Spoken Discourse

First, HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR!!! hope recess week is going well for everyone!

and now...on to the reflection.

This (last?) week we focused on spoken discourse. I think the really interesting thing about this module is that it really makes explicit all the things I just take for granted.

For example, telephone openings/closings. It’s just something that’s been taught from young and I never ever thought it could be an area of research for some – quite fascinating.

I remember when I was young I wasn’t allowed to answer the phone/make phone calls because I hadn’t yet learnt how to do it properly, and I might come off as rude. I think this might be the case for most families, where the kids aren’t allowed to answer the phone until they’ve learnt how to respond politely. Anyway, I remember learning how to answer phones (it was such a ‘shiok’ feeling when I finally got to answer my 1st phone call :D) and my mother would tell me that I always had to say “hello” first, never ever start with a “yeah” or “what”. When I was making a call, I would always have to say “may I speak to [so and so] please?” and “thank you” once the person on the other line had transferred me over. All these ‘steps’ are so ingrained in me I guess I don’t realize I’m doing it.

Another thing I found interesting was the exercise done on English and Chinese narratives. If the culture that the CW’s grew up in affected how they wrote their narratives in English, what would this mean for bilinguals, or at the very least, Singaporeans? Because I grow up speaking English, but I am Chinese and adhere to Chinese culture, so if I were to write a narrative in Mandarin, would it be affected by elements of how I would write in English, and vice versa?