European students’ learning adaptation to socio-cultural interactions in Taiwan

Abstract

Taiwan has gained popularity among European university students as an ideal destination in exchange programs. This study aims to compare European students’ perceived Chinese cultural values with those of Taiwanese students and to provide a deeper understanding of the cultural and social interactions of European students in Taiwan. A personal survey and in-depth interviews were administered in five major universities in northern, central, and southern part of Taiwan to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data. European students consider few Chinese cultural values like knowledge, kindness, tolerance of others, and harmony with others higher than those of local Taiwanese students. In few traditional Chinese cultural values like gift giving, courtesy, prudence, Taiwanese students value them with higher scores than European students do. With reference to the Chinese culture in particular, European students have to deal with different teaching styles and different norms while communicating with instructors and local students in Taiwan. Five themes were formalized to describe European students’ experiences in Taiwan focusing on lifestyles, acculturative stress, learning, language issues, and social interactions with local people. The learning adaptation, individually distinctive, converges to positive experiences through socio-cultural interactions, which makes the experiences valuable and precious. European students do not overlook European ways of engaging with instructors, but they perceived, internalized and demonstrated their learning process in Taiwanese higher education. Cultural interactions enrich teaching and learning environment which benefits European students and Taiwanese students to a great extent.