A contrastive study of compliment responses among Persians and Australians: the effects of exposure to a new speech community

In this paper, the authors investigate whether Persians who have been exposed to Australian culture are still affected by their cultural norms—in particular by the politeness system taarof—in responding to compliments in an intercultural interaction. Compliment responses were elicited—through a Discourse Completion Task—from thirty participants (five males and five females in each of three groups): Persians in Iran, Persians in Australia, and Anglo-Australians. These responses were categorised according to Herbert's (1986) taxonomy and the results show that although there are similarities in the choice of compliment response types by Australians and Persians living in Australia, there are still some differences. This paper aims to contribute to knowledge of potential areas for miscommunications in intercultural interactions, and also to find ways to improve language teaching and learning.