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Wheet!!! Its almost the end of the semester and this course is the best because there are no exams!!! Seriously!!

Thinking back, this journey has been pretty fun. Not with regards to the course content (I am being super honest here, else I would major in languages wouldn't I?) but because I was taking it with my sister. TA DAH! I just confirmed your suspicions that Yi Wen and I were sisters right..? :p

Anyway, it has been a fun time taking a module together and having lunch thereafter. With both of us being so busy with our own lives, we barely even meet at home what say in school? Even though our faculties share the same canteen, I never seem to be fated enough to coincidentally encounter her. So this module provided the platform and I am grateful. (:

Someone else whom I was coincidentally taking this course with is Syafiah!! Its so funny how Syafiah and I were doing the same holiday job but completely lost contact thereafter. Then on the first week of school (when we all didn't know that CELC's timetable doesn't start until week 2) we met on the way to class and lo and behold!! What a coincidence!! Well, we didn't made it to class cuz there wasn't any.... Haha! While the course did not bond us closer than we already were/were not, it was still a pleasure meeting you again! (:

Lastly, someone in class who took me by surprise is Andy. Haha!! Frankly, real estate is a REALLY REALLY REALLY small course with a cohort size of roughly 150 students per year. I am in year 3 but I am a fast track student so I take half of my modules with the year 4 peers. I join FOC, Rag and Flag and I am a committee member in the Building and Estate Management Society (BEMS). Basically, I am pretty prominent in my faculty and I know most of the students too. But Andy really took me by surprise when he said he was a year 3 student doing Real Estate during introduction because I have never seen him around!!! Haha!! Nevertheless, Im glad to know another of my faculty member *waves* (Hi Andy!!). (:

Oh well, so there for the classmates. The course itself has been less interesting than the people... but it has taught me very much about research and perseverance. Really, the course content is secondary. Let me explain....

Before embarking on this module, I did not know the meaning of 'discourse'. Based on sui generis, I just assumed discourse is something like dispute or a deviation from the intended course (you know..? DIS-course?) following the words CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATIONS. So I was expecting something like this:





If I have known that it meant:

Discourse:
communication of thought by words

I would never have taken this course. Frankly. Too bad I do not have anymore University Required Modules to clear else I would surely do a research on every single word about it on cors to prevent doing more researches later in the semester. Haha!

Since whats done cannot be undone, this is where perseverance come in. I decided that since I spent so much bid points on this course, I would see through it in the most positive light and Im glad I did. Even though some of the course content has been really dry, some were very interesting. I think my favourite was written discourse.

Maybe its because I love to read. I do note that some authors are definitely more interesting than others not because of their content but because of their writing styles. Since I am a very visual person, I tend to prefer authors who describes, describes and describes. As a child, I love Dr Suss and Roald Dahl!!!! Pardon the quirkiness and the violence but it gives me an idea of who is doing what pretty well and thats what I would want to know as a child.

And because of this course, I learned some styles of writing that others have researched on and I think I would be interested to read about the other types of written discourses! (:

So if there was one thing that I truly benefited from this course, it has got to be the spearheading of my interest in written discourses!

Cross gender interaction

I really have no after thoughts about the interactions between both the genders. Maybe being brought up quite open-mindedly, I don't really see what is the issue whether one is being called a Miss or a Ms and all the other forms of categorization. Honestly I might very well be asexual.

It is quite apparent that it is a female when a discourse like this is noted:
"OMGOMGOMG IM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!! *hugz*"

Likewise, this can be classified as a male utterance:
"Damn! Im so happy that you made it Harvard Med School!! Congrats man!"

Based on the difference theory perhaps? Intimacy vs Independence, Connection vs Status, Relationship vs Information, Rapport vs Report... blah blah.

But frankly, with a slow but sure shift in the paradigm of what is male and female, the value of this study might be undermined. Males are getting more metrosexual (my bf uses more Cologne than I do!!) and females are attempting to establish themselves on the same platform as males. In portraying their intended images, males might end up saying:

"OMGOMGOMG IM SO EXCITED FOR YOU!!!! *hugz*"

Vice versa.

So where are the parameters? For a transexual, do you record his or her discourse as the original God-gift (cursed) inert gender or as the new gender he or she chose and embraced? Food for thought.

Computer Mediated Communication

Hullo, my namez ish YiLiNg and dis ish my blog!~~ :DD

I dunch understand y ppl like 2 type like tt but e internet ish a fascinating place to study abt a new form of discourse. Dunch u thk itz very funny when u put a computer btw 2 communicating persons n e way they talk changed?!

Itz as though e computer, for a lack of better word, ish an encryption!! Or 4 e older generation who has no freaking idea wad an encryption is, itz like e Morse code. U speak normally, change to Morse, tn e other party hears e Morse, changes back.

... --- / ..-. ..- -. -. -.--

ANYWAY, I was about to die typing as above. But seriously, why the distinction in language? It seems as though hiding behind the computer gives the communication initiator a different persona. For the study that declares that CMC does not affects our daily writing, I beg to differ.

Surely CMC does not affect one whose basic language is of the proper English kind. A 50 year old professor does realise the distinction in his writing from that of the netlingo. He might not know much about netlingo, but because it is a 'language' so young, there has been no regulations over the use of it.

It is wrong to say 'I is a girl' in English. But it is perfectly alright to say 'Me ish a gal', 'I am a gal', 'I is a girl', 'I am a girl'.... etc on the internet. This being so, it does not affect the way he writes and he is able to swap as and when he likes.

For the younger generation where they grew up in these speeches, while learning actual grammar, they are confused by what is appropriate and what is not. Teachers might have a tough time teaching them proper language usage. Eventually words that weren't once words becomes officially recognised in the dictionary. So... does netlingo not affect our writing? I think there is a need for a longitudinal study.

Face, Politeness and Power

This topic on face, politeness and power has probably got to be the most useful of all lectures thus far for this module. Coming from a person whose future career path (in real estate) is dependent more on human interaction than on the work skills itself, learning about Leech's politeness maxims and Brown and Levinson's politeness and face studies would allow me to have a better understanding on how to deal with others.

Let me site an example...

When I was in primary school, my mother had a very bad habit of comparing my school results with that of my cousin of the same age. So during primary 4, which was the year where students were streamed to either EM1 (which was the best stream whatever 'EM' stands for), EM2 or EM3; my cousin (at 10 years old) casually made this statement to my mom:

"You should take heart if Yi Ling gets into EM2... Its not bad already."

Upon hearing that, my mom was super insulted and kept insisting that my cousin is leashing an insult upon me. At 10 years old as well, I got mad without actually comprehending whatever the insult or sarcasm was.

Over the years (and getting into EM1 HAH!), that little ponder bubble is still stuck in my head. What exactly is the insult? I've never really been very good with my studies, so it seems only appropriate that my cousin is comforting my mom about my possible failure.

With this module did I realise that Ohhh.. It was the probably the approbation maxim that my cousin was using. She was attempting to let my mother in on some unpleasant news - the possibility of me not making it into EM1; so she adopted a softer approach which my mother took it to be an insult.

Thank goodness for it though... Beats hearing her say: "there is no way she can make it to EM1 lah!" which could have busted my confidence.

On a side note, how odd that the approbation maxim should come about. Seriously, nobody is heeding the rule of if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything. While the theory may be in place, there is much room for interpretation. My mother got the underlying meaning and took it as an insult. Likewise for the example highlighted in the lecture notes:

"I heard you singing at the karaoke last night. It was, um... different."

How can nice be different? Nice is nice. Different is a different way of saying not nice... and everyone knows that. So instead of saying it was different, why wouldn't people just say:

"I was at the karaoke last night but damn I didn't hear you sing because I had a stomachache and went to the toilet. I heard it was not bad though! (:"

See? The world would be a nicer place.

Components & Representation of Communication Systems

So funny lor... Culture. Like how Singlish can represent Singapore. English is English what, although we use a slightly weirder kind, why ours got special name leh? Then the Australians go "Howdy Mate!!" instead of the regular "Hello!" why don't have Australish? Must be the people who studied cultures not happy with not being able to understand us when we say, "We are all just talking cock!!" and go on thinking along the lines of male poultry...

"Talking cock" aside, seriously culture is really a tricky thing to learn. It exists in so many sub-sets, prescribes to so many different people, includes some, excludes others, coupled with globalisation where cultures merge, adapt, transform, disappear, one might be better off saying that each individual is his own culture. Honestly, I don't use tissue packets to 'chop' tables but I speak (type) and understand Singlish perfectly. Does this make me more or less of a Singaporean?! I knew that M&M's 'melt in your mouth not in your hands'. Would I then be qualified for an American Passport or a Green Card?

... Digress a little, suggest to any Singaporean guys older than 20 years old if they would prefer a GREEN Card to a PINK Card and you would know which ones are true blue Singaporean.

... Digression no. 2 (Muahahaha, Its my blog and I digress if I want to!) , there was once a princess who was diagnosed with a condition whereby everything she touches melts. The king was in terrible distress and ordered all the Physicians in the Kingdom to attempt to cure her. Whoever succeeds would be rewarded with a bag of gold. Countless physicians tried and fail, several melted. The news of this princess traveled far and wide and one fine day, a young punk from far far away came by and proposed to cure the princess. In front of the King, he requested for the princess to put her hands in his pants pocket and grab the object inside. The King was furious at the outlandish proposition!! Such... such... unspeakable notion!! However, the young punk, in all his due punkish respect, assured the king that THAT, would surely cure his beloved daughter.... And so the princess inserted her hands slowly and cautiously into the pants pocket of the far far away guy.......... grabbed out some M&M's and she was miraculously cured. =p Cuz it melts in your mouth but not IN YOUR HANDS.

Highlight the texts if you haven't figured out what she grabbed. Muahahaha!!

ANYWAY, back to topic. I personally think there is no absolute way to study cultures. One can try but one can never ever get the essence from books or literatures. Anthropologists and academics study them well and try to pass it on by writing, but as the written discourse lecture has already shown, every writing is different hence there would be some essence of a culture lost in translation.

I remember back when I was in polytechnic, the school organized etiquette courses for us to take to prepare us for the working world. The instructors told us that you should be this and that but did not tell us which culture(s) those teachings prescribe to!! They might as well not teach us anything at all!! And for that statement, I shall illustrate why.

When I was over in Hong Kong for my attachment, I dined with some of my superiors and there was this particular guy who likes to tap his fingers on the table everytime someone refills his cup of tea. He came across to me as being extremely rude. In the Westernised culture, tapping your fingers meant impatience, I did not understand why did he have to do that when others are doing him a favour!! So, being very tactful, I asked him if there were some protocols to follow in Hong Kong when someone serves you tea (Well, I can't ask him if the tapping was polite right? What if it was really impatience he was attempting to display!!) and indeed!! He explained that tapping your fingers on the table when someone serves you tea meant Thank you.

I would NEVER have figured that out. No other Hong Kong person I met did that!! Apparently it was a diminishing culture due to the influence of the West!! So what I thought was correct, tapping your fingers meant impatience and many young HK-ers do not feel comfortable prescribing to it due to the clash in meaning...

And so I say, each person is his own culture. So why study? =p I think the main thing to understand about cultures is tolerance. Everybody is different, with a little less judging and more graciousness, this world would be a prettier place with more peace yet more diverse and colourful. (:

Written Discourse

Going by the title, one who is proficient in language studies would have immediately and definitely identified me as a predominantly English writer.

I am and I am undoubtedly going to write about written discourse. Perhaps less in the content but rather my fascination of it.

In the regular world of normal human beings, writing is possibly the most defined of all reflections of thoughts. In the caveman times when words were not born, drawing, I believe is the most defined form of reflection of thoughts. In fact, personally I still thinking drawing is; with a multitude of colours and dimensions, unrestricted amount of canvas and so many mediums how can one not fully express his thoughts in drawing? The only problem with it is that it is often mis-communicated to the audience.

Much like the Chinese, I say. Chinese texts are often thought provoking and indirect as researched by Connor (1996; in the course notes), they are also the reader's onus to be profound enough to extract and understand the deeper meaning within. Abstract drawings are very much like that, don't you think?

This art piece is "New Love" by Chidi Okoye.
I got this piece of art off this web site on 17 Sept 2009 so all credits should go to them and the artist. You can also purchase this piece of art from the website, I think. Just don't sue me. I am using the picture for educational purposes. (:

What does it depict? Honestly when I first saw it I thought it was an upside down toucan. Seriously!

But upon closer inspection, I realised that that beige thingy on top looks a little like a cow's udder so maybe it is not an upside down toucan.

So that is just me. I am totally a left brainer and have completely no clue about arty farty stuff. But to the artist, it represents "New Love". Perhaps the love of a new born (Does it explain the udders? Haha!), a new found interest, a new lover, or a new perspective. Only the artist herself can fully comprehend; but it reflected her thoughts of "New Love" truly in an unconstrained manner.

So for quicker and more effective communication, people write instead of draw. It doesn't matter if your writing reflects your thoughts, what matters is what is the message being communicated. In actual fact, writing has become so predominantly regarded as the absolute discourse of communication. Contracts have to be in writing, all official announcements have to be in writing, reflections after a class have to be in writing, even something as sacred as love and marriage has to have terms written down in the form of pre-nuptial agreement!! What happened to good ol' trust?

Maybe those are just the English writers. If you examine the purpose of writing, the English writers seem to have quite a bit of insecurity issues hence the straight line approach of getting straight to the topic as proposed by Kaplan (1972; in the course notes).

For a 1972 research, the Chinese then were a lot less aggressive and still happy being in their closed up committee hence the circular and enclosed writings with the main point made in the center.

For the French, German and Spanish, they were riding on the growth of Europe yet not as enterprising. Amidst the busy work and schedules, there is no excuse not to make time for tea. When reflected in their writing, they would start and end at the same point, but no harm stopping by to smell a flower eh? (: If you were to conduct the same research in the present day, would they still be like that?

This suddenly puts so many factors to consider into examining writing discourse. If only we do not live in the world of regular normal human beings....

In the supernatural world, there is telepathy; which I think is an awesome gift if one can switch it off at will. Imagine knowing EXACTLY what is going through politicians' minds when they are attending parliament, probably sun, sand, sea.. :p Or knowing exactly what your partner thinks so that facebook and other social portals can get rid of that annoying "It's complicated" status for relationships!

Spoken Discourse

I think spoken discourse is pretty confusing. The lecture only mentions examples after examples of speech events as an extended version of spoken discourse but doesn't define spoken discourse.

"Like that how ah?!"

A very typical phrase students use when confused about school content to communicate within local context. Is that a spoken discourse or a speech act?

I believe my answers should be coming soon! *hint!! mr deng* Heh!

Nevertheless, for telephonic conversations spoken discourse, what I find most interesting is voice recognition comments. How a single utterance, regardless of whether it is "hello" or "Hey!" can be used to identify the other party!! Its like making CallerIDs primitive again!!

Though I say so, I've come across people who cannot recognize voices to save their lives; like my mom. Having three daughters of similar DNA structures somehow or rather gives them similar voices. Either that or her hearing deteriorates with each child birthed. Whenever she calls home not looking for anyone in particular (eg: call home to get the first unlucky listener to do the laundry), she would encounter problems differentiating the voices of her three uniquely different offsprings.

Mom: (Ring)(Ring)
Me: Yes what's up? (after checking the CallerID)
Mom: Who is this?
Me: Me!
Mom: Who are you!?
Me: I am me!!

It probably goes on for a while before she gives up and proceeded to call our individual hand phones. So I wonder does the research models work for outliers like my mom who has an inability to differentiate voices? :p

Speech Event

With school swinging into momentum, speech events rode on its wave and it is a hell lot more interesting than its building block - speech acts. ^__^ Much akin to studying in elementary school, which kid enjoys reciting the A B Cs over and over and over and over and over huh?! As compared to putting F, U and N together and in many other ways!! :DD I think speech events are much more fun and intellectually challenging. Or maybe its just me.. I used to love legos and building blocks! Hee...

I guess the main reason why speech events interest me so much is its purpose. A study of speech events can preserve whatever remains of an ailing culture and a disappearing language. Perhaps Im sentimental. As a real estate major, more often than not, we are expected to look out for redevelopment potential of buildings and lands. But I think sometimes, somethings should just remain as they are for age is a form of beauty that is impossible to recreate. Speech events like buildng conservation helps to preserve what our ancestors once created. Admist busily moving forward, we may occasionally slow down, admire the winsomeness of simplicity and marvel at how far we've progress...

Other than preserving our own culture, speech events also help us get to know more about other cultures which without proper guiding, can take one a lifetime to understand.

With regards to the Japanese marriage proposal, Im so glad Singaporean does it a whole different way!! My cousin recently just got proposed to and her boyfriend went through the whole jazz of booking the AV room (she is a teacher), played music in the background, made a soft toy bear, and kneeled down with a diamond ring before whisking her off for a romantic dinner date. She said yes!! Imagine if she were Japanese and had looked down remaining silence instead of being all jocular.... Would that had meant a yes in our culture? And how would her (now) finance had reacted!? I can only leave it to your imaginations for spelling it out spoils the fun... :p I am so loving my own culture! But then again, that statement is biased!

In any case, Im glad someone came up with the brilliant idea of speech events... (:

On Cross Cultural Communications and aftermath

When I decided to dry up my entire General Account of 798 points to bid for a module titled Cross Cultural Communications and Discourse, I was expecting a fun class where examples of miscommunication would sprout out constantly cracking the whole class up for 3 delightful hours. Perhaps slapstick like the British sitcom - Mind Your Language.

Unfortunately, after the first lesson, I was brought back to reality that perhaps I shouldn't expect too much of an academical institution. It is after all projects/ reports/ research/ literature reviews/ exams etc that dominates the culture, not fun and laughter. What was I thinking!?*snorts*

With lesser expectations, I embarked lethargically onto my second class where the content was speech act. The lecturer started off with blah blah blah... I was half asleep with my eyes opened. BUT when he came to the examples where speech is so powerful, it becomes an action, I was intrigued.

"YOU'RE FIRE!"

"I hereby pronounce you man and wife."

Oh yeah... I thought to myself. Words are often cheap, but power lies in the person who can say it into action. How I wished I could declare a coffee break for the class with words, alas that I can't because the power is not vested in me. So words can be powerful when the speaker has due influence. A parent can promise a child with nothingness, a teacher can threaten a dislikable student with bad grades, the most popular girl in class can choose NOT to invite you to her birthday bash. And there is nothing you can do about it.

It awes me... the power of speech act.

That perhaps was the most valuable thing that I learnt for that 3 hours we were in class. Thereafter was the example of compliments and responces to it but the educational impact on me was much much lesser than performative utterances.

It became drone drone drone once again, but hmm... I left the class thinking about the power of speech I have. Muahahahaa! Can't wait for the next lesson for a new perspective on communications...