A Dissertation by GRACE HUI-CHIN LIN Submitted to the Office of ...

Jiun Sheng told the researcher that politeness was emphasized in his family
since he was very young. His parents educated him to see politeness as a scale of a
gentleman. He perceived that being inactive in the classroom was not polite to his
teacher and keeping silent during discussion activity was not polite to his classmates.
He reflected to the researcher why he emphasized the importance of politeness. He
was told by his parents that being polite is a foundation of talking. He argued
“keeping silence” was not only impolite but also unenergetic.
Jian Guo Huang
Jian Guo reflected on his perceptions about his need to change a topic, and his
reason not to use the method of “keeping silence” in both interviews. Besides, he
believed selecting appropriate topics according to the interlocutors’ background was
imperative. Also, he perceived he would not change topics because he believed that
interacting regarding a difficult topic made him learn things from his partners. In Jian
Guo’s first interview, he expressed his positive attitudes about topic avoidance:
Changing topics was necessary because everyone’s mind was like a castle that
needed some space and freedom in thinking in a right topic they preferred to
talk about. People should not force themselves to compromise on the others’
boring topics. When a communication had fallen into a boring situation,
changing the topic should take place naturally.
In Jian Guo’s second interview, he conveyed again that changing topics was
necessary for him. Besides, he suggested some of his principles in changing topics,
which were similar to Sung Ru’s opinions.
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