Pragmatics Skills in Intercultural Communication of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Malaysia

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-162-3_9How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Indonesian migrant workers; pragmatic skills; intercultural

Abstract

Intercultural communication between the Indonesian migrant workers and their Malaysian employers as well as their coworkers coming from other countries suggests them to have good pragmatic skills. These are important not only for the workers themselves to support the jobs but also for their employers of the workers and their business of the employers. Interviews to 12 Malaysian employers and 16 Indonesian migrant workers working in areas in Kuala Lumpur were conducted to collect information related to the pragmatic skills expected by the employers and possessed by the workers in their business as well as daily non business interaction between them. The results show that although Malay language seems similar to Indonesian language, the Indonesian workers are aware that socially and culturally their employers and the Malaysian society have different social/cultural value and norms related to politeness. On that account, the workers tried to adapt the hosting language and culture in relation to several pragmatic behaviors such as showing politeness strategies, avoiding conflicts, showing honor or deference to their employers and local people. On the other hand, the Malaysian employers accommodated their workers’ efforts in adapting the Malaysian language and culture such as hiring senior workers as translators for the new coming migrant workers, and also for complicated instructions.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Djatmika Djatmika
AU  - Riyadi Santosa
AU  - Agus Hari Wibowo
AU  - Bahtiar Mohamad
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/23
TI  - Pragmatics Skills in Intercultural Communication of Indonesian Migrant Workers in Malaysia
BT  - Proceedings of the International Seminar SEMANTIKS & PRASASTI 2023 Theme: Language in the Workplace (PRASASTI 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 61
EP  - 66
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-162-3_9
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-162-3_9
ID  - Djatmika2023
ER  -