Student Seeks Intercultural Couples Using Mandarin & English for R

[Jocelyn]

Susanna Wickes, a master’s student at Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, is seeking intercultural couples who use Mandarin and English for communication to participate in a simple online survey. It takes only about 5 minutes and is available in English and Chinese. (Note that only one person from the couple needs to do the survey.)

FYI, here’s some background on the project from Susanna herself:

 

The idea basically came from my own relationship with my husband, and my interest in the strange, mixed-up language that we’ve made up over time as we’ve got to know each other and learned each other’s languages.

The project involves exploring in detail the ways that couples like us talk to each other in everyday life. The languages (English and Mandarin Chinese) and the intercultural dynamic are something all the couples have in common, but because each couple will have their own unique situation – where they live, their proficiency level in each other’s language, the length of their relationship, and so on – they will also have developed their own personal style of communication. And it’s this that I’m hoping to capture in the diaries and conversations that my participants create and send to me.

Being in a relationship with someone from a very different culture often means that both partners take on a new identity. Not just the identity of “wife” or “husband” but also aspects of the other person’s life and culture become your own. One of the main aims of my project is to look at how language use reflects the sense of “shared identity” that intercultural couples experience when they create a life together.

 

She’s really keen to recruit more couples of Western men and Chinese women to her study, so hope some of you can get involved!

FYI, you can also learn more about the study in this interview with Susanna for The Beijinger.

[Randy W]

I'll bump ths for a little more attention

[Jocelyn]

Thank you Randy W! I know Susanna will be grateful for the support!