Intercultural Im/politeness: perceptions of language choice and translanguaging in the Korean community in Australia

Abstract This paper furthers the literature on intercultural im/politeness by investigating the phenomenon of language choice in multilingual contexts. We investigate how choosing one language over another in contexts where two or more language codes are available can stem from concerns for maintaining or asserting politeness-related norms, and how unexpected or undesired language choices can lead to negative evaluations on the part of the interlocutor. We address these questions via the analysis of narratives collected in oral (76 narratives) and written (96 narratives) forms from members of the Korean community in Australia. The interviews focussed on participants’ experiences in service encounters where a Korean customer interacts with a Korean service provider. Despite both parties being Korean speakers, our analysis shows that participants are actively engaged in choosing whether to use Korean or English, and that such choices are motivated by complex and competing moral orders, linked to wider linguistic ideologies. Choosing Korean is tied up with moral orders connected to community membership and upkeeping Korean-style norms of social interactions. Meanwhile, English indexes notions of equality, and attempts to push back against traditional notions of Korean sociality. Ultimately, the negotiation of language choice ties in with the contested nature of im/politeness in intercultural contexts.