Compliment Strategies Employed by Japanese and Malaysian Tour Guides during Tour Sessions

This research is a comparative study of Japanese language communication between the Japanese and Malay tourist guides during tourism tour sessions. The research goal is to examine patterns of compliment strategies implemented throughout the interactions of the tour sessions. The study results acquired are in the form of four recordings of a dialogue between the tourist guides and the tourists, in audio and video modes. The conversations are transcribed and coded. The tour guides included two Japanese native speakers and two Malaysian-Japanese speakers. In contrast, the tourists are Japanese native speakers who visited Malaysia, and Malaysians who attended the tourist attractions in Japan. The study reveals that the frequency of compliments applied by both Japanese and Malaysian tour guides are alike, or in other words, there are no significant differences. Nevertheless, category, function and topic or theme of compliment utterance present ssubstantial distinction.