“What They Do That We Don’t Do”: Ethnic Identity Representation In Students’ Intercultural Experiences
The rapid process of emigration and immigration in this 21 st century has resulted in a remarkable population change across national borders. This trend has led to the re-assertion of ethnic identities and the attention on ethnic differences as an important agenda for many societies. Accordingly,...
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2015
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.usm.my/32112/1/Syarizan_Dalib.pdf http://eprints.usm.my/32112/ http://www.icmcc2015.usm.my/ |
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| Summary: | The rapid process of emigration and immigration in this 21 st century has resulted in a
remarkable population change across national borders. This trend has led to the re-assertion of
ethnic identities and the attention on ethnic differences as an important agenda for many
societies. Accordingly, ethnic identities have become relevant in how we understand the process
of communication between diverse people in this global world. Despite the consciousness of
ethnic identities, the tendency to approach intercultural communication through the lens of
nationality remains dominant in the field. As researchers are influenced by the idea that “national
culture” is shared by all cultural members, utilizing nationality as the unit of analysis often forces
researchers to analyse the unifying elements that describe the whole populations and ignore
differences between groups. Consequently, such tendency has led researchers to utilize
homogenizing views in their analysis, hence simplifying the complex nature of heterogeneous
environment where people of different ethnic identities may co-exist. As such, scholars have
pointed out that ethnic identities are not fully addressed in the analysis of intercultural
communication. This study explores the representation of ethnic identities in intercultural
experiences among diverse students in a Malaysian university. In-depth phenomenological
interviews were conducted with fifteen participants. Two themes emerged from the data analysis
that elucidates the intricate nature of ethnic identities in students’ intercultural experiences: (i)
identifying self as an ethnic being and (ii) encountering differences between self and the other.
The central metaphorical interpretation that emerged from this study, that is, “what they do that
we don’t do”, recognizes not only participants’ consciousness of their ethnic identities that filter
their interpretations of selves and the other in their communication, but also consciousness of
dissimilar communication behaviours. The findings of this study offer an interesting insight on
ethnic identities as it is situated within students’ intercultural experiences. It contributes into
thinking through the complex representation of ethnic identities as a framework for
understanding the process of intercultural communication. |
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