I thought it was particularly fascinating to know that cultural systems can significantly affect our language conventions. Since speech acts are non-universal, inappropriate use might result in highly embarrassing social gaffes.
Case in point: My HK-born bestfriend's graduation last thursday. She was to introduce her new (eurasian, non-chinese speaking) boyfriend to her parents and the said boyfriend, in his eagerness to please his potential future mother-in-law, tried picking up a few Cantonese phrases to better strike up a conversation. My bestfriend taught him "lei hou ma?", which simply meant "how are you?". But when he finally met her mother, he was probably too excitedly nervous that he ending up uttering something along the lines of "lei lou mou", which literally translates into "your old mother" instead! no bluff. Talk about making a lasting impression though.
Another thing that struck me was the sharing by Laura Trice on compliments. It's so true that people don't spend enough time affirming even their own loved ones. I'm not sure, but maybe Orientals are more stingy with compliments because they're afraid that if they give out compliments too frequently, they might appear superficial, patronizing and insincere to others. At the end of the day, it all boils down to whether we're able to successfully tweak our cultural expectations to suit whichever linguistic context we're in.
Okay, until next time :)
