Encounters with Difference: Student Perceptions of the Role of Out-of-Class Experiences in Education Abroad

149 Pages·1994·0.62 MB·English

by  Michael R. Laubscher

ENCOUNTERS
WITH
DIFFERENCE
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ENCOUNTERS
WITH
DIFFERENCE
Student Perceptions of the
Role of Out-of-Class Experiences
in Education Abroad
Michael R. Laubscher
Contributions to the Study of Education, Number 105
Paul Pedersen, Series Adviser
GREENWOOD PRESS
Westport, Connecticut • London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Laubscher, Michael R.
Encounters with difference : student perceptions of the role of
out-of-class experiences in education abroad / Michael R. Laubscher.
p. cm.—(Contributions to the study of education, ISSN
0196–707X ; no. 105)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0–313–28977–8 (alk. paper)
1. American students—Foreign countries. 2. Foreign study.
3. Experiential learning. 4. Student exchange programs. I. Title.
II. Title: Student perceptions of the role of out-of-class
experiences in education abroad. III. Series.
LB2376.L3 1994
370.19′6—dc20 93–37505
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 1994 by Michael R. Laubscher
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 93–37505
ISBN: 0–313–28977–8
ISSN: 0196–707X
First published in 1994
Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
Printed in the United States of America
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48–1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction xi
1. The Theoretical Context 1
2. The Student Informants 13
3. Participant Observation as a Way of Learning about Cultural
Differences 23
4. Personal Interaction as a Way of Learning about Cultural
Differences 47
5. Travel as a Way of Learning about Cultural Differences 65
6. Student Perceptions of Primary Outcomes 77
7. Conclusions 95
8. Recommendations 109
Bibliography 119
Index 125
This Page Intentionally Left Blank
Preface
On one thing all three of them could agree: When viewed in retrospect, it
was definitely an interesting, if baffling, experience.
Jennifer, Luke, and Sandra—Penn State students who were spending the
fall semester of their junior year at the National Taiwan University—were
on one of their customary weekend outings, crunched into a packed train
en route from Taipei to Kaohsiung. Darkness had already settled over the
landscape, obscuring all except the occasional twinkle of lights in the
distance. They all felt excitement building as they approached this strange
city in what was still a strange culture—an excitement heightened by an
element of anxiety as the reality of their situation began to sink in: It was
approaching 10 P.M., they still had twenty to thirty kilometers to go, and
they had neglected to make advance accommodation arrangements.
As Luke and Sandra later related, the two of them were sitting quietly
together, each privately contemplating what to expect in the hours ahead,
when Jennifer came rushing back from where she had been sitting with a
young Chinese man just a few rows ahead. According to Jennifer, she was
attempting to engage her fellow passenger in idle conversation, during
which she informed him that she and her American friends were on their
way to Kaohsiung for the weekend. What exactly happened next in the
conversation is still not totally clear: Unable to recall specific details,
Jennifer could only recollect that at some point she conveyed to him the fact
that they were arriving without hotel reservations. She then understood
him to say that it would be impossible to find a hotel room in Kaohsiung
at such an hour and that he would be happy to take them in for the night.
Luke and Sandra were naturally skeptical. As Sandra observed when
recounting the incident, “ Jenny thought she understood more Chinese
viii PREFACE
than she really did, and we weren’t sure she understood what this fellow
had actually said to her.” Moreover, there was the danger that she had not
only misunderstood the language but also the intent, as reflected in an
observation Luke made about what happened that night:
Maybe she didn’t quite understand what was going on. According to Chinese
culture, whenever anyone offers you anything, you always refuse it at least once—
maybe two or three times. We were afraid that he had offered to let us stay over out
of sheer courtesy, and she had just said, “Okay, sure.” And that may not have been
his intention at all.
Their skepticism was later reinforced when Sandra learned that “he had
never talked to a foreigner before. He told Jenny that.” Sandra speculated
in retrospect that it was only by accident that he found himself sitting next
to this young American who “was friendly enough and outgoing enough
and curious enough” to draw him into a conversation and that “on a whim
she told him about our plans and without really thinking he invited us to
his house. I really have no idea why.”
In any case, the three of them accepted his invitation without the benefit
of the foregoing analysis gained from hindsight, and in a matter of mo-
ments they were hustled off the train, thinking that they had arrived in
Kaohsiung ahead of schedule. Only after leaping from the train and glanc-
ing around the station did they realize that they were virtually in the middle
of nowhere. They had simply assumed that their host-to-be, whose name
they had now learned was Huang, lived in Kaohsiung. This was now quite
obviously not the case. In Sandra’s words, “We were walking across this
deserted railroad station. It was twelve o’clock at night. And we realized
we weren’t in Kaohsiung and had no idea where we were going to end up.”
The surprise of disembarking in a remote area was only slightly softened
by the surprise of finding that the deserted train station was not so deserted
after all. As they walked from the main platform toward the exit, they saw
an elderly Chinese couple approaching; this produced a subtle but evident
change in the gait of their new companion—a change that they later
attributed to embarrassment. It was soon apparent that the couple had been
expecting the young man, who proved to be their son, and while Sandra,
Luke, and Jennifer were certainly far from fluent in reading Chinese facial
expressions, they could tell that the parents were confused and puzzled by
the presence of three Americans. In Sandra’s words, “His parents were
shocked to see him walking with three foreigners. And then to find out that
he had invited those foreigners to stay in their home!”
Whatever possessed the young man to make such an impulsive gesture
is still a mystery to the three students. Sandra learned during the course of
the night that “he hadn’t seen his parents in three months. He had been at
a cram school in Taipei preparing to get into the university.” The parents
were obviously picking him up at the station for a home visit that had now
PREFACE ix
been disrupted by guests who were not only unexpected but also foreign.
By this time, Sandra, Jennifer, and Luke were becoming embarrassed
themselves, but there was no way of rolling back the film and starting over.
The adventure became more intriguing when they discovered that the
sole mode of transportation was an old truck with limited passenger space.
“All they had was a vegetable truck,” according to Sandra. “They were
farmers. So we climbed into the back of this vegetable truck and drove
through the countryside to their farm.” None of the students was privy to
the conversation between Huang and his parents in the cab of the truck,
but they all agreed, looking back, that the parents had to have been
disconcerted and embarrassed. Luke consulted with one of his Chinese
professors upon returning to Taipei and concluded that “we had caused his
parents to lose a great deal of face by just showing up when they hadn’t
prepared anything. That made them look bad.” Sandra independently
agreed that “his parents were embarrassed because they had nothing
prepared for us. He had put us in the most ‘losing face’ position and his
parents, too. We were all mortified.”
Soon after arriving at the farm, the three adventurers found themselves
being whisked away by their newly acquired friend for a midnight snack.
Since the parents had nothing to offer in the way of a home-cooked meal,
the young man apparently had no other choice than to treat them to a
commercially prepared one. Given the confusion and the stress of the
evening’s events, together with the limited linguistic proficiency of the
American students, it is not surprising that there was little in the way of
conversation for the rest of the night—although their Chinese host did use
this occasion to confess that his parents were deeply embarrassed by what
had happened. They never saw the parents again, and early the next
morning Huang returned them to the secluded train station, where they
were able to continue to their original destination.
While Luke at least discussed the incident with a faculty member, none
of the students can fully explain what happened that night. It is an adven-
ture that all three of them have now catalogued in their mental diary of
fascinating but puzzling experiences. In alluding to their one-night ac-
quaintance and host, Sandra summed up the experience in the following
reflection: “His last name was Huang, which means yellow. So we stayed
at this guy’s place for one night in the middle of nowhere, he was our age,
and all we knew was that his name was Yellow.”