The Use of Politeness Strategies by Tourism Practitioners

Adnan Zaid

Universitas Teknologi Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Keywords: English, Polite, Tourism, Practitioner.

Abstract: It cannot be denied that people, when talking to others, will try to do their best to make their

interlocutors comfortable so that their communication will run well without misunderstanding or

hurting each other. For this purpose, people may use polite strategies as expressed in diction,

sentence types, or other means. In English, there are some linguistic forms to be applied when

one wants to communicate politely. This paper is going to explore what politeness strategies in

English needed by tourism practitioners in Yogyakarta. It is based on structured interviews with

tourism practitioners such as tour guides, travel agents, receptionists in hotels and money

changers, tourism police, and horse cart drivers. It was found out that respondents’ English

mastery needs improving so that they can communicate more politely. In practice, the

respondents tend to be practical. They do not know to apply polite strategies reflected in their

English. What matters is that the tourists can understand what they say without considering the

proper or polite way as to make their interlocutors comfortable in communication.

1 INTRODUCTION

In the long run, tourism in Indonesian is hoped to be

one of the main revenue sources for this country.

Consequently, tourism with its all aspects needs

developing. One of the aspects of the service given

to the tourists is good and polite communication

conducted by tourism practitioners so that tourists

will feel welcome and stay longer. In this regards

the tourism practitioners need strategies to

communicate with tourists in the hope that the

communication between them can run well.

However, it is not always easy to have good

communication for there are some barriers such as

language and culture (Holmes, 2001). In language,

for example, certain polite linguistic devices for

certain occasions such as requests, offers,

compliments, apologies, thanks, greetings, leave

takings, addressing, and the responses need to be

mastered by the practitioners. Foley (2012) puts

forwards that politeness is a key to social interaction

skills the goal of which is to ensure that everyone

interlocutors feel secured in social interaction.

Brown and Levinson (1987) point out that politeness

strategies are conducted in order to save the hearer’s

face, meaning that people try to avoid embarrassing

the others, or making them feel uncomfortable in

communication. In this sense, when tourists feel

comfortable and respected, it is expected that they

will stay in this country longer, and more money

will be spent on their accommodation needs.

This study will dig out some information on

what strategies they used, and their reflection on

their English ability in serving the tourists.

2 METHOD OF STUDY

This study is based on some structured interviews

with some tourism practitioners. The interviews

were conducted in some tourist objects, travel

agents, police office, money changers, hotels, and a

tourist information center, located in Yogyakarta

special territory province. There were twenty

respondents who were interviewed in July and

August, 2017.

The data were collected by conducting structured

interviews, and the voice in the interviews was

recorded by using digital voice recorders. The voice

was transcribed for further analysis. Some pictures

Zaid, A.

The Use of Politeness Strategies by Tourism Practitioners.

DOI: 10.5220/0008219000002284

In Proceedings of the 1st Bandung English Language Teaching International Conference (BELTIC 2018) - Developing ELT in the 21st Century, pages 397-400

ISBN: 978-989-758-416-9

397

were also taken at the interview sites. The data were

then analyzed to find out the kinds of the strategies

that the practitioners applied in communicating, and

whether their strategies were appropriate compared

to the minimum standard of politeness in English.

3 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

After the data were analyzed, here are some findings

related to the polite strategies that the practitioners

have in mind and in practice

3.1 The Importance of Being Polite

Most of the practitioners agree that it is important to

be polite to speak to foreign tourists despite their

shortcomings in their English proficiency. Being

polite is the key to having tourist with them. The

failure to be so will result in the tourists’ leaving.

One of the practitioners said: “Sangat penting

karena ketika pelayanan kurang sopan, tamu asing

akan menilainya.” (It is very important to be polite

in serving the tourists. They will be critical in

judging our being polite.”

Another practitioner commented: “Penting sekali

karena kalau ga mereka ga akan kecantolke sini

dan ga akan beli ke sini.” (Being polite is very

important. If we fail to show our politeness, they

will not come to us, and they will not buy something

from us)

A tour guide said: “Sangat penting sebagai wujud

kesan pertama.” (Being polite will give good first

impression to tourists).

3.2 Building Communication

In greeting the tourists, the respondents just said that

they tried to do their best to greet their foreign

guests, and they began to smile and to introduce

themselves. One of the respondents mentioned three

S’s in welcoming his guests, they were salam, sapa,

and senyum (greeting, saying hi and smiling). They

used very ordinary expressions such as hi, hello, and

good morning. They said that it was just a kind of

courtesy. Another respondent said that he tended to

say “Hello, good morning, sir. Please sit down,

please. My name is A, officer in here. I can help

you”. He tried to greet his guests despite his limited

English expressions.

3.3 When Communication Breaks

Down

When their communication broke down for some

reason, the repondents said that they aplogized but

they seldom explained their reason in detail due to

their limited knowledge on how to deal with the

problem. One respondent mentioned that it was

more difficult when the guest was from France. He

might just say “Excuse me”. Sometimes they tried to

use google translate to cope with the problem

3.3 Giving Compliments

To give compliments to the tourists, many of the

respondents said that they seldom gave

compliments. One respondent mentioned that he just

said “Nice choices. You look so great. Thanks for

coming here. I hope we can make for the other

chance” when giving compliments. They did not use

the expressions by using what ...! or how ... !

3.4 Asking

To raise questions the respondents tended to use the

basic forms of questions such as “Hallo, can I help

you?, May I help you, Can I help you? and Do you

need my help? They did not use the polite forms by

using expressions beginning with Would you ...,

Could you..., Do you mind if ..., or What if ... .

3.5 Answering Question

When answering questions, the respondents tried to

behave politely though they did now know exactly

how to answer questions politely in English. One

respondent said: “Pertama saya bilang juga sama

dia, mohon maaf karena bahasa saya juga tidak

begitu lancar ya, tidak begitu bagus ... kalau kita

sudah merendah duluan ... biasanya dia juga sudah

tahu, jadi dia tidak mempermasalahkan kekurangan

kita.” (First, I will tell him that my English is not

good. So I apologize. Once we apologize, he will

understand and will not care much about our

weakness)

3.6 Offering

When the respondents offered something to the

tourists, they tended to raise questions first by

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saying such as “Have you visited Bali?, Have you

been to Borobudur? or Have you seen the ballet?”

One respondent said that he might say, for example,

” We have some tour and massage for you. If you

need we can arrange for you” when he offered a

package tour. They did not say “ what if ...?, or how

about ...?”

3.7 Rejecting

To reject a guest’s offer or request, respondents

tended to say sorry followed by some reasons. They

said, “Sorry, we don’t have it, Sorry, we don’t serve

it, Sorry, I can’t, or Sorry we don’t have it for you”.

They did not use expressions such as I would love to

... but ... , or I would be ... , but ... One respondent

said that he had to be very careful in rejecting. One

respondent said, “Biasanya kita ngomongnya pelan

aja, tidak terlalu keras, sopan juga.” (We usually

speak softly, not too loudly, but politely)

3.8 Getting Mad

When the tourists got mad, the repondents said that

they just apologized by saying “Sorry for that” or

I’m sorry and tried to comfort them. One respondent

said, “Mereka jarang sekali marah.” (They rarely

get mad). Mostly, tourists got mad because the

respondents could not be on time.

3.9 Response to Complaint

To respond to a complaint, the respondents told that

they apologized and offered some help by saying,

for example, “Sorry for the inconvenient. We’ll do

for the better What can I do for you Sir, Miss.” One

respondent mentioned that he apologized and

offered some help by saying, for example, what can

I do for you Sir, Miss?

3.10 Misunderstanding

When there was misunderstanding between the

respondents and the tourists, the repondents

apologized and explained the cause. One of the

respondent said, “Kita minta maaf. Kita terangkan

yang berlangsung di sana begini”. (We apologized

and explained what was really going on). Another

respondent said, “Biasanya dengan bahasa tubuh

orang itu sudah tahu, sudah paham.” (We usually

use body language, and they already understand)

3.11 Saying No

To say no, the practitioners tended to use simple

language such as “I’m so sorry, Sorry, I don’t have

it for you, We can’t help you and We can’t help

you”. The respondents did not use expressions such

as It sounds great, but ..., Wouldn’t it better if ..., or

I’d love to, but ...

3.12 Closing

In closing a conversation, the respondents used

common expressions such as “Thank you, Enjoy

your vacation, Have a nice day and Take care of

yourself”. They did not say expressions such as “I

will see you later, I will see you again, I will see you

around.”

3.13 Using Gadget

When asked about the use of gadget in their work,

most of the respondents said that they used it to

facilitate their business. Their gadget could help

them communicate, and could also help them find

some terms in their profession supposed they had

not understood them yet. One respondent said that

about 95% of the practitioners used a gadget to help

them in their work.

3.14 The Use of Technology

When they were asked whether they were willing to

use a program to help them in their profession via

android, most of them agreed to use it. One

respondent said, “Sangat bersedia” (Very willing to

use it). Another respondent said, “Sangat setuju”

(Strongly agree)

Based on the interviews, it was foud out that the

tourism practitioners agreed that politeness was very

important in their profession. They said that

politeness in English conversation played an

important role to maintain good communication so

that the tourists would feel welcome to be with

them. By so doing, they could make their guests stay

with them longer.

In real communication, politeness is often

neglected. Those who do not have background study

of English do not pay much attention to the

politeness in talking with tourists. Most of the

practitioners just want to be effective and practical

in their jobs, neglecting the politeness strategies that

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399

may affect their next business. Mostly, they do not

want to use complicated and theoretical expressions

of English. They tend to use the practical ones.

They do not care much about the expressions of

politeness in maintaining a conversation. They do

not know much about how to express some polite

gambits in English. They have little knowledge

about the variation of the degree of the politeness.

Take for example, when they are asking something,

they say “Can I help you?” instead of saying “Could

I help you?”, “Do you need help?” instead of saying

“Would you like me to do something, Sir?”, “You

like coffee? instead of Would you like some coffee?”.

They tend to say something directly and bluntly

in order to be closer to the tourists and to be

effective so that they ignore the formal expression,

for instance when they are asking, they say “Come

in please, where are you going?” instead of saying

“Would you come in please, where would you like to

go?”

Tourism practitioners who have good

background of English will pay much attention in

politeness because they know how to use the variety

of polite gambits in English. They usually have

enough knowledge about cross-cultural

understanding. They maintain a conversation with

tourists by using politeness strategies. They know

how to cope with misunderstanding in a polite way.

It was found out that to communicate with

tourist, the tourist guides often used gestures or bdy

language. When the communication broke down,

they just said sorry. The utterances they used are just

simple and humble. In fact, they need some kind of

knowledge on how to communicate with tourists

politely.

4 CONCLUSIONS

Tourism practitioners realize that it is very

important to be polite to the tourist when they

communicate. Being polite will make the tourist feel

comfortable and welcome, and in return the tourists

will stay longer with them, or they will make

successful deals in business.

To communicate with tourists politely, tourism

practitioners tend to use simple expressions due to

their lack of knowledge of politeness strategies.

What they practice is just enough to be able to

communicate in a simple way. They just want to be

simple and practical without knowing the impact of

what they say to the tourists.

Tourism practitioners need some kind of training

to enable them to communicate with tourists

politely. They lack knowledge of certain polite

expressions in English. They need some kind of

manual or program that they can refer to any time

they want to communicate in a polite way.

Examples of polite English expressions in their job

are needed.

REFERENCES

Foley, W.A., 2012. Anthropological linguistics. The

Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics.

Holmes, J., 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 2.

Aufl. Harlow ua: Pearson Education.

Levinson, P., Brown, P., Levinson, S.C., Levinson, S.C.,

1987. Politeness: Some universals in language usage.

Cambridge university press.

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