Intercultural dynamics of fist acquaintance: Comparative study of Swedish, Chinese and Swedish-Chinese first time encounters

Abstract

Today, intercultural first acquaintance meetings are becoming more and more frequent. The aim of this study is to describe, analyze and compare Swedish, Chinese and Swedish-Chinese first acquaintance interactions. Our focus lies on a classification of the topics in mono- and intercultural first-time encounters. The analysis is based on 12 arranged face-to-face first acquaintance interactions between Chinese-Chinese, Swedish-Swedish and Swedish-Chinese students (4 of each dyad). The interactions are video-recorded and transcribed. In addition, semi-structured interviews with the participants have been conducted to get a better understanding of their communication. The method of activity-based communication analysis is used to analyze the data. The result of the study is a classification and a cross-cultural comparison of topics and the order of their occurrence in first time encounters. In addition, the study sheds light on the similarities and differences between Chinese and Swedish communication patterns. © 2011 Springer-Verlag.