Compliment Strategy Used by Japanese and Malaysian Tour Guides during Tour

Compliment Strategy Used by Japanese and Malaysian Tour Guides during Tour Trip Session: Comparative Studies

Authors: Roswati Abdul Rashid ( Universiti Malaysia Terengganu, Malaysia)
Roslina Mamat (Universiti Putra Malaysia, Malaysia)
Rokiah Paiee (Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia)
Speaker: Roswati Abdul Rashid
Topic: Ethnography of Communication
The (SCOPUS / ISI) SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2020 General Session

Abstract

This is a comparative study of Japanese language communication between the Japanese and Malay tourist guides during the visit of tourism tour sessions. Objective of the study is to identify the patterns of the compliment strategies used in the communication through the tour sessions.

Results of the study are attained from four recordings of conversation between the tourist guides and the tourists in audio and video form. The conversation are transcribed and coded. Tourist guides involved are two Japanese native speakers and two Malaysian-Japanese speakers. Whereas the tourists involved are Japanese native speakers who came to visit Malaysia and Japanese native speakers who visited the tourist attractions in Japan.

Expected results of the strategies used by both categories of tourist guides are different as it differs in culture and linguistic features. The Malaysian tourist guides are predicted to create the cultural and language conflicts which make the communication behavior aligned and adjusted. Besides, the Japanese tourist guides use more compliment strategy to take care of the tourists feelings. In hope, this study could be used as reference for those who involved in Japanese language studies for tourism and to improve the cross- cultural communication proficiency.

Keywords: Humor; compliment; tourist guide; Japanese language; comparative study