Ways of greeting and a comparison between vietnamese and english greetings

Acknowledgements Without receiving help, advice from my teachers and my friends, I could not have completed this thesis Firstly, I would like to express my deep thanks to teacher Le Thi Khang - my supervisor - who gives me a lot of guidance, advices I also acknowledge Vu Viet Huong (M.A)– my objector – who gives me a lot of useful advice and comments Furthermore, I would like express thanks to the Foreign Languages Department, especially the scientific council for giving me chance to the thesis and to the library for lending me books, materials I also express my gratitude to all teachers of Foreign Languages Department Finally, I am grateful to my friends who give me encouragement and support Trần anh Phợng Vinh, May 2004 Part I: Introduction Reasons for choosing the topic “Greeting is much more precious than a feast(lời chào cao mâm cỗ), that Vietnamese saying indicates how important greeting is People’s interactions always begin with greetings People greet each other with the aims of showing interest, friendliness and establishing relationships Communication is one of the most important interactions of human-being People use language (verbal and non-verbal) to communicate Greeting is a small process of communication process It occurs at the beginning of the conversation People use language to greet each other Language of greeting is the most popular language in every country People use it very often whenever they meet So, when learning a foreign language, people, firstly learn how to greet (language of greeting) Each country has its own language, including greetings The greetings often convey information about cultural characteristics, religious rules of the countries And through greetings between greeters, we can know something about the relationships, social status of the greeters When I started learning English, first of all I learned greeting in English such as: “Hi”, “Hello”, “Good morning”, “Good afternoon”, “How you ?”, etc ” and learn how to use them Since then, I have used greeting when communicating in English And I always take notes to comparing English greeting with Vietnamese greeting, I find a lot of interesting points to study That is the reason why I have chosen this topic Aims of the study - To help the Vietnamese learners understand the behavior principles, greeting principles and use greetings in appropriate time and places so that they can communicate successfully - To help learners in translating, especially translating a conversation into Vietnamese - To provide some conventional greetings and responses in some circumstances in English Scope of the study - Greetings, greeting culture - Greetings in English and Vietnamese - Differences and similarities of greetings in Vietnamese and English Methods of the study - Contrastive and comparative methods - Statistic method - Descriptive method Design of the study Part I: Introduction Reasons for choosing the topic Aims of the study Scope of the study Methods of the study Design of the study Part II: Contents Chapter 1: Theoretical preliminaries Chapter 2: General introduction to greeting Chapter 3: Greetings in English and Vietnamese Chapter 4: A comparison between English and Vietnamese greeting Part III: Conclusion Part II: Contents Chapter 1: Theoretical preliminaries Communication and means of communication 1.1 What is communication? The English word “communicate” comes from the Latin word communicare” It means “to give” or “to share” And most common today it means to give or to share information and ideas.(1;11) “Communicate” can mean “talk together, discuss, consult, and tell” (1;11) According to Advanced dictionary: “communicate” means to exchange information, news, ideas and to share feelings, thoughts etc, with somebody Communication is the activity or the process of expressing ideas, feelings with somebody and of exchanging ideas, information It is natural for people to communicate However, we must learn how to understand words, expressions of face, greetings and actions These “languages of communication” are not natural in the sense that we are not born with them They are even different in each region, culture, and street and sometimes between families Successful communication means that the other person receives the message you intend To communicate successfully, you must understand the other person’s needs, feelings and ideas as well as the way he or she uses language So it is essential to study and listen to the other person To reach to these aims communicators have to use a common means of communication which is known as languages 1.2 Language 1.2.1 What is language? People use the system of signals which are called language to communicate Language is considered to be the greatest achievement of humanity It is the system of special signals which people use to communicate and it is the basis means of communication and of developing thought of people People use language to impart tradition, culture, history and experiences from the old generation to the young generation (translated from the book Dẫn luận ngôn ngữ học.(8;5) 1.2.2 Functions of language Basing on this definition, language has following functions: - Language is the means of communication (communicative function) When people want to tell each other something, language appears Apparently, without language people can not exchange information, experiences and share feelings, thoughts with each other People can not co-operate to produce And our society would not develop any more - Language is the means of thought People’s thoughts, feelings, ideas, and experiences are expressed in language Language is the reality of thought People use language not only to express thoughts, feelings, ideas but also to think (translated from the book DÉn luËn ngôn ngữ học.(8;5) According to Michael Mc Carthy, language has two functions: transactional and interactional function The function which language serves in the expression of “content” will be described as transactional function The function involved in expressing the social relations and personal attitudes will be described as the interactional function - According to the transactional view, Linguists and linguistic philosophers tend to adopt a limited approach to the function of language in society.(7;2) They frequently acknowledge that language may be used to perform many communicative functions The value of the use of language to transmit information is well embedded in our cultural mythology We all believe that it is the faculty of language, which has enabled the human race to develop diverse cultures, each with its distinctive social customs, religious observance, law, oral traditions, pattern of trading, and so on (7;3) - According to the interactional view, whereas linguistic, philosopher of language and psycho-linguists have, in general, paid particular attention to the use of language for transmission of "factual or propositional information" sociologists and sociolinguists have been particularly concerned with the use of language to establish and maintain social relationships Conversational analysts have been particularly concerned with the use of language to negotiate role-relationships, peer-solidarity, the exchange of turns in a conversation, the saving of face of both speaker and hearer (7:3) It is clear that a great deal of everyday human interaction is characterized by the primarily interpersonal rather than the primarily transactional use of language For example: When two people who not know each other are sitting in the bus in the hot weather, one turns to the other and says “my goodness it is so hot” In this case, it is difficult to suppose that the primary intention of the speaker is to convey information It seems more reasonable to suggest that the speaker is indicating a readiness to be friendly and to talk with the other 1.2.3 Types of language In fact, there are many kinds of language: language of music, language of science, language of art, etc And they are used to communicate Speech (and words) is the fastest and simplest method of communication There are, however, many other ways of communication such as: signals, gestures, postures, etc All these ways are classified into two kinds: verbal language and non-verbal language Verbal language is words and speech (sounds) Non-verbal language is signals, gestures, postures, etc And communication is also classified into two types: verbal communication and non-verbal communication basing on the methods used in the process of communication Types of communication 2.1 Verbal communication Verbal communication is the kind of communication in which words and speech (sounds) are used It is known as "spoken communication", including the use of words and tone to convey meaning (4; 61) In language, there are unwritten rules of speaking These rules exist in every language, but differ significantly from culture to culture The rules have to with permissible degrees of directness, politeness, and formality and they affect many of functions of communication such as: offer, request, refusal, compliment, etc For different functions of communication, there are different languages (speech or sounds), used with different tone 2.2 Non-verbal communication Non-verbal communication is the kind of communication in which people communicate without using words or speech Non-verbal communication is known as "silent communication" including the use of gestures, facial expression, eye contact and conversational distance (4; 61) People use not only words, speech but also gestures facial expressions to communicate, to convey meaning, especially emotional meaning One study in the United States showed that 93 percent of massage was transmitted by speakers” tone of voice and facial expressions Only percent of person’s attitude was conveyed by words Apparently, we express our emotion more non-verbally than verbally (4;62) In the process of communication, people not always start going directly to the topic of the conversation Before going to the main topic of the conversation, people often greet each other then they have “small talk” together Those are the usual steps of a conversation Greeting When meeting, people greet each other by expressions (saying some words) or gestures, or both So, greetings are words, gestures people say or make at the beginning of the conversation when they meet Greeting is the activity of giving a sign or words of welcome or pleasure when meeting somebody or receiving a guest.(12;915) People use language to communicate, greeting is a process of communication So, there are also languages to greet which are known as greeting language There are verbal communication and non-verbal communication, therefore, as a small process of communication, greeting is also classified into verbal greeting and non-verbal greeting basing on the language people use in the process of greeting (verbal or non-verbal) 3.1 Verbal greeting Verbal greeting is the way people greet each other by using speech or words It is known as greeting expressions For examples: Hello, Good morning, How are you ? 3.2 Non-verbal greeting Non-verbal greeting is the way people greet each other without using words or speech but they use gestures, posture or facial expressions etc It is known as greeting gestures Small talk Conversation often begins with “small talk” “Topics of general interest are called small talk”.(4:31) For example: topics of weather, local events, work or school According to the English English Vietnamese Dictionary, small talk is a kind of conversation about everyday matters, usually at a social event (12; 1911) It is important because it often helps to maintain conversation (i.e keep them going), and it can lead to interesting discussion In an introductory meeting, maintaining a conversation is easier when two people find that they have something in common Small talk can be discussed easily without knowing the other person well It is the good conversation starter For examples: In classroom: You : Hello, aren’t you in English class? Other person: Yes, I thought I’d seen you before? You : Did you finish the essay? Other person: No, I had troubles in organizing my thoughts At a dance: You : Excuse me Do you know when the band is going to start playing? Other person: I believe they are going to start playing at nine-thirty You : Have they recorded any song yet? I don’t think have never heard of them before Other person: I don’t think so, but they are supposed to be really good (4; 31) Greeting and small talk are important in communication These are the process in which people often share feelings, common interest They help the communicators understand each other and co-operate easily We have already asserted that languages of communication are different in each country, region, and culture And greetings are different from culture to culture And to understand more about greeting - the starting process of communication – let us come to the study of the ways of greeting and a comparison between Vietnamese and English greetings Chapter 2: General Introduction To Greeting Definition of greeting When you see a friend or someone you may probably say “Hi”, “Hello”, “Good morning” to them or you may wave or smile or maybe you all of them These actions are called greetings Greetings are things people say or to show that they recognize the presence of the others (1;4) Greeting is an important communicative etiquette and it is a cultural etiquette Because of differences in culture, language, every country has its own ways to form greetings For examples: - “Good evening”, “Hello”, “Hi”, “How you do?” (In English) - Chào, Xin chào, Chào bác ạ, etc (In Vietnamese) - “Bonjour”, “Bonsoir”, etc (In French) Functions of greeting Perhaps, greeting is one of the most popular interactions among people Everyone in the world greets each other, every country has its own greeting culture Greeting is an important activity Firstly, it is clear that almost every human interaction begins with greetings When meeting, people not start talking directly, first of all they greet each other then they talk about the topics In other words, every communication begins with greetings Greetings are not just sayings, gestures used to start the conversation, they also conveys messages People’s greetings can show the relationships among greeters A good greeting helps to maintain the conversation and leads the communicators to take interest in talking to each other Through greetings, you can express your friendliness, respect, politeness, etc, o your friends by choosing suitable greetings and intonation That is the key for you and your friends to have successful conversation The ways people greet (gestures or saying) can tell us information about culture, customs, religion, etc 10 relationships among people And these relationships are divided into two levels: close relationships and normal relationships 4.3.1 Normal relationships Normal relations are social temporary relationship People who have relationship with each other because of work, job, affairs, etc set up this kind of relationship Those people often greet each other formally and communicatively For examples: - Good evening, Ladies and gentlemen! - Kính chào quí ông quí bà! These are greetings in meeting or in a performance, the following greetings are the ones between two managers who get contact with each other for a contract A Good morning, Mr B! B Good morning, Mr A! Relationships among people who not know each other well are also normal relationships These people would never greet each other casually When greeting, gestures such as shaking hands and bow are mainly done, gestures of closeness like kissing or waving are not used 4.3.2 Close relationship The relationship between people who know each other well such as close friends, relatives, the lovers, family members, etc, are close relationships In communication, these people treat each other casually and freely So, their greetings are often informal as they want to show their friendliness, closeness to their greeters Tom and Marry know each other quite well, they are classmates, they will not greet each other, “How you do” or “How are you?”, they may say: -Hello, Tom -Hello, Marry Two students in a class may greet each other -What’s up, Tim -Nothing, What about you, Jone? 23 Lovers say good bye: - Good night, Honey! - Sleep well, Baby! Among these kinds of people, greeting gestures are quite plentiful It may be kissing, waving, or hugging 4.4 Gender In many places, the way people greet each other is different depending on they are male or female The way a man greets a female friend is different from the way he greets a male friend, especially, greeting gestures For example, people in Thailand say “swa-dee-ka” to greet females and “swa-deekup” to greet males In Russian, males shake hands when they meet while females not (1; 16) In few countries, it is traditional for women to be more reserved in their greetings than men are In Afghanistan, for example, men and women have their own ways of greeting strangers A man will greet by saying “manda na bashi” (may you not be tired) And a women will raise her hand to cover her mouth (1; 16) In Vietnamese, males may greet each other with a hug or embraces, but a male will never greet a female with these greeting gestures Greeting culture and factors affecting greeting culture 5.1 Greeting culture It is clear that anything that happens regularly and commonly becomes habit, routine Greeting is the interaction that occurs every day and it is a routine This routine includes ways people greet each other (words and gestures) when meeting, and greeting routine is called greeting culture As having mentioned, each country has its own languages, and ways of greeting So greeting culture is different from culture to culture It is affected by many factors such as religion, culture, social development 24 5.2 Factors affecting greeting culture 5.2.1 Culture Referring to culture, there have been many definitions of culture Here are two definitions taken from writings of Tran Ngoc Them and Nguyen Quang According to Tran Ngoc Them, culture is a system of material and intellectual values, it is created by human kind and accumulated through real activity (translated from the book Cơ sở văn hoá Việt Nam, (6;10) ) According to Nguyen Quang, the term culture is considered as a shared background (for examples national, ethnic, religion etc.) resulting from a common language, communication styles, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values According to his definition, culture is like an iceberg, most of it is under water The underwater part is communication styles, beliefs, attitudes values and perceptions Appearance and language belong to the abovewater part (4;3) Culture has great influence on communication styles Communication style includes the ways people talk together (they talk directly about the topics or not), the time for small talk (a few minutes or longer) and the ways people greet each other as well Apparently, culture affects greeting culture much Each country, each group of people has their own culture, this leads to the differences in greeting culture 5.2.2 Religions In the old time, people could not explain the natural phenomena, which bring them damage and fear like: thunder, rain, light, volcanoes etc Therefore, they regarded that they are Gods and they believe in the existence of the super-natural power That is the origin of religions In the world, there have been a lot of religions, Jewish religion, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hindu, etc Each religion has its own system of strict rules about behaviour, life style, clothing and greeting as well and all followers of the religions has to obey these rules without any thinking For examples: At certain point of the traditional Roman Catholic service, the priest says “let us offer the sign of peace” the members of the congregation turn to each other and shake 25 hands and say “Peace be with you” (1; 24) The Muslims when meeting they say “As-lam” “alaykum”, it means “peace be with you” In India, the traditional greeting among Hindu is called “namaste” which means “I bow to you” People bow their heads and place the palms of their hands together, and bring the hands to their chests This greeting expresses the Hindu belief that God exists in every one.(1; 25) These greetings are called religious greetings Each religion has their own ways of greeting Each greeting conveys meanings about beliefs of that religion 5.2.3 Social development Human-being has passed through five main levels of social development, our society now is the socialist When a new kind of society is formed, many things are changed New political system replaces the old one New culture, new art, life style, etc appear These changes lead to the changes of greetings In the old time, the leaders, especially the King and the Queen, were very powerful people So when people met these kinds of people, they had to greet very formally and respectively They had to knee or bow lowly when greeting and they were not allowed to look straight into the greeters” faces In the Feudal society, men were not allowed to touch women so, there was no greeting gestures like handshaking or kissing, hugging, etc In our modern society, it is much more equal among people and people, between men and women Everyone has freedom, so greeting does not require many rites Kneeing is never done, new greeting gestures such as handshakes, bowing, or even kissing may appear However, greeting gesture like bow still exists It is worth noting that there are many factors affecting greeting, however, the three items, which have been mentioned above, affect greeting greatly 26 Chapter 3: Greetings in Vietnamese and in English Greetings in English Like many countries in the world, England has the system of greeting including greeting expressions and greeting gestures 1.1 Greeting expressions 1.1.1 Direct greeting expressions In English, there are a number of direct greeting expressions, which contain verbs of greeting like “greet”, “welcome ”, greeting words like “Hello”, “Hi”, “Hey”, etc The interjections “hello, hi, hallo,” are often used in informal situations They are used commonly by young generation and among close friends, etc, and people who have slight relationship with each other The greeting expressions which include the verbs of greeting like “greet, welcome” are often used in writing, or informal situations For examples: I greet him by saying good morning (in writing) “Greetings Ladies and Gentlemen!” Or “Ladies and Gentlemen!” (formal) Welcome to our Beauty contest (greeting of a speaker) Welcome to Vinh city 1.1.2 Indirect greeting expressions In English, there are a lot of indirect greeting expressions There are some ways of forming indirect greeting expressions This kind of greeting in English is divided into two groups basing on the linguistic forms They are: “Good + part of the day” such as: “Good morning”, “Good evening”, “Good afternoon” and “questions (usually open questions)” such as: “How are you?” “How you do?”{, “what’s new?”, “what’s up?”, etc 27 1.1.2.1 Question form The saying “How are you?” and “How you do?” are applied for the formal situations “How you do?” is the greeting though its structure is the question It is used for the first meeting in the introduction, for the second meeting or people know each other well they not greet each other by this saying People will respond “how you do?” when being greeted This greeting is used when introducing each other so it is often followed by saying “it is nice to meet you, etc.” For examples: A How you do? B How you do? It is nice to meet you! What is your name? “How are you?” is greeting expression with the aim of asking about heath of the hearer To be polite, the hearer should respond “I am fine, thanks” or “I am well, thank you, and you?” although at that moment he/she is not very well, he/she may be tired or bored A A Hello! how are you? B Hello! I am fine, thank you, and how about you? A I am well, thanks The other questions such as: what is new? what’s up? etc, are used in informal situations They are used among young generation: students, pupils, etc You should not say “Hey, what’s up?” to a person who is rather older than you, to your teacher or your boss You should use it to greet your friends who are at the same age and social status Let us consider the following openings of a conversation between two friends Rosa: Hi, How are you? Andy: Fine thank you, and you? Rosa: Well, so what’s up? Andy: Oh, not much, what about you? Rosa: Nothing much (“Greetings! ” by Karin Lisa Babt) 28 It is quite a long conversation, however, conveys no information, it’s simply a greeting 1.1.2.2 "Good + parts of day" This linguistic form is used more commonly than question form The greeting form “Good+parts of day”“ is used in formal and informal situations, between people at work or between the old generation This is formal greeting For example: “Good morning, teacher!”“ Or “Good after noon, Mr John!”“ When no title or even no name follows after these greeting expressions, it is less formal, and might be used by greeters who are in close relationship or in the equal social status, or friends A and B are friends, they may greet A: Good morning, B ! B: Good morning, A! What is up.? A: Not much Or we can even omit “Good” A: Morning, David B: Morning, Anna If “ Good+parts of the day”” is translated literally into our mother tongue, it seems to be a wish: Chúc buổi sáng tốt lành (Good morning), “Chóc bi tèi vui vỴ” (good evening),.etc However, it is a greeting form indeed There are also some other similar greeting structures: “Nice + part of week, day” For example: “Nice weekend!”, “Nice day!” When the greeting expressions are followed by the title or name of the greeter, they are more formal (1) A: Hello! B: Hi! (2) A: Hello, A! B: Hello, B ! Greeting in the first (1) is less formal than the second (2) 29 (3) Marry: Good morning, Jone! Jond: Good morning, Marry! (4) Kelly: Good morning, Mr David! David: Good morning, Mrs Kelly! The third greeting (3) is clearly less formal than the fourth one (4) In the third, there no title following name and greeting, in the fourth there are titles “Mr.” and “Mrs.” following name of greeters in their greetings 1.2 Greeting gestures Whereas in many countries and in the European continent, handshaking is done when meeting and departing day in and day out and even the same assortment of acquaintances, in England as well as Great Britain, it is done less frequently (2;136) It is sometimes difficult to know when to shake hands with English people in business situations, men always shake hands when they first meet each other Recently, especially in the business world, women have begun to shake hands, too And younger women shake hands more often than older women In social situation, when two people meet, they shake hands When shaking hands English people shake hands for a few seconds, and they shake hands firmly not loosely A weak handshake is the sign of weak character He "shake hands like a dead fish" refers to someone whose handshake is not firm enough, (4; 22) it means that he/she does not take much interest in having a conversation To the English people, direct eye contact is made during the process of greeting Many Westerners view the bow as an act of subservience, it is the same in England So, the English people never bow when greeting Waving is a popular greeting through out the world, it is common in England too The English people rarely kiss each other when they meet except for family members Close friends or members of a family greet each other with a hug or an embrace The conversational distance -the distance between people when they communicate - of the English is often farther than people in many other countries They usually stand out about an arm’s distance to two feet apart (4;23) This is 30 not always a comfortable distance for the people in countries such as, the Latin America or North Africa, Middle East, etc they may stand closer than English people (4;24) Usually, the time English people spends on greeting in a conversation is less than many people in other countries They often go directly to the topics, the aims of the conversation This is probably a character of the earliest industrial country in the world 1.3 Special greetings In English, there are not many special greetings their religion -Christianity- does not affect their greeting much On special days, they have special greetings for the days On the New Year days, they usually greet each other by saying “Happy new year” in the birthday party, they say “Happy birthday” to that person On the Christmas day, people would say: “Merry Christmas” These greetings function as a greeting, and a wish that many good things come with you These greetings are indirect greeting expressions In the old time, the Queen of England was greeted very formally by her subjects, usually when someone greeted the Queen, he had to knee and kiss the Queen’s hand when she offered her hand (1;14) The Queen was being greeted 31 When you are going to meet the Queen, better well prepared, when meeting royalty, the custom of bowing and curtsying is optional for men, however a slight inclination of the head would be appropriate and appreciated As for shaking hands with royalty the rule is that the first move will be made by them Never actually, touch the Queen, even to gently guide her in some direction People (English) should offer to shake hand unless she extends her hand first When greeting the Queen, people say: “God save the Queen” (2;136) Greetings in Vietnamese To Vietnamese culture, the greeting is very important in everyday conversation, as there is a saying that: “A greeting is more important than a meal (Lời chào cao mâm cỗ) In Viet Nam, especially in countryside whenever you see a person you know you should greet him/ her If you ignore him/her, it is said that you look down on him/her And he/she will blame on you As the Vietnamese have to greet people everywhere, every time they meet Therefore, there are a great number of greetings in Vietnamese and they can also be divided into two main kinds: Greeting expressions and greeting gestures 2.1 Greeting expressions As Vietnamese greet each other usually, there are many greeting expressions in Vietnamese There are also direct expressions and indirect greeting expressions 2.1.1 Direct greeting expressions The direct greeting expressions (expressions which contain verbs of greeting and greeting words) are formed as follow: ”Chµo + title or name of the greeter or both For examples: Chào bác, Chào anh, Chào cô Lan.etc When the greeting expressions include “chµo + title and name”, it is more formal greeting To be more formal we can add some more extra words like: “xin, kÝnh, ¹” For example: (1) A: Chào bác ! B: ừ, chào cháu ! (2) A: Chào ông Sơn B: Vâng, chào ông Cảnh! 32 (3) A: Xin kính chào bạn! It is clear that greetings in (1) are less formal than these in(2), and greetings in (3) are more formal than these in(2) Vietnamese can also add the other extra words depending on the aims of the greetings: chào đón, ”chµo mõng”, ”chµo mêi”.etc these are also formal greeting expressions Hân hạnh chào đón quí vị ! Chào mừmg bạn đến với chơng trình chúng tôi! In Vietnamese, there are many direct greeting expressions that are used widely They are used in both formal and informal situations depending on the choice of the greeters 2.1.2 Indirect greeting expressions In Vietnamese, the number of indirect greeting expressions are much more than any countries in the world They are used in everyday life in informal situations Mainly, their linguistic forms are questions (both close and open questions), and these questions concern about every topic, affairs such as heath, job, weather, family affairs, etc even personal problems For examples: About health: Anh khoẻ chứ!, dạo bác khoẻ không ?, sức khoẻ bác gái nào? About work: About meal: Công việc ổn định ?, anh làm vậy?.etc Bác mời cơm tối cha?, Gia đinh đà dùng bữa cha? About weather: Thời tiết nóng bác nhỉ, Năm khí hậu khác etc Everyday, Vietnamese people greet each other by simple questions: Đi đâu vậy?, Đang làm đó?, Đang học à?,etc These expressions are known as greeting questions It means people ask to greet not to get information so, it doesn’t require the answer Moreover, people still ask questions like Đi học à? or Bác làm việc ạ?, Đi dâu đấy? even they certainly know where the hearers go and see what the hearers are doing In Vietnamese, the indirect greetings such as the question forms are used widely in everyday conversation, they are used in informal situations among people who know each 33 other well and meet each other quite often In everyday life, Vietnamese people prefer to use the indirect greeting expressions to greet So, there are some more ways to form greeting Vietnamese greeting expressions are quite plentiful, it may be a long question or it may be some simple words such as: “Chµo anh”, one simple way is to add extra words ạ, à, after the title or name, Anh ạ!, Cô à!, Nam à!, Sơn hả! or bẩm ¹” etc For example: A: Chó ¹ ! B: ừ, cháu à? 2.2 Greeting gestures Greeting gestures of Vietnamese are very abundant because of the influence of the Western culture Shaking hands is the Western custom, but it has been spreading rapidly since the colonization of the France and Western countries Now it probably becomes the customary form of greeting gestures When shaking hands, Vietnamese people may take the other person’s hand a bit loosely and shake for more than a few seconds Shaking hands is a very formal greeting When you meet an older person he/she will offer her/his hands first if they want to shake hands Waving hands, like many other countries, is a very common way of greeting It is usually used by younger generation such as pupils or students When they are going in the street and they are in hurry, they wave hands to greet for continuing going Kissing when greeting is uncommon As Vietnamese people are very timid, they rarely kiss each other in the crowd If a kiss is done in the crowd, it is considered to be rude and impolite Hugging is a way of greeting, it is very informal greeting, so family members or very close friends who have not met each other for a long time use it to greet to express their happiness when seeing again However, a male friend never greets a female friend with a hug Bow is another kind of greeting gesture in Vietnam as well as some other Asian countries, like China, Japan It is a very formal greeting Bow is used when people greet a 34 person with high position in society When bow is used to greet, greeters want to show their respect to the hearers Usually, when a person stands in front of a crowd he/she will make a bow to greet everyone before having a speech or performing a song Friends never greet each other with bow In every school in Vietnam, when the teacher comes into class, the students stand up and greet the teacher This is a kind of formal greeting because Vietnamese people respect teachers very much The children are told to greet adults respectively by crossing their arms in front of their chest when greeting During the process of greeting, a direct eye contact and a smile should be made to show your friendliness However, greeters should not look straight into the other’s eyes or faces too long, this will make some people shy or uneasy 2.3 Special greetings There are not many special greetings in Vietnamese Some of them come from the other cultures because of being invaded In some festivals, such as Tet Holiday (New Year day) or the birthday party there appear special greetings At Tet Holiday, Vietnamese people greet each other by saying Chúc mừng năm , or: Năm chúc gia đình an khang thịnh vợng Originally, Vietnamese did not celebrate the birthday party The habit of celebrating birthday party comes from the West Nowadays, this custom occurs widely, and like the Westerners, Vietnamese greet the person who was born on that day by a saying with meaning a wish “Chóc mõng sinh nhËt” In Vietnam, when you go to the pagodas, you will see the priest greet each other by saying Adi đà phật(merry in God) Chapter 4: A comparison between English and Vietnamese greetings 35 English and Vietnamese people, as well as people of many countries in the world use greetings to open communication As we have noted, greeting are affected by many factors such as: culture, religion, custom, lifestyle etc Each country has their own culture, religions, custom, etc That is the reason why there are a lot of differences between Vietnamese and English greetings However, there are similarities too Similarities 1.1 Greeting expressions Both Vietnamese and English have direct and indirect greeting expressions Vietnamese people use “Chµo + title or name” to form greeting: Chào anh, chào chị Vietnamese people sometimes add empty words: ạ, after name or title to form greeting Bác ạ, Lan , Chị Lan à,.etc Engish people use verbs of greeting such as: “Welcome, greet, etc.” or words:“ Hello, Hi, Hey etc.”to form greetings “ Greetings, ladies and gentlemen! ” “ Welcome to Vinh university!” “ Welcome all ladies and gentlemen!” However, these kinds of greetings are less common than “Hello”, “Hi”, “ Hey.” - Hello, John - Hi, David English people use “Good + part of the day ” and “ questions” to form indirect greeting expressions Vietnamese people use only questions to form greeting but the number is quite large and the topics to be concerned are various 1.2 Greeting gestures As a result of the globalization, there are some common greeting gestures of the Vietnamese and the English such as waving, high-five, and handshaking Differences Vietnamese and English are two different languages English culture is different from Vietnamese culture, so there are many differences in greetings 36 The number of greeting expressions in Vietnamese is more than that in English In Vietnam, there are no permanent greeting structures as in English People ask each other question to greet These questions are not for getting information, they are known as “greeting - questions” Many of greetings used in everyday conversation of Vietnamese are personal questions, Bác ăn cơm cha? Bác gái đâu ạ? In English “greeting - questions” are about general topics such as heath, job, weather etc “It is nice today, isn’t it” (weather) “What’s new?”, “What’s up?”, (job) “How are you?” (health) As English people not want to poke their nose in the other’s affairs but mind about their own business To them, Vietnamese greetings may be too curious, and they will be annoyed if someone greets them such personal questions Their greetings are usually formal The greetings expressions “good morning, good afternoon”, etc, bearing meaning of a wish Why are there these differences? Every difference has its origins As having mentioned the factors such as religions, culture, social development, govern the greeting culture We will gradually investigate factors to find the origin of the differences 2.1 Culture The geographical location and the natural condition of Vietnam are much different from England And these differences lead to the difference in the ways people produce food, goods, etc which is the root of difference in culture Vietnam is an agricultural country, people live on planting rice During the process of planting rice, peasants have to the farming and harvest in season at the same time To grow rice for food, people have to protect against the natural phenomena such as flood, drought The fight against flood and drought is an important work for Vietnamese people To this, people have to gather and co-operate to build dykes, to dig channels, etc So, Vietnamese people often live in groups which are called villages Each village has 37 ... culture And to understand more about greeting - the starting process of communication – let us come to the study of the ways of greeting and a comparison between Vietnamese and English greetings Chapter... greetings than men are In Afghanistan, for example, men and women have their own ways of greeting strangers A man will greet by saying “manda na bashi” (may you not be tired) And a women will raise... in English and Vietnamese Chapter 4: A comparison between English and Vietnamese greeting Part III: Conclusion Part II: Contents Chapter 1: Theoretical preliminaries Communication and means of