Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese

Hiding bad feelings in daily conversations in
American and Vietnamese



Cao Thị Hậu


Trường Đại học Ngoại ngữ
Luận văn Thạc sĩ ngành: English Linguistics; Mã số: 60 22 15
Người hướng dẫn: M.A. Đỗ Thị Mai Thanh
Năm bảo vệ: 2009


Abstract. The purposes of this study is to find out the ways to express different polite
strategies to hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese and to compare the different
strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two ethnic groups: Vietnamese
females vs. males, and American females vs. males. The data for this study were collected
through questionnaires from a total of 40 American informants and 40 Vietnamese informants.
The survey was conducted from February to April of 2009, and the data were analyzed
quantitatively and qualitatively. The overall findings of the survey show the differences between
the ways of hiding bad feelings of Vietnamese and American and assure that gender does play a
significant role in hiding bad feelings of two ethnic groups: Vietnamese females vs. males, and
American females vs. males.
Keywords. Kỹ năng nói; Cảm xúc; Người Mỹ; Người Việt; Hội thoại

Content
1. Rationale
Language, according to Schmidt & Richard (1980, p. 161), is used to “build bridges, to
consolidate political regimes, to carry on arguments, to convey information from one person to
another, to entertain – in short, to communicate.” When the function “to communicate” flows

successfully, a social relation has been established, reinforced and maintained. Thus, successful
communication requires not only pure linguistic competence but also knowledge of social norms,
social status, social values, and relations between individuals known as communicative
competence - the ability to use the language correctly and appropriately. Successful
communication needs the correct interpretation by an addressee of a speaker’s/ writer’s intent in
performing a linguistic act. The lack of this pragmatic competence as well as linguistic
competence may lead to impoliteness, misinterpretation, culture shocks, or even communication
breakdown.

Hiding bad feelings is chosen for investigation in this study not accidentally. First,
communicative functions are not only language – specific, they are culture – specific as well.
The difference in the ways in which languages realize the same function seems to make it
problematic for language learners to say the right thing at the right time. It seems to be dangerous
when the exposure of negative feelings may insult or loose face of the interlocutors. Knowing
how to hide the bad feelings and response appropriately is very necessary, especially for cultural
outsiders. Second, a number of studies concerning speech acts such as thanking, advising,
requesting, apologizing, disagreeing, etc. have been carried out in this college. Some of the
researches on hiding feelings have already done at under-graduate level, but none has been
carried out at higher levels. Thus, I would like to continue exploring this topic in my M.A. thesis.
Moreover, a comparison of hiding bad feelings between American native speakers of English
and native speakers of Vietnamese is considered to be valuable to the teaching and learning of
spoken English in Vietnam. That is why the thesis is named “Hiding bad feelings in daily
conversations in American and Vietnamese”.

2. Aims of the study
The very first aim of this study is to find out the ways to express different polite strategies to
hide bad feelings in American English and Vietnamese. The second purpose is to compare the
different strategies of hiding bad feelings used by different gender of two ethnic groups:
Vietnamese females vs. males, and American females vs. males. Thanks to these findings, some
suggestions for successful communication will be given. The study is, therefore, conducted with

the hope of contributing to the socio-cultural aspects of spoken English communication for the
avoidance or at least the reduction of communication failures in terms of sociolinguistic.

The following questions guided the research:
1. What are ways to express different polite strategies to hide bad feelings in American
English and Vietnamese?
2. Does gender difference affect the ways of hiding bad feelings of American and
Vietnamese?

3. Scope of the study
Although the author is fully conscious of the role of non-verbal factors in real life
communication, they are beyond the scope of this study. The study is only confined to the verbal
aspect of the communication of hiding bad feelings. And the study focuses on some specific
situations in business, university and family.

The Vietnamese northern dialects and American English are chosen for contrastive analysis. By
American English, the author means the English spoken by those who have American nationality
and speak English as their native language.

Although such sociological factors such as relative power, ranking of impositions and social
distance are crucial, they are kept neutral and constant. The study especially focuses on the
effects of different genders on the ways of hiding bad feelings of native speakers of Vietnamese
and American.

4. Methodology of the study
4.1. The survey instrument
The survey instrument, a three-page questionnaire, was devised to work out hiding bad feelings
in daily conversations in American and Vietnamese. The questionnaire was divided into three
sections. The first section contained demographic questions in order to gain information about
the participants’ nationality, age, gender, marital status, area where they spend most of their

time, occupation, acquisition of language(s) other than their mother tongue. The second section
consisted of three questions. Respondents were asked: “How often do you hide your bad
feelings? What is your purpose when you hide your bad feelings? What bad feelings do you
often hide?” This section dealt with the basic concept of hiding bad feelings in order to review
the subjects’ understanding of hiding bad feelings. The third section related to seven situations,
including 3 situations in university, 2 situations in family, and 2 situations in business. In this
section, informants were asked to be in specific positions to produce practical strategies of hiding
bad feelings. They can choose one of the appropriate answers given or express their own ideas.

4.2. The participants.
The subjects in this study were divided into two groups: Vietnamese people and American
people. The Vietnamese group included 20 females and 20 males, who were native speakers of
Vietnamese living in the Northern part of Vietnam. The American group included 20 females
and 20 males who were native speakers of English living in the USA. The questionnaires were
delivered to many people of two groups from different professions and social status. Their ages
range from 18 to 60 years.

Due to research requirement seen from gender perspective, the survey was distributed almost
evenly in number of female and male respondents in both of the two groups. The number of
females respondents accounts for 50% and male respondents 50%. This balance will affirm valid
findings of the study.

4.3. Data collection.
Two different methods were used for data collection. First, while visiting some places like travel
agencies, restaurants, hotels, cafeterias, libraries, classrooms, and at home in February, March
and April of 2009, the researcher contacted 44 foreigners and 55 Vietnamese people and asked
them to answer the questionnaire. A total of 75 participants, including 35 foreigners and 40
Vietnamese people, completed the survey giving a response rate of 79.6%, 72.7% respectively.
Next, written questionnaires were mailed to 10 Americans and 12 Vietnamese people. Out of 22,
a total of 18 questionnaires from 8 Americans and 10 Vietnamese people were returned, giving a

response rate of 80%, 83.3% respectively. The large gap of response rates in data collection may
be the result of the two different approaches for data collection, namely visiting or mailing. After
all the data had been collected, the answers were kept and referred to when analyzing the
findings.

4.4. Data analysis.
To understand the basic knowledge about the theme, such materials as textbooks, reference
books, newspapers, sources from internet were consulted.

The research is mainly relied on the survey questionnaires. The data was coded and entered onto
Microsoft Excel sheets, and then analyzed statistically, using percentage and reliability values,
via the computerized program called SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences).

Based on the collected information from the questionnaires, all the discussions, comments, and
conclusions are inductively made. The quantitative method is mainly employed in the
investigation with the illustration of tables, and graphs.

Together with the quantitative method, contrastive analysis is also used to achieve the objectives
of the research. Supporting techniques such as consultation with the supervisor, discussion with
colleagues, and personal observations are also of significant contribution to the study.

5. Design of the study
The study is divided into three main parts:
Part 1: Introduction:
The rationale, aims, scope of the study, methodology, comments on the survey
instrument, on the participants, on the data collection and analysis method are all
introduced in this part.


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