Spoken Discourse

I managed to take away quite a couple of things during this week's class
Firstly, its funny to learn how Dutch start off their telephone conversations with self identity
it is still something I find very useful but yet amusing
perhaps in spore, this is more common for corporate office numbers
to inform the caller of whether the number they called is the correct one
so as to provide reassurance and relief to the caller to get straight to the point of the call
instead of starting of with a entire string of words
and get a extremely puzzled person on the other line
so yes, self identification is good

however, if the person you are calling is someone you are familiar with, call quite often that you can actually remember the number at the back of your head
hearing him or her pick up the line addressing his or her number is kind of strange
it is even worse on the other end if the receiver gets a prank call and the caller knows their name before they even need to utter a word
therefore, there is a bit of danger to it this kind of formality

another thing that is amusing is the way people grow and learn naturally to start conversations without getting straight to the point
like first with greeting, followed by identification, then greeting-after-you etc etc
they will hang around talking about different things, the weather, the children, enquiring of the other party's health and sounding interested
most people will be honestly and sincerely interested in the other party
but sometimes all the person want to do is get straight to the point that they need
lets say a favour
so this delay tactic is just a matter of politeness
which may end up sounding very forced in the process

the final takeway from the class is my favourite of all
Reactive expressions!
Collaborative expressions!
so yes.. i finally know the term of something I use so very often in our lives
and I am rather surprise that Chineses are shown to use it so much less than the Austrialians
Coz I feel that I myself am guilty of using it
very
very often

yes indeed
and for various reasons
1. To assure that one is sincerely and attentively listening to your friend
2. To help yourself follow the conversation, lets say you are finding it very hard to concentrate or catch up with what the person is saying
3. To help prevent awkward silences and pauses in a conversation
4. To assist when the other party is stuck trying to convey a certain point

So come to think of it
I think reactive expressions are very useful
very important
especially for women
who engage in dialogue so much more often
to keep conversations going smoothly
and make the understanding clearer
however, we must be careful not to use these words too often
that it becomes blatant to the other party that you are trying too hard
and yes, I have been a victim of such a thing..:)
so thats all for tonight!
signing off:)

Speech Events

The lesson i learnt from this class is pretty interesting
I learnt that genre is not just a term used in lit, but it is also
'a fairly predictable sets of speech acts, participants, topics, settings, or other regularly occurring and conventional forms'
this is quite insightful, as it shows that a genre can also be created using speech convwentions and patterns
It is also the first time that i realised that every conversation does have a topic or agenda
it might not be intentional, but even a conversation starter like 'How's your day?'
might have the agenda to get the person you are talking to to start becoming friendlier and open up to you
even if you honestly do not think his day is any different from the day before

Some insightful things I took away from the class is the case examples
like from the jap marriage and wet market bargaining scene
it was extremely interesting to find out such norms and behaviours of our asian society and how these beliefs and mindsets were crafted.
Indeed, knowing more about our culture and how conventions and norms come about sure makes you think twice about
' So does it mean a girl CAN in the future propose to a man?'
haha..but for that to change in spore. It might need another 100 more years?

Sentiments about Speech Acts

I must say there is much I have learnt and unlearnt from this class on speech acts
Speech, is something that comes naturally as one grows up
we pick up things, nuances, habits and behaviours through
our environment,
the people we meet with,
the lifestyle we grow up in
and half the time, we have utterly no idea what triggers us to talk a certain way
come across a certain way, or respond a certain way

however, through the class
I actually got to see things that we do not often realise about ourselves
about how the way we are brought up in our culture reflects how we carry ourselves as we grow up
chinese for example,
tend to be more wary of compliments
yes, we do not like criticism
but receiving showers of praise is something that we shun as well
maybe it is due to the way we we brought up
being taught that the humble succeeds
while the arrogant falters
hence, causing us to be afraid to appear overly confident of our abilities
and not knowing how to receive compliments when given
but after having gone through the class
I must say
yes, things are different now
deflecting and rejecting are no longer the best way to respond
but accepting and returning is a much more polite and intelligent way
it all boils down to the way we say it
the tone in our voice
being open to accepting compliments is perfectly okay
and being quick to compliment is the way to go.:)

one other lesson I learnt about is being more tolerant of different cultures
language is an extremely complex, and one way of saying something can mean so many different things to another
and another
yes, indeed westernization is uniting certain values and communication forms
but yet there are still many cultures out there that we need to be sensitive about
especially given that the world is becoming more globalised, we have to learn
how to communicate and be careful of how we come across to others
in order to work together and negotiate matters.

with that, I end my sentiments about speech acts
lets all strive towards bringing forth fountains of compliments to those around us
Nice blog btw!:)