Selection of the language to be used in a business encounter is of importance, as is
maintenance of this language for the duration of that period. Australian informants
report that extensive sequences of code-switching from English to Japanese sometimes
occur in Australian-Japanese interaction. It can be argued that code-switching is a direct
violation of English norms of politeness for it acts to exclude certain participants in the
encounter from the ensuing discourse. In the business luncheons in the video taperecorded
data, all the sequences which contained the ordering of the meal items by theJapanese businessmen were encoded in Japanese, an act which was negatively evaluated
by the Australians. In one long sequence covering the selection of three meal items, four
instances of code-switching occurred. In response, one of the Australians pursued two
types of actions. Firstly, he became involved in alternative activities such as
examination of the label of the bottle near him, indicating his disengagement from the
dialogue from which he was excluded. Secondly, he re-entered the discourse after each
of three sets of switches to the Japanese code, thus simultaneously terminating the codeswitch.
In two of these turns he sought information about the message expressed in
Japanese, yet was denied it. From the perspective of Australian rules of politeness, the
exclusion of the Australian from the selection process in this context was highly impolite.