Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students

One of the features of today’s globalised living is multiculturalism and the growing internationalization of education that has resulted in greater movements of student population across various cultural boundaries. Most sojourner studies tend to focus on the experiences of immigrants, refugees, and the business communities while the experiences of the growing number of international students have been downplayed. Economic conditions and political situations in the late 1990’s have created educational opportunities for many developing countries including Malaysia. There was an increase in the number of students from developing countries with collectivist cultures studying in more similar cultural environments. Malaysia is the 12th most popular educational destination. It has been assumed theoretically that similarities in the cultural framework between the host culture and that of the international students will allow for a comfortable and more natural adaptation process. However, it is during sojourn that these students claim cultural group membership in the local context. It is here that the cultural identities of a group are negotiated, reinforced and challenged through everyday communication practices. This paper presents focus group findings with 30 Indonesian graduate students that explore their daily living experiences in an effort to unravel their process of enacting and engaging their identities through daily communication. Through their issues, challenges, and strategies for learning, living and adapting in a presumably similar cultural setting, this paper presents an account of their adaptation that reveal the unpacking of labels and norms that distinguishes them from the locals and affirms their cultural identity as Indonesians

Eksplorasi adaptasi antarabudaya pelajar Melayu di Australia dan United Kingdom

Kajian ini dijalankan bertujuan untuk menganalisis proses adaptasi antarabudaya pelajar Melayu di Australia dan United Kingdom sewaktu melanjutkan pengajian mereka ke peringkat Ijazah Sarjana (Master) dan Ijazah Kedoktoran (Phd). Fokus kajian ini tertumpu kepada perbezaan budaya dan cara hidup pelajar di luar negara. Model Lekuk-U (Lysgaard, 1955) telah digunakan sebagai asas kepada penyelidikan) yang bermula dari peringkat bulan madu (honeymoon stage), peringkat kejutan budaya (culture shock stage), peringkat pelarasan (adjustment stage) dan akhir sekali peringkat penguasaan (mastery stage). Empat kumpulan fokus telah dijalankan membabitkan pelajar-pelajar sarjana Melayu yang telah belajar di Australia dan United Kingdom. Hasil analisis dapatan kajian mendapati bahawa peringkat berbulan madu (honeymoon stage) tidak dilalui oleh pelajar ini kerana peringkat awal di negara baru lebih tertumpu untuk menyesuaikan diri dan mempelajari bagaimana untuk beradaptasi. Mereka kurang mempunyai masa untuk bersuka-ria. Walaupun terdapat cabaran sebagai seorang Muslim di luar negara, pelajar mampu menjalani hidup dengan baik kerana negara luar telah mula mendapat pendedahan tentang cara hidup orang Islam

Program kegiatan semangat kejiranan: satu strategi komunikasi antarabudaya ke arah perpaduan masyarakat

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Stories of sojourn: A CMM analysis of the intercultural interactions of Malay women

Sojourn is a composition of intercultural interactions where people (re)constitute the various forms of life such as cultural patterns, autobiographies, relationships, and episodes. This dissertation is a compilation of the stories of sojourn of three Malay women as interpreted within the theoretical framework of Coordinated Management of Meaning, hereafter referred to as CMM (Pearce and Cronen, 1980). It is an episodic analysis of their reported daily interactions with Americans and other Malays during their sojourn in the United States. This episodic method allowed the reconstruction of stories from the responses elicited through circular questions. The CMM analysis included the similarities and differences in daily interactions, the tensions and emotions that emerged, patterns of resistance, stability, and transformations that were intrinsic in their lived experiences. A review of the three cases revealed that initial episodes with Americans reflected Malay patterns of interaction. These patterns of cultural communication created tensions and misunderstandings. Patterns of intercultural communication emerged after these women recognized that there are differences between their cultural ways. The ability to coordinate these intercultural interactions was a consequence of the implicative effects of their lived experiences. These lived experiences redefined their autobiographical stories and subsequently transformed their actions and interpretations of their told stories. It was also found that emotions have a role as social action that (re)constitute particular situations. Nevertheless, interactions with other Malays reflected a Malay pattern and any attempt to do otherwise was met with resistance. There are several implications of this study for intercultural research. First, the episodic analysis renders sojourn as an experience that is situated and interactive. It provides an in-depth, reflexive and interactive look into the lived experiences of sojourners. Second, this research is a co-construction and interactive process between the researcher and reciprocators for it allowed an active participation of the reciprocators. Third, the analysis reflected the creation of stories within a Malay cultural pattern. This is significant for intercultural research since both the researcher and the women affected the questions, data, and subsequently the findings. Thus, intercultural research is a contextualized and situated account

Identity constructions in a networked world: a look at young adults in Malaysia

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Sojourn and intercultural communication research: a social constructionist viewpoint

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Facial expression as an attribute in communication

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Media consumption among young adults: a look at labels and norms in everyday life

Globalisation has been criticised for challenging national sovereignty and cultural identities. Although its cultural homogenising tendencies have met with scepticism by many, one cannot deny the onset of a new global culture with the media environment bracketing it. In Malaysia, the privatization policy of 1985 brought active participation of the commercial sector into the media industry. Today, transnational television programmes are no longer predominantly from the United States but there are a significant number from other countries including Asian. This paper explores the patterns and consequences of media consumption on the labels and norms of young adults. A focus group study of thirty multi-ethnic young adults (20 to 25 years old) delved into labels and norms. The findings revealed that the young adults preferred media content with recurring cultural themes, action and reality genres and everyday socialization is also along ethnic lines. One Malaysia is indeed a timely and much needed policy

Sustainability of internet usage: a study among malay youth in Kota Bharu, Kelantan

This article discusses the issue of sustainability of internet usage. It is based on the study on Internet usage among Malay youths in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. The objectives of the study are to determine the factors which have positive and negative effects on sustainable usage of the Internet with respect to Malay youths and to identify the predictor factors for sustainability of Internet usage among Malay youths. This study is based on a model derived from diffusion of innovation theory, i.e. the innovation decision process model, by Rogers (2001). To determine sustainability, four variables were used viz. indispensability, relevance, gratification and beneficial. Six factors were used to measure their effects, either positive or negative, on sustainability of Internet usage. Communication channels, perceived and realized benefits and interpersonal and social network were the factors used to gauge positive effects on sustainability of Internet usage, while security concern and interruptions, moral issues and cost of maintenance and computer upgrade were used to gauge negative effects. This study used the survey research for obtaining data. Some 225 respondents were sampled from the Malays in Kota Bharu, Kelantan. They were interviewed using a standard questionnaire. Inferential statistics comprising multiple regression were used to analyse the data. The results of the study showed that Interpersonal and social network and perceived and realized benefits have significant positive effects on sustainability of Internet usage. The results also showed that issues relating to security concerns and interruptions have significant negative effect on the sustainability of Internet usage. Therefore, the factors which affect sustainability of usage should be given priority in the implementation of Internet and ICT related projects