Shift of Politeness Strategy made by The Indonesian Caregivers in Japan

This article adresses the shift of politeness strategy made by the Indonesian caregivers in Japan. This current study focuses on two things; they are the strategy of politeness chosen and the shift of politeness strategy made by the Indonesian caregivers. The Indonesian caregivers used as the subjects of the study totaled 68. They were employed at eight homes for the elderly where the elderly people they served stayed, located in Osaka, Toyohashi, and Yokohama Japan. The data in the form of conversational text which was gathered in natural setting when the caregivers interact with the elderly people. The result shows that the Indonesian caregivers used more than one politeness strategy in the process of communication between them and the elderly people. They used both the negative and positive politeness strategies. Even in one event of communication, they alternated the two strategies, indicating that the context of situation in which one utterance was made caused them to shift from one strategy of politeness to another. As already known that Japan is a country with a ‘high context culture’, meaning that the context in which one event of communication takes place is highly important in the social culture where the Japanese language is used.