Blog 4 Conversation between Chandler and the Boss

C= Chandler B= Boss

C: Also I was the point person of my company's transition from KRS to GR6 system.
B:
C: That I did. That I did.
B: So let's talk a little bit about your doodies.
C: My doodies?..........alright.
B: You will be having the whole division, so you will have a lot of doodies.
C: ic
B : But there will be perhaps thirty people under you
C: Good to know.
B: We can go into detail
C: No No, I beg on you.
B: Alright, then I will have a definite answer for you on Monday.
B: But I think now I can say with some . You will be work here.
C: Really?
B: Absolutely. You can relax. You did great.
C: I got to say thank you. I was really nervous.
C: You shout out too many jokes and it is really hard to say doodies things.
C: Doodies.
C: Doodies?
C: Pull?
B: Pull?
C: Oh my God! Ok. The interview was over. That was the real Chandler being there, this is a crazy guy.
C: Come on security, here is a crazy guy.
B: Pull?
C: I look forward to your call.

4 Frames

1st: Interview frame: Chandler talks about his past experience and the boss talks about Chandler’s duties.
2nd: Clarification frame: Within the interview frame, Chandler questions “my doodies” since the boss pronounces “duties” as “doodies”. So Chandler wonders whether the boss is talking about “duties” or “doodies” ?
3rd: Feedback frame: The boss says that Chandler performs well in the interview.
4th: Joking frame: Chandler plays jokes on the boss.

Contextualization Cues in 4 Frames

In the interview frame, Chandler uses technical terms “transition from KRS to GR6 system” to impress the boss. He says “That I did. That I did”, it is called word repetition. It implies that he is confident. Before saying “ic” and “good to know”, there are pauses. It means that Chandler is thinking before saying out the words. Pauses can represent hesitation. Besides, he says “no no” in a loud and emotional way to show that he totally desires for not talking his doodies in detail. After ending the interview, Chandler releases a deep breath after the boss saying “absolutely”. It implies he feels relaxed due to the end of the interview.

In clarification frame, Chandler hopes a clarification of what he has heard (my doodies). Therefore, he questions “my doodies” by raising his voice a little bit. Besides, he shows a strange facial expression to the boss. He hopes the boss senses that he is confused, so a clarification is made immediately.

In the feedback frame, the boss's body language of putting his hand on the back of Chandler shows that he really thinks Chandler performs well in the interview.

In the joking frame, Chandler points at himself when he is saying “this is a crazy guy”. Besides, he shouts out loudly and looks at the left hand side when making a joke on calling the security.

Frame Shift

During the whole conversation, the use of “let’s talk a little bit about”, “alright”, “ok” indicates the frame shift. These words can be called discourse markers. When the boss stands up, it indicates the end of the interview frame. Chandler says alright after waiting for a few seconds for the clarification of his doodies. “Alright” is a symbol to state the end of the clarification frame. After the boss saying “you did great” to Chandler with hand-shaking, Chandler turns back and he walks towards the door. It is clearly the end of the feedback frame. The last sentence of the whole conversation is “I look forward to your call”. It states the end of the joking frame.

Field Blog 3

Two Percent (2%) VS Agnes b

Two Percent (2%)

When I entered Two Percent (2%), a shop attendant who stood near the entrance said “ hello” to me with a smile. It was the involvement (positive) politeness strategy that she showed concern for my visiting. She gave me a warm welcome. She satisfied my positive face need, my desire to be liked. I walked along every column in the shop to look for clothes that I liked. Another shop attendant said that she could get me the suitable size for a fitting. I replied to her that I would seek help from her when I really needed a fitting. That shop attendant adopted involvement politeness strategy to demonstrate that she was care about me. However, my reply showed my need for negative face, my desire to be given space and not to be interfered with. After that, I remained in the shop for about 15 minutes more. During that period, another shop attendant asked whether I needed help, but the previous shop attendant did not offer to help me. It meant that the previous one understood that I had the negative face need. I deliberately sought help from a shop attendant who was busy with serving a customer. In fact, what I did was a face threatening act which threatened that shop attendant's negative face. As a result, she found another shop attendant to serve me. When I left the shop, a shop attendant said “Bye bye, visit the shop again when you have time”.

Agnes b

When I entered and left Agnes b, a shop attendant greeted me as I experienced in 2. The difference was that the shop attendants either stood still or tidied up the goods. They did not approach me and ask me whether I need help. It seemed that they had a negative face. It also seemed that they ignored me. It was a face threatening act to my positive face that I desired to be paid attention. After a while, I asked a shop attendant who was not busy about the colour of the clothes. She replied me with a good attitude and with a smile. She demonstrated her involvement politeness strategy that she was cared about me as a potential customer.

Comparison in terms of P, D, W

Regarding the P, the relationship between customers and shop attendants is equal (-P) in the above 2 shops. It is because they are not in a relationship of supervisors and subordinates. There is no vertical hierarchical relationship. The distance (D) between customers and shop attendants in the 2 shops is distant (+D), since customers treat shop attendants as strangers and vice versa. Regarding the W, I deliberately seek help from a shop attendant who is busy with serving a customer in 2%. It implies that I cause much trouble to that shop attendant, so this situation should be (+W). In Agnes b, I ask a shop attendant who is not busy about the colour of the clothes. It implies that I cause little trouble to that shop attendant, so this situation should be (-W).

Social Experiment (Telephone Conversation)

S = My friend E = I (Myself)

(S) Hi, Ashley. How is your study in this semester?
(E) Do you mean whether I have lots of assignments or whether it is difficult to understand the content?
(S) I mean whether you are busy with assignments.
(E) Actually, I am not really busy in these two weeks. However, I know that I will be busy with assignments soon after glancing at five course schedules.
(S) I am very free this week since my semester has started for 1 week only. By the way, are you still busy with the club’s affairs?
(E) Which club are you talking about? I am the executive committee member of two clubs.
(S) I only know that you are the executive committee member of City U CHASS Buddies Club.
(E) I am recruiting new executive committee members for the club. This academic year, I am not the executive committee member anymore.
(S) Quitting the committee, so you can have more spare time for your part-time job.
By the way, is it a good job?
(E) What do you mean by “a good job”? What is “good” in terms of, high salary, relaxed working environment, friendly colleagues or all of the above?
(S) What’s wrong with you today? When I ask you something, you respond to me with a question! (It seems that my friend is puzzled by my response)


Throughout the conversation, my friend answers my questions, except for the last question. Finally, she feels that this conversation is not as usual as our previous conversations. She expects that we have shared knowledge, so I should know what she is talking about and I should respond by answering her questions instead of asking another question for confirmation. However, my responses are out of her expectation, so she is puzzled.

Entrance of City U Canteen at Night

It was about 8:30pm on 9th Sep. At the entrance of City University canteen, there was an interaction between customers and cashiers at the dome-shaped front desk.

Front (Setting, Appearance, Manner)

The setting involved in the interaction between customers and cashiers included the following items. They were the front desk, baskets for fruits, Octopus cards, machines for Octopus card, cash, cash drawers, receipts, etc. Cashiers were dressed in the same set of uniform, yellow clothing and orange hats. Some of them even put make-up. They smiled and talked to customers with a clear voice. When they were ready to take the order from customers, their hands inclined forward. That gesture was a signal to show their availability to potential customers.

Customers were dressed in casual wear of their own style. Some female customers put make-up. Regarding the payment for ordering food, customers either took out cash from their wallets or took out their Octopus cards. Customers often talked in a mono tone, I guessed they were tired at night. Besides, they didn’t smile while making an order.

Line

Cashiers displayed a friendly and approachable image since they signaled customers to make an order at front desk by hand gesture and smile.

Routine

Regarding cashiers, the routine included marking down customers’ orders, telling customers how much the bill was, asking customers the method of paying for the bill: cash or Octopus card, collecting the cash or asking customers to place the Octopus card on the machine, giving the excess money back to customers. Finally, cashiers gave receipts and said “thank you” to customers. For customers, the routine included reading the menu, queuing, ordering the food, making the payment by either cash or Octopus card, getting the receipt.

Different Regions

The area around the front desk was the onstage region of both cashiers and customers. All the people in the canteen could be the audience. The backstage of both cashiers and customers should be somewhere that no audience watched their interaction.

Team

The cashiers were in “withs”, they were in a team. They had the same dress code, yellow clothing and orange hats. The same uniform was the tie signal which displayed the membership. Most customers were the “single”. A few of them were in “withs” since they were discussing while reading the menu.

Incident

When someone stood near the front desk for a few minutes without the intention of ordering food. A staff who dressed in a black suit approached the one and looked into the matter. The staff tried to find out what was going on. She was afraid that the one would disrupt the performance of cashiers at front desk.