Thank You Post

Thank you guys for my new found friendships
Thank you Dr Deng for your fun class

Reflections 8 (Computer Mediated Communication)

Firstly, i must proud to say finally this is my field. As a computing student, i am very familiar with various CMC tools. In fact i am the first few to use MSN and i am still an ICQ user when people start abandoning ICQ ( sad ). Of course, i will be more proud to say i can build an raw MSN like chat tools for you to use, but this is out of topic.

So many years with CMC tools, CMS has already become part of my life and even my family life. Calling distance call to China to my relatives? no, it is money-consuming and outdated. I just need to pose my video cam and login to my QQ account, i can build an connection with my cousins and soon can see cousins' happy smiles. You know one bad thing about Singapore, it is they have only 2 days Chinese New Year holidays. The time is so short and sometimes it is very hard to book an air ticket to back home, so what to do with a poor lonely soul in Singapore during Chinese New Year. Yeah, CMC comes to place again. Video chat, sending holiday greeting cards, receiving new year wishes on forum, all kind of stuff just to make your life no that miserable.

Have anybody heard about long-distance love? It is common for those working/studying overseas. I heard many cases where one party is oversea and one part in China, so how they communicate and build relationship, CMC again! In chinese , this is called "异地恋”. There are more extreme cases where couples did not meet in real life but online and build relationship totally based on CMC, this is called "网恋". You may think this is nonsense but some of them really married.

I think most of you guys know about the usage of similies, short words like "LOL" and "ROFL". But i bet you dont know some of chinese way of writing CMC. Look at this love letter, if you can find out what it means, i will worship you as god.



中文解释：亲爱的晶： 我写信一向不打草稿的，不过此次例外。 想了又想吾现在的生活就像本信一样是黑白的，回忆你我在家一起吃喝玩命的日子就好激动！虽然你还没有答应我，但不管结果怎样，俺都会。。。保护你一辈子我是你的超人希望我们再见时能一起把性和生活变得多彩 你的：曹志航

English: Dear Jing, I do not draft when writing letters except this time. Thinking over my life is black and white as this love letter. I feel so excited when i record days we have spent together! though you did not agree to go on a relationship with me, i will...still protect you. I am your super man and our lives will be much colorful. Yours : Chao.

This type of language in chinese is called "火星文“. Typically, it means language from Mars as most of the people on earth do not understand. However it is gaining popular and some of these languages even entered dictionary. Can you believe this? Anyway CMC is affecting our lives greatly, maybe you do not agree people writing these languages, but in order to communicate with them, you must adapt to this way of writing.

However, i do wish we have some traditional ways left like Dr deng said reading on a book no on pda or monitor. I think no only the speed you can read, but also the atmosphere. Relaxing in sofa in a quietroom, have a book in hand, deep into the story world. Cant a kind of enjoyment? Anyway, it is good for your eyes.

Reflections 7 (Cross-Gender Interaction)

I have gained from this lesson the usage of "Ms". God, a final relieve to me and it is kind of embarrassing to ask women how should i address them, especially those who are not married and appeared old. I cannot call them "miss" as it will be awkward and i cannot call them "madam"too as they are not married. So now "Ms" will solve all question though i still no be able to pronounce it correctly :(

One thing puzzle me is "It appears that men interrupt women more than they interrupt other men, far more than women interrupt men, and more than women interrupt other women". I think this situation is only happening between friends. I think nobody will think he/she will interrupt his/her mother talking continously. As for me, i have been suffering my mum's nagging for many years and i have developed immuned these kind of conversation - just seldom talk back and soon she will cease talking. As for the friends/colleague talking, why men interrupt more, i think mostly because men have an invisible higher society status than women which most women also accepted deep inside heart, so when talk, male make judgement and directions and female listen and try to agree.

Anyway this topic is interesting too, however, i do not have many female friends, i will try to investigate more after i have.

Reflections 6 (Face and Politeness)

Interesting lesson and very detailed explanation of various analysis on different polite speech and face saving speech. I like this topic very much, because i always think "face-saving" is a beautiful speech act. And in fact, if you dont want to be branded as "mean", you should know these tatics well in asian culture.

Through out our daily inter-commnunications, we almost applying all politeness maxims. Often here and there, you can hear "i buy you a cup of coffee"or "no mention, i just trying my best" when people thanked you for great help. All these maximum and minimum tactics are more userable on business, i mean, build business relationships. Ya, of course, Singapore unique culture is more restrict - less corruptive behaviors so less tact maxim and generosity maxim on business, but more approbation maxim and modesty maxim. However in other culture for example in china, without tact maxim and generosity maxim you can hardly carry out your business.

As for the face saving, i think this is build into our bond but our cultures and traditions. From very young, i am taught by my parents what to talk and what not to talk and how to not to hurt other people's face. Even somebody say something stupid and you don't agree, do not point straight to the part, but indirectly use other discussion points to make him/her realize his/her point is wrong. This is to prevent the embarrassment of people and make the conversation more comfortable and inter-personal relationship more gentle and less tension.

Here is a chinese Show "面子" ( Face ). The show is about a couple who have 1200 lend to their former neighbor ( moved away and the money forgotten to pay back). The neighbor moved back after a few years. So the couple want to get the money back, but because of "face" issue, they cannot ask the money directly, thus they try to brought up the neighbor's memories using other topics. Enjoy.

Reflection 5 ( Components & Representation )

It is surprise that China is not in the power distance country list, maybe not surveyed. In fact, i believe China has a high power distance country than Singapore. At least in Singapore, teacher cannot scold students otherwise will be ( sued? ), well, but in China, where the traditions means "尊师重道", teachers have higher authority than students. Sometimes and somewhere in China, parents asked to teachers to strictly behave their children, for example, my parents asked my teacher-in-charge before in primary school. So, when teachers talk, no only students listen, parents too.

When i came to Singapore, i was surprised by the way teachers treat students. I can say, more friendly. I have one teacher she is from USA and she tried to be our friends. She invited us to her home for babercue, sharing dirty jokes with us and her life experiences. She moved to Newsland now, but when she come to Singapore, she will bake biscuit for us. Thus the way she talk is very different from the way Chinese teachers talk, for example, she may call us nick name or simple "hey".

As for the uncertainty level, i think most of the chinese society are more open to the uncertainty, which can be seen from the list, Singapore and Hongkong have lesser uncertainty avoidance. These may because of the current economic environment where more venture means more gaining. In China, same thing happens, people talk more about stocks etc and when governments are inviting investigation, they usually offer good benefits like bigger land leasing etc despite of serious evaluating.

Anyway here are two points i make up the China part for the lecture notes to give you more view of the points, hope you enjoy.

Reflections 4 (Written Discourse)

There is a saying chinese grow up in a heroic world. Indeed, can you believe hundreds of books we read are about heros and all of them with a moral value behind. Well, this is the point mentioned in written discourse lesson, chinese writing are usually indrective. They do not write down the moral values directly but inspired you using examples. And in primary schools, teachers are starting to ask students to think about the moral values of the short stories and when you move up your academic level, the level of interpretation is growing higher too. For example, when we look at a poem, we no only look at the meaning literally, but also the background, the purpose of this poem.Many mates said they do not know how to interpret the meaning of chinese essay. Maybe i can share some tips.

A the front of my bed moonlight shines, (qi)

I think there is frost on the ground, (cheng)

Raising my head, I look at the moon, (zhuan)

Lowering my head, I think of home. (he)

Use the example in the lecture note, usually the last sentence or last paragraph of a simple chinese essay will indicate the true meaning of this essay. In heroic stories, usually the last paragraph will indicate something like "This story tell us xxxx". Ok, you may ask if no indication then how to know? Well, first, you need to read more, second, try to extract the relavant parts.

I am not an economic policy maker, but I have a dream of tractors singing in the fields and trucks roaring effortlessly on roads ( easy working ->trucks->technology ). I am not an agricultural technical program planner, but I have a dream of seeing farmers studying science and technology and working comfortable with machinery ( machinery, science -> technology ).

So after all, this proposal is about agricultural technology ( mostly machinery ) proposal. So next time, when you a chinese classmate write some strange sms to you, start guess :)

Reflections 3 (Spoken Discourse)

I do have some disagreement with SUN's reasearch on chinese telephone opening. I think the sequence should be "greeting, identifying, then addressing". Maybe because we are in different culture group ( China each place has its own local culture ). Let me give one example, for the long distance call my friend and i make usually comes with beginning like ( W refer to we stay in singapore, R stand for relative in China.)

W: Hello
W: Mum? ( Dad? Elder Sister?)
R: Ei, XXX?

You see Mum? Dad? Elder Sister? could not be under addressing, it has question mark, the tone is asking. Indeed, when you call somebody in long distance, you are unsure whether he/she is the correct one you are reaching, especially when you calling the house phone. Sometimes i call my uncle, aunt pick up or my cousin pick up may even be picked up by a friend visiting the house. Thus identifying is more important and must come first before addressing, must address differently according to different people. However, i do agree with SUNS other points. Chinese do have a lot of question after you. For example, how are you recently? How is your study? How is parents' health? etc. It is asian culture to show concerns and bond between family members.

Living in Singapore, i also received quite a number of calls everyday. Never noticed before, but now after this lesson, when i think it through. Singapore commercial calls usually comes with "Greeting, addressing, then identifying", for example, i receive a credit cart marketing call like

A: Good Evening(greeting), sir(addressing)!
A: Can i speak to Mr Dai(identifying)?
ME: Hi

which is quite exactly same as the SUN'S research. Anyway, this is a fun lesson.

Reflections 2 (Speech Events)

Second lesson :) I kinda like the conduct of lessons. Everybody sit in a round circle, no staring of classmates' back in the front. Lecturer throwing questions frequently, seeking the response of students. Everything is nice and easy going. Yes, this is one example of the speech events too.

Speech events are all around all of us e.g. friends' meeting, buying fish etc, because the topic is relatively easy and as long as you apply
Genre, Topic, Purpose or Function, Setting, Key, Participants, Message Form, Act Sequence, Rules for Interaction, and Norms of Interpretation, you can analize it already.

However, i do want to share some interesting China-style marketing. Let us look at the two videos below, sorry for those who does not understand chinese. I just cant find english version, maybe next time i can come out one if i back to China to do some business.




China marketers usually talk very long time, continous and fast talk which is very different from the examples given in the lecture notes. There are one more things in their speech, they used an art of speech called "顺口溜“ which is "jingle" in english. These jingles are often written by marketers themselves for their specific products. Jingles' usages are able to make customers remember their products easily because jingles are fun and easy to remember( you can see customers are laughing). By the way, i think it does not involve turn-taking, but do have many overlap phenomena.

Reflections 1 (Speech Acts)

According to the lecture note, speech act is “an utterance conceived as an act by which the speaker does something.” (Oxford Concise Dictionary of Linguistics). Quite a chim( or power) explanation. By looking at the examples, i think i can interpret it as a series action of delivering + response. During a speech, you have a subject, you do something to other people like complimenting or insulting and other people response.

Lecture notes present difference in American and Chinese in speech act like complimenting. Well, i don't surprise at all they have difference. However i never thought they can be categorized under some categories. In particular, chinese have the behaviors of rejecting, thanks and denigrating and accepting. I think through my life, indeed, there are many situations chinese do respond in this way. So this is amazing, i must admit.

However, since China opened her gates and chinese started to under the impact of various cultures, chinese new age teenagers who are branded as 80s and 90s are behaving differently, i mean some actions may not be able to categorized so easily. Firstly, rejecting and thanking and denigrating are becoming lesser involving in the conversation. Acceptings are become more obvious. It is common to address girls like "美女" - beauty even the girls are not really beautiful, and you must note that they accepted immediately without hesitating and carry on the conversation, i don't think they will say "thank you for calling me 美女". Teenagers nowadays are full of confidence. Here pushed my point to second part. There is a word in chinese called "臭美". what this means is actually, you feel you are better although other people do not think you are better. so sometimes, people complimenting you just because of face-saving or courtesy, but you take it as guarranteed. I give some examples.

A: "Yo, you look good in that suit"
B: "Oh, really? i know that, a beautiful angel fit everything"
A : start vomitting

I think we categorize sunch actions under accepting, but accept in a strange ways right? i am sure some of our singaporean classmates also have such behaviors. Since modesty still the main stream of our society, sometimes this kind of extreme speech acts are not accepted, let us look at this video for ending.