Presentation Information
[SY-96-04]Transforming Challenges into Resilience in Cross-cultural Adaptation among Medical Students in Japan
*Chizuko Tezuka (formerly Keio University(Japan))
For more than 20 years, I have worked both in multicultural counseling for international students and in teaching English-based psychoeducational courses such as Japanese psychology and intercultural communication where Japanese and international students learn together at a private university in Tokyo. Hopefully, this background will qualify me to serve as a discussant at this symposium.
Three ambitious and intelligent female students from Mongolia, Malaysia, and Iraq studying in graduate programs of Shiga University of Medical Science are willing to share descriptive and reflective studies of their own complex and challenging experiences of cross-cultural adaptation not only in academic spheres but also in everyday life and, more deeply, in adjusting to the Japanese indirect and less emotionally expressive communication style, which lies at a deeper layer of Edward Hall’s (1976) Iceberg Model of Culture.
Drawing upon this background, I will try to discuss their precious insights and workable strategies that they have gained through their successful process of overcoming these challenges and even transforming them into resilience, within a broader theoretical framework of what is essential for better cross-cultural adaptation in terms of helpful attitudes and skills so that participants of this symposium can take away something valuable and applicable to their own intercultural adjustment.
Furthermore, accepting international students implies other but similarly precious challenges for a host university and a host community. Particularly when we are encouraged to learn together through intercultural communication with them, I will discuss a concrete case of providing a welcoming Ibasho (a place where one feels safe and accepted as one is) for both Japanese and international students, drawing upon my own experience of providing an alternative learning space for them outside of campus.
Three ambitious and intelligent female students from Mongolia, Malaysia, and Iraq studying in graduate programs of Shiga University of Medical Science are willing to share descriptive and reflective studies of their own complex and challenging experiences of cross-cultural adaptation not only in academic spheres but also in everyday life and, more deeply, in adjusting to the Japanese indirect and less emotionally expressive communication style, which lies at a deeper layer of Edward Hall’s (1976) Iceberg Model of Culture.
Drawing upon this background, I will try to discuss their precious insights and workable strategies that they have gained through their successful process of overcoming these challenges and even transforming them into resilience, within a broader theoretical framework of what is essential for better cross-cultural adaptation in terms of helpful attitudes and skills so that participants of this symposium can take away something valuable and applicable to their own intercultural adjustment.
Furthermore, accepting international students implies other but similarly precious challenges for a host university and a host community. Particularly when we are encouraged to learn together through intercultural communication with them, I will discuss a concrete case of providing a welcoming Ibasho (a place where one feels safe and accepted as one is) for both Japanese and international students, drawing upon my own experience of providing an alternative learning space for them outside of campus.