With the trend of globalization and integration, cross-border contacts appear more and more frequent. However, differences among cultures are one of the biggest barriers for successful cross-cultural communication.
It is widely accepted that English has been an international language in the world. In Vietnam, for the past few decades, we have witnessed a dramatic change in English teaching and learning. Communicative approach plays a key role in that big change. That is to say, language in use is paid more attention and becomes a core in language teaching and learning for learners’ benefit. Language is part of a culture and also its reflection. Therefore, teaching a language means teaching its culture. It is obvious that learners cannot master a language without grasping its culture.
In England, when greeting someone, people tend to use two questions: health questions (How are you? How are you doing?) and work questions (How are things?) as greeting routines while the Vietnamese ask food questions (what do you have today?), display questions (Are you reading books?) besides health and work questions. Or at the first meeting, the Vietnamese often ask about others’ age, marital status or income which can be seen as DON’Ts to Western people. If it is not observed with the understanding of Vietnamese culture – a positive politeness oriented culture, it is easily misinterpreted as curious and nosy behavior, thus threatening others’ faces.
