Nghiên cứu về giao tiếp liên văn hóa: Việc đáp lại lời than phiền giữa người Việt Nam và người Anh

v NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ GIAO TIẾP LIÊN VĂN HÓA:
VIỆC ĐÁP LẠI LỜI THAN PHIỀN
GIỮA NGƯỜI VIỆT NAM VÀ NGƯỜI ANH
DIÊM THỊ THU THỦY*
Đại học Thái Nguyên, ✉

*

TÓM TẮT
Trên nền tảng lý thuyết của hành động lời nói, lời than phiền là một phần tất yếu trong cuộc sống
hàng ngày của chúng ta và trong môi trường đa văn hóa hiện nay. Quan trọng hơn là chúng ta
cần trau dồi cho những người giao tiếp từ những nền văn hóa khác nhau với những kiến thức
cần thiết về việc giải quyết như thế nào với lời than phiền. Nghiên cứu này nhằm mục đích điều
tra các chiến lược ưa thích mà người Anh và người Việt Nam sử dụng để đáp lại lời than phiền.
Hơn thế nữa, bài viết còn nhằm tìm hiểu sự khác biệt khi người giao tiếp sử dụng những chiến
lược trong những tình huống khác nhau và những người đối thoại khác nhau. Với mục đích điều
tra kỹ lưỡng các chiến lược đáp lại lời than phiền, phương pháp định tính và định lượng được áp
dụng trong quá trình phân tích dữ liệu. Kết quả cho thấy, có 13 chiến lược ưa thích được sử dụng
khi người Việt Nam và người Anh đáp lại lời than phiền và thực sự có nhiều sự khác nhau trong
việc lựa chọn chiến lược của họ. Có thể kết luận rằng, một số lưu ý về văn hoá đã được gợi ý cho
những người đang sinh sống, học tập và làm việc trong môi trường đa văn hóa bao gồm cả Anh
và Việt Nam.
Từ khóa: đáp lại lời than phiền, môi trường đa văn hóa, người Anh, người Việt.

1. INTRODUCTION
At present, cross-cultural communication is
one of the most significant current discussions
which must be considered immediately in order
to avoid misunderstandings and arguments among

communicators. Language, in fact, cannot exist
independently but closely integrate with context
it belongs to, which is clearly seen in the Levine’s
iceberg theory with language considered as the
“exposed part” of culture (Levine & Bigg, 2008).
Thus, it seems that linguistic knowledge and cultural

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background which are under mutual influences
integrate with each other to serve communication
purposes. Similarly, complaints and responding to
complaints which relate to both communication and
culture are inevitable part of our daily life. This is
surprising because so often are these remarks and
expressions of dissatisfaction that we do not notice how
much these expressions are used. In fact, responding
to complaints is an area the researchers have not
considered though people sometimes complain
and also frequently respond to others’ complaints.


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In addition, Vietnamese people’s strategies in
responding to complaints are different from those the

British do. This is because the ways in which a given
function is realized may differ from one language to
another, although communicative functions appear
to exist across languages. This is also the reason
why we do not understand the different cultures in
communication language and we easily destroy the
whole relationship, especially when responding to
complaints which is apparently a sensitive issue.
With her deep concerns about this situation through
this study and desire to fill the gap in the theoretical
field, the researcher attempts to cast a closer look
at Vietnamese and British culture to partly discover
strategies that are used mostly to respond complaints.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
2.1. Speech act of complaining
According to Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary (2010, p. 305), complaining is defined as
expressing dissatisfaction, or annoyance about the
state of affairs or that someone has already done,
failed to do or is in the state of doing something
wrong. Therefore, complaining is considered to be the
most frequently occurring communication acts and
particularly, it involves something taken to feeling
sorry for one-self.
According to Boxer (1993), Hatch (1992), people
often complain to:
1) Share a specific negative evaluation, obtain
agreement, and establish a common bond between the
speaker and addressee “trouble sharing”, “trouble talk”.
For instance: I can’t believe I couldn’t get an A on

this paper. I worked so hard!
Same here. She doesn’t give away A’s very easily,
that’s for sure.
2) Vent anger or anxiety/let off steam
3) Open and sustain conversations

Sharing with the same ideas, Wierbicka (2003)
provides in-depth analysis of the group which owns
complaining such as moaning, exclaiming, protesting,
objecting, bemoaning, and lamenting. People often
complain to:
1) Say that something bad is happening: I say
something bad is happening to me
2) Express the feelings caused by this: I feel
something bad because of that
3) Appeal for something like pity or sympathy:
I want someone to feel sorry for me because of that
While a variety of definitions of complaining have
suggested, the researcher will follow the definition
introduced by Olshtain and Weinbach (1993) to design
the complaining situations used in the questionnaire.
Complaining in this study does not refer to moaning
or exclaiming (which express self-pity) but an act
to express “displeasure, annoyance, blame, censure,
threats or reprimand”.
2.2. Responding to complaints
Dealing with complaints is a kind of complimentary
speech act: it follows the act of complaint. In other
words, complaining and responding to complaints
might be considered an adjacency pair, in which the

complaint comes first and then the response follows.
As listed in conversational openings, Schegloff
(1972) proposes complaints and denial or complaints
and apology are adjacency pairs.
However, the researcher has a desire to broaden
the pair of complaint – denial or complaint – apology
to a larger scale in this study. Not only denial and
apology can sustain the conversation which begins
with a complaint, the responses to one complaint,
we do not just deny or apologize, we can employ
and combine more than one specific act such as
explaining, promising or threatening to show our
attitudes, feelings or reaction to the complainers.
Someone complains when he/she is displeased,
disappointed or may be depressed. Therefore, using
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appropriate speech acts to please the complainers is
very essential.
3. THE STUDY
3.1. Research questions
The study aims to answer the following questions:
1) What are strategies that Vietnamese people
mostly use to respond to complaints?

2) What are strategies that British people mostly
use to respond to complaints?
3) What are the similarities and differences
between Vietnamese and British people’s strategies
when responding to complaints?
4) What are suggestions for Vietnamese and
British communicators in responding to complaints in
order to avoid misunderstandings?
3.2. Research design
Throughout the process of data analysis and
finding discussion, all selected participants were
mentioned neither in real names or pseudonyms.
The population of the research was the British and
Vietnamese. The first group consisted of 30 British
people aging from 21 to 42. They are currently living
and working in Britain. The second group – 30
Vietnamese whose ages fluctuated from 20 to 43 are
presently living in Vietnam. Participants of the two
groups are doing different kinds of work. By choosing
participants of different careers, ages and are living in
their motherland, the researcher has a desire to collect
the most valid and reliable data for investigation. 30
native people for each country are not a very large
number but those people are of various backgrounds,
they can provide a generalization of their culture.
The study was conducted by carefully collecting
materials from various reference sources to have
full-blown information of using complaint response
strategies. Furthermore, the Discourse Completion
Test (DCT) was used to collect the data in the study

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with the aim of investigating the complaint response
strategies mostly used by the Vietnamese and British
authentically and reliably. In addition, such methods
as descriptive, analytic, comparative and contrastive
were also utilized to describe and analyze, to compare
and contrast the data base in order to bring out
similarities and differences in strategies to respond to
complaints of Vietnamese and British people.
DCT is defined as any pragmatic measure that
obliges examinees to read a written situation description
and then write what they would say next in the situation.
For instance, a DCT which consists of different
situations is followed by an open-ended response
“You say… ” (Blum-Kulka, 1982). According to Tran
(2008), this term is developed by Blum-Kulka (1982)
and used by such researchers as Olshtain and Cohen
in their study of apologies in Hebrew and English.
DCT was chosen as the data collection method
in this study, as it proved to bring some outstanding
advantages over other methods such as ethnographic,
role-play. First of all, the DCT enables the researchers
to elicit data from the large sample of subjects easily,
using the same situations where contextual variables

are controlled. Second, it is an effective means of
creating an initial classification of semantic formulas
and strategies that will occur in natural speech (Cohen,
1996, p. 25).
The three social variables claimed by Brown
and Levinson (1978, 1987) – the relative power (P),
the social distance (D) and the absolute ranking of
imposition (R) have a systematic effect on the choice
of an appropriate polite expression in performing a
FTA (FTAs – acts which threaten the face wants of
the speaker, the hearer, or both of them) (Brown &
Levinson,1987) in a given context. As a result, a
questionnaire of 6 real-life situations was designed to
elicit responses to complaints.
Situation 1: You receive a complaint about
your messy room or desk. How would you verbally
respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of
the followings?


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Situation 2: You receive a complaint because
you make noise (loud music, loud talking…) which
annoys the people around. How would you verbally
respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of
the followings?
Situation 3: You are going out of the room but
accidentally bumped into someone on the door step
and receive a complaint from them. How would you

verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is
one of the followings?
Situation 4: You receive a complaint because
you are too late in a luxurious party. How would you
verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is
one of the followings?
Situation 5: You receive a complaint because you
break down a cup of tea. How would you verbally
respond to the complaint if the complainer is one of
the followings?
Situation 6: You receive a complaint because
you see his/her diary by accident. How would you
verbally respond to the complaint if the complainer is
one of the followings?
The different communicating partners in each
situation are:
Your parent – The hearer has greater power then the
speaker, and they are familiar with each other (P+; D-)
Your friend – The speaker and the hearer are equal
in power; they are familiar with each other (P=; D-)
Your younger sister/younger brother – The hearer
has lower power than the speaker, they are familiar
with each other (P-; D-)
Your boss – The hearer has greater power than the
speaker, and they are unfamiliar with each other (P+; D+)
Your colleague –The speaker and the hearer are equal
in power; they are unfamiliar with each other (P=; D+)
Your subordinate – The hearer has lower power than
speaker; they are unfamiliar with each other (P-; D-)

3.3. Procedures of data collection
The data collection procedure consists of three
main steps, each of which is taken according to a
designed timeline. The three steps are listed as follows.
Step 1: Preparing. In this step, the researcher
prepared and designed the DCT questionnaire by
referring to the colleague’s consultancy and other
research related to the same issue.
Step 2: Piloting. The researcher provided with all
information related to study for participants before
administering questionnaire. After that, it was greatly
important to select the appropriate sample because
it played a decisive role in the result of the data
collection procedure. Participants were convinced
that the data would be treated confidentially before
given clear instructions to complete the questionnaire
Step 3: Administering. The questionnaire was
delivered via gmail or via social network to British
respondents because of time and distance. The
researcher’s cousin and his family are currently living
in the UK and he helped the researcher deliver the
questionnaire to his British friends at school, and
to his neighborhood. Face to face questionnaire
administration method was employed for Vietnamese
participants who are the researcher’s friends,
colleague in many fields. It took 5 days to administer
the questionnaire. In total, 60 copies of questionnaire
were given out.
3.4. Data analysis
The entire collected data from the questionnaire

was analyzed in using qualitative and quantitative
methods. Descriptive statistics was employed. The
data obtained from the questionnaire was calculated
and transferred into numerical form and after that
presented in tables and graphs.
4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Findings from data collected
The results from the questionnaire and interview
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has presented preferred strategies of British and
Vietnamese people in responding to complaints
such as Apologizing, Explaining, Promising, Asking
for help, Accepting, Rejecting, Complaining back,
Threatening back and other combination strategies.
Meanwhile, some examples were given to illustrate
for each strategy and to compare between two
examined groups.
Moreover, the researcher analyzed favored
strategies in responding to complaints by two
perspectives thoughtfully. The overall trend of British
and Vietnamese respondents was shown through the
data of chart 1. Among thirteen strategies, Rejecting
is the most favored strategy for British participants

with 21%, while for Vietnamese participants the most
favored one is Apologizing and Showing concern
which accounts for 17.22%
In contrast, Vietnamese participants rarely use
Rejecting (2.98%) which is a FTA or Apologizing
(3.01%) which is too short and brief, in their opinion. In
terms of British participants, Explaining and Showing
concern is used least among thirteen strategies with
only 2.34%. It is interesting to note that none of British
participants uses strategy 4 – Asking for help while
Vietnamese participants used this strategy frequently
with 11.53%. Surprisingly, British participants seem
to be more open to Threatening back strategy as it

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account for 8.43%; meanwhile, the same strategy
is not used at all among Vietnamese participants. In
addition, Vietnamese participants have a general trend
of combining strategies more than British participants.
From this table, all five strategy combinations are
favored by Vietnamese participants with much higher
percentage (8.52% to 16.77% compared to 5% to
2.34% to 5%). When being interviewed, Vietnamese
participants explain that the longer and more detailed
the utterances are the more sincere and repentant the

complainers think about them.
Strategies
1. Apologizing
2. Explaining
3. Promising
4. Asking for help
5. Accepting
6. Rejecting
7. Complaining back
8. Threatening back
9. Apologizing and Showing concern
10. Explaining and Showing concern
11. Apologizing and Explaining
12. Apologizing and Promising
13. Explaining and Promising


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The findings from the DCT questionnaires reveal that the following strategies are used by British and/or
Vietnamese respondents.
Strategy 1: APOLOGIZING: The British speaker uses expressions such as “sorry”, “excuse”, “forgive”, or
interjections such as “oh”, “oops” to apologize for their wrong – doings. Among data collected, here come some
typical examples from the participants’ responses.
Table 1: Examples of Apologizing strategy
British responses

-
-

Vietnamese responses

- Xin lỗi bạn nhé.
- Chị xin lỗi.
- Xin lỗi sếp.

Sorry.
I’m sorry.

Strategy 2: EXPLAINING: Explaining is the act of describing the situation which caused the Speaker to
misbehave. By doing so, the Speaker intends to win sympathy from the Hearer. For instance:
Table 2: Examples of Explaining strategy
British responses

Vietnamese responses

- Music makes work faster.
- I’m sorting my stuff.

- Ở bừa bộn thế tao mới chơi được với mày.
- Chị vẫn chưa xem được gì mà.
- Dạo này em lười quá sếp ạ.

Strategy 3: PROMISING: Searle (1969) defines the act of promising as an act that puts the Speaker under
obligation. Using Promising strategy when responding to complaints contemporarily eases the Hearer’s tension
or anger. Here are some typical examples collected from participants’ responses.
Table 3: Examples of Promising strategy
British responses

- OK, I’ll turn it down.

- I guess I could turn it down a little bit.
- I’ll sort it out later.

Vietnamese responses

- Con sẽ dọn dẹp và thu xếp lại ngay.
- Tớ tắt bây giờ.
- Con sẽ dọn gọn gàng trong vòng 5 phút thôi mẹ ạ, ^^

Strategy 4: ASKING FOR HELP: This is a surprising response collected from respondents’ answers because
the participant eases complainers’ anger or displeasure by asking for a favor from the complainer. Therefore, the
complainer might feel he/she is important to the Speaker since the Speaker seeks for their help. The following
are some examples:
Table 4: Examples of Asking for help strategy
British responses
None

Vietnamese responses

- Anh bận lắm, em rảnh dọn giùm anh.
- Hehe, giúp anh một tay nhé.
- Mày hộ tao cái.

Strategy 5: ACCEPTING: By using an expression of acceptance, the Speaker shows that he/she is aware of
his/her behaviors and acknowledges or agrees with the complaints. Some typical examples are:
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Table 5: Examples of Accepting strategy
British responses
- OK.
- I see.
- OK. I see.

Vietnamese responses
- Con hiểu rồi.
- Cám ơn bạn đã nhắc.

Strategy 6: REJECTING: On the contrary to accepting, some respondents choose Rejecting as their responding
strategy. When using this strategy, the Speaker does do a FTA towards the Hearer by ignoring, turning the
complaints down or telling that the Hearer is wrong. Here are some typical examples of Rejecting strategy:
Table 6: Examples of Rejecting strategy
British responses
- Are you my mother or something?
-Go away.
-Shut up and get out.
-It’s none of business

Vietnamese responses

- Kệ tao.
- Có thế thôi mà mày cũng phải làm toáng lên.
- Im, cái đứa này chả biết cảm thụ âm nhạc là thế
nào cả.

Strategy 7: COMPLAINING BACK: This is also a FTA and the Speaker chooses this strategy to save his/her
face, nevertheless, by doing so, he/she threatens the Hearer’s face. For example:
Table 7: Examples of Complaining back strategy

-
-
-
-

British responses
Your table is a mess rather than mine.
Don’t be a nuisance.
I’m sure your bedroom in way worse.
Too bad, you don’t seem to mind. when it‘s
you playing loud music, eh?

Vietnamese responses
- Có sao đâu mà mày phiềnthế.

- Cái gì?? Thế này mà bừa bộn á?
- Đi đứng thế à? ^^
- Lần sau cẩn thận chứ.

Strategy 8: THREATENING BACK: The name of this strategy has described its characteristics. It is also a
Face Threatening Act. Using this strategy, the Speaker shows his/her displeasure towards the Hearer in a higher
level than Complaining back or Rejecting. By doing so, the Speaker directly threatens the Hearer’s face. The
following examples will clarify this strategy:
Table 8: Examples of Threatening back strategy
British responses

-Fired!
-Do you want to keep your job?
-Go playing or I’II kick your ass.

Vietnamese responses
None

It is interesting to note that showing concern strategy is not used alone, but it is used together with other
strategies. These are the most commonly used combinations as follows.

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Strategy 9: APOLOGIZING AND SHOWING CONCERN: the Speaker uses apologizing expressions and
show his/her care for the Hearer as in some examples below.
Table 9: Examples of Apologizing and Showing concern strategy

-
-
-
-

British
Sorry, are you ok?

Oops, sorry. Didn’t it hurt?
Hey, are you alright?
I’m sorry. Are you ok?

Vietnamese
- Con xin lỗi ạ, bố có sao không ạ?
- Xin lỗi em có sao không?
- Tao xin lỗi, mày có đau không?

Strategy 10: EXPLAINING AND SHOWING CONCERN: the Speaker describes the situation that caused
them to commit the wrong doings and expresses their care for the Hearer. For instance:
Table 10: Examples of Explaining and Showing concern strategy
British
- I don’t know my music is bothering
you. Is it ok now?
- I did not notice. Are you alright?

Vietnamese
- Mình đang vội bạn có sao không?
- Em sơ ý quá sếp có sao không ạ?
- Ừ đang vội tí, có sao không?

Strategy 11: APOLOGIZING AND EXPLAINING: the Speaker uses apologizing expressions along with
explaining the reasons for their wrong behaviors.
Table 11: Examples of Apologizing and Explaining strategy
British
- Sorry about that boss man! I’ll tidy it up toot
sweet!
- Yep, sorry I’m a bit snowed under .

Vietnamese
- Em xin lỗi, em không cố ý đâu.
- Xin lỗi nhé, vội quá.
- Xin lỗi nhé, hôm nay đi về mệt chưa kịp dọn.

Strategy 12: APOLOGIZING AND PROMISING: the Speaker uses apologizing expressions and eases the
Hearer’s discomfort by promising or offering a remedy for their wrong doings.
Table 12: Examples of Apologizing and Promising strategy
British
- I apologize, I will make sure it’s tidied
straight away.
- I’m sorry, I’ll move to another place.
- I’m sorry, I’ll adjust the loudness

Vietnamese
- Xin lỗi sếp, tí em dọn ngay.
- Xin lỗi thủ trưởng, lần sau thủ trưởng đến là sẽ đâu
vào đấy ngay ấy mà.
- Con xin lỗi, con tắt nhạc ngay đây ạ.

Strategy 13: EXPLAINING AND PROMISING: the Speaker, on one hand, describes the reasons for their
wrong doings and using promising expressions to ease the Hearer’s tension on the other hand.
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Table 13: Examples of Explaining and Promising strategy
British
Vietnamese
- It’s organized chaos. I know where my stuff is. - Mấy hôm nay bận quá, tớ dọn ngay bây giờ đây.
I promise I’ll give it a clean later on this week. - Dạo này lười lắm đi, để cuối tuần sẽ dọn ngay.
- I’ve been too busy, but I will do it soon.
- Con không để ý, con sẽ tắt ngay đây ạ.
- I was tied up with few works, but will arrange
it today.
From the afore – mentioned findings, it can be easily recognized some similarities in the way Vietnamese and
British participants respond to other’s complaints. Regarding non – verbal communication, like other speech acts
such as greeting, apologizing, showing sympathy, and so on, people also can respond to complaints without using
words. On the other hand, they can keep silent, use gestures, facial expressions or body language. Examining examples
collected from the DCT, we can see that both Vietnamese and British respondents used emotional icons such as 
or ^^ (DCT – B2) to imply that they would smile to show their attitude in some situations when being complained.
Clearly, responding to other’s complaints exists in every culture but it is recognized that carrying on a certain
complaint response strategy may be appropriate in this country but can appear to quite in appropriate in another one.
From the data collected, the most essential difference of British and Vietnamese respondents is that the
British would directly reveal their discomfort when being complained by Rejecting the complaints such as “Are
you my mother or something?” or even Threatening back the complainers such as “Do you want to keep your
job?” while the Vietnamese would admit their mistakes and combine several strategies to ease the complainers’
anger such as “Con xin lỗi, bố có sao không ạ?” or feel free to ask the complainers to help them such as “Em
rảnh dọn giùm anh nhé!”
Six daily life situations were given in the survey to elicit verbal responses from two examined groups. In each
situation, the researcher had the participants communicate with total six types of interlocutors to see whether the
social status or the relationship between communicators affect their choice of language.
1) When the Hearer has greater power than the Speaker, and they are familiar with each other (P+, D-):
Complaints from parent.
The use of responding strategies when dealing with parents’ complaints
British

Vietnamese

Apologizing

14.23%

0%

Explaining

6.88%

1.22%

Promising

12%

1.02%

Asking for help

0%

0%

Accepting

15.67%

0%

Rejecting

16.32%

0%

Strategies

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Complaining back

0%

0%

Threatening back

0%

0%

Apologizing and Showing concern

8.76%

22.17%

Explaining and Showing concern

5.23%

13%

Apologizing and Explaining

6.33%

19.12%

Apologizing and Promising

4.21%

19.67%

Explaining and Promising

10.37%

23.8%

From the table we can see that, with the complainers are parents, British participants tend to use all strategies
except for Asking for help, complaining back and threatening back, but Vietnamese ones prefer to combine
several strategies together. This way makes their apology more sincere and repentant to the Hearer. Similarly,
Vietnamese ones do not use strategies Asking for help, Complaining back and Threatening back. Nevertheless,
they neither use Accepting and Rejecting as well.
Interestingly, in spite of higher power of parents, British ones still reject the complaints which accounts for
16.32% while Vietnamese ones do not reject the complaints from their parents at all. Some British ones when
being asked for the reason answered that when they are grown up, they want their privacy and individual to be
respected and even parents can not tell them what they should do, they just do what they want. On the contrary, as
a tradition of Vietnamese people, parents are among the most important people of one’s life and one should respect
their parents’ advice. That is the reason why they use several strategies to make their parents feel respectful.
Vietnamese respondents do not use Apologizing strategy does not mean they hardly admit their mistakes but
they tend to combine Apologizing with other strategies to make their responses more courteous. As can be seen
from the table, Apologizing and Showing concern, Apologizing and Explaining or Apologizing and Promising
are those of the highest percentages among thirteen strategies with respectively 22.17%, 19.12% and 19.67%.
Explaining and Promising is mostly used among Vietnamese respondents with 23.8% while the same strategy is
used at only 10.37% for British ones.
The most common utterance of Vietnamese respondents in this case is “Con xin lỗi, con sẽ dọn dẹp ngay ạ”
(DCT – A1) or “Con không để ý ạ, bố có sao không ạ?” (DCT – A3) which sounds respectful and courteous.
In other words, British ones even have “It’s none of your business” or “Leave me alone” (DCT – A3) when
responding to their parents.
2) When the Speaker and the Hearer are equal in power; they are familiar with each other (P=, D-):
Complaints from friends
The use of responding strategies when dealing with friends’ complaints
British

Vietnamese

Apologizing

12%

8.67%

Explaining

4.31%

2.11%

Strategies

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Promising

2.22%

2.11%

0%

23.11%

Accepting

12.13%

4.11%

Rejecting

22.11%

0%

Complaining back

23.14%

6%

Threatening back

0%

0%

Apologizing and Showing concern

4.59%

16.12%

Explaining and Showing concern

3.12%

11.01%

Apologizing and Explaining

9.98%

17.05%

Apologizing and Promising

4.54%

2.09%

Explaining and Promising

1.86%

7.62%

Asking for help

In this case, British participants choose Complaining back strategy as their favored strategy with the highest

percentage – 23.14% while for the same strategy Vietnamese ones only employ it at percentage of 6%. The
Vietnamese‘s most preferred strategy in this case is Asking for help with more than 23% and for British, the
percentage of this strategy is zero, which means the British do not use Asking for help strategy at all. British’s
privacy value as well as the independence implanted in their mind might be the reasons for that behavior.
In addition, Vietnamese respondents use almost all thirteen strategies to respond to their friends’ complaints
except for Rejecting, while British use Rejecting strategy up to 22.11%. However, the two groups meet at one
end when they either use Threatening back strategy when dealing with their friends.
As regardless friends, who are of equal power and close to the respondents, they tend to have casual utterances
such as “Too bad, you don’t seem to mind when it’s you playing loud music, eh?” (DCT – B2) for British
respondents and “Ui kệ, làm gì còn thời gian mà sắp xếp cuối tuần tao dọn” (DCT – B2) for Vietnamese ones.
3) When the Hearer has lower power than the Speaker; they are familiar with each other (P-, D-): Complaints
from younger sister/brother
The use of responding strategies when dealing with younger brothers/sisters’ complaints
British

Vietnamese

Apologizing

1.22%

0%

Explaining

0%

0%

Promising

0%

0%

Asking for help

0%

29.01%

Accepting

7.98%

9.34%

Rejecting

41.18%

9.76%

Strategies

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Complaining back

33.11%

20.05%

Threatening back

15%

0%

Apologizing and Showing concern

1.51%

3.24%

Explaining and Showing concern

0%

8.98%

Apologizing and Explaining

0%

16.05%

Apologizing and Promising

0%

2.09%

Explaining and Promising

0%

2.02%

In this case, when the interlocutors of the respondents are not only less powerful but also very familiar
because they are younger sisters or younger brothers of the respondents, the responses of two groups are even
more casual and in a negative way.
As revealed in the table above, most British respondents choose Rejecting with 41.18% (Uuh, what’s the
problem?), Complaining back with 33.11% (Your room is rather a mess than mine), Threatening back with
15% (Go playing or I’ll kick you out) while a very small amount of them choose Apologizing or Accepting the
complaints which only accounts for approximately 9.2%. Vietnamese groups seem to be keen on the Asking for
help strategy as they use it with the highest percentage of 29.01% in this case.
It seems for the researcher to notice that for communicating partners who are less powerful and very familiar
to the Speakers, both British and Vietnamese respondents favor Complaining back as 33.11% British respondents
choose this strategy and up to 20% Vietnamese respondents choose the same.
They are also in the same wave length when they rarely combine strategies to deal with younger brothers
or younger sisters as those responses from British respondents take up only more than 1% and Apologizing and
Explaining or Apologizing and Promising strategy is not used at all by Vietnamese ones. It might be resulted

from the thought that those who are very familiar and have less power are not expected to receive courteous
responses from the Speaker
4) When the Hearer has greater power then the Speaker, and they are unfamiliar with each other (P+, D+):
Complaints from boss.
The use of responding strategies when dealing with boss’ complaints
British

Vietnamese

Apologizing

26.13%

0%

Explaining

18.77%

0%

Promising

8.09%

5.86%

0%

0%

Accepting

2.19%

0%

Rejecting

0%

0%

Strategies

Asking for help

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Complaining back

0%

0%

Threatening back

0%

0%

Apologizing and Showing concern

9.76%

25%

Explaining and Showing concern

3.11%

15.21%

Apologizing and Explaining

5.99%

16.79%

Apologizing and Promising

9%

22%

Explaining and Promising

16.96%

15.14%

The table shows the two ends of a spectrum which is British participants are fancy on using short and brief
utterances such as “Sorry”, “I’ll sort it out” or “I’m sorry” because strategies like Apologizing, Explaining and
Promising take up to 43.09% while Vietnamese respondents tend to combine several strategies to express their
repentance such as “Vâng, em bận quá, tí em dọn ngay” (DCT – C2) or “Em không để ý, em vô ý quá ạ” (DCT
– C5). Those responses are distributed in all five combinations of strategy. Specifically, they are reflected in
Apologizing and Showing concern with 25%, Explaining and Showing concern with 15.21%, Apologizing and
Explaining with 16.79%, Apologizing and Promising with 22%, and Explaining and Promising with 15.14%
However, they meet at one end when all strategies they use shows respect and courtesy for the interlocutors
and avoid using FTA strategies such as Rejecting, Complaining back or Threatening back. Neither British
respondents nor Vietnamese respondents apply those strategies. It is reasonable and understandable because in
this case, the complaints come from the boss, who has more power than the participants and between a boss and
his staff, there will always be an invisible gap that determines their way of communicating.
5) When the Speaker and the Hearer are equal in power; they are unfamiliar with each other (P=, D+):
Complaints from colleague.
The use of responding strategies when dealing with colleague’s complaints
British

Vietnamese

Apologizing

21%

0%

Explaining

6.04%

15.21%

Promising

6.22%

2.15%

0%

9.96%

Accepting

16.01%

11.22%

Rejecting

30.11%

0%

Complaining back

16.62%

0%

Threatening back

0%

0%

Apologizing and Showing concern

4%

19.11%

Explaining and Showing concern

0%

12.15%

Apologizing and Explaining

0%

18.54%

Strategies

Asking for help

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Apologizing and Promising

0%

4.88%

Explaining and Promising

0%

6.78%

In this case, Rejecting strategy dominates others for British respondents with the highest percentage of 30.11%.
While Vietnamese ones still keep on their choice with five strategy combinations which account for 61.46%.
Additionally, Vietnamese respondents also choose some other strategies to deal with complaints from their
colleagues such as Explaining, “Ừ, tại hôm nay đi về mệt chưa kịp dọn” (DCT – D1) or “Mải nghe nên quên mất

mọi người xung quanh ý mà” (DCT – D2) with 15.21%.
When the interlocutors are colleagues who are not so close to the respondents and have equal powers with
them, British respondents still go on their way which is of apologizing in the shortest way such as “Sorry” or
“Oops, my bad!” which is of 21% or even Rejecting the complaints which add up to 30.11% while Vietnamese
ones still tend to be polite to save their colleagues’ faces by politely responding with expressions of Apologizing
and Showing concern which is approximately 19.11%, Apologizing and Explaining which takes up 18.54% or
Explaining and Showing concern with 12.15%.
Neither Vietnamese respondents nor British ones use Threatening back strategy. None of British respondents
chooses combinations of strategies to deal with colleague’s complaints while Vietnamese ones still employ those
strategies like Apologizing and Showing concern which adds up to 19.11%.
Besides, British respondents do not use Asking for help strategy due to their value of respecting independence
while Vietnamese ones use this strategy up to more than 9%. It truly reflects collectivism value of Vietnamese,
more people more power. There is a saying in Vietnam talking about this: “Một cây làm chẳng nên non/Ba cây
chụm lại nên hòn núi cao”.
6) When the Hearer has lower power than the Speaker; they are unfamiliar with each other (P-, D-):
Complaints from subordinates.
The use of responding strategies when dealing with subordinates’ complaints
British

Vietnamese

Apologizing

14.12%

5.21%

Explaining

2.55%

4.72%

Promising

9.01%

8.16%

0%

4.94%

Accepting

14.11%

8.98%

Rejecting

16.08%

3.97%

Complaining back

8%

0%

Threatening back

34.02%

0%

0%

22.22%

Strategies

Asking for help

Apologizing and Showing concern

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2.11%

19.01%

Apologizing and Explaining

0%

13.99%

Apologizing and Promising

0%

2.22%

Explaining and Promising

0%

6.58%

Explaining and Showing concern

As described the table above, for the last type of interlocutors – subordinates, who work under the supervision
of the respondents, British and Vietnamese ones have a significant distinction.
The dominant strategy of British respondents is Threatening back with 34.02% while Vietnamese ones’ is
Apologizing and Showing concern to the Complainers with 22.22%. No Vietnamese respondents choose to
threaten back their subordinates while most British ones choose to do so. The most frequent used utterance of
British ones is “Do you want to keep your job?” or even “Fired!” while Vietnamese ones’ only become shorter
and briefer such as “Ừ, biết rồi” or “Ừ” in Accepting strategy with 8.98%.
Since responding to complaints was reviewed as a FTA to the Speaker, the respondents try to save their face
by threatening back their subordinate’s face, especially when the Speaker are those who have more power than
the Hearer.

That is the reason why British participants do not have a tendency to use combinations of strategy which
results in only about 2.11% of Explaining and Showing concern strategy. Nevertheless, Vietnamese ones still
employ those combinations which accounts for 50%.
4.2. Reasons for similarities and differences in the choice of complaint response strategies from cross
– cultural communication perspective
Certainly, the differences help to make the variety in culture in general and in responding to complaints
in particular, while the similarities help people from two cultures can adapt themselves easily to the new
environment.
Both two examined groups of respondents are expected to be similar when respond to complaints made by
boss. They both find the most effective way in their own perspective to respond and both avoid using negative
strategies such as Complaining back or Rejecting. That is to say, social status is highly regarded as any culture
and it has effects on the way people communicate with others in a large scale.
The reasons for this choice is that although the British and Vietnamese have great distance in culture and
language, they all understand the meaning and the importance of showing politeness when responding to a
complaint from a boss; therefore, they do not use Complaining back, Threatening back or Rejecting strategy.
This also explains the high frequency of Apologizing for the British and Apologizing and Showing concern for
the Vietnamese in complaint responses in this study.
With a view to differences, it is essential to understand that the British and Vietnamese belong to two different
culture backgrounds – Western culture and Oriental culture. Several culture features of the two countries have a
strong influence in the way they respond to complaints.
First of all, as for the most types of complainers (except only for boss), favored strategies used by the
British is Rejecting the complaints. They would keep silent ignoring the complaints, ask the complainers to
stop complaining or show their discomfort. On the other hand, Vietnamese’s favored strategies are combined

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strategies and partly because of that in any case, their
responses sound respectful and courteous.
In Hofstede’s research (1997), he claims that
Asian countries like Vietnam have a high power
distance index (PDI) and are associated with beliefs
that “hierarchy and inequality are appropriate and
beneficial, and that authorities and seniors should
be honoured”(p.57). Actually, social status has a
profound impact on social interactions in general, and
in responding to complaints in particular. The impact
of this social variable in Vietnamese society can be
seen more clearly than in British society in which the
hierarchy relations are not well – established and paid
much attention. Furthermore, Hofstede also writes
that Vietnam has a high PDI in his study because
Vietnam takes up 48 scores in the table of country
ratings on the power distance dimension. On the other
hand, each Vietnamese person has a rightful place in
social orders; hierarchy and inequality are appropriate
and beneficial.
Secondly, because of the tradition of saving face
of the Vietnamese, they hardly show their real feeling.
When being complained, they might feel a little bit or
even a lot of displeasure, they still respond in the most
polite way. Specifically, we cannot help mention long
– term time and short – time orientation.
In the view of Hofstede about cultural taxonomy

(1991), Vietnam belongs to long – term orientation
because of 119 scores in the table of country ratings on
the time orientation. On the other hand, the Vietnamese
have a sense of shame and that is the reason why the
Vietnamese often combine strategies in responding to
complaints, and avoid Threatening back, Complaining
back or even Rejecting the complaints. Moreover, the
Vietnamese pay much attention to status difference
in interpersonal relationship. They believe that it is
essential to use polite intensifiers such as, “ạ, dạ,
vâng ạ” to emphasize the status difference between
a junior and a senior. In contrast, the British belongs
to short – term time orientation; consequently, they
prefer the balance in using language when responding
to a complaint.

However, this is also the most difficult obstacle of
the Vietnamese when communicating with the British.
While British people are too straight and do not tend
to save the hearer’s face, Vietnamese people might
feel uncomfortable and even have negative feelings.
The factor affecting complaint responses of two
countries is the nature of two orientations: collectivist
and individualist orientation. From Western culture,
the British belong to individualism which encourages
people to believe in their own identity. We can see
easily that in the table of country ratings on the
individualism – collectivism dimension (Hofstede,
1991), Vietnam has only “-97” scores while Britain
has a score of “89”. That means Vietnamese people

seldom express their own individual aspects in the
way they communicate. Therefore, British people
use negative strategies like Rejecting, Complaining
back or even Threatening back the complaints with
higher frequency than Vietnamese ones. In contrast,
the Vietnamese belong to collectivism which
emphasizes a sense of belonging and group harmony.
As a result, the Vietnamese mostly combine strategies
such as Apologizing, Explaining and Promising the
complaints, and do not use Threatening back at all to
avoid impolite for other communicators.
Last but not least, when taking the impact of
different situations into account, there are some
responses only appearing in specific situations.
Therefore, the respondents of two groups choose
different strategies to deal with different situations.
This paper is carried on enriching both Vietnamese’s
and British’s knowledge about each other’s culture.
Vietnamese people would see the way of fast and
straight communication of British people less hurtful
and disrespectful while British people might adapt a
little bit of the gentle way that the Vietnamese use to
more easily ease Vietnamese’s anger.
Cultural values in responding to complaints
Some of the most dominant similarities and
differences when responding to other’s complaints
in social interaction between Vietnamese people
and British people have been discussed in the
previous part. However, it is only one side of a two
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– sided coin whose fulfillment calls the importance
of understanding thoroughly cultural values such
as politeness and impoliteness, group harmony and
individualism in across cultural context.
Responding to complaints appropriately seems to
be one of the most effective means of communication
that might establish and maintain social relationship
among people in different cultural backgrounds. After
discussing, we can conclude that there are a lot of
similarities and differences in British and Vietnamese
complaint responses and both of them are useful
information that helps communicators understand
more about cross – cultural communication.
Specifically, British communicators used Rejecting
strategy more than Vietnamese ones, who tended
to combine strategies in responding to complaints.
This is because each country has difference cultural
backgrounds.
As explained earlier, there are some cultural
features such as the collectivist orientation, a high
PDI and a long – term orientation which has effects
on the way Vietnamese people respond to complaints.
Vietnamese people believe that when being

complained, especially by a high – status person,
combinations strategies is considered as the effective
ways to avoid impolite and save the Hearer’s face.
In contrast, affected by individualism, a low PDI, a
short – term orientation, British people are regarding
as agreeing with some negative strategies to show the
belief in their own identity. Additionally, they seem to
communicate with each other in a direct way with self
– assertiveness. The frequency of single strategies is
higher than those of combination strategies in British
people; therefore, compared with the Vietnamese,
British people are too straightforward.
In cross cultural communication, the Vietnamese,
especially foreign language learners, should pay
much attention to pragmatic transfer in order to
adapt themselves easily to the new environment.
Moreover, responding to complaints is regarded as
a problematic social speech act; consequently, the
Speaker and the Hearer need to raise awareness of
importance of understanding the cultural values of

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each country comprehensively because carrying an
inappropriate complaint response strategy might
cause misinterpretations, misunderstandings and even

arguments in cross cultural communication. Thus,
communicators should widen their knowledge on the
cultural values of different countries so that they might
achieve success in cross cultural communication.
Especially, the relationship between communicators
affecting their choice of language was paid much
attention in the current study. For instance, there were
some interlocutors like complaints from parents, boss,
friends, younger sisters/brothers, colleague or even
subordinates. Additionally, the researcher provided
not only reasons for similarities and differences in
the choice of strategies but also cultural values in
responding to complaints.
Overall, the researcher has been successful
when answering all four stated research questions to
find out which are favored strategies of the British
and Vietnamese together with figuring out some
differences and similarities between the habits of
responding to complaints in British and Vietnamese
ways. Some suggestions for British and Vietnamese
people were revealed to avoid misunderstandings
and displeasure, and to improve communicative
competence between the Speaker and the Hearer in
the conversation.
5. IMPLICATION
The relationship between a Vietnamese and British
might be on the edge of rocks if they lack understanding
about each other’s traditions or values; therefore, the
study aims to shorten the distance between the two
countries and minimizing misunderstandings when

people from Vietnam and Britain communicate with
each other. As for those who are in a multicultural
environment or those who frequently communicate
with the British or Vietnamese, this paper gives hints
for communicators to take these cultural differences
into consideration in order to achieve success in their
communication targets.
In terms of English language teaching, for the
purpose of successful intercultural communication,


NGHIÊN CỨU - TRAO ĐỔI v

learners should be taught what strategies are favored
in target language, and how to use them effectively.
Moreover, language instructors are likely to offer
students an orientation toward the adoption of
communication strategies in order to improve
communicative competence. Therefore, students
may master the target language and use it natively
and naturally.
6. CONCLUSION
In sum, the purpose of the study was to figure
out the British and Vietnamese‘s strategies in
responding to complaints and to give those who are
potential communicators in British – Vietnamese
communication some recommendations to improve
their competence of dealing with complaints. Firstly,
the paper has realized British people have a tendency
to use strategies which are short and straight, while

Vietnamese ones are keen on employing strategy
combinations which are more detailed and thus, more
sincere in their perspective. Then, after analyzing
the responses in each case, the researcher made a
conclusion that no one can affect the strategies used
by the British except for their boss. Meanwhile,
Vietnamese people are impacted by different types of
interlocutors. With their close relations, they are more
casual while communicating with more powerful
people; they would show their sincere respect and
repentance. Next, different situations have effects
on how the respondents choose their language style.
Where they find it is necessary to show repentance,
they would sincerely apologize while where they find
it is not, they would show their attitude to protect their
face. Ultimately, cultures reflect on the behaviors of
its people./.
Reference:
1. Albert, S. (2010). Oxford Advanced Learner’s
Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
2. Blum-Kulka, S. (1982). Learn how to say what
you mean in second language: A Study of the Speech
Act Performance of Learners of Hebrew as a Second
Language. Applied Linguistic 3, 29-59.

3. Boxer, D. (1993). Complaining and
Commiserating, a speech act view of Solidarity in
Spoken American English, Peter Lang Publishing,
Inc., New York.
4. Brown, P. & Levinson, S .D. (1978). Universals

in language usage: Politeness phenomena, Cambridge
University Press, New York.
5. Brown, P. & Levinson, S .D. (1987). Politeness:
Some Universals in language Usage, Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge.
6. Cohen, A. (1996). Investigation of production
of speech act sets. Speech acts across cultures:
Challenges to Communication in a Second Language,
21-43. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
7. Hatch, E. (1992). Psycholinguistics: A second
language perspective. Rowley, M.A: Newbury House.
8. Hofstede, G. (1991). Cultures and
Organizations: Software of the mind. London:
McGraw – Hill.
9. Hofstede, G. (1997). Hofstede’s dimensions of
cultures. Retrieved April 10, 2014

10. Olshtain, E. & Weinbach, L. (1987).
“Complaints: A Study of Speech Act Behavior
among Native and Non-Native Speakers of
Hebrew”, in Verschueren, Jef and Bertalucci, P.
(Eds). The Pragmatic Perspective. Philadelphia:
John Benjamins, 195-208.
11. Schegloff, E. (1972). “Noteson a
Conversational Practice: Formulating Place”, Studies
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12. Tran, Giao Quynh. (2008). “The Naturalized
Role-Play: An Innovative Methodology in CrossCultural and Interlanguage Pragmatics Research”.
Reflection on English Language Teaching, 5 (2), (1-24).
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Pragmatics: The Semantics of Human Interaction,
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A STUDY OF INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION: RESPONDING TO
COMPLAINTS BETWEEN VIETNAMESE AND BRITISH PEOPLE
DIEM THI THU THUY
Abstract: In the light of theoretical background of speech acts, complaining is an inevitable part
of our daily life and in a multicultural environment nowadays. It is more important to enrich
communicators who have different cultural background with essential knowledge about how to
deal with complaints. The study is aimed at investigating the preferred strategies that the British
and Vietnamese use to verbally respond to complaints. Furthermore, it intended to figure out
whether there exists difference in the way they use those strategies and in accordance with
different situations and difference interlocutors. For the purpose of investigating the dimensions
thoroughly, both qualitative and quantitative methods were applied in data analysis procedures.
The results revealed that there are thirteen strategies used when the Vietnamese and British
respond to complaints and there are actually several differences in their choice of strategies.
It is also concluded that there are some cultural notes and discussions suggested for those who
are living, studying and working in a multicultural environment consisting of the British and
Vietnamese.
Keywords: respond to complaints, multicultural environment, British, Vietnamese.
Received: 31/5/2017; Revised: 16/6/2017; Accepted for publication: 30/8/2017

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