Vietnamese Students’ Intercultural Interpersonal Relationship Development In Guangxi

Based on a long-term tracing investigation of six Vietnamese students currently studying in Guangxi Normal University for approximately 8 months, this paper attempted to deeply describe their exquisite course of intercultural interpersonal relationship development through data collected mainly by face-to-face interviews and participatory observations. Specifically, proceeded from their own angle, the paper revealed these Vietnamese students’ attitudes, confusion and conceptions of value for developing relationships with the Chinese. And also it explored their ways of interaction with three kinds of Chinese people and analyzed the influencing factors, so as to help both sides of communication to better adjust the mentality and communicative strategy. The specific research questions are as follows:First, what were the participants’ typical attitudes to establishing interpersonal relationships with the locals? And what kind of emotional confusion did arise in the process of establishing relationships? Second, what native features did the participants reveal during the process of developing interpersonal relationships with the locals? Third, how did the participants develop intercultural interpersonal relationships with the locals? And what were the possible factors affecting their development of relationships?Through categorizing and thematically analyzing the original materials from the interviews and observations, the following conclusions can be drawn. On the whole, the situation about the participants’ interpersonal relationships with the Chinese in the intercultural context was hard. Because it was easy to get the social support from their compatriots and make friends with students from other Southeast Asian countries, their willingness to associate with the locals was not strong. And they suffered some confusions in the process of developing relationships:the participants who have not yet made a Chinese friend expressed its difficulty to develop a genuine friendship with the Chinese; and those who have made Chinese friends felt confused at the inequality at the beginning and expressed the difficulty in developing close friends. During the interaction with Chinese people, the participants revealed some of their local communication features, including the frequent use of kinship terms in addressing, delicate emotional expression, heavy etiquette and unique diet custom. The participants tended to rely on the introduction of acquaintances to develop relationship with Chinese students. Moreover, influenced by power distance culture, most of them merely kept basic class communication and polite greetings with their Chinese teachers.The possible contributing factors to the participants failing to merge with the Chinese social network include their stereotypes about Chinese culture, the lack of intercultural communication competence, high context culture, ethnocentrism, linguistic signs, as well as demographic factors.