Studying subjective perception of time by Vietnamese and Russian students

Abstract

Introduction. The perception of time at student age is an important component for successful adaptation to other conditions of education, for socialising in a new social circle and for acquiring knowledge necessary for further professional development. Learning conditions in the modern world are generally similar; however, students from different countries are bearers of differing cultures. The aim is to compare the characteristics of subjective perception of time in terms of its past, present and future by Vietnamese and Russian students. Materials and methods. The sample encompassed a number of university students from Vietnam and Russia. The total number of respondents was 199 (105 Vietnamese students and 94 Russian students). To achieve the set goal, the psychosemantic method and the “Semantic time differential” method were applied. The statistical data processing methods involved the arithmetic mean and Mann-Whitney U-test. Results. The research results revealed certain differences in subjective perception of time between the students from Vietnam and Russia at the level of statistical trend (p≥0.05) – as concerns future perception peculiarities and time structure perception. Conclusion. The subjective perception of time by Vietnamese and Russian students is influenced by the society and culture: the Vietnamese society is less exposed to Western ideas of time management, therefore their perception of time structure is less meaningful; at the same time, the future and the past are deemed to be equally important due to the ancestor cult and placing importance on connection with the departed. The power and vividness of manifestation of different time aspects is also culturally conditioned since it is not customary in Southeast Asia to express one’s emotional manifestations vehemently.