Language Policy and Cantonese Speaker

Of all culture-related concerns, language issues seem to be the most complicated ones. When two or more languages clash, there are no winners – no matter which one become the superior, both cultures will suffer, since the superior language will become stale, isolated from the effect of another one; and the inferior language will finally disintegrate into nothing, ripping its bearers of their self-identity.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Language Policy and Cantonese Speaker specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Because of the dominance of the traditional Chinese in most Chinese cities, the dialect known as Cantonese is gradually dissolving in the latter, which puts the self0identity of the Cantonese people in peril. Since, over the last few decades, the impact of the Cantonese language in China has increased, sinking the significance of the traditional Chinese, or Putonghua, the Chinese government decided to r eestablish the Putonghua language as the official language of the state by means of reducing the significance of the Cantonese dialect. While the above-mentioned solution seems wrong and unfair to all the people who have been speaking Cantonese for all their lives, it is also going to be rather time-consuming, since most of the Hong Kong education materials, including books and journals, is written in Cantonese. As Lee Leung explain, â€Å"Cantonese is basically involved in the aspects of listening and speaking. This is not surprising because the content design of the textbooks of the Chinese language is principally based on the HKCEE grading criteria† (Lee Leung, 2012, 22). Nevertheless, it is the primary goal of the Chinese government to reestablish the status of the Putonghua language as official because of the economical changes which Hong Kong: â€Å"the implementation of English and Putonghua is crucial to keeping Hong Kong going in this ever changing and highly glob alized world, and the key to avoiding Hong Kong from being left behind† (Lee Leung, 2012). Diving into the history of the Cantonese language, one must mention that the given dialect has been known for quite long as a privileged one. Therefore, the concern of the Chinese government for the traditional Chinese language is quite understood. Not only does the given dialect sound quite much like the traditional Chinese, but has also been established as the language or the privileged people, which makes a great cause for its use all over the country. Speaking Cantonese, anyone can gain a solid reputation among the Chinese public.Advertising Looking for essay on linguistics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More That is why, it is quite logical that the traditional Putonghua is likely to become less significant: the â€Å"instrumental evaluation of Putonghua was also much lower than that of English and Cantonese† (Tsui Tolle fson, 2007, 131). Still, while the tactics of the government is quite understood, it can be expected that the consequences of the Putonghua dialect reinforcement can be much more drastic than the Chinese government expects them to be. Hence, the dilemma between the cultural values and the political well-being arises. Assessing the endeavors of the Chinese government towards the Cantonese language, one must admit that the attempt to increase the impact of the traditional Chinese with the help of preventing people to use the Cantonese language in their daily life is fraught with serious consequences. To embrace the scale of changes which the Chinese officials are going to implement when wiping out the Cantonese language from the fields of education, social life and political activities, one has to mention the fact that Cantonese has always been the lingua franca in Hong Kong (Wang Kirkpatrick, 2012). Making Cantonese obsolete, the government will create complexities for the communica tion within a considerable part of China. Reinforcing the Putonghua dialect can wipe out the Cantonese language and, therefore, Cantonese culture. The above-mentioned process of the Cantonese language and culture disintegration will definitely be a catastrophe for the Chinese culture, since the Cantonese one makes the basis for the latter: â€Å"Both spoken and written Cantonese have become an integral part of Hong Kong identity† (Tsui Tollefson, 2007, 130). Moreover, not only a huge chunk of the Chinese culture will disappear once the Cantonese dialect vanishes, but also an important link between the Chinese and the western cultures. According to Tsui Tollefson (2007), Cantonese comprises the elements of both the Chinese culture and the western world (Reeves, 2005). Judging by the above-mentioned, once Cantonese disappears, China will not be able to relate to the western countries just as easily as it does now, which means political complexities along with cultural ones. H ence, the attempt of the Chinese government to boost the use of the traditional Chinese by stifling the Cantonese dialect seems not quite an adequate solution.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Language Policy and Cantonese Speaker specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More However, the situation with Cantonese can and must be solved. As Hu (2008) explains, the problem can be handled if the â€Å"‘one country, two systems’ principle† (Hu, 2008, 89) should be adopted. In the given situation, multicultural language policy is the most adequate decision (Wang Phillion, 2009). It seems that, unless the impact of the traditional Chinese becomes lesser, the existence of the Cantonese dialect will be questioned. Though one might argue that languages are much more prone to the outside factors than one might give them credit for, the domination of the traditional Chinese and the effects which the latter has had o n the Cantonese language still gives much food for thoughts. Without the proper reinforcement of the Cantonese culture, the national identity of the Cantonese people might slowly fade away. Reference List Hu, L. (2008). Language policy, practice and diglossia in colonial and post-colonial  Hong Kong. Retrieved from http://alppi.eu/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Liyan-Hu-Language-Policy-Practice-and-Diglossia-in-Colonial-and-Post-Colonial-Hong-Kong.pdf Lee, K. S., Leung, W. M. (2012). The status of Cantonese in the education policy of Hong Kong. Multilingual Education, 2(2), 1-22. Reeves, K. (2005). Tracking the dragon down under: Chinese cultural connections in gold rush Australia and Aotearoa, New Zealand Graduate Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies, 3(1), 49-66. Tsui, A. J., Tollefson, J. W. (2007). Language policy, culture, and identity in Asian  contexts. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Wang, D. Kirkpatrick, A. (2012). Code choice in the Chinese as a foreign languag e classroom. Multilingual Education, 2(3), 1-18.Advertising Looking for essay on linguistics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Wang, Y., Phillion, J. (2009). Minority language policy and practice in China: The need for multicultural education. International Journal of Multicultural Education, 11(1), 1-14. This essay on Language Policy and Cantonese Speaker was written and submitted by user Bright Hen to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Different People Spend Their Free Time Essay Example

Different People Spend Their Free Time Essay Example Different People Spend Their Free Time Paper Different People Spend Their Free Time Paper Different people spend their free time in different ways. Different people spend their time in different ways. One way is reading. They may enjoy reading magazines and novels, such as fashion magazines or detective novels. This can help them relieve stress. Another reading kind is about non-fiction, such as books of photograph or artworks. If they are interested in art, they will enjoy reading them. Another way is going shopping. Some Taiwanese markets, such as Ye-Chunk Street, have street vendors that sell cheap goods, such as clothes and food. There are also several department stores that have movie theaters, restaurants, and specialty shops. It can make them feel happy. A third way is pursuing interests in sports. One way is watching their favorite teams play games. Cheering for them is a way to enjoy the game. Another is playing sports, such as baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and admonition. This can help keep someone healthy. Doing physical activities builds strength and endurance. Also, it is a social activity while spending time with others. A fourth way is visiting others who can be their relatives or friends. Spending time to keep in touch with someone and enjoy this time together. Everybodys ways to spend free time is different, and these help them feel relaxed and happy.

Philly Pretzel Factorys C.E.O Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Philly Pretzel Factorys C.E.O - Assignment Example The paper tells that delivering and producing pretzels are some of the tasks assigned. In this job position, the owner of the store Mr. Bill together with the wife struggle to meet the bills. Mr. Bill uses his personal car to deliver goods, leaving pretzels at locations using honor systems hoping that they would be bought by people who consume them. In order to make ends meet, Bill came up with a new pretzel sandwich against the franchise policies. This job requires good marketing skills This job requires daily delivery of pretzels to various locations within the city. They do many rounds per day and going up and down the stairs with boxes. This job requires a strong person who is able to lift and carry heavy boxes several times a day. Both jobs are cumbersome and the organize does offer enough compensation. In both cases, the employees are struggling to make ends meet. In the Franchise job, the couple struggles to pay their bills, such that they use their personal vehicle and invent a new product out of the pretzel, in an effort to make as many sales as possible. The Franchiser says that he had asked for corporate help many times to no avail. Mr. Bill the franchiser complains that he was not taught how to make pretzels and the directions he was given were too vague to understand. This called for various experiments before he could get it right. In both jobs, they are not provided with a medical cover, regardless of how dangerous their jobs are.

Marketing Plan for Polo Ralph Lauren Research Paper

Marketing Plan for Polo Ralph Lauren - Research Paper Example Luxury goods companies like Polo Ralph Lauren (RL) know the value of advertising in lifestyle magazines even if many who read it are not buying from exclusive advertisers. These so-called non-users of the luxury products advertised represent a key audience who may not be able to buy the product now, but would at least know what it is and feels aspirational towards it, so that those who buy know that others think very positively about it. The role of promotions is along similar lines: it helps increase awareness of the product image among key customers and non-customers alike. If sufficiently attractive in the form of sales discounts through alternative distribution and selling channels, promotions can drive increased traffic through the stores, so that those who could not afford the product may be able to do try it out, which accelerates an increase in the brand's aspirational value that may lead to higher sales in the future.2 Developing an integrated marketing communications (IMC) plan for RL's fragrances is a strategic and dynamic process3 that requires knowing the corporate and brand mission, values, and needs to "create resonance and consonance in terms of brand identity".4 Knowledge of the corporate and brand strategies is crucial to establish the solid foundations on which the IMC plan must stand to "deliver clarity, consistency, and maximum impact".5 Polo Ralph Lauren's over-all brand strategies, missions, values, and needs are... These ten keywords and phrases summarize the brand boundaries for the IMC plan being drafted for fragrances, which is the object of this report. In addition, the following strategies7 and the competitive analysis (see Tables 1 to 3) summarized in the next section provide key information for developing the IMC plan: 1. Grow share of fragrances from 8.32% (2006) to 10% of revenues in 2007 by generating sales of $604 million, up from $441 million. 2. Drive traffic to new stores by targeting the youth and under-40 markets in Europe, Asia, and the U.S. to maintain at least 15% contribution to total revenues from this growing market. 3. Grow European (14% of total) and Asian (13% of total) markets by 14% in 2007. 4. Increase traffic to award-winning8 e-commerce site Polo.com by 14% from 1.6 million visitors monthly and 800,000 buying customers annually in 2006. Fragrance is an emotion. It is more than toothpaste, more than breakfast cereal. It must be advertised to bring out passion and emotion. The advertising and promotion plans should be consistent with these corporate and brand strategies and reflect Message and Planning Integration.9 Communication messages must use the same tone, product benefits, brand character, logo, theme line, etc. across all channels of communications. Communication efficiency must be maximized by integrating the messages and the multiple marketing communications channels used to deliver them. An integrated advertising and promotional campaign makes the purchase decision process easier if based on a deep understanding of aspirational needs and wants as consumers put these messages together and form

Hepatitis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Hepatitis - Essay Example To better understand the viral infection, it would be necessary to examine both acute infections and chronic infections of the virus. Chronic Hepatitis is the less common of the two but it can stay with a person for years. Often the symptoms are quite mild and the person may attribute them to other causes since the liver is not suddenly and significantly damaged (Ryder and Beckingham, 2001). In certainly cases, the liver damage progresses to a stage where cirrhosis may occur followed by liver failure or liver cancer. The cause for Chronic Hepatitis is most often the presence of the Hepatitis C virus since more than 75% of acute Hepatitis C patients develop Chronic Hepatitis. Hepatitis B and D variants of the virus can also cause Chronic Hepatitis but Hepatitis A and E variants do not (Merck, 2003). The causes for Chronic Hepatitis are many and complex even so that some medicines such as Methyldopa, Nitrofurantoin and even Tylenol can lead to chronic hepatitis. The risks are quite strong when these medicines are taken for a prolonged period of time. Similarly, Wilson’s disease which is a hereditary disease can also cause chronic hepatitis in children (Merck, 2003). The problem of detection for Chronic Hepatitis is compounded by the difficulty in marking the symptoms of the disease. For example, the symptoms include a feeling of sickness, poor appetite and a loss of energy (Ryder and Beckingham, 2001). Additionally, a person suffering from Chronic Hepatitis may have a low grade fever and abdominal pains. S/he may also develop signs of jaundice, have an enlarged spleen, retain fluid or blood vessels in the skin that look like spiders. When a doctor suspects a case of Chronic Hepatitis, a liver biopsy may be recommended as a diagnostic test for the liver. The biopsy can reveal the underlying causes of the disease and may be needed more than

Online Politeness Strategies Used By Malaysians Cultural Studies Essay

Online Politeness Strategies Used By Malaysians Cultural Studies Essay This study aims to investigate the politeness and the related strategies used by Malaysian chatters in the conversations of online setting. Chat room messages are spontaneous and instantly visible, making it similar to the daily natural-occurring discourse. For this study, Yahoo chat rooms have been chosen to evaluate the pattern of politeness strategies used by most Malaysians. This study examines 20 written conversations or messages in Yahoo chat rooms. The data were collected by logging in into Yahoo Messenger, and into one of the many chat rooms that has been featured. The conversation or messages written by the Malaysian chatters in the chat rooms were then copied and saved. The data were then analyzed by referring to Brown and Levinsons theory of politeness strategy (1987). Based on Brown and Levinsons model of politeness strategy (1987), the politeness strategies used in daily conversations to reduce Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) are grouped into four main strategies which are Bald on Record, Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, and Off-the-Record. The results of the analysis show that positive politeness strategy is most widely used by Malaysian chatters in the Yahoo chat rooms. It may happen because the conversation is in the form of sharing where chatters reveal stories about themselves or state their opinion about something. Most chatter interacts with each other to share their experiences or stories among themselves. In this case, S satisfies Hs positive face by giving gift, not only in the form of thing, but human-relation that wants to be liked, admired, care about, understood, listened to, etc. Therefore, it is proved that even in this faceless community, people still want to be liked and admired. They also want to share and be able to understand each others feelings and thoughts even when they are not communicating face-to-face. 1.0. Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A chat room is part of a Web site, or part of the online services such as the Yahoo chat rooms, that provides a venue for communities of users around the world with a common interest to communicate in real time. It is indeed a common fact that each human has the need to communicate with others. Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meanings in an attempt to create shared understanding, considering that both the speaker and hearer should hold to general rules or principles and thereby use certain strategies. An often used strategy to achieve this is known as politeness (Renkema, 1993).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Leech (1983) defines politeness as a form of behavior that establishes and maintains comity, that is, the ability of participants in a social interaction to engage in interaction in an atmosphere of relative harmony. Brown and Levinson (1987) suggest politeness as a compensation action taken to counter-balance the disruptive effect of face-threatening acts (FTAs). In addition, they also describe Face Threatening Acts as acts that infringe on the hearers need to maintain his/her self-esteem and be respected (Brown and Levinson, 1987).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Brown and Levinson, politeness strategies are developed in order to save the hearers face. Face refers to a speakers sense of linguistic and social identity, which is defined as the public self-image that every member (of the society) wants to claim for himself (Brown and Levinson, 1987).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     However, this linguistic aspect occurs in the verbal communication of the real conversation not only in the real world but also in the cyber world. Nowadays, since technology has developed rapidly, people can communicate with others using many kinds of media. One of the technologies used widely by the society of the world is the internet. The internet is a system that has revolutionized visual, oral, written communications and methods of commerce by allowing various computer networks around the world to interconnect. Therefore, it is now possible for people to communicate visually, orally, and in written form by using their Personal Computer and Internet modem.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To communicate in the written form via the internet, people can use the facilities which are called e-mail and chat. Chat or chatting via the internet is a real-time communication between two or more users via computer and the users are popularly-known as chatters. Most networks and online services offer a chat feature. One of the common and popular internet facilities for chatting is the Yahoo Messenger chat room. Yahoo Messenger is one of the internet free facilities which can be accessed by many internet users that have a Yahoo account. On-line chat-channels or rooms in Yahoo Messenger have become a popular environment for meeting new people and for general conversations. These chat-channels are comparable to real-life situations where participants interact at the same time spontaneously and often in the same spatial environment. The same conversational rules are adhered to both in chat-channel conversations and in face-to-face interaction. However, some specific features of chat-channel conversation, such as the politeness strategies, might be different from those we meet outside the cyberspace, where a face-to-face interaction would occur. Thus, this study aims to explain the politeness strategies used by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo Messenger chat rooms through observation and analysis. 2.0. Literature Review. At the same time as supporting renewed interest in Grices Cooperative Principles (1975), the issue of politeness has become one of the most active areas of research in language use (Chen, 2001). Studies from Brown Levinson (1978, 1987) and Scollon and Scollon (1995) have aroused increased attention in the study of politeness. The face theory proposed by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) serves as the most influential theory on politeness. It plays a leading role in the study of speech acts (Ji, 2000; Hobbs, 2003). Brown Levinsons face theory contains three basic notions: face, face threatening acts (FTAs) and politeness strategies. 2.1. Politeness Politeness is an aspect of pragmatics in that its use in language is determined by an external context. This external context is the context of communication, which is determined by the social status of the participants. Politeness is a system used by the speaker in order to keep up to the addressees expectations. According to Grundy (1995: 135) the determiners of the need to use politeness strategies are distance, power and imposition. Imposition covers every action (including speech acts) which threatens the addressees autonomy and freedom of action and usually is conveyed in the form of an order. On the other hand, power is evaluated in terms of numerous factors such as position in society and age whereas distance implies the evaluation of the others place in the world, degree of familiarity and/or solidarity towards the addressee. The politeness systems theory advocated by Scollon and Scollon (1995) is also noteworthy in this field. They observe three politeness systems which are the deference politeness system, the solidarity politeness system and the hierarchical politeness system. The distinction of the three systems is mainly based on whether there exists power difference (+P or -P) and on the social distance between the interlocutors (+D or -D). The deference politeness system is one in which participants are considered to be equals or near equals but treat each other at a distance (e.g. classmates). In a solidarity politeness system, the speakers may feel neither power difference (-P) nor social distance (-D) between them (e.g. friends). The hierarchical politeness system may be widely recognized among companies, government and educational organizations, in which the speakers resort to different politeness strategies. 2.3. Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) Every utterance is potentially a face threatening act (FTA), either to the negative face or to the positive face. Therefore, people need to employ politeness strategies to redress the FTA. According to Brown and Levinson, Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) are acts that infringe on the hearers need to maintain his/her self esteem. If we do or are about to threaten someones positive or negative face, but do not mean it, we need to minimize it by applying politeness strategies. There are four polite strategies; Bald on Record, Positive Politeness, Negative Politeness, and Off-the-Record (as suggested by Brown and Levinson, 1987). 2.4. Politeness Strategy According to Brown and Levinson (1987), politeness strategies are developed to save the hearers face. Face refers to the respect that an individual has for him or herself, and maintaining that self-esteem in public or in private situations. Their notions of face is derived from that of Goffman (1967, as cited in Brown and Levinson 1987) and from the English folk term, which is related to notions of being embarrassed or humiliated, or losing face. Brown and Levinson stated that there are two types of face in an interaction which are positive and negative face. A persons positive face is the need to be accepted, even liked, by others, to be treated by members of the same group, and to know that his or her wants are shared by others. Whereas a persons negative face is the need to be independent, to have freedom of action and not to be imposed on by others (Yule, 1996).  Ã‚   In the bald on record strategy, the speaker provides no effort to minimize threats to the other persons face. The prime reason for its usage is that whenever a speaker (S) wants to do the FTA with maximum efficiency more than he wants to satisfy the hearers (Hs) face, even to any degree, he will chose bald on record strategy (Brown and Levinson, 1987: 95). There are, however, different kinds of bald on record usage in different circumstances, because S can have different motives for his or her wanting to do the FTA with maximum efficiency. It is divided into two classes which are cases of non-minimization of FTA and cases of FTA-oriented bald on record usage. On the other hand, in cases of FTA-oriented bald on record, the use of this strategy is more oriented to the face. In other words, it is used where face involves mutual orientation, so that each participant attempts to predict what the other participant is attempting to foresee. For in certain circumstances it is reasonable for S to assume that H will be especially worried with Hs potential violation or Ss maintaining. There are three functional categories or areas where we expect the pre-emptive invitations to occur in all languages (which are potential to FTA): The positive politeness strategy is usually seen in groups of friends, or where people in the given social situation know each other fairly well. It usually tries to minimize the distance between them by expressing friendliness and solid interest in the hearers need to be respected. The only feature that distinguishes positive politeness compensation from normal everyday intimate language behavior is an element of exaggeration. There are fifteen sub-strategies that are used in positive politeness strategies: Negative politeness is defined as a redressive action addressed to the addressees negative face: his want to have his freedom of action unobstructed and his attention unrestricted (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Negative politeness strategy recognizes the hearers face, but it also recognizes that the speaker is in some way forcing on them. Some of the sub-strategies of negative politeness are: According to Brown and Levinson (1987), a communicative act is done off-record if it is done in such a way that it is not possible to attribute only one clear communicative intention to the act. Thus, if a speaker wants to do an FTA, but wants to avoid the responsibility for doing it, he can do it off-record and leave it up the addressee to decide how to interpret it. Some sub-strategies of off-record: The research design of this study was descriptive qualitative. The data or the information were reported and described as the way they were, therefore any content of the information were not changed for the sake of the originality of the data required. The technique used, as in most descriptive research, was the observation technique, since it could exactly describe how the chatters responded directly to other chatters in the chat room. After being connected to the internet, a yahoo messenger window was opened. After approximately two hours of chatting with friends and strangers, all the written conversations were then copied and saved. Next, the data were printed out and analyzed. A document analysis was used because the data were in the form of written or visual material. While collecting the data, interpreting and analyzing them also took place. The data were classified according to the FTA contained in it. In this case, it was about what kind of politeness strategy used by the chatters, whether they were bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, or off-record based on Brown and Levinsons theory. After that, the data were described more specifically according to the chosen strategy. From table 2, it can be seen that in the chatting conversation, Malaysian chatters used many variations of Positive Politeness strategy. Based on the results of this study, it is clear that Give gifts to H is frequently used by the chatters (23.6%). It may happen because the conversation is in the form of sharing where chatters reveal stories about themselves or state their opinion about something. Most chatter interacts with each other to share their experiences or stories among themselves. In this case, S satisfies Hs positive face by giving gift, not only in the form of thing, but human-relation that wants to be liked, admired, care about, understood, listened to, etc. Therefore, it is proved that even in this faceless community, people still want to be liked and admired. They also want to share and be able to understand each others feelings and thoughts even when they are not communicating face-to-face. As shown in Table 1, Bald on Record politeness strategy is the second most applied strategy by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. Malaysian chatters used this strategy mostly by giving sympathetic advice or warning (48.3%) (Table 3). In line with Positive Politeness strategy, it may happen due to the form of the conversation that is sharing problems and ideas. It is common fact that chatters logged into the cyberworld to release their tense whilst sharing what they felt about certain things with others. Bald on record strategy also is usually used among speakers that have close/intimate relation with each other (i.e. siblings, friends). Apart from this result, the current study also has found that among two group of people (strangers and friends), friends tend to use more bald on record when communicating among themselves (among all 40 chatters,26 friends used bald on record compared to only 3 strangers using bald on record). This is because they do not feel the need to minimize the threat to the Hs face believing that both S and H understand that they do not mean to embarrass each other purposely. According to the result by the current study, it is clear that the negative politeness strategy is not much used by the Malaysian chatters in their interaction with each other. The negative politeness strategy is only been used for a total 13 times by the chatters. The negative strategy mostly used by Malaysian chatters is by impersonalizing S and H (38.4%). It is rather common to impersonalize when the social distance between S and H is vast. In Malaysian it is considered polite when we use the negative politeness strategy, which explains why we apologize a dozen times to our lecturer before asking them a question. We Malaysian tend to address our superior with their title (i.e. maam, Dr, Professor, etc). In the chat room context, when we are communicating with a stranger or someone who is at a higher level in the social hierarchy (or a higher level status, language proficiency) we will mostly resort to this strategy in order to be polite because it is the norm in Malaysia. A speaker uses off-record strategy when he/she wants to avoid the responsibility of doing an FTA. When a speaker uses off-record strategy, he/she leaves the FTA up to the addressee to decide how to interpret it since here the speaker must say something in general (less information) or different from what he means (Brown and Levinson 1987: 211) Off the Record Frequency Percentage (%) Give Association Clues 1 50 Be vague 1 50 Over -generalize Use saying total 2 100 Table 5: distribution of the variation of Off the Record Strategy No. Chatters and dialogues Chosen strategy 1. YT: Im about to explode. All this whle I tot shes comin!!!! Wtff HF: ooooooà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. Someones really mad. KP: I noeeee,,,y did she canceled her concert? =( Off the Record (be vague) Examples of Off the record strategy in a conversation As shown in Table 5, off-record strategy is very rarely used by Malaysian chatters. Based on the results of the current study, Malaysian chatters only used off the record strategy for a total of 2 times only. Malaysian used this strategy by giving association clues and being vague towards the topic of conversation. 5.0. Conclusions From the findings, it is discovered that politeness strategies are also applied in computer-mediated communication, as presented by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. Politeness is used to maintain the social value of the community, including in virtual-community. The chatters used the strategy of politeness when they communicate in the computer-mediated communication (CMC) to reduce the FTA in saying something. The findings show that positive politeness strategy is the most frequently used strategy by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. Most chatters use this strategy while considering other chatters feeling or face. It is also used to gain and show respect towards each other. It may happen due to the setting of the conversation and the social distance between the chatters which clearly is very close. Thus, this result is parallel with if the chatters were to have a face-to-face conversation with each other. Because of their closeness with each other, they tend to use polite strategy in order to be liked, understand and accepted among themselves. Thus, this result supports Brown and Levinsons theory which says that polite strategy contains statements of friendship, compliments and etc.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bald on record is also quite widely used by Malaysian chatters in the CMC because most of the chatters know each other mutually; hence they have a very close relation with each other. According to Brown and Levinsons theory, people that used this strategy are likely to be friends or having any intimate relation with one another. This explains the phenomena where mutual friends interact through chat rooms in order to share their thoughts and feelings when they are not able to meet each other in person (due to time and other constraints). It also the belief that people sound less polite in CMC can be attributed to production costs: It takes more time to type hedges and indirect requests in fast-paced CMC, and so people use balder, shorter forms (Brennan and Ohaeri, 1999).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Negative politeness strategy is generally used by Malaysian chatters when they want to ask other chatters to do something and to show that the interlocutor recognizes the addressees want to have his freedom of action unobstructed. A rather different phenomenon from what happen in the real world is that sometimes Malaysian chatters minimize the imposition of the FTA by writing smiley sign (e.g. 🙂 or =), 😉 etc.) or grinning expression (e.g. hehehe). It happens since the chatters in the CMC cannot see each others face.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Off-the-record strategy of politeness is the least used by Malaysian chatters in Yahoo chat room. This might happen considering the social distance between the chatters. As explained earlier, Malaysians tend to vague when communicating with strangers or those who are of a higher ranking in social hierarchy. This is because the speaker wants to remove the potential to be imposing. 5.1. Limitations of study This study shows its limitations in several ways. Firstly, the study only investigates the chat room discourse between interlocutors of college-going ages. Thus the language used by chatters might be influenced by their age. Therefore, this finding may not apply to situations where interlocutors are of different (older) age and unequal social status (lecturers, parents, etc). Furthermore, the subjects are limited to a relatively small group of college students (the chat room was joined by only 40 people). So the result can only reflect the speech of a small group of people in a limited region. More research can be conducted on more subjects to test and complement the findings of this present study. 5.2. Future study It may be very interesting to investigate the politeness phenomenon of the subjects having different ages, unequal social status and different social relationships A future research can be done to analyze the politeness strategy used by people in e-mails. Furthermore, a study of the politeness strategy used by men and women can be compared in terms of the writing styles for both men and women and relate it with the effect of the strategy used. This is possible since gender difference is also one of the factors in the politeness applied.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Future research can also be done by conducting a similar research studying the private messages in Yahoo chat rooms. Here, the politeness strategies used by the chatters can be observed when they communicate privately (e.g. what kind of politeness strategy will they choose to answer a personal question). A cross-cultural study which compares the politeness strategy used by Malaysian and English chatters in the private messages may also be done in the future. It is since in each culture, people have different values in communicating; thus it will influence the politeness employed in the same context.

Kenya :: essays research papers

Kenya   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kenya is a republic of East Africa. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the southeast. The capital of Kenya is Nairobi. It is located in the south central part of the country. It has a population of 1.5 million. The National Musum of Kenya, the National Theater and the University of Nairobi are in the city. Kenya has a humid type of climate with little temperature variation from month to month. The average annual temperature along the coast is 27 degrees celcius, but in Kenya Highlands it is only 14 degrees celcius. About three-fourths of Kenya recieves less than 500ml of rain a year. Most rain fall occurs during the â€Å"long rains† from March to May.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kenya’s population is divided by language and culture into more than 40 different ethnic groups. The largest group is the Kikuyu which makes up 12 per cent of the population and is Bantu speaking. Swahili became the offical language of Kenya in 1974. It is grammatically a Bantu language even though it is heavily influenced of the population and is Bantu speaking. Swahili became the offical language of Kenya in 1974. It is grammatically a Bantu language even though it is heavily influenced by Arabic and is written with the Roman alphabet. English is also an official language and is still widely used.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Kenya has no official religion. More than 50 per cent of the population is Christian. Also, many of the people follow traditional religious practices. The population of Kenya was estimated to be about 27,000,000 in 1994. 85 per cent of the total population live in cities of Nairobi and Mombassa. Kenya has one of the highest rates of population growth in the world. It is predicted that the population may reach 120 million by the year 2050. This rapid rate of increase is due to the high birth rate and the low death rate. More than half of the population is under the age of fifteen. The rapid population growth has placed great strains on health facilities and other social services, especially in rural areas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The main source of income for Kenya comes from agriculture. Coffee and tea are the most valuable crops. Together they account for approximately 50 per cent of all forigien exchange earnings. Because of the rapidly growing population, Kenya now imports large quantities of food, praticularly wheat. Unemployment is high. Expecally in the urban areas.