Handling my Difficulty in Communicating with Japanese Tourists Who Could not Speak English Well During my Internship at Bali International Diving Professionals as a Diving Instructor.

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Universitas Kristen Maranatha

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ABSTRACT

Bahasa Inggris sangat penting dalam era globalisasi. Dalam tugas akhir ini, saya memaparkan kesulitan yang dihadapi saat berkomunikasi dengan wisatawan Jepang yang tidak bisa berbahasa Inggris dengan baik pada proses magang. Proses magang saya berlangsung di Bali International Diving Professionals (BIDP) selama satu bulan dengan posisi sebagai instruktur selam. Adapun tujuan dari penulisan ini adalah untuk membahas solusi yang tepat untuk memecahkan masalah tersebut. Metode yang digunakan adalah kajian pustaka yang mana pengumpulan data berasal dari jurnal magang dan referensi dari buku dan artikel.

Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa ada tiga faktor penyebab masalah yaitu wisatawan Jepang yang tidak dapat berbahasa Inggris, saya tidak bisa berbahasa Jepang dan tidak memiliki rekan kerja yang dapat berbahasa Jepang serta tidak adanya buku petunjuk penyelaman dalam bahasa Jepang di BIDP. Adapun akibat dari masalah tersebut adalah saya banyak menghabiskan waktu saat memberikan instruksi penyelaman, para wisatawan tidak mengerti petunjuk yang diterangkan dan saya lelah dan khawatir karena harus menjelaskan instruksi penyelaman. Solusi yang diambil untuk mengatasi masalah tersebut ialah saya bekerja dengan orang baru yang dapat berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Jepang, saya menggunakan gerakan tubuh saat memberikan petunjuk penyelaman, dan saya bersama rekan saya menggunakan PowerPoint_{dalam dua bahasa}

yaitu bahasa Inggris dan Jepang dalam memberikan petunjuk penyelaman.

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

English language is important in tourism industry because English is

an international language and the most common language spoken

everywhere. Caroline Hardwick states, “The current position of English as

the main language used for international communication means that it is

essential for people dealing with tourists of any kind’’ (par. 1). The benefit

of using English in tourism is to communicate with foreign tourists

especially to inform, to request, to question or to give directions.

I had some working experience in tourism industry when I did my

internship at Bali International Diving Professionals (henceforth, BIDP) one

of the famous diving service providers in Bali. I worked as a diving

instructor for about 1 month. During my internship, I prepared the diving

equipment such as filling gas into gas tube and measuring Bouyance

Control Device (BCD), also giving fins and mask to the tourists. I also

became a guide, gave diving instructions to the tourists, and explored

under water around Bali (Tulamben, Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan,

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Most of the foreign tourists were Japanese. There were four or five

Japanese people in one group. They came to BIDP for diving three or four

times in a week. Before diving, the diving crew who could not speak

Japanese and I picked up the tourists from the hotel to the diving spot.

Then, we tried to use the equipment in BIDP office and we went to the

diving site. I should give diving instructions before they were going to see

beautiful scenes underwater.

As a diving instructor, I had a problem when communicating with

Japanese tourists who could not speak and understand English well.

Before diving, I had to give instructions to the tourists about how to dive,

what they had to do and what they should not do underwater, also about

diving safety. However, I had difficulty in communicating with them. I could

not explain the instructions in English because they did not understand

what I was talking about. Thus, I would like to find out the solutions and

solve the problem to increase the diving service.

B. Identification of the Problem

The research questions are formulated in the following statements:

1. Why did I have difficulty in communicating with Japanese tourists

when I was working as a diving instructor ?

2. How did the problem influence the Japanese tourists and me ?

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C. Objectives and Benefits of the Study

The objectives of this study are to find out the causes of my difficulty in

communicating with Japanese tourists, to know the effects of the problem

and to solve the difficulty in communicating with Japanese tourists.

There are several benefits of this study: First, for the staff at Bali

International Diving Professionals, they will gain some information about

giving better service to foreign tourists. Second, for the readers, they will

get some information about overcoming the difficulty in communicating

with Japanese tourists when giving instructions about diving. Third, I will

learn how to communicate with Japanese tourists who could not speak

English well and how to solve the problem.

D. Description of the Institution

The data is based on the information from scubadive and

bidp-balidiving. Bali International Diving Professionals (henceforth, BIDP) was

established in 1999. BIDP is a Scuba Schools International (SSI) Instructor

Training Centre & Professional Dive Centre and one of the famous diving

service providers in Bali. BIDP office is located in Blanjong I street No. 33

Sanur – Bali. Avandy Djunaidi is the owner and the director of BIDP.

BIDP provides fun diving and diving trips around Bali and to the Nusa

islands east of Bali’s beach, scuba diving courses from junior level to dive

master level certification, provides technical diving with nitrox and trimix

gasses, double cylinder configuration and deco stages which is operated

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handicapped people and also arranges an amazing underwater

experience for handicapped, arranges liveaboard diving to Nusa Penida

island, Komodo National Park and Sumbawa and also provides

professional video shooting and production, shows beautiful underwater at

Bali.

The vision and mission of BIDP is to provide all divers, from all

nationalities, of all abilities and levels, with an excellent, safe and

enjoyable dive experience in Bali. Divers can dive safely because BIDP

provides good facilities. There are many facilities in BIDP to support safe

and enjoyable diving. First, they have four fully air conditioned mini buses

to pick up the tourists from the hotel to the office and the harbor. Second,

there is a speedboat with helpful boat crew to take the tourists to diving

spot. Third, there is a classroom and a swimming pool to support diving

instructors to explain the material about diving and to practice how to dive

in the pool. BIDP also has a full set of scuba diving equipment which is

made by acknowledged manufacturers in the world and there is a gas

filling station that produces good and clean gas for divers and instructors.

(www.scubadivebali.com/about-bidp/ and

www.bidp-balidiving.com/about-us/who-we-are/)

E. Method of the Study

The data collection is from my internship journal and library research

(books and articles from the Internet). The data of my internship journal is

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diving instructor. The data is used to analyze the causes, effects and the

potential solutions of the problem.

F. Limitation of the Study

The focus of this study is on handling my difficulty in communicating

with Japanese tourists who could not speak English well during my

internship at Bali International Diving Professionals. The subjects of this

study are the Japanese tourists and I. The period of my internship was

from 6 January 2014 to 30 January 2014.

G. Organization of the Term Paper

The Term Paper starts with the Abstract. It is followed by Declaration

of Originality, Acknowledgements and Table of Contents. The paper is

divided into four chapters. Chapter One is the Introduction, which consists

of Background of the Study, Identification of the Problem, Objectives and

Benefits of the Study, Description of the Institution, Method of the Study,

Limitation of the Study and Organization of the Term Paper. Chapter Two

presents problem analyses which analyze the causes and the effects of

the problem. Chapter Three contains potential solutions along with the

positive and negative effects. Chapter Four is the Conclusion of the

problem. It describes the best solutions and suggestions related to the

solution. There is a Bibliography which is the list of references used in this

paper. Furthermore, this Term Paper also has Appendices that contain a

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I would like to discuss the chosen solution for my

problem which is difficulty in communicating with the Japanese tourists

who could not speak English well during my internship at Bali International

Diving Professionals as a diving instructor. There are three causes of the

problem namely the Japanese tourists had poor English, I could not speak

Japanese and did not have any partners who can speak Japanese, and

there was no Japanese instruction books from BIDP. Moreover, the effects

of the problem are it took a long time to give a briefing to Japanese

tourists, the tourists misunderstood my instructions about diving, and I got

upset and worried because I had to explain the diving instructions. To

solve the problem, there are three potential solutions. First, I will work in a

team with a new instructor who can speak Japanese to be my partner to

explain the diving instructions. Second, I will use body language when

giving the diving instructions in English. Third, I will ask Mr. Jaka to

design slides using two languages (English and Japanese) to give the

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Based on the analysis, applying the second and third potential solutions

will be effective to deal with the problem. The second potential solution is I will

use body language when giving the diving instructions in English. Body

language is easy to practice so the tourists will follow the instructions quickly.

The third potential solution is my leader and I will design slide shows using

two languages (English and Japanese) to inform the diving instructions.

There will be colorful slides that explain about diving instructions. It will make

the tourists remember the instructions because the slides are translated into

Japanese. I do not choose the first potential because there are many

negative effects of the solution, such as teamwork might fail, might have

conflicts or arguments and the company will spend extra money to hire a new

instructor.

I have some suggestions for the BIDP staff. First, BIDP should provide

diving instructions books in another language besides English. Second, BIDP

should employ a diving instructor who can speak Japanese and other

languages and the last, the staff should study Japanese at least some

sentences related to the diving instructions.

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