Vietnamese-Australian cross-cultural study on hiding feelings at the workplace

Vietnamese-Australian cross-cultural study on
hiding feelings at the workplace



Nguyễn Như Trang


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


Abstract. This study investigates similarities and differences in hiding feelings at the
workplace between Australian and Vietnamese using a modified version of discourse completion
task (DCT) developed by Bee et al. (1990). 40 Australian people and 40 Vietnamese people
participated in this study. Three main findings are discussed. Firstly, in hiding feelings,
Vietnamese people are more influenced by such factors as social status and age than Australian
people are. Secondly, the frequency of hiding feelings by Vietnamese people is much greater
than that by Australian people. And finally, about the choice of hiding feelings strategies , both
Australian and Vietnamese prefer Minimizing to other strategies. However, Australian people
are apt to use Minimizing more but Alluding and Equivocating less than Vietnamese. All the
differences between the two groups are explained by resorting to the cultures: the collectivism
culture of Vietnam and the individualism culture of Australian
Keywords. Tiếng Anh; Giao văn hóa; Giao tiếp

Content
I.1 Rationale of the study
It is undeniable that language is a tool of human communication. Various kinds of meanings can
be conveyed in language which involves the interaction between the speaker and the hearers.

However, successful communication requires not only pure linguistic competence but also
knowledge of social norms, social values and relations between interactants. As language, to
some extend, is part of or a manifestation of its culture (Davies, 1989 in Nguyen Van Do, 2007).
Culture, language, and society are closely related to each other and interact between themselves.
Therefore, communication breakdown or culture shock may happen in cross – cultural
interaction when interactors are not aware of cultural barrier. In other words, the interpretation of
an utterance should be involved both linguistic pattern and the socio – cultural background of the
speaker.
It is no secret that today’s workplace is rapidly becoming larger and larger, as the business
environment expands to include various geographic locations and span numerous cultures. What
can be difficult, however, is understanding how to communicate effective with individuals who
speak another language or who rely on different means to reach a common goal.
The world today is dramatically different from that of twenty or even ten years ago. The
influence of Multinational Corporation, the technological revolution, the “information
superhighway” and the movement of the private and public sectors towards globalization sets the
sense. New laws, agreements and regional partnership from NAFTA to GATT to the European
Union or Asian, have contributed to make this massive change not only possible but also
achievable.
Vietnam is a country where intercultural contacts are rapidly increasing, following the
introduction of the renovation process since 1986. Opened door policy allows more foreign
companies and partners to invest in most industries in the country to help boost the economy.
This process has resulted in increasing interactions between Vietnamese and foreigners,
especially from English – speaking countries.
We investigate how culture influences the hiding feelings at the workplace by Australian
speakers of English and Vietnamese. We choose hiding feelings to study as in our daily life we
hide our feelings so often to achieve our purposes that we are sometimes unaware of the fact that
we are doing so. Hiding feelings is so important in communication. Without it communication
may be broken-down and our relationships may be broken, as a result. Hiding feelings is very
various across cultures so misunderstanding can arise if we do not apply pragmatic competence
appropriately.

Taking into consideration the importance of pragmatic competence and the social setting of
Vietnam, the study is significant in that it is conducted with the hope of resolving and
simplifying cross- cultural misunderstanding.
For more details:
I. 2. Aims and objectives of the study.
As far as we know, there is a gap in our understanding of how Vs and Aus hide their feelings at
the workplace and how culture influences their use of language patterns at the workplace. So this
study aims to find out:
1. How Australian and Vietnamese hide their feelings at the workplace.
2. How social-cultural factors such as social status, gender, age, … influence the choice of
hiding feeling strategies of both groups.
For more details, this study aims to answer the following questions:
1. What are the influential factors on verbal strategies of hiding feelings in Australian
English and Vietnamese?
2. How often do Vietnamese and Australian people hide their feelings at the workplace?
3. What are the verbal strategies of hiding feelings used by Australian and Vietnamese
people?
Research hypotheses.
To achieve the aims of the study, the following hypotheses are suggested for investigation:
a. There are some differences in the frequency and the way of hiding feelings at the
workplace between Vietnamese and Australian
b. Some factors such as interlocutor’s status, age, gender affect the choice of hiding
feeling strategies used by Australian and Vietnamese people.
I. 3. Scope of the study.
Hiding feelings is clearly essential in communication. And to achieve the best result, speaker
usually makes use of both verbal and nonverbal cues. However, in fact, there are a few nonverbal
cues for hiding feelings: some use eyes contact, some use hands while many verbal cues are
available for people to hide their feelings. These verbal cues are various and different depending
on the cultures of communicators, their backgrounds ect Therefore, in this thesis, we would like
to focus mainly on verbal strategies.

Hiding feelings takes place everywhere: in the family, at school, at the public places… However,
the author choose to study hiding feelings at the workplace because the world is now globalized,
the workplace now is a multicultural place. Amid today’s heightened global tensions, success
increasingly belongs to people who can work effectively across cultures and languages. The
author should think that the understanding of how Australian and Vietnamese people hide their
feelings may be helpful for those working in multicultural environment.
The researcher makes an investigation into how Vietnamese and Australian use the language to
hide their true feelings at the workplace
I.4. Methodology
To achieve the aims and objectives mentioned above, the study compare and contrast the verbal
strategies of hiding feelings of the two groups basing on the statistical and qualitative data
collected from a survey questionnaire modified from the Discourse Completion Task developed
by Beebe et al. The survey questionnaires are given to 40 Vietnamese people who are working at
offices in Hanoi and 40 Australian people who are working in Australia. Besides, more
information needed for the study are gathered from researcher’s observation.
To process the data, quantitative method, contrastive analysis methods are employed.
I. 5. Significance of the study.
This study may provide insights into the similarities and differences between Vietnamese and
Australian in the frequency as well as the verbal strategies of hiding feelings. The author would
like to give some cultural explanations for these similarities and differences. Hopefully, it may
help achieve successful communication in an international working environment.
I. 6. The design of the study:
The study is divided into three parts: the introduction, the development and the conclusion.
The introduction provides the information such as the rationale, the aims, the scope, the method
and the significance of the study.
The development consists of three chapters. Chapter one, Literature Review, presents the
concepts relevant to the research topic such as different points of view of culture and
communication, politeness
Chapter two deals with specific information of the method, the survey questionnaire and the
respondents. It also presents analysis of the data collected from the survey questionnaire.

The last chapter presents some major findings.
The conclusion is a review of the study, the limitation of the study and suggestions for further
study.


References
In English
1. Andrew Wright. (1987). How to communicate successfully. Cambridge University Press.
2. Austin, J.L. (1962). How to do things with words. London: Oxford University Press.
3. Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and
apologies. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
4. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage.
Cambridge University Press.
5. Claire Kramsch. (1998). Language and culture. Oxford University Press.
6. Crawford, AC. (1966). Customs and Culture of Vietnam. Ha Noi: Charles E. Tuttle company.
7. Haney, William V. (1986). Communication and interpersonal relations: text and cases.
Houndmill Basingstok.
8. Heather Bowe and Kelie Martin. (2007). Communication across cultures. Cambridge
University Press.
9. Holmes, J. (1995). Women, men and politeness. London: Longman. Leech, G. N
10. James, Card. (1980). Contrastive analysis. Harlow.
11. Joyce Merill. V. (1986). Culture bound. Cambridge University Press
12. Kieu. T. T. H. (2001). Disagreeing in English and Vietnamese. Vietnam National University.
13. Larson, Charles U. (1976). Communication everyday encounters. Belmont.
14. Larry.A. Samorva (2007). Communication between cultures. Belmont, CA, USA.
15. Phan, T.V.Q. (2001). Some English - Vietnamese cross-cultural differences in refusing a
request. MA thesis. Hanoi VNU.
16. Richard J.watts. (2003). Politeness. Cambridge University Press.
18. Ronal Wardhaugh (1985). How conservation works. Basil Blackwell
19. Yule, G. (1996). Pragmatics. New York.

20. Wierzbicka, Ann. (2003). Cross –cultural pragmatics: the semantics of human interaction.
Berlin New York.
21. (
22. (www.peacecorps.gov/wws/publications/culture/pdf/chapter3.pdf).
In vietnamese
1. Nguyễn Quang.(1998). Trực tiếp và gián tiếp trong dụng học giao thoa văn hóa Việt Mỹ. Tạp
san ngoại ngữ 4 -1998.
2. Hoàng Phê. (1998). Từ điển tiếng Việt. Nhà xuát bản Xă hội.
3. Trần Ngọc Thêm. (1998). Cơ sở văn hóa Việt nam. Nhà xuất bản giáo dục.
4. Trần Ngọc Thêm. (2001). Bản sắc văn hóa Việt nam trước ngưỡng cửa thiên niên kỷ mới
Nhà xuất bản giáo dục.