CULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS IN REQUESTS BY VIETNAMESE AND AMERICANS LIVING IN HO CHI MINH CITY TODAY

Abstract

Requests play an important role in social interactions. In different languages, requests have different expressions and reflect social and cultural characteristics. Vietnamese and Americans living in Ho Chi Minh City have different priorities in choosing request strategies due to different characteristics in cultures. The choices of request strategies with some social variables such as power, ages and social relations are also different in cultures. Politeness in requests should be considered carefully and comprehensively in terms of cultural perspective because requests by nature tend to place imposition on the listeners or the information recipients.