A Comparative Communication Study of the Japanese Language in Intercultural Communication among Japanese And Malay Tourist Guides

Authors: Roslina Mamat (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia)
Roswati Abdul Rashid ( Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia)
Rokiah Paee (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia)
Speaker: Roslina Mamat
Topic: Language, Community, Ethnicity
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2020 General Session

Abstract

Over the past two decades, Japan has consistently remained in the top ten tourist countries to Malaysia, while Japan has ranked number 15 as the Malaysian choice of countries for tourism. Japan is not only renowned for its captivating four seasons, and tourist destinations, but also for its culture, such as manga, anime, J- drama, J-pop, and cosplay, all of which attract tourists. Here, popular destinations include Akiba and Harajuku.

This study observes the structure of four conversations in Japanese language. Two sessions occured between a Malaysian tourist guide and a Japanese tourist, and the other two occurred between a Japanese tourist guide and Malaysian tourists, which occurred in Melaka (Malaysia) and Tokyo (Japan) respectively. Recording and documenting of the conversations were personally conducted by the researcher of the study. The recorded conversations were then transcribed and coded before being analysis. At present, only the tour guide conversation has been analysed and discussed, as it focuses more on the structure of politeness in the Japanese language employed by both Japanese and Malay tourist guides, thus exposing the solidarity and similarities in cross- cultural contexts.

The data analysis indicates that there significant similarities and differences exist in terms of word choice and verbs employed by the Japanese and Malay tourist guides, in order to expose the politeness and solidarity strategies in conversation.

Keywords: Tourist guide, Japanese, Malaysian, conversation analysis, intercultural communication