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Programme: accepted abstracts

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Abstract ID: 628

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Different cities and different rapport management

Authors: Fujio, Misa
Submitted by: Fujio, Misa (Toyo University, Japan, Japan)

Cultural differences in politeness have been discussed by a number of studies under different names. For example, Spencer-Oatey (2004) used a term, rapport management, claiming that politeness research should include a social/interdependent perspective (such as Asian face) in addition to the traditional personal/independent perspective (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Iwai & Rinnert (2001) investigated the same topic under the terminology, pragmatic conventions, by comparing university students from four countries, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the US. Cultural differences, however, are not limited to the national level; even at the regional level substantial differences can be observed.

This study, in recognition of the theme of this conference, language and the city, investigates the differences or regionality in rapport management by comparing two big cities in Japan, Tokyo and Kyoto. These two cities have contrasting origins and reputations. Tokyo is now considered the cosmopolitan Japanese capital but was originally built by Samurai who were rather rugged and silent while Kyoto had been the centre of politics and commerce for nearly 1000 years and is known for its friendly and skillful communication style. Based on my experience living in both cities, I have recognised significant differences in communication style and politeness.

In this research, referring to a previous study (Iwai & Rinnert, 2001), rapport management is investigated using four speech acts: 1) apologies, 2) requests, 3) complaints and 4) compliments.

This research has employed three different methods to collect the data: 1) focus group, 2) questionnaire, and 3) interviews. As a pilot study, a focus group consisting of about 15 participants and a questionnaire to about 50 participants were conducted in Tokyo and Kyoto. In order to minimize the variables for comparison, university students were chosen as the participants because adults’ communication styles have more variables such as their professions and generations in addition to regionality.

The pilot study indicated the tendency of students in Kyoto to express their feelings more explicitly in the scenes of apologies or complaints while those in Tokyo tend to be silent in the same situations. In addition, the former developed conversation more naturally after complimenting a belonging of their interlocutor. In this sense their communication style is more similar to the Western style (Hall 1976) than the latter, showing a considerable difference from the typical image of silent Japanese.

In the presentation, with the results of the main study involving a larger number of questionnaires and interviews, I will extensively discuss the relationship between the differences in rapport management and the historical and cultural background of these two cities and how these differences can be transferred to their English communication.

References:

Brown, P. & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hall, E. (1976). Beyond Culture. New York: Anchor. 

Spencer-Oatey, H. (2004). Rapport management. In Spencer-Oatey, H. (Ed.), Culturally Speaking  (pp. 11-46).  London: Continuum.

Iwai, C., & Rinnert, C. (2001).  Cross-cultural comparison of strategic realization of pragmatic competence.  Hiroshima Journal of International Studies, 7, 158-181.