Finding and Discussion:
In this chart (3), we can see that “the change of time spending on the leisure life for the Chinese Students”. The chart shows the difference of the Chinese Students’ participation in leisure activities from home country and Stirling. And we can see that the most obvious changes of the Chinese Student’s leisure activities are the habit of television watching and newspaper reading. There is a remarkable decrease in the percentage of television watching after their arrival in Stirling. It’s over 75% Chinese students’ spending less time on watching TV. For newspaper reading, also over 70% of Chinese students are spending less time on this activity. However, reading is the only activity that has an increasing rate for the Chinese Students.
Let’s move on to the next chart (4). This chart is about “the change of time spending on the leisure life for the other international students”. Just as the pervious chart, it records the time spending on different leisure activities for the other international students after arriving Stirling. Similar to Chinese Students, television watching for the other international students has a tremendous decrease. Over 70% of them spending less time on watching television.
In these two pie charts (5), the habit of going out for Chinese students and other international students. It indicates that other international students are more willing to hanging out with friends that are with other nationalities. It’s 34% for the international students in compare with 5% for Chinese students. It’s quite a big contrast between Chinese and other international students in this habit. Comparing Chinese and other international students, there are 67% of Chinese students prefer going out with friends from home country, while that of international students is 28%.
In this bar chart (6), the change of leisure time spending for Chinese and other international students are shown. We can see that for the other international students, the figure in these three categories, that means spending more time, spending less time and no big change, are quite evenly distributed in compare with Chinese Students. Although more Chinese or other international students are spending less time on their leisure life, most of the Chinese Students (nearly 80%) spending less time on their leisure life after arriving Stirling.
(7) Here are the reasons for spending MORE time on the leisure life in Stirling for the both Students. They are improving English Standard, making friends, gaining more experience and killing time. In general, it shows that more international students other than Chinese are spending more time on their leisure life in Stirling. Making friends are the main reason for them!
Here is the chart (8) that shows the reasons for spending LESS time on leisure life of both Students. The main reason for the decreasing time in spending leisure life is limited time. It’s over 60% of Chinese Students and over 50% of the other international students based on this reason and then spending less time on their leisure life.
In order to gain more in-depth explanations for the reasons of the changes, we carried out 12 interviews after analyzing the questionnaire. They are 6 Chinese Students and 6 other international students.
As we mention before, television watching has tremendous decrease for both Chinese and other international students. The reason for this change is simply because they have no TV set in Stirling, so it’s impossible for them to enjoy the TV broadcasting.
The reason for the increase of Reading is they are aiming at studying here in Stirling. That’s why they spend more time on reading reference books or lecture materials. And also due to study, that’s why they spent less time on their leisure life.
And for the Chinese Students, due to the culture and habit different, they tend to stay with the other Chinese Students other than the foreigners. Also one of the major problems for them to hanging out with the foreigners is the barrier of language. They think that leisure time is the time for relaxing, so they don’t want to speak English anymore, so they choose to go out with Chinese instead. In addition, there is an objective factor which is there are a lot of Chinese student in Stirling, so it’s easier for them to make friends from their home country. So they always stay with Chinese.
Conclusion:
Chinese Students should realize the principle of “Practice makes perfect!” As they said, one of the difficulties for them in getting along with the foreigner is the barrier of language, so if they can cherish the opportunity in communicating with the English speaking people, this is a really a good chance for them to improve their English. Chinese students should be more active in contact with others, which should not be limited in their own nationality also. Instead, they should try to experience more about other’s culture and then broadens their horizon.