CULTURAL DIFFERENCES IN BUSINESS CONTRACT WRITTEN IN ENGLISH BY VIETNAMESE COMPANIES AND AMERICAN COMPANIES

Abstract

Working in international environment thus integrating in global trend of business cooperation requires understand of characteristics of each culture. There is a concept that helps us to get closer to intercultural communication and how it is expressed in business field, especially in business contract - a legally binding agreement, which is called “high context” and “low context” related to how a culture uses word to express ideas and information. Since there has been little research on this in Vietnam, this paper was carried out to investigate culture differences in business contracts, which are written in English by Vietnamese companies and American companies. Hopefully, the research would be a source of reference for students who soon become businessmen working with the global as well as teachers teaching in Economics, a branch of English Languages (known as 721 applied for QH2011).This study attempts to analyze the feature of “high context” and “low context” used in business contracts written in English by Vietnamese and American companies. By using the qualitative research design, through the analytic and synthetic, comparative technique, the content of business contract has been identified in the light of high and low context concepts. The researcher chose two business contracts written in English by Vietnamese and two contracts by America as the case study to investigate. The most significant finding of the study was that Vietnamese companies used high context elements as well as low context elements in their contracts while American companies used most low context elements. From that view, the research finds out both Vietnamese companies and American companies have something in common in making business contracts. The paper, therefore, would serve as a reference for students who desire to be successful businessmen in global integration.