Metapragmatic comments on relating across cultures
Korean students’ uncertainties over relating to UK academics
This paper analyses postings made by student applicants on Korean online communities about how best to handle interactions
with potential future PhD supervisors at UK universities. The questions they posed reveal the lack of relevant contextual information they
experienced, especially around the rights and obligations of supervisors. This paper thus analyses students’ metapragmatic comments and
argues for greater attention to be paid within interpersonal and intercultural pragmatics to interactional goals and conceptions of role
relations, especially the rights and obligations associated with them. The analysis has revealed that background information on role
relations is of great importance for relational management and communication planning in high stakes intercultural interaction. This
suggests that potential cultural variation in the perceived rights and obligations associated with a given role (in this case, PhD
supervisor) and their implications for assessments of role relations are of central concern.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Multidisciplinary perspectives on relating across cultures
- 2.1Discourse perspectives on relating
- 2.2Participants and relating
- 2.3Culture, framing and relating
- 3.Methodology
- 3.1Data collection
- 3.2Analytic procedures
- 4.Findings
- 4.1Comments and questions on role responsibilities and power
- 4.2Comments and questions on communication protocols
- 5.Discussion
- 5.1Goals and issues of uncertainty
- 5.2The impact of culture: Emic perspectives and ‘being Korean’
- 5.3Implications for interpersonal and intercultural pragmatics
- 6.Concluding comments
- Acknowledgements
- Note
-
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