VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST – GRADUATE STUDIES
************

NGUYÊ
̃
N THI
̣
HOA
̀
NG MY AN INITIAL INVESTIGATION OF
U.S AND VIETNAMESE CULTURES IN CONTRAST
THROUGH EVERYDAY CONVERSATIONS

(BƯỚC ĐẦU NGHIÊN CỨU ĐỐI CHIẾU VĂN HÓA MỸ - VIỆT THÔNG QUA
CÁC CUỘC ĐỐI THOẠI HÀNG NGÀY)

M.A. MINOR THESIS
Field: English Linguistics
Code: 60 22 15 Hanoi, 2012
iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS


1.4.4 Friendship in Vietnam culture 15
CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY 16
2.1 Data collection instruments 16
2.1.1 Survey questionnaire 16
2.1.2 Audio taping 17
2.2 Participants 17
2.2.1 Survey questionnaire 17
2.2.2 Audio taping 18
2.3 The procedure of data collection and analysis 18
2.3.1 Survey questionnaire 18
2.3.2 Audio tapes 18
CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 20
3.1 Data analysis of the survey questionnaire 20
3.1.1 Question 1 20
3.1.2 Question 2 22
3.1.3 Question 3 23
3.1.4 Question 4 25
3.2 Data analysis of the audio tapes 26
3.2.1 Situation 1 26
3.2.2 Situation 2 27
3.2.3 Situation 3 28
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3.2.4 Situation 4 29
3.3 Discussions 31
CHAPTER III: CONCLUSION 33
1. Recapitulation 33
2. Major findings 34
2.1 Differences 34
2.2 Similarities 35

1

PART I: INTRODUCTION

1. RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Human beings have been endued with a powerful engine to assist them in the process
of expressing their thoughts, feelings and transmitting emotions as well as information
to others: language. However, there is a question remaining: “Why are
misinterpretation, communication breakdown and cultural conflicts still inevitable?”
Hymes, D. (1966) coined those in one term: “communicative competence” which
literally denotes the capability of using one language appropriately under any
circumstances. The fact is that language and culture are so closely interlaced, which
means the impossibility of separating them.

The focus of the study is on conversations upon everyday topics, which will, to some
extent, raise an awareness of cultural similarities as well as differences among
speakers, aiming for a successful and fruitful interplay, or at least a reduction in the
effect of discrepant socio-cultural factors.

The study on everyday conversations, specifically the topic of friendship, made by
American and Vietnamese students, has been selected to investigate as it was one of
the great interests to the researcher and of great help to language insiders and outsiders.
It is undeniable that how American native speakers react on friendship-related
situations in everyday life is far different from how Vietnamese people, second-
language speakers, do. Thereupon, a contrastive analysis of the ways American and
Vietnamese deal with disparate cases is regarded practical, necessary and worthy for a
mutual understanding. 2

to discover how university students of American and Vietnamese cultures reacted to
the same circumstances.

The database of this study consisted of elicited written questionnaires and audio-tapes
of natural conversations.

5. METHODOLOGY OF THE STUDY
The study has been carried out based on a combination of different methods of
quantitative and qualitative approach which are as follows:
- Document;
- Synthesize;
- Analyze and contrast.

Questionnaires and audio tapes of native American and of Vietnamese university
students were adopted to collect the data for analysis and discussion.

6. DESIGN OF THE STUDY
The study is comprised of three parts:

Part I, “Introduction”, includes the rationale, objectives of the study, research
questions, research methods, the scope and the design of the study.

Part II, “Development”, consists three chapters:
- Chapter 1 – Theoretical background - presents the preliminary knowledge of
some basic theories and a review of related literature to the study.
- Chapter 2 - Methodology - describes the research method, data collection
instruments, and detailed information about the research procedures.
4

- Chapter 3 - Findings and Discussions - analyzes the initial data collected and

considered.

Robert Lado (1957) noted:
„Individuals tend to transfer the forms and meanings and the distribution of forms
and meanings of their native language and culture to the foreign language and
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culture- both productively and when attempting to speak the language and to act in
the culture and receptively when attempting to grasp and understand the language
and culture as practiced by natives.‟

1.1.2 Macro-linguistic Contrastive Analysis
In a way, CA can be perceived from different perspectives: micro-linguistically or
macro-linguistically. While micro-linguistic CA lays emphasis on describing the
language elements without any recourse to external factors, macro-linguistic CA is a
field of study concerned with language in its broadest sense. Macro-linguistic CA is a
formal description of how people communicate, including cultural and behavioral
features associated with languages based on the interrelationships.

Macrolinguistics in CA can be characterized by:
(i) A concern for communicative competence rather than linguistic
competence.
(ii) An attempt to describe linguistic events within their extra-linguistic
settings.
(iii) The search for units of linguistic organization larger than the single
sentence.
(James, C. 1980:98)
Also, James, C. (1980:101) paraphrased six variables first mentioned by Hymes (1974)
into „who says what to whom, where and when, how and why.‟


orderliness. Conversation analysis, therefore, licitly investigates all areas of socially
motivated talk. (Liddicoat, J. A. 2007:17) Its primary concern is the discovery,
description, and analysis of how conversation is produced and understood.
8

In order to provide real-life data from different subjects, audio taping technologies
have been employed to record naturally occurring actions in real-world settings,
combined with direct observation and notes by researchers. This gives rise to an
extensive analysis of the rules and orders of talk. New approaches to the study of
language and communication with respect to culture focusing on meanings-in-context,
natural classification systems by members of a culture, their perceptions and
conventions also brought about changes in conversation analysis.

1.3 Language and Culture
1.3.1 What is „language‟?
Kramsch, C. (2004) defined language as „the principal means whereby we conduct our
social group‟. Another view from Sapir (1921) was that „language is a purely human
and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desire by means of
voluntarily produced symbols.‟ Language is a part of culture and a part of human
behavior.

Fulfilling many other tasks, language was denoted with three major functions as stated
by Krech (1962). Firstly, language plays a role of the primary vehicle of
communication, such as expressing thoughts, greeting, conducting religious services
and so on. Secondly, it reflects the personality of an individual and his cultural
properties and also forms the shape of personality and culture in return. Last but not
least, language enables the growth and transmission of culture, the continuity of
societies, and the effective functioning and control of social group.

It is undeniable that language plays a paramount role in developing, elaborating and

Figure 1. Iceberg model of Culture

It is Nguyen, Q. (1998) who defined the term „culture‟ was “a shared background
resulting from a common language and communication style, customs, beliefs, attitudes
and values.‟ In other words, culture is the heritage from generation to generation.

The term 'culture' is seen as whatever a person must have in order to function and live
in a particular society.

1.3.3 The relationship between language and culture
It is obvious that the relationship between language and culture is deeply rooted. They
are regarded as two back-to-back sides of a paper and both cannot exist outside the
social contexts.

Language is employed to maintain and convey culture and cultural ties. Different ideas
stem from differing language use within one‟s culture and their interconnection
commence at one‟s birth. When an infant is born, regardless of his or her origin,
compared to any other infant born, in fact, is quite similar. This idea has been around
for thousands of years and was discussed by Confucius. However, not until the child is
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exposed to their surroundings do they become individuals belonging to their own
cultural group.

It is such a definite assertion that language is one part of culture and under the impact
of culture. To be more precise, language is a major component and supporter of culture
as well as a vital instrument for transferring messages, a cultural-bound duty. That is
not to mention about the fact that language is influenced, shaped by culture and reflects
culture. Without language, culture would not be possible.


this kind of relationship for granted and see them as a law of nature; while others do
not. In any case, it is globally agreed that friends ought to have shared commitment,
priority to the other‟s request and supporting assistance.

Linguistically speaking, there is no doubt that the word „friendship‟ exists in every
language of the world; however, somehow this term is too broad for us to understand
fully. In the attempt to translate the original word into our own mother tongue, we
encounter an enormous problem: there are a huge number of corresponding
connotations. That leads to a way to uncover cultural differences: review the
philological roots of those various verbal equivalents and trace their implications.

1.4.2 Types of friendships
In the old Greeks‟ time, the great philosopher Aristotle initiated the very first
classification of friendships in his book Nicomachean Ethics. As he proposed, there
were three types of friendships.
- Friendship of utility: This kind of friendship based on the usefulness that
people see in each other that they think they can take advantage of. Therefore,
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it is not expected to last very long because as soon as the practical purpose is
no longer present, the link between those friends for benefits ends.
- Friendship of pleasure: The name suggests the key factor for the existence of
friendship: pleasure. It depends on the amount of pleasure, informally „fun‟,
that the involvers get from the relationship. In other words, they enjoy each
other‟s companionship. However, this friendship is still of danger zone if the
participants no longer find the other person pleasant to be with.
- Friendship of the good: also known as Friendship of Virtue. This friendship is
based on the respect and admiration that the participants have for each other.
The compatible values, goals, perspectives and visions on both people‟s lives
is required to assure a powerful and long-lasting relationship. That is the

The classification of friendship was identified on the basis of a number of factors, such
as how close the involvers were and how the relationship was formed, which shared
both similarities as well as differences between cultures.

1.4.3 Friendship in the U.S culture
A study done by Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew E. Brashears
(American Sociological Review, 2006) suggested that American society was believed
to be witnessing a significant reduction in the quantity and quality of close friendships.
Causes were varied but the three most commonly blamed were gender confusion,
divorce and technological development of mass media communications.

Diep, T.X. (US and Vietnamese cultures in contrast through everyday conversations,
2009) pointed out some features of American people towards making friends.
- Firstly, Americans respect other people‟s privacy and hope those people do the
same thing for them. They hesitate to make questions that may invade others‟
personal issues. Thus, it is much more difficult for American people to have
close friends. Nevertheless, once they can get rid of their reluctance and
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understand each other thoroughly, they will certainly become best friends and
cherish their friendship.
- Secondly, Americans are often quite initiative in striking up a conversation
with strangers, which creates an intimate atmosphere. They are prone to keep
the conversations at savoir-vivre level with topics on traffic, weather or news
on public media.
- Thirdly, in spite of being open in starting a talk-in-interaction, Americans are
rather critical towards the politeness. For example, they will not be happy if
you visit them at home without a phone call in advance; or, you open the door
without knocking.
- Fourthly, despite being widely known for their sociality and friendly


2.1 Data collection instruments
2.1.1 Survey questionnaire
The questionnaire was designed with four real-life situations with suggested solutions.
The purposes of the survey questionnaire are 1) to explore how American and
Vietnamese people with the different cultures react to the same situations, 2) to
compare the data collected from audio tape to enhance the reliability of the study.

2.1.2 Audio taping
Audio taping of naturally occurring talks is the main instrument in the process of data
collection as the study emphasized on interactive conversations. The purpose of these
tapes is to re-confirm the results obtained from the survey questionnaire.
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2.2 Participants
Apart from the direct informants, since the study was intended to investigate two
cultures, the writer called for the help from six assistants (two in two disparate states of
the U.S: Georgia and Indiana, and four in Hanoi). Assistants in the U.S included one
Vietnamese student studying in Wesleyan College (Macon, Georgia) and the other in
Wabash College (Crawfordville, Indiana). Assistants in Hanoi were four students
enrolling in two universities: National Economics University and Thang Long
University.

2.2.1 Survey questionnaire
Copies of the survey questionnaire were delivered to 80 informants: 40 American and
40 Vietnamese college students whose age ranged from 17 to 25. All informants in the
U.S were native American, and in Hanoi were native Vietnamese. American
informants from different departments selected were joining same classes with the
writer‟s assistants. Meanwhile, Vietnamese informants were students from two
different universities; 20 of whom also were attending same classes with each of the

due to the spontaneousness in occurring of the talks and time constraint, each assistant
could only tape one conversation for one situation. That made, in total, two recordings
for each case, one in English language and one in Vietnamese language.

The Vietnamese corpus was from 08 native speakers of Vietnamese living and
studying two different institutions in Hanoi. The corpus contained four conversations,
each of which was approximately more or less than one minute. The first conversation
was between a twenty-year-old girl, sharing room with the writer‟s assistant and a
young man neighbor them on the same floor in a rented house. The setting was that the
man had a habit of turning up the music at midnight or later, which often woke the girls
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up. The assistant‟s roommate decided to approach the neighbor‟s room to „negotiate‟.
The second tape was a conversation among two students, one female and one male,
who were supposed to be classmates or in the same department at college. The girl was
standing in front of the school gate, coincidentally next to the assistant, waiting for the
boy. Unexpectedly and luckily, the conversation was recorded on that day. The third
conversation was between two quite close classmates attending the International
Finance class (National University of Economics) five people. One of them asked the
other to let him copy the homework which, for some reasons, he did not do before
going to class. The last conversation was recorded between the writer‟s assistant and
her roommate. This situation was quite similar to what the assistant had to suffer in real
life; therefore, it was rather easy for her to get it in tape.

The English corpus consisted of four tapes, all of which were recorded in the U.S
(including Georgia and Indiana). All informants were native speakers of English from
North America and studying as undergraduates. The first tape contained a conversation
between a girl, roommate of the writer‟s assistant, and the landlord. The girl sought for
the intervention of the land-owner to reinforce her already-sent-out warning previously.
The second tape was made with the help of the assistant‟s close friend and his