• A Letter to My Sister
  
  
• Cross-Cultural Pragmatic Failure
  
  
• The Mushrooming of Hotel Business in Chiang Mai

            When I start reading A Letter to My Sister by Lisa Park I feel sorry for Korean- American girl who committed suicide just because of self-hatred.  When I read more I understand more.  The problem of her committed suicide is because of the inferiority of being minority living in America and her family is like an alien there.  The girl tried to change her appearance by having plastic surgery to be more western look in order to be accepted since she’s got the pressure of just-convince-them-they-should-be-like-us tactic of American (page 68).   The pressure of the girl was not only from a new society, but was also from her parents who wanted her to be as their wish, which her parents also feel inferior too so they work hard to make money because money at least, gave them some material status (page 68). 

            This story tells the assimilation of Korean-American in America that they are like an alien in a new land that make them try many ways to be accepted by local people.  I think that if her parents are strong enough and proud of being themselves (Korean) then their daughter would not have to committed suicide.  Page 67, suicide looks like an individual problem, not a social of political matter this makes me think that when someone committed suicide we will think of personal problem first, in the girl’s case it can be her personal problem, but the social made the problem for her and her parents too. 

            Interestingly, migrant in a new land is not only tend to be mentally Westernise, but physically too.  It is very surprise for me that an Asian girl wanted to change her appearance from Oriental look to European look, she suppose to know that it is from genetic.  I feel ashame on her parents for not trying to make her understand her root and accept the truth.  They also should teach her to proud of her ancestor.

            From this story I learn that inferiority can kill someone and parents are really important role model for their children.  In this case, if the girl’s parents show proud of being Korean-American and let her grow as she wanted then she won’t have to committed suicide.  I also feel that living in my country is the happiest place on earth even my country is backward, but at least I live in the place where people look the same as me and nobody is going to treat me like minority.  I would like to encourage people who wanted to go abroad for better lives to have a chance to read this story, at least it would help changing their mind.

Most of our misunderstandings of other people are not due to any inability to hear them or to parse their sentences or to understand their words….A far more important source of difficulty in communication is that we so often fail to understand a speaker’s intention (Miller 1974). 

Introduction

Cross-cultural communication means communication between people from different cultures. Different cultures, languages, ethnics and politics caused misunderstanding in communication.  There is one area of pragmatic failure question of highly conventionalized usage which can be taught quite straight forwardly as ‘part of the grammar’.  The second area is ‘sociopragmatic failure’ is much more difficult to deal with, since it involves the system of beliefs as much as his/her knowledge of language (Thomas 1983, p. 91).

It is necessary to study pragmatic failure since the world is getting smaller everyday by communication and traveling. 

Pragmatic failure can be divided into 3 points 1) Sociopragmatic or social norm perspective such as dos & don’ts and taboos.  There is no universal sociopragmatic because each country has their own cultures and has their own social norms which can be different from other countries, 2) Utterance Perspective – different forms of honorifics indicating a hierarchy of deference and restrictions of the use of pronouns in some languages speakers has on control of the choice of words, 3) Pragmatic Perspective – is about language use in our communication.

This paper states the Politeness which includes sociopragmatic, utterance perspective in term of hierarchy and social classes, Cooperative Principal and Face-threatening Acts (FTA) with example of situations.   This paper also states cause of pragmatic failure and how to avoid it.

Are there pragmatic universals?

No, because each country has their own social norms which can be different from the others.  Chen’s research shows the differences of American and Chinese people as follows:

                                                American          Chinese

Accepting the Compliment        Yes 39%         Yes 1.0%
Returning the Compliment         Yes 18.5%      No
Thanking and Denigrating          No                  Yes 3.4%
Deflecting                                  Yes 29.5%      No
Rejecting the Compliment       Yes 12%            Yes 96.0%

From the percentage, please find sample of situations as following:

Situation 1: Compliment among the Thais and among the Americans

Noi met Som coming to the classroom on Sunday morning she saw Som having a new hair style.

Noi:      Wow.  Som I like your new hair style it makes you look so pretty.

Som:    No, not really.  You are pretty too.

Now let see the same situation of American Jane and Joan. 

Jane:  Wow.  Joan I like your new hair style it makes you look so pretty.

Joan:  Yes, it is.  Thank you.

From the above situation we can see that when the Thais received the compliment we are often rejecting the compliment, but returning the compliment instead.  When the American received the compliment they just accepted it.

As mentioned above that there is no pragmatic universal, but we can avoid it.   Using politeness theories is a solution.  The politeness theories are:

1. Sociopragmatic such as dos & don’ts and taboos.
2. Utterance perspective that we have to use correct forms to indicate hierarchy of differences. 
3. Pragmatic perspective.

1. Sociopragmatic

Jenny Thomas states that ‘sociopragmatic failure’ is much more difficult to deal with since it involves the system of beliefs as much as his/her knowledge of language.

Each country has their own social norms, to make the communication more effective we have to study the other’s cultures. I will give examples of Thai beliefs which often caused misunderstanding to foreigner.  There are many beliefs of the Thais that are different from other cultures, but I will bring up some popular points which are Thai smiles (ยิ้มสยาม) and some taboos.

Thai Smile (ยิ้มสยาม)

Thailand is known for visitors as ‘Land of Smile’.  It is common for Thais to smile in every situation.  Smile shows cheerfulness and friendliness and helps in difficult situation which really works among the Thai. 

Herbert Phillips terms the Thais’ smile as “Social Cosmetics”.  They are intended to relieve tension, an effort to preserve the relationship, the social harmony on which people depend upon getting things done over the long run. 

The uses of smiling in Thailand would be considered as inappropriate or even as rude in the west. As the sample below:

Situation 1:

Thai bumps into foreigner in a bar and spills the drink then she smiles.  Her smile makes the foreigner angry.

The smile is perceived in Thailand as being the most appropriate reaction to any possible situation. It is used to show happiness, embarrassment, fear, tension etc...What the smile means depends on the 'type' being used.  As the sample above the intention of the Thai is to apologize ‘I’m sorry smile’.

Taboos in Thailand

Every country has their own taboos which concern to local people and foreigner.  Foreigners traveling to Thailand have to be careful with Thai taboos:

1)      The Monarchy - The Thai people have a deep traditional reverence for a Royal Family and a visitor should also be careful to show respect for the King, the Queen and the Royal Children. In a cinema for example, a portrait of the King is shown during the playing of the national anthem and the audience is expected to stand.  Speaking about the Royal Family in a negative way or doing anything that show lack of respect is forbidden.

2)      Dress neatly especially in public area.  Tank tops, singlet, shorts are considered inappropriate dress especially in the temple except at the beach. Sandals are OK except at formal occasions. Going topless or nude at the beach (or anywhere else) is seen as disrespectful to the local people. It is also illegal. 

3)      Shoes are always taken off before entering Thais’ homes or in the temple’s chapel where the Buddha image (พระประธาน) is kept.  Why shoes have to be taken off?  Thailand is a tropical country and there are so many dusts so wearing shoes in the household will cause dirt.

4)      Buddhist monks are forbidden to touch or to be touched by a woman or to accept anything from the hand of one.  If a woman has to give anything to a monk, she first hands it to a man, who then presents it to the monk. Or in case of a woman would like to present it with her hands, the monk will spread out a piece of robe or handkerchief in front of him and the woman will lay down the material on the robe which is being held at one end by the monk.

2.      Utterance perspective - different forms of honorifics indicatinng a hierarchy of deference.  For example, terms of address - Sir or Madam, คุณ, อาจารย์, professor, sensei.  His majesty (for the king), her majesty (for the queen), อาตมา (monk use to refer himself), โยม (monk call normal people).

Situation 1: A monk saw a man looking at the Buddha Image at a temple and the monk starts the communication.

Monk: โยมมีอะไรให้อาตมาช่วยไหม? (How may I help you?)

A man: ครับผมอยากทราบว่าพระประธานนี้เป็นศิลปะแบบไหนครับ หลวงพี่? (Yes, could you tell me Praprathan (Buddha image) is in which arts, please?)

The above example shows the differences of utterance form that the monk and lay people use.  The monk calls the man ‘โยม’ (you) instead of คุณ.  The man calls the monk ‘หลวงพี่’ instead of คุณ because social class of the monk and the man is different.

3.      Pragmatic perspective – Grundy states that “The role politeness phenomena are the language we use to communicate social meanings”.  Pragmatic perspective is also concern with function of the language to imply the most appropriate between the speaker and listener relation.  Please find sample of appropriate language use below:

Situation 1:  Communication between a wife and her husband.

The wife said to her husband: Excuse me, sir.  It is too cold in here, could you kindly close the window please?

This is polite language, but not appropriate with the relation of the speaker and the listener. Oppositely, it is quite sarcastic.  The relationship between them direct conversation is OK such as “Honey, it’s cold in here can you close the window”.

Cooperative Principal:

Grice’s cooperative principal states that make your contribution such as is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.

Grice's formulated the conversational maxims of Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner.  Why we need the cooperative principle and how it is important, please see belows:

Quantity: make your contribution as informative as is required (for the current purpose of the exchange). Do not make your contribution more informative than is required. 

To translate in a simple way, this means don’t talk too much and don’t talk tolittle.  It is very often in our daily life that we have been faced the situation that people talking to much when the main message is only little and some people are giving too small information which makes the communication unclear. 

Situation 1: Talking too much or giving too much information than required.

A is Jane colleague.  She met Jane in the morning at the office and she starts the conversation.

A:         How are you, Jane?

Jane:     I’ve got a cold and I just had an argument with my boyfriend last night I don’t know how it will be turn out.  Also, my boss complained to me yesterday that my performance is below the standard, if I am not improving myself he will find my replacement. 

This is too much information than A requires, she only ask “How are you?” her expectation is Jane says I am fine, so so, not bad, pretty good or something like these.

Situation 2: Giving too small information.

At the ice cream shop Noi is going to buy some ice cream and she is asking if the have the flavour that she likes.

 Noi:      What kind of ice cream do you have?

Waiter: We have homemade ice cream.

Noi:      No, I mean what kind that you serve here?

Waiter: We serve by scoop.

This is a failure of quantity maxim because Noi means what flavor do you have? But the waiter understands differently from her intention.  However, his answer is not wrong because the ice cream at the shop is homemade.  In this situation, if Noi changes her question to “How many flavor do you have here” the waiter would replies that “We serve chocolate, strawberry so and so or  Noi can go straight to the point that “I would like to have strawberry ice cream, please”.

Quality: Do not say what you believe to be false. Do not say that for which you lack adequate evidence.

This maxim means that do not say something that is wrong and do not say something that you don’t really know otherwise you will look stupid as the situation show below:

Situation 1:  It is a hot day, someone complains.

It is very hot today I think the moon light is too strong.  

The above situation shows that it is wrong, it hot because of the sun not the moon because the moon comes up at night.

Relation: Be relevant.
Situation 1:  A is asking B about her new job.

A: How is your new job?
B: Ah, well …I’m thinking about going to Paris next week.

Speaker B does not say how her job goes, but mention about something else which is not related to what A asked.

Manner: Avoid obscurity of expression. Avoid ambiguity. Be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity). Be orderly.

Not only people using different language or coming from different background will be faced the pragmatic failure, but it happen to people speaking the same language too that we are often fail to understand the intention of the speaker.  The situation below shows the pragmatic failure of communication among the Thais because of ambiguity uses.

Situation 1: A saw B having red eyes so she is worry about B.

A: ตาเธอเป็นอะไร

(What are wrong with your eyes? Another meaning is What is your grandfather doing?).

B: ตาฉันเป็นกำนัน (My grandfather is a chief of sub-district).

A: ฉันหมายถึงลูกตาเธอหนะ

(I mean your eyes.  Another meaning is I mean your grandfather’s daughter).

B: My mother is a vendor at Warorot Market.

The above situation shows the sample of ambiguity in Thai ‘ตา’ means eyes and also means grandfather.  To avoid misunderstanding the speaker can use the gesture by pointing at the eyes this would help the listener understand clearer.  The above situation is also a sample of relevant maxim failure because the answer is not related to the question.

 Face-threatening acts (FTA):

According to Brown & Levinson’s politeness theory illocutionary acts are liable to threaten or damage another person’s face, i.e. complaint or insult is liable to damage other person’s face.  So to minimize FTA we have to use strategies as states below:

1.      Do the act on-record

2.      Do the act off-record

3.      Don’t do the act

 However, to use above strategy is depend on 1) Relative power 2) Social distance between the speaker and the hearer.

Please see the sample of on-record strategy as following:

 A man sitting in the restaurant and starts lighting his cigarette even the restaurant has ‘No Smoking’ sign on.  Then the waiter comes and starts yelling to him “Look, don’t you see the sign of no smoking, are you blind?”

 Example of off-record strategy:

A Japanese student who lived outside the capital had taken a University-entrance examination in Tokyo.  One of her classmates sent her the following telegram to inform her that she had not passed (Thomas, 1995)

Sakura Chiru (The cherry blossom has fallen). 

And the last strategy is don’t do the act.  There are occasions that not to say anything is better than saying something, otherwise would be caused face-threatening.  For example failing to condolence to someone to the death of loved one is better not say anything.

3. Conclusion

This paper has states many problems caused by pragmatic failure, it is necessary to study other’s cultures before traveling or before dealing business with foreigner.  As mentioned by Jenny Thomas that pragmatic failure can study straight forwardly as ‘part of the grammar’ and the second area is ‘sociopragmatic failure’ which is involve with the system of beliefs and knowledge of language.  Culture Shock book of each country is one of a good source to find out about religion, belief, lifestyle, taboo and etc…

The most important to avoid pragmatic failure, the strategies of politeness can be applied and  always remain good manner in everywhere we go because every countries have the same common social rules and try to use in-direct communication in appropriate situation.
 

4. References

1. Universal Cross-cultural Pragmatic Failure; Jenny Thomas, 1983
2. Politeness Theories and Models by Professor Rome Chiranukrom, 2006
3. http://www.thailandguidebook.com/dosanddonts.html            http://www.atsiam.com/travel_guides/thailand_do_dont.asp

    Before the Royal Flora Exposition in 2006 there were many new hotels opened in order to accommodate a large numbers of visitors to Chiang Mai.    Currently, there are still many hotels opening including big international hotel chains.  The Tourism Authority of Thailand was launched the new travel campaign “Seven Wonders” in order to increase the numbers of visitors to the country.  However, the numbers of visitors to Chiang Mai was still not enough to fill up all the hotel’s rooms.  Many hotels started their new strategy last year by decreasing the room rates in order to attract the customers and to support their business.  The decreasing price of the room rates caused the “pricing war” which the big hotels in the city seemed to be the winner to the small boutique hotels since they are more well-known.

    The war seemed to get better during high season (November – April), however, many hotels are preparing to face the problem that could happen again in the coming low season (May – October).  On the other hand, the pricing war and numbers of hotels is a good opportunity for the customers to get cheap accommodation in a wide range choice.  However, Thai visitors are only travel to Chiang Mai during cold season (November – January) and travel less in other periods of the year.  Foreign visitors also travel to Chiang Mai during cold season when the rest of the year they prefer to travel to the beach destinations in the south instead.

    From this problem, the government tried to promote other activities in Chiang Mai such as promoting Chiang Mai as a golf destination to the new markets like Korean and Chinese.  However, this is probably not a good solution since there are still many big chain hotels and boutique hotels opening in 2008 and many are planning to open in the later years, so the pricing war could be worst than the previous years.  From my point of view, the government should consider limiting the expansion numbers of hotels in Chiang Mai and promote other sustainable businesses in stead.   The limited numbers of hotels is not only good for people in the hotel business, but also good for people sharing the same society and environment since large numbers of visitors also caused numbers of garbage and pollution.