The Faculty of Liberal Arts Thammasat University International Conference 2018
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The Faculty of Liberal Arts Thammasat University Proceedings (Volume 1) International Conference 2018 ‘Superdiversity and Coexistence in Our Changing World’ 13-14 September 2018 Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand CONTENTS CULTURE SHOCK AND ADAPTATION OF AFRICAN EDUCATION 1 SOJOURNERS IN THAILAND FEDELIS ABAM AND WANNAPA TRAKULKASEMSUK ENGAGEMENT OF RELIGIOUS MORAL PRINCIPLES TO RESTRICTION OF 12 RELIGIOUSLY MOTIVATED HATE SPEECH IN AN ISLAMIC CONTEXT WORAPONG CHAROENWONG FINDING BALANCE OF BUILDING CHILDREN’S DIGITAL RESILIENCE 19 BETWEEN OFFLINE AND ONLINE WORLD SUJITTRA KAEWSEENUAL RE-READING BEAUTY MYTH: THE INFLUENCE OF LIVING VALUES 28 EDUCATION (LVE) ON YOUNG PEOPLE’S PERCEPTION OF THE CONCEPT OF BEAUTY SRI HARIYATMI “THE BALANCE OF NATURE’S RESTORED”: ECOLOGICAL HOLISM AND 37 MAGIC IN PONYO ON THE CLIFF BY THE SEA. WISARUT PAINARK ENGLISH IN CONTEMPORARY VIETNAM: OBSTACLES AND 55 OPPORTUNITIES HANH DUC NGUYEN L2 MOTIVATION IN VIETNAMESE CONTEXT: THE APPLICATION OF THE 65 MOTIVATION SELF SYSTEM INTO ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING AT A UNIVERISY IN VIETNAM DAO NGUYEN¬A AND RATCHAPORN RATTANAPHUMMAB UNINTELLIGIBILITY: PROBLEMATIC LINGUISTIC AREAS OF 76 PRONUNCIATION AND THEIR IMPACT ON SELF-CONFIDENCE IN ENGLISH SPEAKING AMONG THAI ENGINEERING STUDENTS S. SINGHANUWANANON A AND K. CHATPUNNARANGSEE B AN ANALYSIS OF STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS PROMOTING 90 CRITICAL STANCE: A CASE STUDY OF AN ELF CLASSROOM IN BANGKOK WARAPON WONGWIT AND NUNTHIKA PUTTIKANON EXPLORING VOICE IN THAI EFL STUDENTS’ PARAGRAPHS 107 K. PAWABUNSIRIWONG A, S. THONGRIN B AND A. PUPIPAT C The Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University International Conference 2018 Proceedings (Volume 1) CULTURE SHOCK AND ADAPTATION OF AFRICAN EDUCATION SOJOURNERS IN THAILAND aFEDELIS ABAM, bWANNAPA TRAKULKASEMSUK aSchool of Liberal Arts, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand Email: [email protected] bSchool of Liberal Arts, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand Email: [email protected] ABSTRACT Education sojourners are increasingly enrolling in Tertiary Education institutions in Thailand. Focusing on the growing number of African international students (sojourners) in Thailand, this study explores the factors that can affect their adaptation and eventual quality stay in the host culture, from their own perspective. Their personal experiences with adaptation to Thai culture and culture shock in Thailand are examined. The study is a case of three African sojourners in Thailand. Applying Narrative inquiry in data collection through interviews, and analyzing the data thematically, it was discovered that the sojourners experienced little or no culture shock. They could adjust easily due to their multi-cultural and multi-linguistic backgrounds. The adjustment, as we found, was facilitated by the Thai collectivistic culture of nam jai (‘‘water of the heart’’), which forms the basis for the Thai care and concern for others. Contrary to most studies, this study views culture shock positively. It can therefore be concluded that sojourners with multi-cultural background turn to easily adjust to new contexts. Key words: culture shock, African sojourners, adjustment. 1. INTRODUCTION Education sojourners are increasingly enrolling in Tertiary Education institutions in Thailand. For their quality stay in the new environment, they must learn and adjust themselves to a new culture. To do so, they might go through lots of physical and mental stress which is usually referred to as Culture Shock. According to Ward (2001), Culture Shock is characterized by the feeling of nervousness and anxiety with unfamiliar customs and fear of some differences in the new country. Culture Shock involves series of challenges that may appear once sojourners encounter a host culture and such challenges are either interpersonal or intrapersonal. Interpersonal issues may emerge from a host of environmentally-situated concerns, such as, cultural differences, language, classroom experiences, and difficulty in communication and social interactions (Jacob & Greggo, 2001). Arthur (1997) adds that lack of social support and money are worries of some education sojourners. For Lin & Yi (1997), academic pressures, discrimination, family concerns, securing of employment after graduation, and readjustment to the home country are some of the issues raised by most education sojourners. 1 The Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University International Conference 2018 Proceedings (Volume 1) Intrapersonal challenges on the other hand can lead to a number of issues involving psychological and emotional problem such as anxiety, homesickness, feeling helpless, withdrawal, depression, loneliness, and frustration (Lin & Yi, 1997; Oberg, 1960, Ross & Krider, 1992). In furtherance, other researchers have reported that loss of identity (Brinson & Kottler, 1995) or feeling inferior as a visible reaction from most sojourners (Sandhu, 1994). Finally, critical health problem such as suicide attempt and schizophrenia concerning education sojourners have been reported by many researchers (Baron et all., 1991). These are all problems affecting the health of international students as well as their academic performance. Individuals who successfully navigate the process of adjustment to the host culture are often outstanding with a greater sense of esteem, confidence, and awareness. However, little or nothing has been done to explore and understand the factors that could make the experience of sojourning to a country with different culture, language and custom a positive instead of a negative experience. Thus identifying some of these factors is among the purposes of this study. Ultimately, while much knowledge has been gained over the last century about culture shock, this information is not without its gaps and limitations. This study seeks to, in its own way fill in the methodological and conceptual limitations of previous culture shock research by focusing on individual experiences and perceptions of international students from Africa. Considering the differences and similarities among these sojourners, as well as acknowledging the distinctive nature of their reactions to the culture shock phenomenon, will form the main drive and humanistic aspect of this research. Hence, this study seeks to answer the research question: “What are the personal experiences of African education sojourners with adaptation to Thai culture and culture shock in Thailand?” 1.1 Culture shock Following the lead of Oberge (1960), many researchers have defined culture shock as a disease. Foster (1962), for example, identifies this phenomenon as an unpreventable mental illness in which the victim becomes irritated and depressed. Similarly, Clarke (1976) asserts that culture shock is a disease related to schizophrenia due to the fact that international students’ wish to stay away from threatening social encounters with the host population while developing preventive mechanisms to avoid the impact of stress. Finally, more observance of this view of culture shock as an illness, Arensberg & Niehoff (1964) mentioned that it occurs during the first part of a sojourner’s encounter with the host culture, but similar to many illness, it is just for a while and easily resolved with consistent increase in awareness and coexistence with the local customs of the host culture as well as the host population. Researchers in the past, however, decided to go for descriptions that are more representative of the totality and the nature of the challenges experience by education sojourners in the host culture. Lysgaard’s (1955) famous U-shaped curve is evident of the medical process, representing the transition in the introductory stage from initial positive feelings about the host culture during the first six months, to negative ones sparked by conflict in culture and language problem in the loneliness stage from about six to 18 months, and finally to return to a “high” of cultural acceptance and adaptation in the integration stage from about 18 months onwards. Sewell & Davidsen’s (1956) study with 40 Scandinavian students at the University of Wisconsin also confirms this recuperation pattern in the participants’ personal and academic adjustments over a year. Oberg (1960) adds to Lysgaard’s (1955) conceptualization by coining the term culture shock and 2 The Faculty of Liberal Arts, Thammasat University International Conference 2018 Proceedings (Volume 1) illustrating four stages of this occupational disease: (a) honeymoon, which is characterized by a perfect relationship with the host culture and may be superficial, this phase may last anywhere from a few days or weeks to six months; (b) crisis may arise when language and communication barrier produce anger, frustration, and inadequacy that may lead to the desire to depart from the host culture; (c) recovery also occurs when sojourners start understanding the host culture, accept and develop coping strategies such as humor that may facilitate successful resolution of the crises; and (d) adjustment begins as soon as the sojourners know how to function in the host culture and the sojourners may even emerge with positive impressions. Similar to Lysgard (1955) and Oberg’s (1960) U-shaped model is Gullahorn & Gullahorn’s (1963) W- shaped model. The main difference lies in the extension of the earlier model to include a re-entry stage for sojourners returning to their home countries, as it is hypothesized that these sojourners will go through an acculturation process that is similar