Life Is Elsewhere

With China's further opening up and the internationalization of shanghai, a growing number of "foreigners" rush into shanghai for working, studying and job-hunting. Though they have different ways of living, they all inevitably have troubles and confusions because of language barriers, culture differences, natural unfitness and some other reasons. For them, the first issue is to learn "how to live" in China in order to physically and psychologically get used to the city they are living in. In parallel with that, for Chinese people, one of the most important things is to turn shanghai to be an international metropolis and to host foreigners better. I choose this subject, "Life is Elsewhere -Study on Learning Needs of Foreign Residents of Shanghai", for the reasons mentioned above.Qualitative research method is chosen assisted by questionnaire and literature review to complete this thesis. I interviewed some foreign residents and do my research basing on the interview texts. Adult Learning Theories, Social Psychology and related theories are used to analyze the texts. The characteristics and the relative reasons of their learning needs are shown, thus the learning needs of foreign residents in shanghai are unveiled.There are altogether six chapters:Chapter One: Introduction. The background, brief Literature Review, research methods, and the process are introduced in this chapter.Chapter Two: Interviewing Texts. Four stories of foreign residents are told in this chapter.Chapter Three: Analysis on the Learning Needs of Foreign Residents. The learning needs are shown in the fields of their basic life, developmental. process, interpersonal communication and their tendency to "become Chinese".Chapter Four: The Characteristics of Their Learning Needs and the Relative Factors.Chapter Five: The Way They Meet the Learning Needs. This chapter is written on the view of Andragogy (Adult Education) and on the basis of the experience of interviewees.Chapter Six: Reflection of the Research. I reflect the whole research progress and the usage of research methods in this chapter.All in all, I write this research paper to show the living status of some typical foreign residents in shanghai, in order to provide a reference for the living of other foreigners and lay a foundation for follow-up studies.