Fitting in or Standing out? a Conflict of Belonging and Identity in Intercultural Polite Talk at Work

This study analyzes how American interns in Japanese companies use Japanese addressee honorifics to assimilate to new cultural and professional settings. Data are drawn from recorded interactions of interns’ regular work activities and are supplemented with follow-up interviews. The analysis uses Interactional Sociolinguistics to link micro-level discursive practices revealed in records of interaction to macro-level ideologies revealed in interviews. Results suggest that interns use honorifics to conform to ideological beliefs regarding politeness and formality in Japanese companies. However, the analysis also reveals that such attempts to establish social belonging may become the very means by which an intern’s foreign or outsider position is brought to the foreground. This happens as (i) overgeneralized ideologies lead to unnatural use of honorifics, (ii) appropriate use of honorifics triggers an ‘other-ing’ response from interlocutors, and (iii) interns use honorifics ironically to resist marginalization. This research contributes to an understanding of how foreigners establishing belonging in international workplaces, contending that belonging emerges in gradients, assimilation does not require ‘native-like’ speech, and attempts at conformity may be counterproductive.