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!:)