In Indonesia, approximately 3% of the total population is Chinese-Indonesian, whose language of origin is Mandarin or another Chinese dialect. During the Suharto administration, these languages were prohibited in education and in the public domain. The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the status of language shift and language choice in Chinese-Indonesian communities. The study is based on 341 written questionnaires collected from Chinese-Indonesians in Jakarta, Medan and Yogyakarta. According to the results, in Jakarta there is a process of language shift from Chinese dialects to Indonesian, in Yogyakarta language shift is at the final stage, and in Medan, language shift is slight. While Indonesian was the dominant language of all the domains examined in Jakarta and Yogyakarta, Chinese dialects were the common language in most of the domains of Medan.

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This paper investigated the effect of two factors on the impression produced by emoticons? 1) generation and 2) the perceived frequency of emails with emoticons received from those of the same generation. Experiments were conducted in which thirty-eight university students (14 male, 24 female, average age 20.3) and thirty-four adults in their 40's and 50's (17 male, 17 female) were asked to rate their impressions of certain e-mail messages. Participants were also asked how frequently they received messages with emoticons from close friends of the same generation. The results indicated a significant relationship between the frequency of emoticon emails received from close friends and the impression produced by the emoticons. However, so far as the reception frequency was high, no significant differences could be observed between the generations in terms of the impression produced by the emoticons. These results suggest that conversational styles which utilize emoticons have an important effect on the impression produced by the emoticons in each respective community.

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This study is based on a survey conducted of 431 learners (Japanese and Koreans-in-Japan) of the Korean laguage in Japan. The first objective of the study was to develop a scale for mesuring the learners' images of the Korean language, Korea and Korean people. The second objective was to investigate the differences based on the backgroud of the students and the influence of particular "learning factors". The results indicated that Koreans-in-Japan placed a higher valuation on the image of the Korean language and this had no relation to the number of visits to Korea. Those who have Korean friends placed a high valuation on the image of Korea. Moreover, there was a close relationship between learners' proficiency in the language and their image of Korea? the greater their proficiency, the more positive was their image. Koreans-in-Japan placed more value on the 'historicsl foactor' than Japanese leraners, and men were more conscious of this than women. The image of Korean people as a whole is closely linked to these 'learning factors', in particular to their proficiency in the language. Thus, learners who are highly proficient in speaking Korean were found to set a high valuation on the image of Korean.

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This is an investigative study based on a questionnaire comparing Japanese (67 people) and Taiwanese (69 people) in terms of their consciousness of apology and guilt. The analysis yielded 5 factors - "Fault", "Aid Reception", "Courtesy", "Unfulfilled duty", and "Social-Norm Breaking" The results indicated that: (1) With regard to apology consciousness, significant differences were revealed relating to the factors of "Fault" and "Courtesy", in which the Japanese respondents showed higher apology consciousness than the Taiwanese. No significant differences were found for "Aid Reception", "Unfulfilled duty", and "Social-Norm Breaking". (2) With regard to guilty conscience, significant differences were found relating to the factors "Fault" and "Social-Norm Breaking". In terms of "Fault", the Japanese respondents showed a higher guilty conscience than the Taiwanese. However, in terms of "Social-Norm Breaking", the Taiwanese respondents showed a higher guilty conscience than the Japanese. (3) In both Japanese and Taiwanese respondents, a correlation was discovered between their apology consciousness and guilty conscience. In terms of "Fault", neither Japanese nor Taiwanese respondents showed a high correlation in their apology consciousness or guilty conscience. However, in "Aid Reception", "Courtesy", "Unfulfilled duty", and "Social-Norm Breaking" a high correlation was identified. Therefore, it can be concluded that guilty conscience is the major factor resulting in apology consciousness.

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The purpose of this article is to investigate differences in complaints between Japanese native speakers (JNS) and Korean native speakers (KNS). This study examines how complaints are expressed in everyday situations based on data from a discourse completion test (DCT) which consists of 15 simulated situations. Upon comparing complaint expressions by JNS and KNS in each situation, a difference was found between complaint strategies and expressions used by JNS and KNS to express complaints. Furthermore, the analysis revealed a difference between the external modifications used by JNS and KNS.

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This paper reports on the results of a survey regarding announcements on 'driver-only buses', i.e. buses without conductors, in the form of audio tapes or synthesized voice recordings, based on questionnaires distributed to bus operators on fixed routes throughout Japan. Regional variations were observed and mapped onto distribution charts. The differences included type of expressions, the names for certain bus facilities, and the frequency of honorific expressions.

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