Furthermore, I believe that most participants chose to use formal and routine greetings with people they were not familiar with to avoid any misunderstandings.
Generally, all participants were likely to produce a lengthier speech and use more greeting strategies when interacting with close friends. Additionally, most of the participants seemed to use formal routine greetings with people who they are not very close with. However, male participants of both groups showed a little more interactive speech and tried to get closer to the other part, while female participants preferred to keep a distance and use routine language.
Religious and other occasions.
Religious affiliation was another variable in this study to test the influence of religion on the language of greeting exchange. In order to get enough data to assess this topic, I involved different types of data collection to help me acquire my need. Therefore, I started with observing some gatherings or parties which were related to religious occasions, followed that with
including these occasions in my questionnaire scenarios, and later in my interview questions. In addition to that, there were 9 American Muslim participants who share the same religious background as Arabic group. All the findings in general showed that Arabic participants tend to use more religious phrases or words related to the occasion.
In the observation field, American Muslims shared other Muslims- from different
countries- their celebration of big religious events like; Eid parties or Ramadan’s feasts, and they showed understanding to all the traditions and customs of Islamic culture which they belong to.
American Muslim participants involved in the group and acted exactly like other Muslims, they even used the same religious phrases that Arabs or Muslims in general use in such occasions;
like Ramadan Kareem ‘Great month’, Eid Mubarak ‘Happy Holy Day’, and Taqabala Allah
‘May God accept your deeds’. They also used some opening greeting phrases like; Salamu
Alaykom ‘Peace be upon you’, Marhaba ‘Hello’, or Salam ‘Peace’. Some of Arabic participants
on the other hand, who participated in Christian’s religious Holidays like; Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day, didn’t seem to understand the appropriate way of greeting exchange for these occasions. They always tended to overuse the religious greeting phrases like; Merry Christmas,Happy Holiday, Happy Thanksgiving, and I wish you a Merry Christmas, which sounded a little
strange for native English speakers.In order to get more information regarding this issue, I designed scenarios number one and two in the questionnaire to be very similar as the observation field. In these scenarios, I asked American participants what greeting strategies they would use in occasions like Eid party or Ramadan Iftar, and same question for Arab participants in Christmas party and Thanksgiving dinner. The results received from the questionnaire were to support the previous statements as that Arab participants tend to overuse the religious phrases, and American Muslims could easily produce the appropriate amount and quality of greetings using both Arabic and English
languages. However, the non-Muslim American participants either wrote some general greeting sentences like Happy Holiday, or kept asking for explanation about how to greet in occasions like Ramadan or Eid, while others preferred to keep it ‘safe’ and not mention any religious greeting words.
In the interview, most of the participants said that the religion of the person will sure not affect the way they greet him/her. Nevertheless, when going through more details, some
American Muslim interviewees indicated that they would use religious Arabic words like Salam or Salamu Alaykom to greet other Muslims, while they will use only English with others.
Similarly, Arabic interviewees said that they will open the conversation with any American Muslim, or Muslim friend in general, using the greeting form of Islam; Salamu Alaykom ‘Peace be upon you’, because they share the same religious culture and they both understand that ‘this is the appropriate way to greet each other’.
Pragmatic failure.
In several instances I observed some cases of pragmatic failures by Arab and American participants. One of the examples was when Arabic female participant used the phrase ‘Happy Merry Christmas’ in scenario number 1 in the questionnaire. Native speakers commented on that
sentence as; ‘strange, weird, and non-usable sentence’, and they said that the most common and appropriate phrases to greet for a Christmas day are Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays.
The literal translation of Arabic phrases into English was also a problem that led to the occurrence of pragmatic failure. One example was by an Arab female participant, who used the sentence: “How are you? I hope you are in good health”. And commenting on these phrases, an American interviewee said: “That’s too formal. That’s the stuff they'd teach you in English class in secondary school. You could just say Hope you're doing well, simpler, same meaning, and sounds friendlier”.
Another example was when an Arab male participant introduced himself to a native English speaker at Christmas party using the sentence ‘Hello. I don’t know you. My name is (X)’. Native speaker interviewees said that they would rather use a more appropriate sentence to introduce themselves like; ‘Hi. I don’t believe we’ve met. I am (X)’. Similarly, one of Arab female participants used the sentence ‘I am so happy to meet you here’ to greet a classmate, while native speakers use the phrase Glad to meet you, or Nice to meet you, for people they are meeting with for the first time. Therefore, in the case of meeting a classmate or people we already knew, the appropriate English phrases to use would be; Good to see you, or Nice to see
you. It also seemed in some cases that Arab male participants were trying to lighten a stressful
moment by joking, but did not have the sociolinguistic control to do so successfully.American participants on the other hand, did make some pragmatic failures when trying to greet Arabs on some religious occasions. For example, some American participants used the phrases ‘Happy Ramadan’, and ‘Happy Holiday’ to greet for Ramadan. In responding to my question on this issue, an Arabic male interviewee said: ‘We would not use these sentences to
greet for Ramadan as it is not a holiday in fact, but if someone wants to greet on this occasion, it is better to use the appropriate form as Ramadan Mubarak’. Another example of pragmatic failure was when American male participant used a very inappropriate greeting sentence (in Arabic language) to greet some Arab male friends of him while there were some ladies in the place. He used a sentence, which was clearly taught to him by Arabic male as they use such slang between them, but he did not use it in the right place.
Additionally, in contrast with what Fillmore (1984) stated about Americans behavior when greeting a friend who is having a conversation with others, my native speaker participants showed the willing to temporary and politely interrupt the conversation and show their presence by greeting everyone including the friend and his/her company. However, this behavior has been noticed to happen by male participants more than females who would rather more to wait until the other part finishes the conversation.
Body Language
From the overall numbers of using body language as greeting strategies by Arab and American groups, one can notice that the difference between the two groups is very small.
However, the differences can be seen in the types of body language used most by each group, and by different gender. American group, for instance, used handshakes as first strategy, then wave hand comes as second, and the least used strategies were cheek kisses and hugs. Arab participants, on the other hand, used also handshake as a first body language greeting strategy, but the second strategy they used was cheek kiss and then hugs while the last was wave hands.
These information suggest that handshake is the most common strategy of body language greeting used in both cultures.
Additionally, the data from the study also suggests that the less social distance there are between the two parts, the more body language strategies are performed by the participants. That means when the two people are close friends, they feel free to use more body language to greet each other. Furthermore, strategies like; hug and cheek kiss were used by the participants when they only greeted a close friend. Nonetheless, when it was not a close friend, Americans tended to use hands’ waving to say Hello from a distance, or just handshake in a closer conversation.
Meanwhile, Arab participants preferred not to use any body language strategies if the other person was not a close friend.
Gender differences.
Using body language for greeting is a strategy varies between males and females. In American group for example, male participants heavily relied on handshakes to greet other people, used waving hand to greet from distance (mostly used with non-close friends). American females on the other hand, used different kinds of body language strategies and mixed them together sometimes. For instance, some American female participants used handshakes with cheek kiss to greet close friends (especially other female friends), or used hug with cheek kiss, but they only wave hand for non-close friends.
Similarly, Arabic male participants tended to use handshakes as the most common strategy of body language greeting, and then waving hands to say Hello from distance. Females from the same group, used all different types of strategies, and combined some of them together in the same situation. But the most used strategy by Arab females was cheek kiss, which was usually combined with handshake.
In general, all male participants seemed to use handshake as a first choice of body
language strategies for greetings. They also used waving hands to greet from distance. However, almost none of them used cheek kiss or hug, except for two cases from Arabic male participants.
Females in contrast, used all different types of body language greeting strategies, and they tended to use more than one strategy with close friends. The data from observation notes showed that most participants tend to use more body language strategies in real life than they stated in the questionnaire scenarios. Female participants performed more body language interactions than males in general, yet male participants still used more physical strategies than they stated in the questionnaire they would do. I also noticed more using of hugs between male friends when they exchanged greetings, but in the DCT only two male participants said that they will use this strategy. I assume that female participants were more accurate when they filled in the data for questionnaire scenarios, while men tried to be more formal and careful in terms of using the body language in written forms. The data collected from interviews also came to support the observation data, where male interviewees stated that they would use more body language strategies with close friends, and just perform carefully when interacting with females.
Cultural and religious conflict.
In western societies where this is a common form of greeting, a handshake with a person of the opposite gender is not considered rude by some Muslims. However, some Muslim women may prefer not to do so. To avoid hurt American feelings should a handshake not be returned (and to avoid discomfort on the part of Muslim women when they try to avoid this), it is preferable to wait to see if they offer their hand and then follow accordingly, or greet with a slight nod of the head accompanied by a smile (Hoke, 2013). As a general rule, any touching of
any kind between males and females is not very acceptable in Arabic culture, except if they are family or relatives. Therefore, using body language strategies between males and females is not usual in most Arabic countries; however, greeting using body language within gender is very common.
Western cultures on the other hand, have no such rules. Greetings’ exchange between males and females using body language is acceptable and normal act. Still, American Muslims are very familiar with norms and forms of appropriate body language strategies used between males and females, as these are fixed rules in the religion itself. Going from this point, I dint notice any pragmatic failures by American Muslims in terms of using body language strategies to greet Arab people. All American Muslim participants in this study tended to know that fact that Arab females do not shake hands with other males, and for sure never hug or cheek kiss.
Therefore, none of American Muslim males offer to shake hands with Arab females, and none of American Muslim females said that she would use body language strategies to greet Arab males.
All the data gathered from observation fields, questionnaires, and interviews showed that all Arabic females avoid the direct physical interactions with other male participants. While most American females stated that they have no problem with shaking hands or kissing cheeks with close male friend. Arab male participants on the other hand, tried to be more open-minded about using body language with the opposite gender, so I have noticed many cases where they used handshakes or sometimes hugs with other close female friends from American group. Although this act is not acceptable by Islamic religion, Arabic males who used body language with other females stated that they also should respect other peoples’ culture and way of performing the greeting, or in one participant’s words ‘ If it is okay for her, why should it be a problem for me?’.
However, while it was ‘fine’ with American females to use body language strategies with other males, Arab female participants did not feel comfortable to return the greeting when
American male participants offer their hands to shake. One of my American interviewees said “It was an awkward moment when I offered my hand to an Arabic lady and she refused to shake my hand”. I asked him if he thought that this was an impolite react from the lady to do, and he told me that she apologized to him and explained that Muslim women do not shake hands with foreign men even if they are also Muslims. Similar situation has happened just a month ago, when French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius wanted to shake hands with an Emirati female student during a brief visit to Abu Dhabi's Paris-Sorbonne University in the Emirati capital on May 26, 2013. The student refused to offer her hand, and the Foreign Minister just nodded his head and smiled (see Figure 5.1). This reaction from Muslim females happened more than once during my observations, and many of the American interviewees –males and females- said that they prefer to learn more about other peoples’ culture in order to avoid such misunderstandings which may lead to pragmatic and communication failure between the two parts.
Figure 5.1 Emirati student refused to shake hands with French Foreign Minister.
Other Actions
After doing my observation data, I noticed that some participants did not directly engage to the rest of the group and start the greetings, but they instead preferred to wait for other people to come over and welcome them to the party. According to that, I decided to add three more options to my questionnaire in order to make it more reliable and accurate. The three options were: wait for the other part to initiate the greeting, ignore the other part and walk away, and other.
Waiting for the other person to start the conversation, was a hypothesis which suggests that non-native speakers would not have the enough courage and confidence to start the
conversation with other native speaker of the language (Yusuf, 1986). Yet, in the current study, that was not the case. My non-native participants were perfectly able to start the conversation with English native speakers and exchange greetings with them. However, other variables like social distance between people, or the open settings like public parties, or restaurants, allowed my participants –from both groups- to have the choice of initiating the conversation, waiting for the other part to start the greeting, or just simply ignore the other part and walk away. Therefore, what I am saying is that all the other actions were kind of ‘personal choice’ rather than a ritual habit for some culture or group. Although Arabic group showed more usage of the other actions in overall, American group as well used the same strategies when they interacted with non-close friends.
The appearance of gender differences was kind of obvious in some cases, like in the situation where there was a classmate, or people they were not familiar with, female participants mostly chose to let the other part initiate the greeting, or just ignore them and walk away.
Another example, in scenarios number 1 and 6, some of male participants showed no problem to
interrupt their friend, who was having a conversation with other people, and start the greetings, while female participants said that they would prefer to wait for the friend to finish hi/her conversation with other people first.
The close and open places also played role with participants’ choice to initiate the greetings, wait for the other part to do so, or even ignore the other person and walk away. That is, many of my interviewees indicated that when the event is a small party in some friend’s house, they simply cannot ignore the host and walk away, or even wait for him/her to start the greeting, and that it is a simple politeness rule to greet your friend whenever you enter his/her house and not just stand still waiting for your friend to start the greetings. In contrast, when it is a public event, in an open place, one can have the choice either to start the conversation with other people, or ignore them and walk away without feeling threatening of losing face.
Life in Taiwan
In the demographic survey, all participants were asked to write how many years they have spent in Taiwan. Moreover, one of the questions that have been asked during the interview was; how living in Taiwan influences the greeting style of the interviewee.
Arab interviewees, in general, mentioned the language difficulties when interacting with Taiwanese people. They said that language differences can easily put some barriers in the way of communicating with other people. They also said that in order to survive in the new culture, they had to use English all the time for their daily interactions and they got to use more English than they used to do before. However, some Arab participants noticed that speaking even a few words of Chinese is greatly appreciated by Taiwanese people, so they tended to learn basic Chinese in order to have better communication with other people.
Americans on the other hand, focused more on the use of body language in Taiwanese culture. American interviewees noted that the polite way of greeting people- especially the ones you meet with for the first time- is by a nod of the head or a slight bow. They also said that a
Americans on the other hand, focused more on the use of body language in Taiwanese culture. American interviewees noted that the polite way of greeting people- especially the ones you meet with for the first time- is by a nod of the head or a slight bow. They also said that a