Greeting in English and Vietnamese

Topic: Greeting in English and Vietnamese

I. INTRODUCTION

As we all know, differences in culture are one of the main problems leading to a failure of communication. Thus, if language learners want to develop their communicative competence in the target language, besides listening and speaking, they should  improve a wide knowledge about sociolinguistics. Usually in daily life, people tend to use the illocutionary act rather than the locutionary act. Therefore, learners have difficulties in using the target language appropriately in different contexts. A greeting is not an exception.  It is considered as the important aspect in cultural life of each nation. However, there are many different factors which affect on the   ways of greeting in each language. In this paper, I focus on English and Vietnamese greetings and give comparision between them, some tips for learners to overcome the dificulties while leaning these 2 languages. I hope that through the paper, you will have a deep look into two languages in greetings, an indispensable culture in the world.

II. BODY

Greetings provide the means of the opening conversations appropriately, establish and maintain social relationships. In addition, the basic functions of greetings are also to identify the presence of communicators and to show their concern. However, modes and   features of communication in all languages are not the same.
I. Greeting in English
There are many ways to say hello in English. Sometimes you say a quick hello as you are passing somebody. At other times a greeting leads to a conversation. Friends and family members greet each other in a casual way. Business greetings are more formal. The speaker’s task is to choose the appropriate one for the situation.
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 in formal...