Reflection for Unit 2: Making A Conversation (on 18th January 2013)

Different countries have different and unique way to greet people. This includes the language used, the body language and the order of who should greet first. There are two ways of greeting, namely formal and informal. Formal greeting is when two person meet for a specific purposes, such as on business matter, or when two person meet for the first time. The conversations should be polite. Informal greeting is mainly a situation when two friends or relatives meet and they can converse in a "less" polite way.
Direct translation of greetings sound weird to me.

Reflection for Unit 1: Opening A Conversation (On 10th January, 2013)

Different countries have different and unique way to greet people. This includes the language used, the body language and the order of who should greet first. There are two ways of greeting, namely formal and informal. Formal greeting is when two person meet for a specific purposes, such as on business matter, or when two person meet for the first time. The conversations should be polite. Informal greeting is mainly a situation when two friends or relatives meet and they can converse in a "less" polite way.
Direct translation of greetings sound weird to me.

Video for Unit 6: Leave-Taking

Video for Unit 5: Making Arrangements

Video for Unit 4: Entertaining

Video for Unit 3: Building Rapport

Reflection for Unit 6: Leave-Taking (on 20th February 2013)

In my opinion, there is a slight difference of leave-taking in formal and informal situation. In formal situation basically there are 4 stages of leave-taking: saying that you have to leave; summarising; expressing appreciation and thanks; and making plans to follow-up. On the other hand, for informal situation you can just say that you are leaving and say that you hope to meet again.

However there are times when you don’t have anything to say so I think the easiest way is to just give them a very big sincere smile. This happens to me quite a lot here and I also give them a slight nod to show my respect.

For me, one of the difficult situations is when you have to leave after visiting a sick person. I would asked myself whether is it the right time for me to leave, should I stay a little longer, and should I tell why I have to leave. Fortunately, the sick person will always understand when his visitors had to leave.

Reflection for Unit 5: Making Arrangements (on 13th February 2013)

I learnt to differentiate between formal and informal/neutral phrases used when making arrangements. In one of the exercises, we had to differentiate between British English and American English in the way dates are said and written, and I found it quite difficult. I also learnt that we use a past continuous form to suggest politeness, for example “I was wondering if” and “I was hoping that”.

There are some words whose usage is new to me; “partner” is used if you are not sure if someone is married or not, while “foursome” is used to indicate a double date and is also a term used in golfing.

There was a moment when I wondered why the word “pencil” is used in the phrase “let’s pencil it in”, then right after that, Mr C answered my question, he said it is because if we use pencil, we can erase it! A funny fact and yet so true. Moreover, this phrase indicates the plan is not confirmed yet and there is a possibility of a change of plan.

Reflection for Unit 4: Entertaining (on 6th February 2013)

In this unit I learnt and practiced with my partner on how to invite, accepting and declining invitations, recommending and making choices, asking for help/advice, expressing preferences, and using humour. When declining an invitation, whether in formal or informal situations, you should not just say no because it is impolite. Instead, you should apologize and then tell why you decline the invitation. Humour can be a good way o break the ice. However, humour also depends on the culture and the situation you are in because when entertaining a guest, there are situations when telling jokes are inappropriate.

Reflection for Unit 3: Building Rapport

I learned about the third step of a conversation which is called "Building Rapport". I regard this step as getting to know more about the person which involves sharing some personal information. Such personal topics are family, hobbies, dislikes and relationship.

 I just knew that in some countries, they are some topics which should be avoided. Mr C said that in his country, complimenting someone of the opposite gender can be a risky topic. Therefore, in Western culture, it is mainly done between women.

I also learned that when there are misunderstanding , we can recover the conversation by stressing some words to meant what you said.