Towards an ecological understanding of Chinese international students’ intercultural interactions in multicultural contexts: Friendships, inhibiting factors and effects on global competence

Abstract

Guided by multi-layered ecological model, this study examined Chinese international students’ intercultural interactions with two distinctive groups of cultural “others”: multi-national students and domestic students. Based on data collected from semi-structured interviews with Chinese students at three Belgian universities, the research unraveled some essence of this cohort’s intercultural interactions: their perceptions of cultural environment around them, friendships developed with the two distinctive groups and multi-dimensional inhibitors for intercultural interactions. Chinese students also perceived the development of global competence, but mainly through contact with multi-national students. The compatriot network and online social software play an important role in local cultural learning, compensating the lack of host contact.