Post Three: Listener Response - Of 'haiks' and 'yaas'

(After struggling to condense my previous post to less than 500 words, I realise that I missed out on a lot of crucial points which I wanted to raise. Hence, from this 3^rd post onwards, I will not restrict myself to the word count limit that I initially imposed on myself.)

This week’s topic is of high relevance to almost everyone. But once again, we’re unaware that the things and way we speak on the phone are rule-governed. With 59.3% of the entire world’s population owning at least 1 mobile phone (Taiwan tops the list with 106.5 phones per 100 persons, and Singapore ranks 16^th, with 79.14 phones per 100 persons), it is no surprise conversations can take place almost anywhere and between two persons from different countries or cultural backgrounds. But the rules that govern these conversations vary with culture.

But what fascinates me most is the study of listener response in telephone calls. (I really didn’t think they had a name for all the uhmms and ahhs and uh uhs we express during telephone conversations).

Listener response simply means how a listener inserts his/her responses into a speaker’s narratives (Bavelas et al, 2002). This is equivalent to the Japanese Aizuchi (backchannels) i.e. frequent interjection during a conversation to indicate that the listener is paying attention and is actively involved in a discussion. This includes nodding, saying ‘haik’ or ‘honto ni’. This made me to realise that listener response is not necessarily verbal only i.e. restricted to just telephone calls; it can also be actions that we observe during face-to-face conversations. I guess this is what we term as non-verbal cues. This can sometimes be detected in phone calls: And since it varies with culture, talking to the locals when we’re abroad is not as easy as we thought it would be.

Try observing the guy in blue during the first 15 seconds of their conversations. Notice how different their response is compared to our local Singapore cultures?

Closer to home, listener responses is widely used in the Malay community. When asked, my Mum said that it’s more polite to interrupt so that the speaker knows that the listener acknowledges what was being said. The younger Malays don’t use these responses as frequently as the elders.

Popular Examples of Malay Listener Responses (based on what I observe):

Example	What it means ...
1.Backchannels (‘continuer’ or internal utterance) - backchanneling that doesn’t result in turn change Ah(h)* Ah ah* Ye Uhm* Mmmm * Apa lah Okay Mungkin * indicates non-lexical terms	I see ... Uh uh/Yes (please continue ...) Yes Ehmm Mmmm What lah ... Okay Maybe/Possibly
2. Reactive Expressions (final utterance) - Ye tak ye Memang pun Betul tu Ye/Betul ke? Takkan lah ... Tak mungkin Bagus lah ... Apa lah Mungkin kot? Bedek?	Ya hor So true ... That’s right Really? Can’t be ... Can’t be That’s good What only Maybe/Possibly? You must be kidding ...

After reading much on the Japanese Aizuchi, I’ve decided to make a comparison between both Aizuchi and the Malay listener responses.

Comparison between Japanese and Malay Listener Responses:

Japanese Aizuchi	Malay Listener Response
Always in agreement with the speaker	May agree/disagree with speaker
Often involving hidden/indirect meaning e.g. ‘yes’ might not necessarily mean yes and ‘no’ might not necessarily mean no	Often direct meaning; any form of disagreement discretely expressed
Both in verbal and action forms	Often more verbal than action forms
Acquired largely through mother-child interactions i.e. mother will teach and ‘train’ child to ‘give’ and ‘take’ signals (Miyata et al, 2007) - More culturally and language-driven; corrected by mum if wrong	Acquired through listening and observing our elders when they communicate with one another - Not ‘formally’ educated
Often involves non-lexical terms like ‘un’ (yes)	Often involves lexical terms like
Widely studied	Not widely studied; information presented based on my experience