An analysis of turn-taking organization strategies of the host Phoebe Trần in 8 Ielts show – season 1 on VTV7

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATINAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  CHU THỊ HẢI AN ANALYSIS OF TURN-TAKING ORGANIZATION STRATEGIES OF THE HOST PHOEBE TRẦN IN IELTS SHOW – SEASON ON VTV7 (PHÂN TÍCH CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC TẠO LƯỢT LỜI CỦA NGƯỜI DẪN CHƯƠNG TRÌNH IELTS MÙA 1- PHOEBE TRẦN TRÊN KÊNH VTV7) MA THESIS – TYPE Field : English Linguistics Code : 8220201.01 HANOI – 2018 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATINAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES  CHU THỊ HẢI AN ANALYSIS OF TURN-TAKING ORGANIZATION STRATEGIES OF THE HOST PHOEBE TRẦN IN IELTS SHOW – SEASON ON VTV7 (PHÂN TÍCH CÁC CHIẾN LƯỢC TẠO LƯỢT LỜI CỦA NGƯỜI DẪN CHƯƠNG TRÌNH IELTS MÙA 1- PHOEBE TRẦN TRÊN KÊNH VTV7) MA THESIS – TYPE Field : English Linguistics Code : 8220201.01 Supervisor : Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, PhD HANOI – 2018 DECLARATION I hereby declare that this thesis entitled “An analysis of turn-taking organization strategies of the host Phoebe Trần in Ielts show – season on VTV7” was carried out by me for MA degree of English Linguistics under the guidance and supervision of PhD Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, Academy of Journalism and Communication, Hanoi and University of Languages and International Studies’s regulations The interpretations put forth are based on my reading and understanding of the original texts and they are not published anywhere in the form of books, monographs or articles The other books, articles and websites, which I have made use of are acknowledged at the respective place in thetext For the present thesis, which I am submitting to the ULIS, no degree or diploma or distinction has been conferred on me before, either in this or in any other University Place: Hanoi Date: November 2018 Research Student ACKNOWLEDGMENTS At the end of my thesis, I would like to thank all those who made this thesis possible, as well as contributed in many ways to the success of this study Foremost, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisor PhD Viet Nga Thi Nguyen for the constant support of my research, for her patience, motivation, enthusiasm, and immense knowledge Her guidance helped me in all the time of research and writing of this thesis Besides my advisor, I would like to thank my committee members of the foreign language faculty at University of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi for giving me permission to commence this thesis in the first instance, as well as encouraging me to go ahead with my thesis In addition, I also like to extend huge, warm thanks to my good friends, colleagues for their valuable advice, constructive criticism, and their extensive discussions during my thesis progress Especially, I gratefully acknowledge the staffs of Faculty of Postgraduate Studies for their helpful comments, unfailing support and assistance Last but not the least, I take this opportunity to sincerely acknowledge my parents, siblings whose love, financial assistance, real inspiration enabled me to complete this work i ABSTRACT This thesis elaborates on the phenomenon of turn-taking from Phoebe – the charming host of “8 Ielts” educational television showand her turn control strategies she adopts The aim of the study is to describe the ways Phoebe uses utterance exchange signals in each turn-taking.Following the turn-taking model proposed by Anna Brita Stenstrom (1994), the hostess will certainly applies strategies to claim, keep or yield the turn but not all mechanisms are used because their distinct functions The thesis also demonstrates dominant turn-control strategies from hosts in the perspective of semi-institutional setting The researcher uses observational qualitative method since it analyzes the data in the form of words descriptively, not in the form of percentage or numeral, bases on turn taking strategies found in Phoebe’s utterances with guests and uses conversation analysis as an approach because fit to the centre of attention of this study that is analyzing phenomena of talk in interaction The result of the research shows that the three turn taking strategies including turntaking, turn-holdingand turn-yielding are correlated each other And these strategies are found in every conversation Especially, taking over/ repetition/ prompting strategies are operated most Practically, the present study helps readers have more understanding and knowledge about the turn taking strategies and can applied it in their daily life in order to get easy of conversation as social being It is also hoped that the investigation into turn allocation in talk show may benefit the talk show hosts in achieving success in the program ii TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION ACKNOWLEDGMENTS i ABSTRACT .ii TABLE OF CONTENTS iii LIST OF TABLES iv ABBREVIATIONS vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of Study 1.2 Aims of the study and research questions 1.3 Significance ofStudy 1.4 Scope of the study 1.5 Organization of the study CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Theoretical framework 2.1.1 Conversation Analysis 2.1.2 Institutional conversation in the talk show 2.1.3 TurnTaking 12 2.2 Previous Studies 25 CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 28 3.1 Research design 28 3.2 Research instruments 28 3.3 Data analysis 31 CHAPTER FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 33 4.1 Findings 33 4.1.1 Strategies for taking the turn 34 4.1.2 Strategies for holding the turn 42 4.1.3 Strategies for yielding the turn 46 iii 4.2 Discussions 49 4.2.1 The signal kinds of turn-taking strategies 49 4.2.2 The kinds of the preferred turn-taking shapes 51 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 55 5.1 Conclusion 56 5.2 Implications, limitations of the study and recommandations 57 REFERENCES 59 APPENDIX iv LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1: Conventions developed by Gail Jefferson and published in Sacks, Schegloff and Jefferson (1974) 29 Table 4.1: The resume of the data analysis 33 Table 4.2 : The signal of a clean start in starting up the turn 35 Table 4.3 : The signal of uptake in taking over the turn 36 Table 4.4 : The signal of link in taking over the turn 37 Table 4.5 : The signal of alert in interrupting the turn 39 Table 4.6 : The signal of alert in interrupting the turn 39 Table 4.7 : The signal of meta-comment in interrupting the turn 40 Table 4.8 : The signal of meta-comment in interrupting the turn 41 Table 4.9 : The signal of filled pauses and verbal fillers in holding the turn 42 Table 4.10 : The signal of silent pauses in holding the turn 43 Table 4.11 : The signal of lexical repetition in holding the turn 43 Table 4.12 : The signal of new start in holding the turn 45 Table 4.13 : The signal of prompting in yielding the turn 46 Table 4.14 : The signal of prompting in yielding the turn 47 Table 4.15 : The signal of appealing in yielding the turn 47 Table 4.16: The signal of giving up in yielding the turn 49 v ABBREVIATIONS CA: Conversation Analysis TCUs: Turn Constructional Units TRP: Transition Relevance Place T: Turn TV: Television ULIS: University of Languages and International Studies vi CHAPTER INTRODUCTION 1.1 Rationale of Study Current communicatively foreign teaching and learning methodologies place emphasis on providing learners with opportunity to listen and respond to the correct topic as being part of good manners when interlocutors participate in any form of conversation The main use of this work is to experience appropriately more representation of discourse patterns in order that the learners’ English proficiency is improved practically In fact, interactants wait for each other to finish their respective utterances before taking the floor at each turn However, the way of handling turns only has the advantage of simplicity and no maintainability and adaptation, even their overwhelmingly unnatural boundaries The clearest illustration of failure in giving turns to the next speaker is that somenonnative speakers fall silent when they should take a turn They not know how to put his thoughts and ideas into words or he simply does not have enough confidence to speak in the presence of other people Obviously, learners of a foreign language may find it difficult to gather information, as well as to take their turns naturally and properly in other tongues This problem partly relates to turn management and the use of techniques in turn management Theoretically, to smoothly participate in intercultural dialogues, the conversants need to furnish themselves with sufficient knowledge of turn acquisition/ allocation, turn-taking rules, and strategies present in the target language Understanding linguistically about turn and turn-taking under observation of conversational analysis, “the talk of one party bounded by the talk of others constitutes a turn, with turn-taking being the process through which the party doing the talk of the moment is changed” (Goodwin 1981 : 2) Speaking more easily,a turn is the time when a speaker is talking and turn-taking is the skill of knowing when to start and finish a turn in a conversation Similarly, when conversing with other people to learn, exchange information, accomplish goals and tasks, or simply to Vietnam, started my own business After two years, I decided that it’s time for me to go oversea again And then I applied for the Fulbright scholarship P: Yeah M: Very luckily, I got it Actually I didn’t got it the first time I don’t know why they rejected my application the first time but it’s right We can always try again So I try again next year and I got the Fulfight scholarship I was also got into Harvard and it’s my dream school I think I worked really hard for it but there’s also an element of luck I’m lucky that I’m been through that journey and being here today with you and share about my experience So whatever you have to ask, feel free P: Ok, tell me a little bit about the application process We know that the scholarship application process is extremely tedious and extremely odious M: Let’s talk about Fulbright because it’s more recent application that I put together I think the first time I applied for Fulbright, I didn’t get it because I didn’t prepare for it carefully enough I seriously think that once you want something really badly, you have to put your soul and mind into it and really work hard to get it The Fulbright application, you have to a lot of things You have to prepare your resume You have to write essay You have to get recommendation letter You have to take the English test So have to pull all those information together and they have to be coherent, they have to consistent You have to really think about the different components and really present them together, reflect who you are as a person, what are your drea and inspiration What you tend to not only during the program but also when to get back to Vietnam and what you gonna do? What are your dream and hopes? So my experience is that if you don’t really focus on it and make it really interesting and strong enough, you will not get it because there’re so many people competing for a limited number of scholarships P: So, you now, Minh Beta now and Minh Beta when he was applied for a scholarship, how are the two people different? M: Wow, I grow older so I have wrinkles now (laughing) P: Where is it? M: There’s a lot of them P: Where is it when you smile? M: The camera doesn’t really zoom in close enough P: Good light! Good light! M: Just kidding! I think I became calmer and more compassionate with other people around me and also with myself I think I used to put a lot of pressure on myself to able to achieve a lot of things and set very high standard for myself I would be angry at myself if I didn’t get something done properly enough As I grow older I see life more as a journey not as a destination And I enjoy everything that I Just enjoy every minute of it and not stressing so much about “What can I do” or “if I could have done anything in a different way” It’s more about enjoying it and reflecting on it and enjoy it more, going forward P: Yeah, I think it’s really important to enjoy the process, even studying for the Ielts or studying for English A lot of time can be very very frustrating because we’re not at the place where we wanna be we aim to be M: Sure P: But I think at that moment in time when we have to look back and say “Hey how can I enjoy this I gotta have compassion for myself, compassion for my journey” M: That’s a point! P: Yeah, and compassion for the people that actually help me Right now in the journey and not fail them by being just completely irritated M: Sure! P: Yeah, with the … M: It’s funny that you mention that because I think about the time that I spent to learn Ielts before I went to Australia Three or four months I was really stressed out about “How could I get to that mark” When I got the scholarship to go Australia I think my Ielts was only 4.5 I took the test and it was 4.5 and I had to get the 6.5 in six months to go to Australia I think the first three or four months, I was really stressed out and try to squeeze in as much information as much as possible But I think my English teacher really helped me out by telling me that “You should enjoy the process” I tried not to be stressful about it and I spent more time watching sitcoms, television show in English And I enjoyed it Somehow it happened in way that I get to absorb a lot more information just by being positive about the whole experience P: Absolutely! Thanks so much for the amazing talk M: That’s so fun P: Yep and we gonna go to our next section and I hope you gonna like it as well M: Alright! P: It’s called the Ielts Marathon Just a series of some games that are very simple very short M: OK P: But some of them are quite physically interesting IELTS | S01E15 | UNIVERSITIES | PHƯƠNG MẶC TRI & VIỆT NGUYỄN & MAI BÍCH NGỌC 1:30 – 17:10 P: Hey, you’re back with us in the studio and right here we have two people that are going to talk to you about university They’re quite experienced because they spend the majority of their time in the university environment So welcome Phuong Mac Tri and Viet Nguyen to the studio Thank you for coming V + T: Thank you for having us P: So why why did you spend so much time in school? T: That’s an interesting question I think the quickest answer maybe I enjoy school and I find myself doing well in my study But part of the reason why I have spent so much time in school is because each of the stage of my education is around a different area So it keeps me interested in term of the research that I and the kind of knowledge that I gain for my study P: What about you, Viet? V: I think for me I generally say it’s because I always bad at making friends and I like being in the library a little bit more But also because, like Tri, I love learning and the thing that I want to study is a little bit more long and involved like the process of becoming a doctor is very long So it kept me about life in the libraries in schools P: A lot of people want to ask, you’re both from prestigious institutions “How you get in those institutions?” V: So I actually have never thought about going to one of these schools I went to state school for undergraduate so it really wasn’t part of my directory, for saying It wasn’t like a dream that I dared to dream But it turns out that I think it was like life, sort of, brought me there in many ways And partially I think the process was that it seemed like a good school for my professional development at that time For me, I’m about to fight for residency again So I’m diving into the letter of recommendations, personal statement, in the transcriptions, something like that And it makes me realize that preparing for these applications is the long process It’s been my entire life, it’s not the three months before that application is due So I think it’s a process of learning for myself, what I care about, what matters, building relationships that can help me in that process of developing skills necessary to progress academically or professionally T: So the story of my part is a little funny because I grew up in Central Square, Cambridge, which is about fifteen-minute walk from Harvard University But growing up and going to high school, we always start of Havard yard, which is area where a lot of classes and the students living in dormitories We thought of Harvard yard is just a yard that we walk through to get to Harvard square to hang out and have fun Because in high school we just hang out in Harvard square a lot But the short story is that after junior year, we have to take the PSAT back in my days After getting you score, you get a certain range, the school will send you a catalog I receive a catalogue that summer and Harvard surely looked really nice So I started having a different image of what Harvard yard stood for So that inspired me to study hard for the test to able to prepare myself for application But what an honest truth about why to pursuit these school is that in America, at least, these are schools that have the most resources Harvard has a very good financial aid P: Yes T: So if you’re students who work hard to get yourself to the stage of being ablt to have good test score or good resume You’re providing an opportunity for yourself to have a chance to get education for free That’s one of the, I think, great incentives for young people to think about P: I think one of the main goals that a lot of Vietnamese students right now, when it comes to choosing a new university It is “What can I or what can I study so I can be financially stable I can make the most money” And I thinkon the one hand that is the real thing they have to think about to sustain their family But on the other hand, I think there should be also room for us all to think about what we’d like to do, what we passion about, where we see ourselves as people in the long term, not with what career but with what we gonna be doing I think it’s more important And I think you guys reflected that idea very very well in your decision to pick whatever to study in university V: I just gonna say I think I’m actually coming back here this time, I have a lot of hope that people can pursuit different interests, find a way to make it financially sustainable As we’re becoming much more like global world There’s a lot more investment for different ideas and different thoughts that may not be so conventional T: I think I’ll build on your last point and also try to connect that to reflection that in a rapidly developing economy, certain skill set or experiences that are valuable and those people want to those skill set in order to get a job or provide for your family, their future to plan for career advancement There’s a lot of valuable experience from observing how life works on the street P: Yep, absolutely T: Part of the community work I was going to at that time was learning how to listen to people because people will have different pressure, stress and challenges that face them in their community in their individual life or with their job One of the way that one can gain, sort of dispose intellectual, the high level and analytical skill and also soft skills such as emotional intelligence or the ability to interact, make people feel comfortable when you meet someone new And a lot of skills are actually not maybe stressed in the education system here in the sense that actually one of the most successful I think, thing I will prepare myself for is coming to League university, you gonna meet a lot of people not from the same background as you You gonna meet people with very totally different, maybe ways to communicate, maybe different social economic background You gonna be in touch with them, you have to communicate with them to your four years So one ways to solve is to prepare oneself to be able to listen, to be able to be at time to get conflict and maybe in Vietnam sometimes conflict is not so good Anyone wants to agree and just like have fun and just take it easy But actually, conflict is something that in American university is a growing process So I think conflict actually makes the leadership too and the ability to handle conflict, listen and also to still maintain a friendship or a relationship in conflict is something that means that they have some experience too in the past year V: When I talk on top idea about leadership, I think one of the values of taking leadership position or trying to engage with the problem actually develop empathy like an ability to recognize how difficult it is to live Regardless whether or not, you ultimately come to leader cooperation, you might be able to negotiate the difficult in a professional relationship a little bit more There’s an idea by an author, an anthropologist I think her name’s Anne Fadiman She writes about standing at the shoreline She wrote a pretty well-known book called “the spirit catches you and you fall down” She mentioned how her role as a writer standing at the cast between the family’s loses and the doctor It was like the shoreline between the ocean and the sand And how they’re at those point of turbulence is where you can see the most dynamic changes in the most movement There is where you can see both the ocean and the land So for me it’s been inspiring to not shy away from things that are difficult or uncomfortable Because they can be growing movements P: Absolutely T: What I want to highlight is built up with what you’re just mentioned maybe useful for students in Vietnam wanting to have aspiration for studying overseas and on comparing themselves culturally for that transition One thing that Viet and I share in common is the experience from emigrant background Our parents emigrated from Vietnam to the US when I was very young before Viet was born When we grew up, the dynamic of conflict and change and empathy is extremely important for our life experience for survival in some ways We grow up in an immigrant family and with parents When that’s beginning, a completely new cultural system tries to make a living where we were learning the language, requires a new tongue in some ways How does that language, how we communicate back to our parents who are in some way from a different culture, a Vietnamese culture where we are somewhat hybrid Vietnamese Americans And then when we get older and become more fluent, it’s like institutional working of a new country, we either have to translate or support a family in navigating that We also have new aspirations, being raised in that system That also leads question to a lot of adaptation, flexibility and mainly to the experience coming back to Vietname afterwards and how that plays out P: I think you guys touch on a lot of things a lot of things a lot of things that’s I think very important If you’re watching at home, if you consider university, you also face a big question “Who you are? How you are academically compared to other, what university choice? How is that going to influence you future? But if you listen to our conversation, I think a lot of things that we will be really really focusing on is who we are, how we protect ourselves and what we wanna do, not necessary to a career but where we see ourselves affecting the community and affecting other people I think those are some of the key points that we should also look at when we consider university options Nowadays, there’s a lot of information out there You can look up how to apply for UK universities online And if you’re considering Vietnamese education, focus well on your score in order to get into that school But at the end of the day, university’s a platform for us all to grow What we with our university education and what we after university is also really important as well So I think university is just really a starting point of everything Would you like to showcase each other and also us something that’s not academic that are fun that are some of your talents? T: So I can something It’s a silly song I think, maybe reflected of … I actually attended kindergarten in Vietnam but then moved to the US at the age of seven This is a song I’d like to It’s a little silly but hopefully it’s fun (Tri Viet are singing….) P: How did you learn about this song? And how’s that related to you and your mother? V: I have the privilege of going on the trip throughout Vietnam and I was connected with a lot of different elements of promoting education as well as providing musical inspiration and part of public health I was very fortunate to be able to share about a lot of different topics that are important to me, whether it’s like hygiene or importantly sexually productive health to young girls and Q&A consultation about general health issues like high blood pressure, joint-pain problems Through that process, I was introduced to a bunch of Vietnam folk songs Among them there was this “Em di dua com” (I deliver lunch to my mom) The obvious things that it was tinned with idyllic childhood in the world landscape that I have never experience when I think sort of always yearn for A lot of the symmetries in that song speaks to my experience about what my mother was too Like someone who’s always hardworking who’s always make sure that people at first to always stay up late P: Absolutely IELTS | S01E17 | GENDER EQUALITY | LÂM VISSAY & PHƯƠNG MAI 1:38 – 9:05 P: OK, so we’re back at the studio and today we’re gonna talking about gender equality and gender roles and of course we have somebody who is in the studio with us You might not really expect him to be talking this topic but he did release a music video And we’re gonna talk to him about that So welcome Lam Vissay Thank you for coming L: Hello P: So tell me a little bit about that music video “ I was wrong” that was released on International Women’s Day L: “I was wrong” four years ago, I was travelling through Vietnam and I saw there’s huge gap between woman and man So I saw that the women who are in charge, who are the bosses, who are running a show the number of roles So I thought it would be a good idea to write about it So that was the first thought The name of the song was Van – Van oi P: Oh so interesting! L: Yeah, because I had a personal experience with that fat woman, a strong woman who does many jobs at the same time And it’s happy to me that I met Kimmese and she helped me with that song She helped me translate the lyrics into Vietnamese and it worked out quite well P: So it’s about women and it was initially called “Van” and it was transformed to “I was wrong” What was was the the purpose? L: The thing is that I see man has still a lot of prejudices Where I come from in Germany, gender equality is normal Every woman and man they have the same rights They can as much as men can and it’s totally normal and OK And here is like the men can go to party, can drink beer, can go home late and when they women it then it’s like oh no, it’s not cool So that was it And I thought when we write about this topic and maybe help to normalize it P: Ummm…hum so coming from Germany you come from such a diverse background Your parents are Laotian, your mother is Vietnamese ethically but she speaks Laos right?And and (pausing) L: She grows up in Laos P: She grows up in Laos And you grow up in Germany And now you’re in Vietnam How is gender role different in all those cultures? L: Well as I said Vietnam and Laos women are pretty much devoted They have to be home and cook for the men And I can remember whenever I visit my family the men sit on the table and nothing And the women they prepare the food and when we finish they the dishes so the whole work In Germany we respect it When the women cook the men make the dishes or vice versa Yes it’s my experience Women are more devoted to men in Vietnam and Laos but it’s changing P: Now when you said that I remember I’ve been to family dinners or family lunches when I was a younger kid I I remember that the uncles and the grandpas and all the men in the family will be sitting around and waiting for the foods to bring And when I was younger I did remember myself saying “You guys don’t anything why I have to bring you all you stuffs And they just “no you’re gonna be a good girl if you that” L: Yes a good wife P: But I think time has changed so much I think nowyou know women have a lot more voice I think Vietnamese women have always been very very strong in the world We were one of the forces that gorilla, the people taking care of the military forces so we were quite active And in the workforce I think we have a lot of opportunities now compared to before L: They said that women have more not stronger but you can put more work how to say you can many things at once P: Yes we can multi-task L: Yes you are multi-task P: What you personally to support women to support men on personal basis? I participated in a competition so if the musis video has more than ten millions views, I will get one billion which I promised to donate five hundred millions It didn’t work in that a month, we didn’t get the number But if it doesn’t work I will give 10 million of my own money to Women Organization which helps the orphans I supported Mai Khoi – she is a friend She started to work in the politics and fight for women’s right P: Yes L: Yeah I supported her with a little amount of what I help and what I can give her P: That’s great Have you ever for you in your family or whatever, witness a instance of gender inequality? L: Mostly when I see people working on their houses I see women carrying … (pausing) P: the baby L: No the stones, the heavy stuffs, the hard work I always see women working And the men like commanding so I don’t know is that inequality? Does it mean like women are more willing to work for less money? Probably yeah Because they have to take car for the kids for the family P: Do you think women and men should be paid the same? L: Definitely for the same work Not because I’m a man I get more money I should get well-paid for the work if the women the same work as good as me, she deserves all the money she should P: Yeah Who is your favorite female figure who is your famous male figure? L: Female figure Kimmese P: Kimmese is your favorite figure? Is she here? L: She’s here She might be coming and perform with me? P: Yeah I hope you will be able sing that song together – I was wrong L: Yeah Kimmese is a very impressive woman She stands for the new generation P: Yes L: For me she is the best rapper and she has a wonderful voice as well P: Oh she does How you guys meet? L: In the studio P: Oh meet in the studio L: Over a French friend, music producer Van Nhung He introduced us and there was this click how we met so we had a lot of fun P: That’s great L: Hanging out and music together P: Ok That’s great That’s great So hopefully we’ll get a chance to hear you sing that song L: Yeah P: I was wrong P: But before we hear you sing that song I think I’m gonna challenge you to a game here on the 8Ielts Marathon challenge And hopefully we will talk more about the genders as we play the game, ok? L: Alright! IELTS | S01E19 | ADVERTISING | SƠN ĐOÀN & HARRY LU 1:57 – 11:30 P: Hey, welcome back to the studio and today we’re gonna be talking about advertising Just as I had advertised for you right outside with the Polangto, which we talk about later on But in the studio with me right now is Son Doan and he’s been a veteran in advertising world He’s done it in the US and he’s now doing it in Vietnam so he probably has a lot of things to share for us such things right now D: Very nice to meet you P: Yeah thank you for coming So you’ve been back to Vietnam since 2012, your years, and you’re working in advertising in the US for eight years, right? So 12 years potentially in advertising? How is that advertising now different from eight years 12 years ago? D: Oh man I mean advertising back then was just from grassroots to prints to TV commercials but nowadays it just shifts all of that to social media And social media is always changing so you have to keep up with the content and try to come up with new creative ways to make your ads stand out in the crowds P: You won an award in 2011 for Asian American ad right? D: Yes P: Why you think it want and what piece want? D: We did a commercial for direct TV which is a TV service provider in the stage and our market is for the Vietnamese community market overseas And we started out the thing behind it is that the older generation loves to watch Vietnamese contents so direct TV package these stations that broadcast in Vietnamese and they tried to sell those But the thing is the older generation they don’t know how to purchase it, so they often come to young generation like myself or you like their kids, their grandkids to call up and register So we had to come up with TV commercials that not only speak to the older generation but the younger generations that when they watch it They’ll be interested to pick up the phone and like calling and order for their parents So we enabled having a Vietnamese Youtube sensation at the time during the whole like commercial as a raff video So it’s when various in the Vietnamese communities and the feedbacks were really well-taken So that’s how we end up winning that award P: A lot of audiences actually asked what is the advertising process like you know how it starts from initial brief to the end product that’s out in the market D: Generally speaking we meet up the client, they present us the products that need to be featured and need to an ad for And we come back and we have to homework by studying the products, studying its competitive the same kind of products out there See what have they present, what is the pro and of out products, compared to the others From that point we the create a concepts that are unique for the products and we present it back to client And if they agree upon that then that’s with smooth selling from that point But there’re a lot of backs and forths in that process between the clients and an ad agency P: So a lot of the times when you’re in ad and you work for a client, you have you own creative mentality, you have your own viewpoints Clients may have a different viewpoint How you balance it out or you need to convince the clients of what you believe in? D: Most of the time we the convincing in my experience anyway I mean we take in their inputs of course because that’s the brand and they understand it they have to understand it And they show us the true value of the production what we need to focus on Then we take it in and we find an inventive way to feature the plus point of views products and put it out then to the markets Sometimes the concept would be really weird out there And then the clients come in and they will be like I don’t think our audiences would response really well so we have to down it back We have to explain to them that the reasons behind why we’re doing it so differently Just think about a regular product there could be thousands of similar things right? So that what advertising comes in to make sure that your product is special make sure that it’ll be one that people choose instead of the other ones P: So now is there any room for creative ego in the advertising world? D: Oh my god Is there any room? Is there ever enough room? (Laughing) Yeah but the end of the day I think creative people their minds are just like all over the palace maybe But that’s how the creativity comes from So at the same time the clients always help us to focus it down think zoning us down But yeah I think there’s a lot of ego heating debates and you know lots of findings for what you think with work P: Yes D: But it’s in a very positive way because we all want sale the same products right? P: Yeah We all wanna create the same designs right? D: Exactly P: So what is a day life for you now working in ad? D: Day in a life Come in the office, look at the brief and you know come up meeting, say ok, this is we should for this ads or this tradition buds or you know this various campaign that we’re doing So luckily I work with a really good team and we bounce a lot of ideas with each other So after we had the initial ideas and then we just assign two designers or to illustrate us to start to sketch P: That’s great! D: And once all of the processes done we present it to the clients So because we are in an English show, what are some of the things that you think is really important about the comment of the English language in the advertising world Oh I think it’s very important and because right now even Vietnamese products we always see like a little bit of slogans in English as well Just because I think not only that people try to sell in Vietnam market, they try to push up products internationally as well And English will help you a lot to study all of the ads campaign that other countries has been done because obviously right now there’s a lot of brands from you know, States, from Europe coming in So at the same products you could see how they adapted in Europe market, Chinese market, Thailand market so you could learn from that And English is really a key for you to research and read upon how they approach the advertising process P: Absolutely, absolutely So thanks so much for all the sharing I think it’s gonna be really useful You know if you’re interested in the advertising world, make sure you comment in English which is correct Because you know it’s not only your research tour it’s also your working tour You would have to use English language during your direct work right? D: Exactly P: So we have a section for you before we move on the Ielts Marathon It’s Yay or Nay section It’s gonna be a collection of question and you gonna answer YAY or Nay Ok? D: OK P: Let’s have Yay or Nay