Intercultural Adaptation Experience Of Pakistani Students In Shanghai International Studies University

Pakistan is a country of Islamic culture and Muslim belief.It has witnessed a series of political turmoil and economic mire in the twentieth century.Though it keeps a close political tie with China,few Chinese understand Pakistani culture and its people.In terms of intercultural communication in and out of Islamic culture,the literature has also paid less attention than it should.Pakistan has great historical and cultural heritage.Yet it has a bad reputation for unstable safety condition,thus driving those interested away.This intercultural research is focused on one of the most heated themes of intercultural communication,intercultural adaptation.This research is conducted within the qualitative perspective,using in-depth interview and ethnographic methods.Multiple adaptation theories are reviewed and one is chosen as the root of this thesis,which is Colleen Ward's adaptation theory.Pakistani students in SISU(Shanghai International Studies University)are chosen as the subject of the study because they have been facing possible adaptation problems observed by the author.It is observed that they are inclusive to themselves and did not communicate much with other international students or Chinese students after one year of studying in SISU.Unlike other international student groups,especially those from western cultures,who quickly immerse into the university community,Pakistani students seem to like keeping to themselves.The author tries to understand this dilemma with the perspective of intercultural adaptation theory.Colleen Ward's adaptation theory is chosen mainly because it examines adaptation outcomes with two dimensions,the psychological adaptation and sociocultural adaptation.These two dimensions can provide us an illustration of the degree of how much the person is adapted to a new cultural context and the possible reason for adaptation problems.The interview design and ethnographic observation are conducted to explore the aspects affecting the above two adaptation outcomes in Colleen Ward's adaptation theory.Analysis of how those aspects influence the adaptation outcome is given based on the data collected.Because of their studying status,academic adaptation outcome is unavoidable to explore.Therefore,besides those two adaptation outcomes,academic adaptation is also explored in this research.The aim of this study is to shed light on the adaptation situation of Pakistani students and to find the possible adaptation problems so as to improve the situation for them.It is found that the aspects that affect psychological adaptation outcome pose a positive effect on the psychological adaptation outcome except for religious aspect;aspects in sociocultural adaptation outcome cast positive effects,but not so for “Expected difficulty” aspect;the academic adaptation outcome is generally positive.