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This article analyzes the difficulties that English learners in Vietnam face in intercultural communication, especially with native speakers of English-speaking countries. The cause of these barriers is the direct translation of words with Vietnamese cultural characteristics into English. Vietnamese who learn English need to realize that cultural, political and social differences lead to the appearance of certain words that exist in Vietnamese and do not have an equivalent in English. Therefore, there is a heterogeneity between learners and native speakers in using some cultural words.
The paper also proposes some solutions to help intercultural communication between English learners and native speakers become more effective.
English learners now want to acquire the knowledge and language skills necessary to confidently communicate with foreigners.
One problem we have to concern about is that although Vietnamese students have studied English at high school levels and university level, they face up with many dificulties when communicating with foreigners, or eventhey unable to carry out simple conversations. One of the issues that needs to be researched is the habit of direct translation words with Vietnamese cultural characteristics through English. This is a habit that has existed for a long time in the foreign language learning process of Vietnamese students, not only for beginners but also for those who have advanced level. In fact, when English learners in Vietnam use such words, native speakers do not understand due to differences in culture, lifestyle, customs, customs and politics.
This is also one of the causes of obstacles in intercultural communication between English learners in Vietnam and native speakers of English speaking countries in general.
Cultural, political and social differences lead to the emergence of a number of survival words in Vietnamese and there is no equivalent in English.
There are significant cultural, political and social differences; therefore, when communicating with people from these countries, learners often face many difficulties. Even for cultures that share a common language, such as English, American or Australian, there are many differences in vocabulary.
Although learners use words or phrases entirely in English to express their ideas to native speakers, actually native speakers do not understand because in their country, such concepts do not exist. they will not understand what the learner is trying to say.
According to Nguyen Duc Ton (2002, p. 26), ” language also reflects and preserves concepts and perspectives experienced by the history of a nation in accordance with the conditions of their working life and cultural and social life.”. Hence, it is difficult for us to fully translate the meaning content of a word in one language into another. I remember that when I was a freshman, my college friends were talking to foreign teachers for one lesson, they translated this sentence “sinh viên trực nhật” in to “student on duty”. It’s difficult for native speakers to understand this phrase because in their country, students are not on duty as in Vietnam. Or during an English presentation at ULIS, one of my classmate translated ” học sinh phải viết bản kiểm điểm khi mắc lỗi” thành ” into “Students must write a review when they make mistakes.” In this case, We have not mentioned whether the translation of “bản kiểm điểm” into English is “review” is totally accurate or not, but when we gave the answer to some native teachers, most ò them do not understand because because in their country they do not apply this form of discipline to students who violate discipline.
At the question: “What’s your favorite food?”, some of the answers focus on Vietnamese food, and the names of those dishes are translated into English: stuffed pancake (bánh cuốn), stuffed sticky rice ball (bánh trôi), stuffed sticky rice cake (banh chưng). As noted by us, during the speaking practice hours of English major students, students often translate directly like this. Through the example above, we see some words translated into English in Vietnamese-English dictionaries, but they are not identical with the words used by native speakers. As a result, English learners in Vietnam and native speakers use two different words to refer to the same thing or phenomenon.
According to Devito (1986), the components of the communication process include: source, encoding, message, channel, noise, decoding., feedback, and context. From the examples above, we see that it is not easy for people from English-speaking countries to decipher the information, so if the recipient cannot decipher or decode the message, the communication will fail. For English language proficiency students, when the intended recipient does not understand it, they may interpret it differently or use simpler words to explain the concepts. However, not everyone has that ability. For beginner learners, this is really difficult.
Some solutions
To address this problem, McArthur (1998) emphasized that the current dictionary compilation should be based on globalization and localization to solve the problem of equivalence in vocabulary of two languages. Today, the need to learn English of Vietnamese people is huge, Therefore, we need to have a Vietnamese – English dictionary that reflects our cultural, political and social characteristics in order to overcome the limitations of previous dictionaries. To do this, there is a need for cooperation between local dictionary editors and lexic experts from English-speaking countries. It would be much better if they had a certain knowledge of Vietnamese language and culture. The two sides will work together to resolve issues related to language equivalence and set standards in Vietnamese-English translation. If so, the language gaps will be somewhat narrowed, and English learners in Vietnam will overcome their weaknesses, and will improve their English communication skills, especially speaking skills.
At the same time, communication is also a process that comes from both sides, so learners must be equipped with background knowledge about the new culture because this knowledge will help learners better understand what they are heard or read in new culture. Conversely, the listener must learn about the cultural characteristics of the speaker to limit the barriers of intercultural communication.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the ability of intercultural communication is more and more important, especially in the context of globalization today. Each learner needs to equip yourselves with a full understanding of cultural differences. There is such a new communication really effective.
Reference
McArthur, T. (1998), Guides to tomorrow’s English. Retrieved from:
Lowell, C & Bharat, T (2012). The Impact of Globalization on Cross-Cultural Communication. Retrieved from:
Nguyễn Đức Tồn (2002), Tìm hiểu đặc trưng văn hóa – dân tộc của ngôn ngữ và tư duy ở người Việt. NXB ĐHQG Hà Nội. Retrieved from:
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