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...

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Main Author: Latiffah Pawanteh
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Pusat Pengajian Media dan Komunikasi, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2015
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/1/V31_2_30.pdf
id ukm-10030
recordtype eprints
spelling ukm-100302017-01-24T04:41:21Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/ Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students Latiffah Pawanteh, 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. Pusat Pengajian Media dan Komunikasi, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2015 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/1/V31_2_30.pdf Latiffah Pawanteh, (2015) Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students. Jurnal Komunikasi ; Malaysian Journal of Communication, 31 (2). pp. 515-532. ISSN 0128-1496 http://www.ukm.my/jkom/journal/volumes/volume31-2-2015.html
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Local University
institution Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia
building UKM Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
language English
description 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.
format Article
author Latiffah Pawanteh,
spellingShingle Latiffah Pawanteh,
Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students
author_facet Latiffah Pawanteh,
author_sort Latiffah Pawanteh,
title Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students
title_short Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students
title_full Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students
title_fullStr Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students
title_full_unstemmed Communicating identities among “others”: experiences of Indonesian graduate students
title_sort communicating identities among “others”: experiences of indonesian graduate students
publisher Pusat Pengajian Media dan Komunikasi, Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
publishDate 2015
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/10030/1/V31_2_30.pdf
first_indexed 2023-09-18T19:56:19Z
last_indexed 2023-09-18T19:56:19Z
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