Reflection on Spoken Discourse

In the beginning of the lesson, we first touched on the issue of spoken discourse.

I was wondering to myself,

"why is it so important to note their AHHs, mmmhhmm, yeh oh yeh yeh, shi shi, dui dui dui dui dui dui dui?"

Being good at communication does not only mean speaking well to people face to face. The world has globalized so much and now it is as cheap as ever to call a friend or client from one end of the earth to another.

In this lesson, I have learnt that American and Dutch people have different phone openings and that if I were to contact my clients in America or Holland. I can be sure to adopt their way of speaking over the telephone in order to communicate better with them. Understanding their listener responses of "ahhhsss", "mmmhhmms" and "shi shi shis" gives us a deeper insight as to how the opposite person interprets the information I am communicating over to them through the phone. Without body language to judge, other than tone of voice, this is perhaps one of the most mitigating factors to consider if the other party would like a repeat of what you have said or not.

Being able to understand how to open, interpret listener responses and close cross cultural phone conversations can be one of the greatest skills to learn perhaps in vocations like telemarketeers or phone operators. To be able to open correctly with the right set of lines could mean bridging a gap between the caller and the receiver. To be able to interpret listener responses would mean better transmission of information in terms of conciseness and lesser repeat sales pitches. To be able to close correctly would be leaving a lasting positive impact on the caller or receiver or to be able to escape the long lengthy sales call the quickest and most polite way possible.

In the second part of the lesson, we touched on english and chinese narratives.

The point that touched me most was that there were stark differences between how English speakers write and Chinese speakers write. And I agree with Lee (2003) who said that these differences were due to different cultural backgrounds and perceptions of narratives. Though I've honestly never read a chinese book in my life, it was a little unsurprising for me to find out that the chinese normally had a moral to their stories while the english speakers normally wrote for entertainment. Just thinking back on the history of china up to the revolutionary period gives one a sense of societal education that is imbued into every chinese citizen. Whereas for the english speakers, there is not so much emphasis of using text narratives to conduct societal education. So yes, not only do cultural backgrounds affect how stories are written but also history and governance.

Looking at how culturally different people write narratives can also translate into how these people view and lead their lives. Life, to me, is one big narrative story about yourself and I feel it is then easier to interpret the actions of culturally different people by understanding how they write. Though stereotypical the view, but at least it is an insight into reason.