An English and Vietnamese cross-cultural study on

similarities and differences in verbal and non-verbal

communication in making greetings

I. Introduction

II. Main content

A. Definitions

1. Definition of greetings

2. Definition of communication

3. Definition of verbal and non-verbal communication

Part 1. Verbal communication

1. Similarities
Additionally, both English and Vietnamese greetings use the form of question,

usually in informal settings

English

A: Hi, how’s it going?

B: Oh, this is my worst day.

Vietnamese

A: Anh đi đâu đấy?

B: Àh, tôi đi đằng này 1 lát.

Greetings by using questions

Using questions is a common way Vietnamese people show their concerns in the
different level which is up to intimacy between parties. The main content of the

questions is health, family, job or activity.

Khỏe không? khỏe chứ? (How are you?)
Cụ đang làm gì đấy ạ? (What are you doing?)

Or Bác đi đâu sớm thế? (Where are you going so early?)

In such these questions, it is no need for a speaker to listen to an addressee’s response.

They don’t intend to know exactly what an addressee is doing or whether he or she has done or

not. Therefore, to response the greeting can be a gesture (nodding or smiling), a vague answer

or sometimes a re-question.

Cô đi thể dục về đấy àh?

Vâng, thế bác đi chợ ạ?

 2. Differences
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 (see Table).
Greetings according to time

Morning Good Morning + From midnight to - Good morning, Mr

(title/ first name) midday Tom

Or Morning (short
form) - Morning Jerry

Afternoon Good afternoon + After midday until 5p.m - Good afternoon,

(title/ first name) professor Mike

Or Afternoon
Evening Good Evening After 5p.m until people Afternoon
- Good MaryMs
evening,

+(title/ first name) have gone to sleep Catherine

Or Evening
”….In Vietnamese, greetings are diversified due to participants, age- Evenin’ Jones
and social hierarchy.
Especially, Vietnamese people attach great important to social positions. There are some
relationships constituting the warp and woof of social life which are those between parent and
child, husband and wife, senior and junior etc. These relationships are asymmetrical, or what is
called the hierarchical order. This is the reason why different people have different ways to
greet. Syntactic patterns and lexical distribution are used for emphasis on this feature.
Therefore, it can be said that Different people have different strategies of greetings.
English: Hi,Jone.

Good morning, Ms.Lorie.

Vietnamese: Cháu chào bà ạ.

Đi đâu đấy?
 Greetings to addressees
In viet nam
Viet Nam has more complex system of address terms in kinship than English does. The reason is
that Vietnam has a long history of feudalism.. Moreover, the Vietnamese society is hierarchical in
nature. Therefore, the differences in age and paternal and maternal relationship are reflected in
kinship address terms. There are plenty of forms of the second personal pronoun, i.e., “cô, dì, chú,
bác, ông”, whereas English has only one form “you”.
For example:
Cụ đang làm gì đấy ạ? (What are you doing?)

Or Bác đi đâu sớm thế? (Where are you going so early?)

Moreover, it is difficult in :
Greetings to senior addressee

In the asymmetric communication between seniors and juniors, people in lower social
positions have to greet first in order to show their respect for those in higher positions.
Formulas:
(Dạ) “yes” + (First person) + chào “hello” + title/kinship term + polite particle “ạ”
(Dạ) (em) chào thầy ạ.
(Dạ) (cháu) chào bác ạ.
Or
Chào “hello” + title. Chào bác

Title/ kinship term + ạ. Ông ạ!

The unique feature in Vietnamese greetings is that a speaker can express his or her
emotion toward an addressee through a politeness intensifier “ạ”.
In addition, the phrases such as “xin kính chào”, “kính chào”, “chào mừng”, “nhiệt liệt
chào mừng” … are commonly used in a ceremony or a meeting.
Greetings to junior addressee

As mentioned above, hierarchy in Vietnamese society is extremely respected. Usually, a

junior greets first and then a senior responds by re-greeting or nodding. This kind of greeting
omits a first person and a polite particle “ạ”.
Chào + kinship term . Chào cháu, Chào em…
 Greetings to an equal addressee

A greeting is simpler than two previous kinds of greetings due to the equality of age
and social status.
(Chào) + name/nickname/title.
(Chào) Lan.
Chào bác sĩ.
In English
In addition, addressee forms in English are not as complicated as ones in Vietnamese.
Different usage to junior and senior addressee forms in English is not very clear since
English culture puts high value on equal or horizontal relationships. Consequently, the
relationships between people are symmetrical. “Just call me by my first name” is a slogan
illustrating the value of individualism and equality.
For instance, Hi, Jack!
or Good morning, Ms Lorie.

Secondly, one major difference in greetings between English and Vietnamese lies in

a topic.

In English culture,

Personal matters are regarded as one’s privacy and people do not talk about them except

with close friends. Thus, English speakers get accustomed to greeting each other with linguistic

routines

such as “How’ve you been?” or “Nice day, isn’t it?”

or some other greetings that do not infringe on private issues. These talks are

traditionally about health questions, weather or food.

Vietnamese people, on the other hand, like to greet people with “Bác đi đâu đấy”

(Where are you going?) or “Bác đang làm gì đấy” (What are you doing?). These are questions

about what people are doing at the time they meet each other to show politeness and mutual care

according to Vietnamese custom and tradition. Obviously, people in English culture as well as

Vietnamese culture have appreciation in “speaking politely”. Yet some

 English people may find Vietnamese greetings unacceptable or even offensive because it seems

to be concerned about personal business although they are appropriate and

friendly in Vietnamese culture. Another example is that a Vietnamese can greet a longtime

departed friend:

A: Chị Phương đấy àh! Lâu quá không gặp,trông chị vẫn không thay đổi.

(Phương! Long time no see. You look the same as before)

In contrast, this will offend a native speaker by implicating that he or she should have

been old. The above examples reflect the different communication rules between the two

cultures.

3. Part 2. Non-verbal

As in most cultures, non-verbal communication plays an important role in Vietnamese society,

sometimes to accompany and reinforce linguistic symbols, sometimes as a substitute for words.
Differences
As we can see, a greeting is normally accompanied with a gesture. Kissing, hugging

or shaking hands are quite popular in English. For a couple, they habitually hug and kiss

each other instead of “Hi” in English. For example: In greeting, warm hugs and kisses are

common in Italy; Moreover, in English culture , two same sex person put their hand around

each other that is consider as a friendly relationship.

Unlikely, Vietnamese people use lots of body language, gesture and even intonation

based on the hierarchical relationships. In greeting, the Vietnamese express their sentiment

in a reticent way from time immemorial. A couple never hugs or kisses in public when

greeting. It is regarded as a taboo in Vietnamese culture. Greeting is usually just a slight nod

and bow. Sometimes people will applaud; this should be responded with applause.

This is one of the typical features in Vietnamese greeting culture. Especially, young

people is followed by a slight bow or folding their aims when they greet old people

Similarities

Both Vietnamese and English people when greeting would rather stand at a distance

and wave.
 Shaking hand

I. Feedback

I. Conclusion

Greeting is a socially significant event in universal terms. Especially in Vietnamese,

greeting plays an important role in cultural life. Through a greeting, people can evaluate one’s

academic standard and a community’s civilization. A contrastive analysis in this area between

English and Vietnamese show many similarities as well as differences in strategies, contexts or

II. Reference