French Students’s Attitude Towards Chinese Culture Survey

To this day, the connections and cultural exchanges between China and France have a long history, bringing mutual influences that are lasting throughout history. One question might then come to mind:in today’s Chinese language education in France, how do French students value China, more specifically, how do they value its culture? It is undeniable that there are huge gaps, or even conflicts, between Chinese and French cultures. Because of these differences, many students might experience some sort of mental perplexity, causing the arising of cultural misunderstandings, hence negatively interfering with the process of learning Chinese. Many factors, such as the Media, happen to easily exert influence on the students’appreciation of China, or even completely shape their attitude towards Chinese culture. This last point brings no big advantages to the long-term development of the Chinese-French relations.The author, being of French origins, is particularly interested in the attitude of French students towards Chinese culture. Therefore the present study aims at researching on the appreciation and attitude of French students towards Chinese culture, as well as their interest in learning Chinese, and exploring whether strong interest in Chinese culture stimulates the learning motivation, or not. We are also interested in discovering if the existence of preconceptions might dilute the learning interest and motivation. Finally, strong interest is what shapes the attitude of students towards Chinese culture, hence, this thesis will attempt to explore the reactions and attitudes of the French students, as well as the origins and reasons of these states of mind. Through a deep analysis, we will also attempt to ascertain how do the preconceptions of French people about Chinese people arise, and demonstrate that Chinese language education in France and related activities are the effective way to the development of the right approach and the appropriate resolving of these preconceptions. Combining the strengths and particularities of this study, this thesis primarily uses questionnaire survey methods, for their convenience.This study consists of five chapters, the First Chapter being the Introduction, the Second Chapter being the design of the survey, the Third and the Fourth Chapters including the analysis of and the conclusions drawn from the survey results, and finally, the Fifth Chapter is a conclusion to the study. The First Chapter mainly elaborates on the background of the study and its significance; it also brings an analysis and summary of the theories regarding the teaching of Chinese culture made by previous scholars. The author intends on demonstrating that the use of teaching cultural factors under the process of shaping the students attitude towards culture; it finally provides a brief account of the purpose, meaning, and methods used in this study.The Second Chapter describes the definitions of cultural attitude used in this study, the subjects and sampling of the survey, the actual content of the survey and the survey form adapted to France’s situation used; it also includes an explanation of the survey method and its conduction.The Third Chapter includes4main conclusions drawn from and an analysis of the survey. According to all the results obtained, it analyzes and infers on the learners actual attitude and its origins. Following the theories of cultural attitude adopted in the Second Chapter, the author analyzes the students’ attitude towards Chinese culture based on their preconceptions.The Fourth Chapter elaborates on the reasons of each main conclusions to the results of the survey. Based on the results obtained from the survey and from different classifications, we aim at finding the attitudes of the French learners present within them. We also intend on presenting a discussion on whether it is needed or not to straighten out those attitudes, especially those attitudes based on preconceptions or cultural misunderstandings.The Fifth Chapter is a conclusion to the whole thesis, relating to the influence on the Chinese language education in France. In order to eliminate misunderstandings in France, the author mainly uses culture teaching proposals. This chapter also includes a look back on the shortcomings of the thesis.