Based on the literature, we identified the challenges and opportunities of communication across cultures. Through user studies, we aim to gather more understanding in the influences of the new cultural environment on communication practices between the sojourner and relatives in China. We will present the results of a questionnaire study and a qualitative interview study conducted with Chinese sojourners in the Netherlands.
Questionnaire study
The goal of the questionnaire study is to investigate whether there are correlations between the degree of culture shock and the amount of affective awareness the participants are currently experiencing. We aimed the questionnaire at current voice communication experiences of the sojourners with their parents in China.
We chose to design an online questionnaire, assuming we would have easier access to our Chinese target group. We used 30 questions from the Affective Benefits and Costs of Communication questionnaire to quantify the affective awareness [26]. To measure the degree of culture shock, we used the seven questions of the culture shock questionnaire [29]. We directed the questionnaire to Chinese people living in the Netherlands with parents in China. The questionnaire was distributed by a Chinese organization in the Netherlands and an online discussion group for Chinese people in the Netherlands. Fifty-four people filled in the questionnaire from which we eliminated 22 results because of missing data. From the resulting 32 participants, the largest amount of people (87.5%) was between 20 and 30 years old. Exactly 50% was male and 50% was female; 46.9% of the participants were students, 34.4% was working, 12.5% was searching for a job, and the remaining 6.2% had a different occupation. The durations of the sojourn of the participants were diverse: the largest groups were 1–2 years in the Netherlands (31.3%) and 3–5 years in the Netherlands (28.1%).
The female participants reported a higher level in the “sharing experiences” theme of the questionnaire (significant with Pearson correlation r(32) = 0.39, p < 0.05). This theme includes the notion that experiences can be shared mutually from both sides (the participant and the parents). The “expectations” theme includes the feeling that the parent should contact the participant regularly and the disappointment if the parent does not contact the participant. The participants have increasing expectations of their parents contacting them when they are longer in the Netherlands (significant with Pearson’s correlation coefficient, r(32) = 0.36, p < 0.05). An examination of the degree of culture shock and the themes of affective awareness resulted in the observation that the theme “thinking about each other” negatively relates to culture shock (Pearson’s correlation coefficient, r(32) = −0.45, p < 0.01). This means that when the participants experience a higher degree of culture shock, they will think less about their parents.
Discussion
Female participants report a higher value in the “sharing experiences” theme, which would indicate that the male participants from this study have more difficulties to share experiences with their parents. The result that participants expect their parents to contact them more the longer they live abroad is surprising. A possible explanation could be that the role of the person who initiates the communication session changes. Parents are getting used to the fact that their child is living away from them and are less active in communicating with their child. The child still has the expectation that the parent initiate the contact with him or her, but this expectation is not addressed to the parent. The result of the negative correlation of culture shock with the “thinking about each other” theme seems to contradict with these expectations because the study shows that the participants will think less about their parents when they have a higher degree of culture shock. It could be the case that the participants do expect more contact from their parents, but will not show this due to the unease caused by culture shock. Parents could fail to recognize this symptom, and as a result, the communication between parent and child cannot provide the social support necessary to cope with culture shock. If this is true, there could be an opportunity in providing a better communication channel between parent and child so that it becomes more apparent for the parent that the child is in need of contact.
Based on the issues that were raised by the questionnaire study, it is clear that there are still unanswered questions regarding the influence of culture shock on communication and the problems this is causing.
Interview study
To gain a better explanation from the insights of the questionnaire study, we decided to conduct an interview study. We used a semi-structured interview technique with prepared questions on the topics of: communication with the participant’s parents, communication content, cultural differences and communication and routines.
Participants for the interviews were approached with the help of a Chinese organization in the Netherlands. The sample existed from four participants: three females and one male. The age varied from 23 to 27. One participant lived in the Netherlands for 7 months, one for 1.5 year, the two other participants for 5 and 6 years. Three of the participants were working, and one participant was a student. The participants received a voucher of 7.50 euro for their effort. To analyze the interviews, we applied the affinity diagram technique [30]. We transcribed the audio recordings of the interviews and wrote down relevant quotes on post-it notes. These post-it notes were re-grouped into themes. Finally, we used the contents of the themes to draw conclusions for every theme.
All the participants described that the communication window was based on the available time. Communication moments during weekdays were short and in-between activities, in the weekends the participants had more time to communicate with their parents. Time difference was not perceived as a problem, but as something they could plan around. P4 explained: “That’s not a very big issue. I know the time difference very well because of my job”. The frequency of communication and amount of involvement is personal and not the same for every participant. These rituals seem to vary depending on how long the participant is living in the Netherlands. P3 (who lived in the Netherlands shortest) called every evening with her mother. P4 calls short during weekdays, while having long communications sessions in every weekend. P1 and P2 both report that after 2 years they called less frequent with their parents, the ritual was lost because of other activities in the Netherlands. But both started their communication ritual again in which they call once a 2 weeks during the weekends.
The participants described different methods of how their parents used contextual information to create high-context communication styles. P3 described for example how their online/offline status on internet was noticed by their parents: “I go online on MSN, and then my mother asks ‘why are you at home today, why don’t you go to school, or go to work’ and I say ‘it is holiday here’”. Other methods that the participants mentioned during the interviews were the sound of the voice, or the kind of questions their parents asked them. Information was also transferred through other people. The family of P1 in the Netherlands gave information to the parents in China, which was then discussed in direct conversations. The feeling of being connected is more important than the topic of conversation. The conversations are often started with very mundane questions, as P4 puts it: “How is your health, did you eat well recently? These are very typical Chinese questions.” Being positive in the communication between the participants and parents is something which came up in every interview. It is important for the participants that they give an impression that everything is going well and that their parents do not have to be worried. P1 mentions: “I also talk to them. But most of the time I say positive things. If I say a lot of negative things they will probably worry about me more.”
In some of the interviews, the influence of cultural differences on the behavior of the participants was mentioned. P1 specifically mentions the effect of culture shock and the reason why she would not share her feelings with her parents: “The first 2 years for me were really hard because I had to get used to the culture, also I was busy with my study. When I had a problem I never told my parents only the positive things.” P3 talked about the effects of a different cultural environment on her behavior. When she went back to China she had problems with buying things because she was not used to a farmers' market anymore. She recalls a conversation with her friends about this: “They asked me: ‘Can you buy this at the market?’ And I was so sure, of course I can. ‘Can you check the price or can you check if it is fresh?’ And then I started thinking, I cannot indeed.” In the interviews, the participants mentioned that their parents were aware of the cultural differences between the Netherlands and China. The parents of P3 supported her specifically for this reason: “She (participant’s mother) thinks it is good for me because I can understand different cultures and differences between Asia and Europe.” P4 tells about his difficulties of explaining cultural differences to his parents: “From time to time I will try to explain something to my mother or my father. I will tell them that this is just the culture, I cannot do anything about it except getting used to it.” From all these different statements, it becomes clear that cultural differences are an important element in the communication between the participants and their parents, and they all have different methods of coping with these differences.
Summary and discussion of findings
In this section, we will summarize our five most important findings regarding the communication practices of Chinese sojourners in the Netherlands.
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1.
Parents’ need of HC communication
In collectivist cultures such as China, a high-context communication style is preferred. Chinese parents found opportunities to maintain elements of this high-context communication style. However, their children did not. We assume there are various explanations. Firstly, the child may not have the right tools to be able to engage in such communication style. Secondly, the preferred communication style of the child could have changed because of living in a culture with a different communication style. And finally there is also the possibility that the child is not interested enough in the life of the parents to engage in a form of high-context communication which costs more effort than low-context communication.
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Failing of routines and expectations
Connectedness is very important for both the parent and the sojourner. The participants indicated that they communicate frequently and regularly using direct synchronous communication. These communication sessions can be seen as routines for the sojourner and parent because they take place on a fixed day and time in the week. If this routine cannot be followed, for example because of other obligations, the other party will be worried. The two participants who were living in the Netherlands for 5 and 6 years both described that they have had a “communication dip” because of a more active lifestyle. Later their lives became more stable and they formed new communication routines (less frequent than in the beginning). The questionnaire study showed that over time the children’s expectations of the parents contacting them increased. This could be contributed to the absence of communication routines during the “communication dip”. The parents lost the awareness of when to call their children because they were not up-to-date about their daily lives.
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Desire for connectedness on opportune moments
The participants indicated that they could adapt well to the time-windows available for communication. For most of the participants, this meant that they called during lunch breaks for short updates and used the mornings in the weekend for longer conversations. However, these communication routines are a result of the time difference and limit both the parent and the child in communication opportunities. Some participants mentioned during the interviews that they had to make efforts to give an update to their parents when they could not follow the communication routine as normal because of different activities. The cause behind these routines is the use of synchronous communication means by all the participants. Participants indicated that they like these means. The children mentioned during the interviews that hearing their parents’ voice made them feel more connected and the direct synchronous communication made them feel like they were really together.
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Explicit and implicit communication of culture
One of the goals of the studies was to find out more about how the parents and children deal with differences in culture in communication and if this is an important topic of communication. Cultural exchanges through communication between parent and child occurred. This happened mostly when there were special events which the children experienced, for example Queen's Day (Dutch national holiday) or Christmas. The participants also mentioned during the interviews that the parents noticed cultural events in the Netherlands through their communication routines. For example during the weeks in May and June, the children communicate more during weekdays because of national holiday days.
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5.
Being positive and culture shock
An unexpected insight from the study has to do with the experiences which the children decide to not share with their parents. All participants mentioned that they do not share problems and bad experiences with their parents. It is important for the participants to remain positive in the communication and to show that they are doing well. The children do not want to make their parents worried, but show instead the good things and their ability to live an independent life. This can be linked to the result of the questionnaire. In this study, it was shown that the sojourners thought less about their parents when they experienced a higher degree of culture shock. A reason could be that because of the difficulty to talk about problems in daily life, their parents cannot provide enough social support during the times when culture shock is highest. In normal Chinese life, these signals will be conveyed implicitly using high-context communication, but with the lack of HC information, it is difficult for the parents to be aware of the problems of their child.