisters’ complaints British Vietnamese Apologizing 1.22% 0% Explaining 0% 0% Promising 0% 0% Asking for help 0% 29.01% Accepting 7.98% 9.34% Rejecting 41.18% 9.76% Strategies 82 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v Complaining back 33.11% 20.05% Threatening back 15% 0% Apologizing and Showing concern 1.51% 3.24% Explaining and Showing concern 0% 8.98% Apologizing and Explaining 0% 16.05% Apologizing and Promising 0% 2.09% Explaining and Promising 0% 2.02% In this case, when the interlocutors of the respondents are not only less powerful but also very familiar because they are younger sisters or younger brothers of the respondents, the responses of two groups are even more casual and in a negative way As revealed in the table above, most British respondents choose Rejecting with 41.18% (Uuh, what’s the problem?), Complaining back with 33.11% (Your room is rather a mess than mine), Threatening back with 15% (Go playing or I’ll kick you out) while a very small amount of them choose Apologizing or Accepting the complaints which only accounts for approximately 9.2% Vietnamese groups seem to be keen on the Asking for help strategy as they use it with the highest percentage of 29.01% in this case It seems for the researcher to notice that for communicating partners who are less powerful and very familiar to the Speakers, both British and Vietnamese respondents favor Complaining back as 33.11% British respondents choose this strategy and up to 20% Vietnamese respondents choose the same They are also in the same wave length when they rarely combine strategies to deal with younger brothers or younger sisters as those responses from British respondents take up only more than 1% and Apologizing and Explaining or Apologizing and Promising strategy is not used at all by Vietnamese ones It might be resulted from the thought that those who are very familiar and have less power are not expected to receive courteous responses from the Speaker 4) When the Hearer has greater power then the Speaker, and they are unfamiliar with each other (P+, D+): Complaints from boss The use of responding strategies when dealing with boss’ complaints British Vietnamese Apologizing 26.13% 0% Explaining 18.77% 0% Promising 8.09% 5.86% 0% 0% Accepting 2.19% 0% Rejecting 0% 0% Strategies Asking for help KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 83 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI Complaining back 0% 0% Threatening back 0% 0% Apologizing and Showing concern 9.76% 25% Explaining and Showing concern 3.11% 15.21% Apologizing and Explaining 5.99% 16.79% Apologizing and Promising 9% 22% Explaining and Promising 16.96% 15.14% The table shows the two ends of a spectrum which is British participants are fancy on using short and brief utterances such as “Sorry”, “I’ll sort it out” or “I’m sorry” because strategies like Apologizing, Explaining and Promising take up to 43.09% while Vietnamese respondents tend to combine several strategies to express their repentance such as “Vâng, em bận quá, tí em dọn ngay” (DCT – C2) or “Em khơng để ý, em vô ý ạ” (DCT – C5) Those responses are distributed in all five combinations of strategy Specifically, they are reflected in Apologizing and Showing concern with 25%, Explaining and Showing concern with 15.21%, Apologizing and Explaining with 16.79%, Apologizing and Promising with 22%, and Explaining and Promising with 15.14% However, they meet at one end when all strategies they use shows respect and courtesy for the interlocutors and avoid using FTA strategies such as Rejecting, Complaining back or Threatening back Neither British respondents nor Vietnamese respondents apply those strategies It is reasonable and understandable because in this case, the complaints come from the boss, who has more power than the participants and between a boss and his staff, there will always be an invisible gap that determines their way of communicating 5) When the Speaker and the Hearer are equal in power; they are unfamiliar with each other (P=, D+): Complaints from colleague The use of responding strategies when dealing with colleague’s complaints British Vietnamese Apologizing 21% 0% Explaining 6.04% 15.21% Promising 6.22% 2.15% 0% 9.96% Accepting 16.01% 11.22% Rejecting 30.11% 0% Complaining back 16.62% 0% Threatening back 0% 0% Apologizing and Showing concern 4% 19.11% Explaining and Showing concern 0% 12.15% Apologizing and Explaining 0% 18.54% Strategies Asking for help 84 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v Apologizing and Promising 0% 4.88% Explaining and Promising 0% 6.78% In this case, Rejecting strategy dominates others for British respondents with the highest percentage of 30.11% While Vietnamese ones still keep on their choice with five strategy combinations which account for 61.46% Additionally, Vietnamese respondents also choose some other strategies to deal with complaints from their colleagues such as Explaining, “Ừ, hôm mệt chưa kịp dọn” (DCT – D1) or “Mải nghe nên quên người xung quanh ý mà” (DCT – D2) with 15.21% When the interlocutors are colleagues who are not so close to the respondents and have equal powers with them, British respondents still go on their way which is of apologizing in the shortest way such as “Sorry” or “Oops, my bad!” which is of 21% or even Rejecting the complaints which add up to 30.11% while Vietnamese ones still tend to be polite to save their colleagues’ faces by politely responding with expressions of Apologizing and Showing concern which is approximately 19.11%, Apologizing and Explaining which takes up 18.54% or Explaining and Showing concern with 12.15% Neither Vietnamese respondents nor British ones use Threatening back strategy None of British respondents chooses combinations of strategies to deal with colleague’s complaints while Vietnamese ones still employ those strategies like Apologizing and Showing concern which adds up to 19.11% Besides, British respondents not use Asking for help strategy due to their value of respecting independence while Vietnamese ones use this strategy up to more than 9% It truly reflects collectivism value of Vietnamese, more people more power There is a saying in Vietnam talking about this: “Một làm chẳng nên non/Ba chụm lại nên núi cao” 6) When the Hearer has lower power than the Speaker; they are unfamiliar with each other (P-, D-): Complaints from subordinates The use of responding strategies when dealing with subordinates’ complaints British Vietnamese Apologizing 14.12% 5.21% Explaining 2.55% 4.72% Promising 9.01% 8.16% 0% 4.94% Accepting 14.11% 8.98% Rejecting 16.08% 3.97% Complaining back 8% 0% Threatening back 34.02% 0% 0% 22.22% Strategies Asking for help Apologizing and Showing concern KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 85 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI 2.11% 19.01% Apologizing and Explaining 0% 13.99% Apologizing and Promising 0% 2.22% Explaining and Promising 0% 6.58% Explaining and Showing concern As described the table above, for the last type of interlocutors – subordinates, who work under the supervision of the respondents, British and Vietnamese ones have a significant distinction The dominant strategy of British respondents is Threatening back with 34.02% while Vietnamese ones’ is Apologizing and Showing concern to the Complainers with 22.22% No Vietnamese respondents choose to threaten back their subordinates while most British ones choose to so The most frequent used utterance of British ones is “Do you want to keep your job?” or even “Fired!” while Vietnamese ones’ only become shorter and briefer such as “Ừ, biết rồi” or “Ừ” in Accepting strategy with 8.98% Since responding to complaints was reviewed as a FTA to the Speaker, the respondents try to save their face by threatening back their subordinate’s face, especially when the Speaker are those who have more power than the Hearer That is the reason why British participants not have a tendency to use combinations of strategy which results in only about 2.11% of Explaining and Showing concern strategy Nevertheless, Vietnamese ones still employ those combinations which accounts for 50% 4.2 Reasons for similarities and differences in the choice of complaint response strategies from cross – cultural communication perspective Certainly, the differences help to make the variety in culture in general and in responding to complaints in particular, while the similarities help people from two cultures can adapt themselves easily to the new environment Both two examined groups of respondents are expected to be similar when respond to complaints made by boss They both find the most effective way in their own perspective to respond and both avoid using negative strategies such as Complaining back or Rejecting That is to say, social status is highly regarded as any culture and it has effects on the way people communicate with others in a large scale The reasons for this choice is that although the British and Vietnamese have great distance in culture and language, they all understand the meaning and the importance of showing politeness when responding to a complaint from a boss; therefore, they not use Complaining back, Threatening back or Rejecting strategy This also explains the high frequency of Apologizing for the British and Apologizing and Showing concern for the Vietnamese in complaint responses in this study With a view to differences, it is essential to understand that the British and Vietnamese belong to two different culture backgrounds – Western culture and Oriental culture Several culture features of the two countries have a strong influence in the way they respond to complaints First of all, as for the most types of complainers (except only for boss), favored strategies used by the British is Rejecting the complaints They would keep silent ignoring the complaints, ask the complainers to stop complaining or show their discomfort On the other hand, Vietnamese’s favored strategies are combined 86 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v strategies and partly because of that in any case, their responses sound respectful and courteous In Hofstede’s research (1997), he claims that Asian countries like Vietnam have a high power distance index (PDI) and are associated with beliefs that “hierarchy and inequality are appropriate and beneficial, and that authorities and seniors should be honoured”(p.57) Actually, social status has a profound impact on social interactions in general, and in responding to complaints in particular The impact of this social variable in Vietnamese society can be seen more clearly than in British society in which the hierarchy relations are not well – established and paid much attention Furthermore, Hofstede also writes that Vietnam has a high PDI in his study because Vietnam takes up 48 scores in the table of country ratings on the power distance dimension On the other hand, each Vietnamese person has a rightful place in social orders; hierarchy and inequality are appropriate and beneficial Secondly, because of the tradition of saving face of the Vietnamese, they hardly show their real feeling When being complained, they might feel a little bit or even a lot of displeasure, they still respond in the most polite way Specifically, we cannot help mention long – term time and short – time orientation In the view of Hofstede about cultural taxonomy (1991), Vietnam belongs to long – term orientation because of 119 scores in the table of country ratings on the time orientation On the other hand, the Vietnamese have a sense of shame and that is the reason why the Vietnamese often combine strategies in responding to complaints, and avoid Threatening back, Complaining back or even Rejecting the complaints Moreover, the Vietnamese pay much attention to status difference in interpersonal relationship They believe that it is essential to use polite intensifiers such as, “ạ, dạ, ạ” to emphasize the status difference between a junior and a senior In contrast, the British belongs to short – term time orientation; consequently, they prefer the balance in using language when responding to a complaint However, this is also the most difficult obstacle of the Vietnamese when communicating with the British While British people are too straight and not tend to save the hearer’s face, Vietnamese people might feel uncomfortable and even have negative feelings The factor affecting complaint responses of two countries is the nature of two orientations: collectivist and individualist orientation From Western culture, the British belong to individualism which encourages people to believe in their own identity We can see easily that in the table of country ratings on the individualism – collectivism dimension (Hofstede, 1991), Vietnam has only “-97” scores while Britain has a score of “89” That means Vietnamese people seldom express their own individual aspects in the way they communicate Therefore, British people use negative strategies like Rejecting, Complaining back or even Threatening back the complaints with higher frequency than Vietnamese ones In contrast, the Vietnamese belong to collectivism which emphasizes a sense of belonging and group harmony As a result, the Vietnamese mostly combine strategies such as Apologizing, Explaining and Promising the complaints, and not use Threatening back at all to avoid impolite for other communicators Last but not least, when taking the impact of different situations into account, there are some responses only appearing in specific situations Therefore, the respondents of two groups choose different strategies to deal with different situations This paper is carried on enriching both Vietnamese’s and British’s knowledge about each other’s culture Vietnamese people would see the way of fast and straight communication of British people less hurtful and disrespectful while British people might adapt a little bit of the gentle way that the Vietnamese use to more easily ease Vietnamese’s anger Cultural values in responding to complaints Some of the most dominant similarities and differences when responding to other’s complaints in social interaction between Vietnamese people and British people have been discussed in the previous part However, it is only one side of a two KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 87 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI – sided coin whose fulfillment calls the importance of understanding thoroughly cultural values such as politeness and impoliteness, group harmony and individualism in across cultural context Responding to complaints appropriately seems to be one of the most effective means of communication that might establish and maintain social relationship among people in different cultural backgrounds After discussing, we can conclude that there are a lot of similarities and differences in British and Vietnamese complaint responses and both of them are useful information that helps communicators understand more about cross – cultural communication Specifically, British communicators used Rejecting strategy more than Vietnamese ones, who tended to combine strategies in responding to complaints This is because each country has difference cultural backgrounds As explained earlier, there are some cultural features such as the collectivist orientation, a high PDI and a long – term orientation which has effects on the way Vietnamese people respond to complaints Vietnamese people believe that when being complained, especially by a high – status person, combinations strategies is considered as the effective ways to avoid impolite and save the Hearer’s face In contrast, affected by individualism, a low PDI, a short – term orientation, British people are regarding as agreeing with some negative strategies to show the belief in their own identity Additionally, they seem to communicate with each other in a direct way with self – assertiveness The frequency of single strategies is higher than those of combination strategies in British people; therefore, compared with the Vietnamese, British people are too straightforward In cross cultural communication, the Vietnamese, especially foreign language learners, should pay much attention to pragmatic transfer in order to adapt themselves easily to the new environment Moreover, responding to complaints is regarded as a problematic social speech act; consequently, the Speaker and the Hearer need to raise awareness of importance of understanding the cultural values of 88 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 each country comprehensively because carrying an inappropriate complaint response strategy might cause misinterpretations, misunderstandings and even arguments in cross cultural communication Thus, communicators should widen their knowledge on the cultural values of different countries so that they might achieve success in cross cultural communication Especially, the relationship between communicators affecting their choice of language was paid much attention in the current study For instance, there were some interlocutors like complaints from parents, boss, friends, younger sisters/brothers, colleague or even subordinates Additionally, the researcher provided not only reasons for similarities and differences in the choice of strategies but also cultural values in responding to complaints Overall, the researcher has been successful when answering all four stated research questions to find out which are favored strategies of the British and Vietnamese together with figuring out some differences and similarities between the habits of responding to complaints in British and Vietnamese ways Some suggestions for British and Vietnamese people were revealed to avoid misunderstandings and displeasure, and to improve communicative competence between the Speaker and the Hearer in the conversation IMPLICATION The relationship between a Vietnamese and British might be on the edge of rocks if they lack understanding about each other’s traditions or values; therefore, the study aims to shorten the distance between the two countries and minimizing misunderstandings when people from Vietnam and Britain communicate with each other As for those who are in a multicultural environment or those who frequently communicate with the British or Vietnamese, this paper gives hints for communicators to take these cultural differences into consideration in order to achieve success in their communication targets In terms of English language teaching, for the purpose of successful intercultural communication, NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v learners should be taught what strategies are favored in target language, and how to use them effectively Moreover, language instructors are likely to offer students an orientation toward the adoption of communication strategies in order to improve communicative competence Therefore, students may master the target language and use it natively and naturally CONCLUSION In sum, the purpose of the study was to figure out the British and Vietnamese‘s strategies in responding to complaints and to give those who are potential communicators in British – Vietnamese communication some recommendations to improve their competence of dealing with complaints Firstly, the paper has realized British people have a tendency to use strategies which are short and straight, while Vietnamese ones are keen on employing strategy combinations which are more detailed and thus, more sincere in their perspective Then, after analyzing the responses in each case, the researcher made a conclusion that no one can affect the strategies used by the British except for their boss Meanwhile, Vietnamese people are impacted by different types of interlocutors With their close relations, they are more casual while communicating with more powerful people; they would show their sincere respect and repentance Next, different situations have effects on how the respondents choose their language style Where they find it is necessary to show repentance, they would sincerely apologize while where they find it is not, they would show their attitude to protect their face Ultimately, cultures reflect on the behaviors of its people./ Reference: Albert, S (2010) Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Oxford Blum-Kulka, S (1982) Learn how to say what you mean in second language: A Study of the Speech Act Performance of Learners of Hebrew as a Second Language Applied Linguistic 3, 29-59 Boxer, D (1993) Complaining and Commiserating, a speech act view of Solidarity in Spoken American English, Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York Brown, P & Levinson, S D (1978) Universals in language usage: Politeness phenomena, Cambridge University Press, New York Brown, P & Levinson, S D (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in language Usage, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Cohen, A (1996) Investigation of production of speech act sets Speech acts across cultures: Challenges to Communication in a Second Language, 21-43 Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter Hatch, E (1992) Psycholinguistics: A second language perspective Rowley, M.A: Newbury House Hofstede, G (1991) Cultures and Organizations: Software of the mind London: McGraw – Hill Hofstede, G (1997) Hofstede’s dimensions of cultures Retrieved April 10, 2014 10 Olshtain, E & Weinbach, L (1987) “Complaints: A Study of Speech Act Behavior among Native and Non-Native Speakers of Hebrew”, in Verschueren, Jef and Bertalucci, P (Eds) The Pragmatic Perspective Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 195-208 11 Schegloff, E (1972) “Noteson a Conversational Practice: Formulating Place”, Studies in Social Interaction, Free Press, New York 12 Tran, Giao Quynh (2008) “The Naturalized Role-Play: An Innovative Methodology in CrossCultural and Interlanguage Pragmatics Research” Reflection on English Language Teaching, (2), (1-24) 13 Wierzbicka, A (2003) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction, Mouton De Gruyter, Berlin KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 89 v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI A STUDY OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: RESPONDING TO COMPLAINTS BETWEEN VIETNAMESE AND BRITISH PEOPLE DIEM THI THU THUY Abstract: In the light of theoretical background of speech acts, complaining is an inevitable part of our daily life and in a multicultural environment nowadays It is more important to enrich communicators who have different cultural background with essential knowledge about how to deal with complaints The study is aimed at investigating the preferred strategies that the British and Vietnamese use to verbally respond to complaints Furthermore, it intended to figure out whether there exists difference in the way they use those strategies and in accordance with different situations and difference interlocutors For the purpose of investigating the dimensions thoroughly, both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in data analysis procedures The results revealed that there are thirteen strategies used when the Vietnamese and British respond to complaints and there are actually several differences in their choice of strategies It is also concluded that there are some cultural notes and discussions suggested for those who are living, studying and working in a multicultural environment consisting of the British and Vietnamese Keywords: respond to complaints, multicultural environment, British, Vietnamese Received: 31/5/2017; Revised: 16/6/2017; Accepted for publication: 30/8/2017 90 KHOA HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ QUÂN SỰ Số 09 - 9/2017 ... Examples of Asking for help strategy British responses None Vietnamese responses - Anh bận lắm, em rảnh dọn giùm anh - Hehe, giúp anh tay - Mày hộ tao Strategy 5: ACCEPTING: By using an expression... independence while Vietnamese ones use this strategy up to more than 9% It truly reflects collectivism value of Vietnamese, more people more power There is a saying in Vietnam talking about this:... with higher frequency than Vietnamese ones In contrast, the Vietnamese belong to collectivism which emphasizes a sense of belonging and group harmony As a result, the Vietnamese mostly combine