VIETNAMESE AND ENGLISH GREETINGS INTRODUCTION There are many different ways of greeting In Western countries such as France, Spain or Italy, people greet friends by kissing on both cheeks while in the Middle East, Muslims always hug persons of the same sex when greeting each other What an interesting thing! How about Asians like us? The peoples in Asian countries are quite reticent So, the way they greet is also discreet and respectful In Vietnam, greetings are part and parcel of everyday life Vietnamese ancestors said: “Lời chào cao mâm cỗ” The statement reveals that greetings played an important role in the old days of our country According to Goffman, greetings provide the means of the opening conversations appropriately, establish and maintain social relationship (as cited in Li, 2009, p.1), for example “Hello” or “Hi” In addition, the basic functions of greetings are also to identify the presence of communicators and to show their concern However, modes of communication in all languages are not the same That is the reason why imposing the rules of one language on another’s can cause negative transfer which leads awkwardness and misunderstanding In this paper, I focus on English and Vietnamese greetings and draw out some differences in terms of content, semantics, syntax and lexis Then, some implications for language teaching are discussed so that learners can avoid pragmatic transfers from their native language to the second one I hope that through the paper, you will have a deep look into two languages in greetings, an indispensable culture in the world CONTENT Greetings in Vietnamese Definition The definition of greeting is illustrated in terms of linguistics, sociology, and anthropology According to two linguists, Schegloff and Sacks (1973), greetings are considered as a speech event constituted by two parts side by side such as GreetingGreeting: A: Hi B: Hi Or Greeting- Request for information A: Hi B: Do you have a class today? Unlike the linguists’ outlook, Goffman (1971), the sociolinguist stated that greetings consist of several interlinking behaviors: (1) Verbal (3) Non verbal (2) Term of address (4) Social context Meanwhile, in anthropological linguistics perspective, Fieg and Mortlock (1989) defined greetings as “ritualistic expressions” which are affected by social factors, particularly cross-cultural differences (as cited in Williams, 2001) In Vietnamese, greetings, as stated by professor Ngan (2005), mean that people speak or use gesture in order to show their respect and sociability when they meet someone Or in Vietnamese proverbs, we can see that how important greetings are in comparison with “mâm cỗ” “Lời chào cao mâm cỗ” In brief, no one can give the accurate definition which satisfies other people It is obvious that each nation has different ways to greet, so there are variances in greeting concept Greetings in English In English, there are some main formulaic expressions frequently used in informal contexts such as “Hi”+ (first name) and “Hello”+ (first name) In addition, people tend to greet each other according to the time of a day (see Table) Greetings according to time Morning Good Morning From midnight - Good morning, + to midday Mr Tom (title/ name) first Or - Mornin’ Jerry Mornin’ (short Afternoo n form) Good afternoon + (title/ first name) Or Afternoon After midday until 5p.m - Good afternoon, professor Mike - Afternoon Mary Evening Good Evening +(title/ first name) Or Evenin’ After 5p.m until - Good evening, people have gone to Ms Catherine sleep - Evenin’ Jones In the Evaluation of Greeting Exchanges in Textbooks and Real Life Settings, Williams (2001) classified greetings into two types: (1) a mirrored greeting, a response is an exact duplicate of a greeting and (2) a greeting- response, a response is a question (1) A: Hi B: Hi (2) A: Good morning B: How are you? Both types make use of adjacency pairs that the second utterance is expected to follow up the first one On the research of Eisenstein and Bodman (1988), speakers don’t always utilize the formulaic expressions mentioned above According to this research, greetings can be divided into forms Greetings on the run This is a greeting between two people who have a close relationship They meet by chance and have no time to talk much So, they just say in a few words Example: Friends meet by accident A: Hi, how ya doin’? B: Hi! Gotta run, I’m late for a class Speeding greetings This form is quite common for colleagues They greet and exchange information briefly while they are going to somewhere Example: Two colleagues greet each other A: Hi, How are things going? B: Not bad ‘N you? A: So-so The chat This is quite similar to the speedy greeting but enclosed with a topic for discussion Examples: A: Good morning, Mr Tony B: Good morning, Mr Pike A: Did you watch the football match yesterday I missed it B: What a pity! MU played well They won The long greetings The purpose of this kind is to warm up the relationship after a long time It includes mixed greetings and talks Example: A: Mary! B: Catherine! They hug each other A: Long time no see! B: Yes, too long Where’ve you been? A: Well, I had the project in Japan and stayed there one year… The intimate greeting It occurs between people who know each other well Sometimes, thanks to their intimacy, they may use a great deal implied or unsaid, non verbal gesture and ignore a greeting itself Example: a husband and a wife The husband kisses his wife: Well? A wife: Yes A husband: Great You know today I have been promoted to a manager A wife: Oh, really! Let’s celebrate A husband: Of course Where you want to go? The all-business greeting This typically happens between people who have non-social relationship Because of the other’s time limit, they show respect and consideration by starting their business right away Clerk: Mr Jones Director: Yes? Clerk: Mrs Sabrina has come here Director: Really What’s up? The introductory greeting It relates to people who meet for the first time Its primary function is to allow the participants to find a connection The opening is not always a greeting but probably a comment A: Nice party! B: Yes A: Who you know here? B: Mary I work with her… The re-greeting It involves acknowledging someone you have greeted earlier and see many times during the day It also encompasses non-verbal gesture or a few quick words Example: one co-worker having known earlier in the day that her co-worker was not feeling well greets again: A: Lorie? Feel better? B: Yes, thanks! In the book TESOL Techniques and Procedures (1985, p 102), Bowen, Madsen and Hilferty define greetings as a part of phatic communication “They communicate attitudes rather than just bare facts” (as cited in Gass & Neu, 1996, p 90), so greetings express both sincerity and insincerity They are often accompanied by a friendly smile, a hug or a kiss Such the non verbal greetings are highly used Greetings in Vietnamese According to Professor Ngân (2005), greetings, based on the presence of performative verbs, are divided into two kinds: locutionary and illocutionary ones Locutionary greetings or direct greetings According to Thành, they are “ritualistic greetings” used to open or end a meeting so that parties can show their courtesy and modesty (as cited in Ngan, 2005) It includes performative verbs such as “chào”, “kính chào”….In Vietnamese, greetings are diversified due to participants, age and social hierarchy Especially, Vietnamese people attach great important to social positions There are some relationships constituting the warp and woof of social life which are those between parent and child, husband and wife, senior and junior etc These relationships are asymmetrical, or what is called the hierarchical order This is the reason why different people have different ways to greet Syntactic patterns and lexical distribution are used for emphasis on this feature Greetings to senior addressee In the asymmetric communication between seniors and juniors, people in lower social positions have to greet first in order to show their respect for those in higher positions Formulas: According to Searle (1969), a greeting is defined as an illocutionary act which is simpler than other speech acts due to the lack of propositional content (as cited in Gass & Neu, 1996, p 90) However, in reality, people usually greet each other by using questions, suggestions, comments, compliments etc as a normal greeting Despite different forms, they are served as greetings Greetings by using questions Using questions is a common way Vietnamese people show their concerns in the different level which is up to intimacy between parties The main content of the questions is health, family, job or activity Or Cụ làm ạ? làm ạ?y ạ?? (What are you doing?) Bác đâu sớm thế?m thế?? (Where are you going so early?) In such these questions, it is no need for a speaker to listen to an addressee’s response They don’t intend to know exactly what an addressee is doing or whether he or she has eaten or not Therefore, to response the greeting can be a gesture (nodding or smiling), a vague answer or sometimes a re-question Cô thể dục dụ làm ạ?c đấy ạ?y àh? Vâng, thế? bác chợ ạ? ạ?? Greetings by using exclamations Accompanying with happiness or surprise, such greetings in the form of exclamations usually occur when an addressee turns up Ôi! Bác Vân ạ?y àh! A! Mẹ về Intonation and gestures are also significant to express emotion and behavior In semantic formulas, it always includes an addressee and exclamation mark to express the feeling of a speaker: “Kìa! Trời!, Ơi! ” Greetings by using compliments “Chúc mừng ơng” Form: (Please “Xin”) + Congratulation +title/ kinship term (Xin) chúc mừng chị It occurs when an addressee has good news such as a promotion and a speaker knows it Usually they have a close relationship with each other Greetings by using offers “Mời bác vào xơi cơm ạ! Or Mời cô vào xơi nước !” The performative verb “mời” is obligatory in such greetings These offers are quite common in Vietnamese daily life When a family is having a meal, a guest comes unintentionally People invite them to “xơi cơm” … in order to show their hospitality Therefore, an addressee doesn’t intend to accept the invitation Instead, they refuse and thank to the host: “Vâng, cám ơn bác” or “Vâng người tự nhiên ạ! ”n bác” or “Vâng người tự nhiên ạ! ”i ng ười tự nhiên ạ! ”i tự nhiên ạ! ” t ự nhiên ạ! ” nhiên ạ?! ” Greetings by using comments or compliments According to Professor Quang, this salutation is “used to start a conversation, to win the popularity of someone or to show the admiration…” (as cited in Ngan, 2005) The politeness strategies support the relationship between participants Greeting by a compliment makes parties pleased and maintains the relationships “Hôm xinh thế! Or Áo nha!” Within this paper, I would like to discuss the contrast between English and Vietnamese greetings in two aspects: forms and topics Firstly, English salutation is simpler and more standard than Vietnamese one thanks to its informality In reality, “Hi” is the most frequent linguistic form used In addition, “Good morning, Good afternoon…” are the certain ways of greetings in formal contexts In contrast, Vietnamese ones are very flexible because they are respectful of hierarchical relationships So, there are plenty of ways to greet In her research on Politeness Strategies in Hanoi Vietnamese Speech (2003), Srichampa counted up to 26 patterns in Vietnamese greetings Different people have different strategies of greetings English: Hi,Jone Good morning, Ms.Lorie Vietnamese: Cháu chào bà Đi ạ?y? In addition, addressee forms in English are not as complicated as ones in Vietnamese Summons like Mary, Tom or politeness intensifiers Mr, Mrs are commonly used in English greetings Different usage to junior and senior addressee forms in English is not very clear since English culture puts high value on equal or horizontal relationships “All men are created equally” and liberation of each individual is what everybody wishes Consequently, the relationships between people are symmetrical “Just call me by my first name” is a slogan illustrating the value of individualism and equality For instance, Hi, Jack! or Good morning, Ms Lorie In contrast, Vietnamese has more complex system of address terms in kinship than English does The reason is that Vietnam has a long history of feudalism Thus, Vietnamese sociopolitical life has been strongly influenced by the theory of Confucianism which lays great emphasis on relationship Moreover, the Vietnamese society is hierarchical in nature Therefore, the differences in age and paternal and maternal relationship are reflected in kinship address terms There are plenty of forms of the second personal pronoun, i.e., “cơ, dì, chú, bác, ơng”, whereas English has only one form “you” In “Chào xuân 67” by Tố Hữu, we can observe how varied the Vietnamese second personal pronouns are: “Chào cô dân quân vai súng tay cày Chân lội bùn mơ hạ máy bay Chào cụ làm ạ? bạ?ch đầu quân trồng chống u quân trồng chống ng chống ng Mỹ Chào mẹ già rua tay vá may cho chiến sĩ Chào mẹ già rua tay vá may cho chiế?n sĩ Chào em đồng chí tương laing đồng chống ng chí tươn bác” or “Vâng người tự nhiên ạ! ”ng lai Mang mũ rơn bác” or “Vâng người tự nhiên ạ! ”m họi người tự nhiên ạ! ”c đười tự nhiên ạ! ”ng dài” Additionally, both English and Vietnamese greetings use the form of question, usually in informal settings English A: Hi, how’s it going? B: Oh, this is my worst day Vietnamese A: Anh ạ?y? B: Àh, đằng lát.ng lát As we can see, a greeting is normally accompanied with a gesture Kissing, hugging or shaking hands are quite popular in English Similarly, Vietnamese people use lots of body language, gesture and even intonation Based on the hierarchical relationships, for old people, a greeting is followed by a slight bow or folding their aims For a couple, they habitually hug and kiss each other instead of “Hi” in English; meanwhile the Vietnamese express their sentiment in a reticent way from time immemorial A couple rarely hugs or kisses in public when greeting This is one of the typical features in Vietnamese greeting culture “Đi qua nghiêng nón khơng chào” This proverb doesn’t mean that one is indifferent to another and doesn’t greet each other They greet implicitly through their eyes lovingly This is the way couples say “hello” Secondly, one major difference in greetings between English and Vietnamese lies in a topic In English culture, personal matters are regarded as one’s privacy and people not talk about them except with close friends Thus, English speakers get accustomed to greeting each other with linguistic routines such as “How’ve you been?” or “Nice day, isn’t it?” or some other greetings that not infringe on private issues These talks are traditionally about health questions, weather or food Vietnamese people, on the other hand, like to greet people with “Bác đâu đ ạ?y” (Where are you going?) or “Bác làm ạ?y” (What are you doing?) These are questions about what people are doing at the time they meet each other to show politeness and mutual care according to Vietnamese custom and tradition Obviously, people in English culture as well as Vietnamese culture have appreciation in “speaking politely” Yet some English people may find Vietnamese greetings unacceptable or even offensive because it seems to be concerned about personal business although they are appropriate and friendly in Vietnamese culture Another example is that a Vietnamese can greet a longtime departed friend: A: Chị Phương àh! Lâu không gặp,trông chị không thay Phươn bác” or “Vâng người tự nhiên ạ! ”ng ạ?y àh! Lâu không gặp,trông chị không thayp,trông ch ị Phương àh! Lâu không gặp,trông chị không thay v ẫn không thayn không thay đổi (Phương! Long time no see You look the same as before)i (Phươn bác” or “Vâng người tự nhiên ạ! ”ng! Long time no see You look the same as before) In contrast, this will offend a native speaker by implicating that he or she should have been old The above examples reflect the different communication rules between the two cultures Through a contrastive view into Vietnamese and English greetings in two aspects as mention above, I would like to discuss some implications for English and Vietnamese teaching at high school in our country Firstly, I want to take a view of some failures in greetings It is observable that learners can perform a greeting well because it takes place very often in daily life, especially at the beginnings of interactions Thus, there are more chances for them to learn greetings than other speech acts However, sociopragmatic failures sometimes occur It is common that most students tend to transfer their native language into the target one mechanically It can lead to misunderstanding due to differences in many aspects between two languages For example, when they intend to say “How are you?”, they use the phrase “How you do?” The inappropriate use of titles is also a problem of learners When talking to the head of a company, they say “Hi, director” instead of “Good morning Mr …” It is clear that students just know how to greet in some familiar situations like in a classroom, but they have a few opportunities to greet people in real social settings such as a meeting or a ceremony They reveal that they don’t know what to say and if possible, the greeting is not natural in the way native speakers accept In addition, Vietnamese learners don’t usually use stress or intonation properly according to particular contexts One big problem is that students may violate cultural values if they don’t know well about distinct features of the new culture For instance, Vietnamese learners fail to achieve the communication goal and give a bad impression in the first time they meet a native speaker when mentioning individual matters which are considered as “a taboo” in English greetings although they don’t mean to be curious about personal affairs Example: What are you doing, Jerry? Or where are you going, Jerry? Not only Vietnamese people but also native learners make the same communication problems Example (as cited in Ngan, 2005): One Dutch scientist lives in a Vietnamese village for several months in order to study Vietnamese rural areas When Vietnamese farmers see him, they greet: - Where is John going? (Bác John ạ?y?) He said: Go straight (Đi thẳng)ng) In short, the pragmatic failure, in intercultural communication, has aroused much attention since there is always a misunderstanding between people from different