week 6: Written discourse

I feel that written discourse is the hardest part of the course so far. I can understand the english linearity and oriental circularity, being exposed to both languages before. However, for the arabic parallelism and the indian indirect style of writing, i really got to appreciate them only after the practical study during class.

The lesson I learnt from this session was that there is no correct or wrong style of writing. Basically for every culture, written discourse is simply different and would be appreciated differently by different readers. Written discourse has many influences. These include religion, mother tongue, other dialects commonly used in the community, etcetera. For example, in the middle east, written discourse is very much influenced by the Quran text. Hence, the rhythmical balance.

Someone in my group pointed out something interesting. He wondered if the marker of our general paper (GP) mattered a lot, when it comes to grading our scripts. Since the marker of our general paper is probably some old scholar from a desolated part of England, he may not necessary appreciate our style of writing.

This made me wondered if my lousy GP grade in A levels was a case of differing style of writing, bad grammer, an unfamiliar topic or an essay that simply went out of point. I can't recall scoring less than a B for GP throughout my junior college years. However, to my dismay, I only got a C6 for A levels. I kept trying to justify this unsightly grade in my certificate. Now, I have one more justification of differing written discourse :P Whatever the case, it wouldn't change anything. Next time, at least in NUS, i know it'll be much beneficial to find out the preferred written discourse among tutors.

I personally feel that we shouldn't be too caught up in the style of writing as compared to what the writer is trying to express. As long as I get the main gist of the essay, any discourse would just be a universal one to me.

Week 5: Spoken Discourse

I found last week's topic super funny. Spoken discourse in telephone calls! I mean seriously, who would have the time to analyse phone calls of every day life if we weren't doing a course on it.

I have never given much thought to this subject and simply assumed most people would start off with a hello from both parties, whichever first is not important. Next, they will go straight into the topic and finally, end off with a 'bye' from each side. It never occured to me that the ringing tone is also considered part of the discourse. But what Dr Deng said made perfect sense to me. The ringing is actually a metaphor for an actual person calling out to another person. If there is no response from the intended recipient, the ringing would just go on and spoken conversation would not be able to start off! Brilliant!

Then, came the funny parts. How would you know that the other party is hinting for a closure? Or how do you even end the phone call? All sorts of tactics you can think of. Some would ask a family member to call them, so they can pretend to be busy. Some just wait for the 2 'OK' signal. Some even pretend to be profound and try to end off philosophical, with 'Hm.. ya that's life.'

As i'm listening to all this examples, i just naturally recalled all the different times when i had to apply these different 'techniques'. It was simply hilarious! My favourite is the philosophical one. The next time someone tries to complain to me over the phone, I'd just repeat 'ya that's life' until he/she gets annoyed and stop complaining. Hahahah..

Towards the end, I learned about some key differences in Chinese and English written discourse. Never mind about who likes to include what kind of description in their paragraphs, the conclusion spelled out what i've always been trying to identity between these two style of writing, but could never really point a finger on. Chinese writers ALWAYS expect you to understand what they are writing about. If you don't, they assume you're too shallow. This pretty much sums up my life learning higher chinese back in my secondary school days. Some of the passages are so difficult to understand, i take 3 hours just to finish reading one page. Yet, I never risked telling my classmates, who are obviously more language inclined, in fear that they will judge me.

English language, on the other hand, depends a lot on the writer to convey messages clearly. Thus, if there is anything that is too hard to comprehend, my teacher would just brush it off as a badly written passage with correct grammer, but poor expression. Now that i am a part time tutor, i find myself unconsciously saying the same things to my tutee as well. Clear expression is always very much appreciated.

To end off, i have a tip for anyone who wants to identify an old person. Whether you would like to offer a seat to them or address them respectfully as aunties/uncles, please look out for their white hair to be certain. Yes, you wouldn't want to risk having your char kway teow LADY add extra chillies to your meal by addressing them too respectfully, or get punched in the face while trying to do a good deed. Don't say you were not warned.

week 4: Speech Events

"If only we could capture all speech events in a culture, we could understand it entirely" How fascinating an idea. I never thought it is possible to fully understand a whole classroom of people, let alone an entire culture. But here, its an idea worth giving some thought.

If this could be done, I would observe how differently people buy things, all over the world. Aha! Best way to find out bargaining techniques in every country. What else.. Things people would say or do during social, business gatherings, when they engage in small talk, see a doctor.. I would love to know them all!

The 10 different components of a speech event helped in breaking down each one of these. The 10 components are namely, genre, topic, purpose, setting, key, participants, message form, act sequences, rules of interaction and norms of interpretations. Sound complicated? Not so after each component is looked into.

Here's an example. I met with my girlfriends on sunday for some icecream and chat.

1) Genre: Gathering
2) Topic: School life, latest gossips about old classmates
3) Purpose: Catch up with each other and engage in mindless chats
4) Setting: McDonalds' Restaurant
5) Key: Casual
6) Participants: JC friends
7) Message form: Verbal (English and Chinese) - chats, laughter. Non-verbal - exaggerating gestures, tearing from excessive laughter, smiles
8) Act Sequence: (typical gossip scene)

A: I saw *** in the canteen that day. She was wearing a spaghetti top revealing her fatty arms and eating Ba Chor Mee (Minced meat noodle.)
The rest: Oh my goodness! So obscene.
A: Yeah. I think maybe next time she could offer some of her own flesh for the uncle to make the minced meat. Then she may be able to lunch for free!
The rest: *Choking from the ice cream*

9) Rules for Interaction: Listen when someone is sharing. Anyone who disagrees with the gossip is considered a retard.
10) Norms of Interpretation: People in this group gossip for leisure and do not take their conversations very seriously. These girls have known each other for 4years by now and can chat about almost anything.

There you go. A typical all girls outing.

Most people who do a case study on this speech event with components 1 to 9 would conclude that this group of girls are brainless and superficial. This is when component 10 would come in to enlighten these sanctimonious people.

Its a situation very similar to the 'lip service' phenomenon mentioned in class. Most of the time people don't actually mean what they say and this can create a lot of confusion. This is especially prevalent in the chinese community. People ask whether if you have eaten when they actually don't wish to know. They use self-effacing words while receiving praise, when they are actually beaming inside. All these add on to the difficulty in understanding the chinese people.

So now, chinese people are complex. Girls' way of thinking is hard to grasp. So chinese girls are the hardest to comprehend. Now I know exactly how to answer anyone who asks me to explain myself. "The complexity of my speech is unfathomable for an imbecile like you. I would explain in the amateur version, for a fee. :)"