She is a native Japanese speaker with a strong background in English, which she spoke with a noticeable, but still mild Japanese accent. She mentions that she wanted to “be a foreigner” during her youth, and her answer reflected that; the fact that she mentions English and Japanese as her only languages shows that she never felt the need to know another language, nor does she have any interest in doing so. In addition, as someone who has known her for a long time, I noticed that she failed to mention her basic understanding of Vietnamese from living in Vietnam for more than ten years. It may have not crossed her mind as something worth mentioning, and this acts as further evidence for the popular ideology, one that happens to be prominent overseas, that labels English as “the best and only language”. However, the subjects shared similar views when it came to answering the questions that involved body language and the importance of nonverbal communication; both believed that silence was just as important in conversations as spoken words, and preferred face-to-face communication while acknowledging texting and calling as something helpful in their daily lives. In the actual discursive event, there were several acts that were performed by the two subjects that did not match their answers at all. To generally summarize the one hour that was recorded, the event mostly consisted of storytelling and the spreading of gossip by one of the subjects that covered a large range of topics as she cooked, while I and the other participant listened and responded when appropriate. One obvious act that was prevalent throughout the discursive event was the first subject’s lack of participation, despite his passion and interest in language. Whenever he did participate, it would be through a reaction to something that was said, or through something unrelated to what was being said, such as his gesture towards the stove within the first few minutes of the discursive event. While this did fit with his mentioning of the importance of listening when others are speaking, I also noticed that he fiddled with his smartphone periodically, but still attempted to participate in the conversation. The latter act contradicts another one of his answers, where he discussed body language and how one can learn a lot just by observing a person’s gestures and facial expressions. Most of the contradictions, however, belonged to the second subject. When asked about how she spoke, she replied with “Slow...always...and soft…” Even though she did speak at a
She is a native Japanese speaker with a strong background in English, which she spoke with a noticeable, but still mild Japanese accent. She mentions that she wanted to “be a foreigner” during her youth, and her answer reflected that; the fact that she mentions English and Japanese as her only languages shows that she never felt the need to know another language, nor does she have any interest in doing so. In addition, as someone who has known her for a long time, I noticed that she failed to mention her basic understanding of Vietnamese from living in Vietnam for more than ten years. It may have not crossed her mind as something worth mentioning, and this acts as further evidence for the popular ideology, one that happens to be prominent overseas, that labels English as “the best and only language”. However, the subjects shared similar views when it came to answering the questions that involved body language and the importance of nonverbal communication; both believed that silence was just as important in conversations as spoken words, and preferred face-to-face communication while acknowledging texting and calling as something helpful in their daily lives. In the actual discursive event, there were several acts that were performed by the two subjects that did not match their answers at all. To generally summarize the one hour that was recorded, the event mostly consisted of storytelling and the spreading of gossip by one of the subjects that covered a large range of topics as she cooked, while I and the other participant listened and responded when appropriate. One obvious act that was prevalent throughout the discursive event was the first subject’s lack of participation, despite his passion and interest in language. Whenever he did participate, it would be through a reaction to something that was said, or through something unrelated to what was being said, such as his gesture towards the stove within the first few minutes of the discursive event. While this did fit with his mentioning of the importance of listening when others are speaking, I also noticed that he fiddled with his smartphone periodically, but still attempted to participate in the conversation. The latter act contradicts another one of his answers, where he discussed body language and how one can learn a lot just by observing a person’s gestures and facial expressions. Most of the contradictions, however, belonged to the second subject. When asked about how she spoke, she replied with “Slow...always...and soft…” Even though she did speak at a