Be True To Your Culture

Hey, check this funny commercial that I found at YouTube.
It’s about a group of four Indian friends who meet up, behaving like the American Hip-Hop culture and trying to have a conversation with a group of girls. They were interrupted by one of the guy’s grandma.
The commercial ends with
"The world is changing but we should always be proud of who we are"

Week 3.(Speech Events)

Last Friday lecture was quite attention-grabbing, speech event which make up from a series of speech acts. Event such as job interview, market transaction, canteen vendors, wedding proposal and others

A particular cultural group will operate differently from other in the same speech event. One example given during lecture was the Speech Events of a Japanese Marriage Proposal. It came to my attention that when the man proposes to the lady, her reply for yes is; no reply at all, instead its non verbal. The lady would stand silently her with head down. During this lecture section, I suddenly recall back my cousin who is married to a Japanese lady. During the wedding ceremony, he mention about not understanding his wife culture.

When he proposed to her, she too kept quiet, seeing this action he dare not ask for an answer as he assumed that she is not ready yet. Few days have passed and during a normal conversation, his wife asks him “so have you picked a date?” My cousin was surprised, he replied, “when did you decided to marry me?” she says, “The day you proposed.” In the end it work out well and the wedding occasion was a joyful one. This is an example of a cross cultural communication breakdown where one person is not aware of the others culture and the way they respond.

Let’s have an insight of a typical Malay culture marriage proposal. The Genre, topic, purpose and setting is just the same like any other Marriage proposal except for the act sequence.

Let me give you an example,
M: Holding Woman’s Hand
Siti sayang (Dear). We have been going out for 2 years already. What say you if we get engage?
W: Bursting out of enjoyment
Really! You sure?
M: Yes I’m sure... (followed by giving reason for wanting to get married)
W: So when can your parents come over?

Rules of interaction
The man must get ready the reason for engagement when ask

Norm of interpretation
· Usually the men do not ask “will you marry me” instead “let’s get engage”
· Also, it normal for the woman to ask why because she want to be convinced that she is going to get married to the right man
· The part where the women ask when the man’s parents are coming over is usually asked. This is because, in the Malay culture the couple usually cannot get married unless both parents agrees and also the couple do not set the date of marriage but both parents will set on a date of marriage.

Different cultures have different ways of speech act for a particular speech event. One must be aware and attentive to the surrounding, verbal tone and non verbal gesture to better understand the situation.

Week 2.(Speech Acts)

Friday 28th August 09,

It has been 2 lectures so far, and this module is something more than I expected. Initially I thought of it to be something like understanding other cultures whose native language is not English and how they communicate with others using English Language. It seems like there are more to it, terms like Intracultural, Intercultural, Cross-Cultural Communication and Discourse. The Research requirement seems to be quite demanding with readings, proper references to it and attaining credible data to support your research. Nevertheless, the lecture is interesting and I never knew that Communication can be categorised for speech act, speech events, spoken discourse and written discourse. To me communication is about 2 people having a common conversation.

Last Friday, the topic covered was Speech Acts. The interesting part of the lecture was when we compared between American speakers to the Chinese speakers on how they respond to compliments.

Data given shown that most American’s will respond to compliment given by thanking them whereas most Chinese will reject compliment by disagreeing and denigrating. In my opinion, the American’s are portraying a sense of confidence and arrogant due to the long history of nation dominant over the world affair such as economy, whereas the Chinese are in a negative mind state and low self esteem. I think it’s within a culture group and time period where people give different respond to others. Also this data was collected in 1993. I think with Chinese now being able to build their own manned space flight using home grown technology and having their 1st astronaut Yang Liwei in space, together with the success in hosting the Beijing Olympics’, this change of event have made a big cultural change.

At this time, if an American were to compliment any Chinese, say: “Wow the Chinese are getting more advance by the day”. The Chinese speakers won’t be saying, “No, we are not. Your Nation is far greater then ours”

Instead they will respond by accepting and thanking; “Well, Thanks. I’m glad you feel that way” This is because they have achieve so much over the decade and am proud of it.

My claim is not yet credible; research is needed to be made in this current time and culture. Like mention during class, culture communication is ever changing. Be it as in a developing nation or being in a group of different education level, all will have their own way of responding to compliment with the change of time.