Have the opportunity to get a scholarship from international agencies such as TaiwanICDF and study abroad is a big opportunity for international students. Nonetheless, cultural differences are not being aware before coming to the new environment. Therefore, the adaptation process and cross-cultural communication is perceived by the international students as a barrier and difficult to get used to it as fast as the environment pushed them.
Across the study, the researcher has been mentioning that there is a closed relationship between language and culture, and the level the students have from Chinese will help them to adapt and to understand more about the culture, until the point they feel Taiwan is their home.
To understand and describe the opinions, expectations and feeling of undergraduate TaiwanICDF students were interviewed about their communication problems and about the steps taken to get adapted to the Taiwanese culture. The study followed a qualitative approach and an interview schedule was developed. 20 undergraduate students from different regions were interviewed to collect different perspective about the proposed topic, but 19 were involved in the analysis. Based on the results of this study, the researcher provided the following conclusions and recommendations.
Conclusions
The conclusions are divided into three categories, in which are included the four research questions developed in the first chapter. Each category explained in depth the conclusions to give the reader a better understanding, and as a summary the Table 5.1, on page 74, comprised the research questions and its conclusions The sections followed the same order as in chapter four; adaptation process of the undergraduate TaiwanICDF students, cross-cultural communication and language issues, and cross-cultural communication and adaptation role for undergraduate TaiwanICDF students.
Adaptation Process of the Undergraduate TaiwanICDF Students
The conclusion of adaptation process as mentioned before is divided into three categories, which responded to the first two research questions; how do undergraduate TaiwanICDF students perceive they deal with the culture shock issue, and what steps do they perceived they took to adapt themselves to the new culture?
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The undergraduate TaiwanICDF students have diverse experiences.
The students experienced a lot of feelings that did not let them perceive the best of the cultural exchange. Most of the students were experiencing language problems, racial problems, dietary changes, and feelings of rejection for the new culture. Those negatives thoughts, feelings and physical changes affected negatively their mood. These different experiences also determined that the common problems of the students while living abroad from Furnham and Bochner (cited in Lewthawaite, 1996) are accurate, and that the students actually passed through tough moments. However, it is important to mention that some of the students were able to change themselves in order adapt quicker, or at least to realized that they were living in a different country, with different people, and different cultural background. The students, as every human being, were concerned about their dietary changes, because their food and Taiwanese food is totally different. As a result some of the student experienced lost or gain of weight, in consequence they became sick. After reviewing their experiences, the researcher can conclude that the most difficult for these students were food, language, try to become part of the society, and modify certain personal habits, such as sleeping arrangement, living standards, among others.
The undergraduate TaiwanICDF students experienced culture shock.
While living in a new environment, there are some differences that nobody can change.
So living in Taiwan, where mostly cultural differences exist, provoked in these students negatives reactions towards the culture and people. Those negative reactions made them change their personality not entirely negatively but they felt it in that way. However, not all of the students took their experiences as bad experiences. As each person is different and thinks differently, the perceptions are also different. Some of the students, in fact the minority, try to embrace the culture in a positive way by experiencing new things, such as food; but try to not modify their own culture. As a result, for some of the students the culture represent the most difficult since they were comparing it and not doing something to embrace it or to accept the fact that they actually were living in a different environment.
The undergraduate TaiwanICDF students followed their own adaptation strategies to cope to the host culture.
Each person is different; consequently the adaptation steps followed by these students in order to cope to Taiwan also are different. However, between them exist certain similarities
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of what they did to cope to the cultural differences, and also the researcher can state that by regions the strategies were similar. All of them enjoyed the gatherings with their country mates in order to do something related to their country like cooking food from their own countries. Also, all of them confirmed that talking to their families and friends back home is very important to them. Some of them need their families send some goodies from back home, in order to release their homesickness.
There is not a list of what kind of steps a person should follow to get rid of homesickness or any sad feeling, but according to Zapf (1991) and Wilson et al. (1995) there are some directions that will help them to cope. Even though these are just recommendations, most of them indirectly followed their “steps”.
Cross-cultural Communication and Language Issues
The cross-cultural communication and language issues divided into two categories, which responded to the third and fourth research question from chapter one; how do they perceived they handled communication problems, and is communication perceived by them to be a problem for living or studying in Taiwan?
The undergraduate TaiwanICDF students followed different communication patterns.
The students suggested that the classes provided by the university and by TaiwanICDF do not give them the necessary tools to interact fluently with the local society. Therefore, they have been missing many things of the culture and the people. However, even though the classes are not enough, none of them practice by themselves the necessary in order to improve or demand more classes of Chinese language, which is a disadvantage for them.
On the other hand, when they want to practice the language they prefer to do it with local or native speakers of Chinese language. Some of them have friends that have been living within Taiwan for many years, or have study Chinese language for one year intensively, and therefore they have acquired a very good level, as the undergraduate TaiwanICDF students perceived. Their perception is that their Chinese is nothing comparing to those students and that they are in a big disadvantage with the language. Hence, the perception of these undergraduate TaiwanICDF students that Chinese is a difficult language decreased the probability to communicate frequently with the population using Chinese language.
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One interesting result is that they have been learning some new thing by their own, since they feel interest for something in particular, and they want to increase their life standards.
They perceived that by knowing more Chinese they will be able to increase their life standards; however this is paradoxical since those students confirm that their practice is not enough, and they use the language mixed with English or just English.
Other interesting thing is that as a language choice they keep talking their own native language or English to communicate with the international community or with their country mates. As a result from this, the acquirement of the Chinese language and practice is not high. While interacting with local they try to use the “baby” Chinese they know, however they feel discourage by the local, because locals do not understand their pronunciation or tones. In consequence, they use English as primer resource, then body language, and at least try to say the word or sentence in Chinese.
The undergraduate TaiwanICDF students experienced language anxiety while communicating with the host population.
Leaning a new language with different writing style, with so much history, with so many tones, is very difficult to master in short time. However, the students know that by learning it, their life expectancies will be better, but at the same time they are afraid of learning the language, since for them is very complex. Even there exists some anxiety feelings from the students, they perceived the language as interesting and they are willing to learn it, however not all of them are trying to learn it sincerely. Because one of the requirements of TaiwanICDF is to pass the Chinese proficient test, some of them feel anxious to get the Chinese language faster, but at the same time they are not getting it.
As the language anxiety is high for them, the students experienced the language shock, which is when the person cannot express itself due to language issues. As a result from this language shock, most of the students are depending on friends, native speakers or with acceptable level in Chinese language, for doing their own daily thing, making them not put much effort on learning the language.
Also as they still gathering with their country mates or English speaker students, the effort on practicing Chinese is really low, therefore this also will delay the communication process between the undergraduate students and the Taiwanese population.
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Cross-cultural Communication and Adaptation Role for Undergraduate TaiwanICDF Students
This section was not divided into any category since it responded directly to the third research question; is language perceived by them to be a problem for learning or studying in Taiwan?
The undergraduate TaiwanICDF students highly recommend the learning of the Chinese language to speed up their cross-cultural adaptation.
The lack of confidence of the Taiwanese population and the deficient level of English as in the 2012 information is stated at chapter one, might make that foreign students pass through several problems in communicating in their daily life, because of their non-Chinese knowledge. Therefore, all the students suggest and recommend, and even encourage, learning the language as part of their daily life.
By learning the language, the communication process will be easier and will speed up the adaptation process of these undergraduate students. Communicating is being efficient in order to transmit a message and that any person can understand it without any variations. Besides, sending the correct message, with the correct intonation, and using the 7 C’s of Cutlip and Center (1952), knowing the language will increase the interaction and respect for the host country.
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Summary of Conclusions for the Proposed Research Questions
Research Questions Conclusion some uncomfortable experiences. As every student is different, some develop their own reactions, such as change their own personality, reject the culture, embrace the culture but maintaining their own cultural background.
2. What steps do they perceived they took to adapt themselves to the new culture?
The students are diverse, therefore they coping strategies are diverse. However o all of them the contact with their family and friends back home is the most important strategy since they perceive support from them to continue in their journey. Also some of the students enjoy being surrounded by their own country mates and speak their own language. Others enjoy doing different activities, such as going to the church, cooking food from their own country, doing exercises, or traveling around Taipei and Taiwan.
3. Is language perceived by them to be a problem for living or studying in Taiwan?
All the students agree is not a problem while living in the capital city of Taiwan. In addition they encourage learning the language to enhance their coping process and show respect to the local society. The students developed a love-hate relationship regarding the language, and some are motivated and other pushed to keep learning the language. In consequence, language anxiety is experience by the students since they need the language to interact with the local society.
4. How they perceived they handled communication problems?
The Chinese courses varies from university to university, hence the students have different levels in Chinese language. In consequence, the students have been using communication patterns that allow them to communicate and interact with the local society such as breaking the Chinese language, using body language or pointing things. Also they are not practicing enough to get the Chinese language.
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Recommendations
The recommendations are listed by the population interested in this study as well for future research. The populations of interest for this study are the undergraduate TaiwanICDF students, TaiwanICDF agency, general population, and the implications for human resource practitioners.
For Undergraduate TaiwanICDF Students
The recommendations listed below were developed in order to reduce the gaps found in chapter four. The researcher recommends the current students and future students the following:
Current students.
1. Keep being open-minded to any culture difference, since it has been found that the students keep comparing their own culture with the host culture, as reflected in the subcategory socio-cultural perceptions.
2. Respect the cultural differences and do not complaint about things, since you are a guest in this country, as the students are passing through different psychological experiences.
3. As the students are facing difficulties while living in Taiwan regarding their cultural differences, the researcher suggest them to do not expect local people change just because many foreigners are coming to live in Taiwan, and show respect for the culture they are sharing.
4. People are different in many aspects, and in different culture environment takes time to learn new things and people, therefore being patient and tolerant is highly recommended.
5. As university is providing Chinese courses and they students are not practicing their Chinese skill often, the researcher highly recommend the students to keep learning the language, since they are living in this environment and people and culture will not change for them.
6. Use in every opportunity the language while communicating with locals by that they will know more vocabulary, more characters, and better speaking and listening skills, since they are using the same basic daily life communication patterns.
76 Future students.
1. Before coming to Taiwan, gather some information about the country they are going to, so they can understand the cultural differences and language. This recommendation is based on the cultural shock and the first adaptation findings that were experienced by the interviewees.
2. Contact with people of their own country to know their previous experiences in order to help themselves to get prepared for the new adventure, since the senior students are living here for many years and are familiar with many things about the culture and part of the language.
3. Since people is different, as well as own perception, the researcher recommends to the new students to not be afraid to try new things in order to build an own perspective and not to follow others perspectives, since it can be biased.
4. As interviewee students suggested for themselves to keep studying the language, since they perceived that doing so will improve their quality of live; hence the researcher recommends to the new students to try to learn the language and practice it as much as they can, since they are going to live here for four years.
For TaiwanICDF
For TaiwanICDF, as an agency, they are trying to give the best to the students. However, the students feel that with the Chinese classes that TaiwanICDF is providing are not enough to be proficient at the language, as mentioned in the theme communication patterns. Since TaiwanICDF policy of passing the Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language they should provide more hours for classes.
As the students also are not being encourage to keep practicing, even though they know the benefits the language might bring to them, the classes must imposed to the students. By imposing the classes, the students will feel forced and motivated to study the language;
however, it is important to balance the classes for these students because they need also to study their own bachelor degree, which might take most of their time. By forcing them to taken the Chinese classes, it is important to make them understand why they should learn the language and the benefits it might bring to their future. By explaining the benefits of the language and making them feel that the language is necessary, the students might get more interested on the language. Some of them are interested and some understand the future
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benefits of it, but there still some that even liking the language they feel they cannot succeed on it. Therefore, developing strategies to build interest on the language must be developed.
Each student develops their own level of Chinese; some get easier languages, therefore different levels must be open or individual classes must be imposed to them. There are a lot of Chinese teachers that need to do practice hours, and TaiwanICDF can pay them a little amount to teach the foreign students. By doing so, the control over the language acquisition is easier, as also the attendance of the students. This method will make the students study hard and be aware that TaiwanICDF is pushing them to learn the language for their own benefit.
The process of the students regarding the Chinese learning, as mentioned in chapter four, will help not only TaiwanICDF, but also the students, because their process will be evaluated by the teachers. In consequence, TaiwanICDF can take some actions to evaluate the changes during the process of the students while learning the language and determine in which stage TaiwanICDF can put more effort to help the students.
For General Population
For general population is difficult to make recommendations, since this research has just studied the undergraduate level and generalizations about foreign population cannot be done.
However, as Taiwan is attracting more and more foreigners to visit Taiwan, and to study or invest in Taiwan, some racial behaviors should be punished. This recommendation is based on the perception of some of the students, in their majority African and The Caribbean students, as shown in chapter four.
Also, Taiwan has their own culture, and that is respectable, but when people from other country come to live and interact with the locals, also open-mindedness from Taiwanese population is highly recommended.
For Future Research
As mention in chapter one very few studies have been done regarding the undergraduate level for studying abroad. In addition, there is not enough data or studies done for western countries, such as Central American, African and The Caribbean countries, while studying in Asian countries, and more directly in Taiwan.
The language is very different in Asian countries and in western countries, and therefore this a very big opportunity to study it. There are a lot of studies regarding this topic, but they
The language is very different in Asian countries and in western countries, and therefore this a very big opportunity to study it. There are a lot of studies regarding this topic, but they