4. Talking Cultural Identities into Being in ELF Interactions: An Investigation of International Postgraduate Students in the United Kingdom

Background and Purpose: Commensality is an act of eating together among migrant communities as a means of passing down the culture and ethnic identity. There is very limited discussion on commensality that pays attention to food sharing and eating that extends beyond the traditional forms of social relationships, identity, and space among the Malay community abroad. Thus, this article aims to explore the connections of social relationships through food, space and identity amongst female Malay students in the United Kingdom. Methodology: This research is based on one-year ethnographic fieldwork amongst female Malaysian Muslim students in Manchester and Cardiff. Thirty in-depth interviews were conducted with both undergraduate and postgraduate students from sciences and social sciences courses. Besides, in-depth interviews, participant observation, conversation and fieldnotes methods were deployed as supplementary for data collection. Findings: This paper argues that cooking and eating together in a private space is a way for them to maintain social relationships and overcome stress in their studies, and fulfil their desire to create harmony and trust at home. Besides, places such as the kitchen, play an essential space in building the Malay identity and social relationships between female Malay students’ communities in the host country. Contributions: This study has contributed to an understanding of the meaning of friendship, identity, space, and the discussion on the anthropology of food from international students’ perspectives and migration studies. Keywords: Food and identity, commensality, Malay students, friendship, international students. Cite as: Ibnu, I. N. (2022). The taste of home: The construction of social relationships through commensality amongst female Malay students in the United Kingdom. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 7(1), 316-334. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol7iss1pp316-334

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Patterns of Adaptation of Chinese Postgraduate Students in the United Kingdom

Journal of Studies in International Education ◽

10.1177/1028315308317937 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 13 (4) ◽

pp. 467-486 ◽

Cited By ~ 39

Author(s):

Yuefang Zhou ◽

John Todman

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

The United Kingdom

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Empire and National Identities: The Case of Scotland

Transactions of the Royal Historical Society ◽

10.2307/3679295 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 215-231 ◽

Cited By ~ 27

Author(s):

John M. MacKenzie

Keyword(s):

Nineteenth Century ◽

United Kingdom ◽

British Empire ◽

National Identities ◽

Cultural Identities ◽

British Imperialism ◽

British Identity ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Ethnic History

The modern historiography of the origins of British national identities seems riven with contradictions and paradoxes. First there is a major chronological problem. Is the forging of Britishness to be located in the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth or nineteenth centuries? Second, there is a difficulty in the compilation of such identities. Are they to be found in negative reactions to the perceived contemporary identities of others or in positive, if mythic, readings of ethnic history? Third, can there be a British identity at all when the cultural identities of what may be called the sub-nationalisms or sub-ethnicities of the United Kingdom seem to be forged at exactly the same time? And fourth, did the formation of the British Empire and the vast expansion of British imperialism in the nineteenth century tend towards the confirmation of the identity of Greater Britain or of the Welsh, Irish, English and Scottish elements that made it up?

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International postgraduate students' labour mobility in the United Kingdom: A cross‐classified multilevel analysis

Population Space and Place ◽

10.1002/psp.2381 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Meng Zhan ◽

Chris Downey ◽

Martin Dyke

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Multilevel Analysis ◽

Labour Mobility ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

The United Kingdom

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Multilingualism, language contact and translation in Walter Scott’s Scottish novels

Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series – Themes in Translation Studies ◽

10.52034/lanstts.v4i.131 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

Author(s):

Fernando Toda

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Language Contact ◽

Cultural Identities ◽

Multicultural Society ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Walter Scott ◽

Deliberate Effort

In his Scottish novels, Walter Scott foregrounded the multilingual and multidialectal situation of Scotland. He not only made a deliberate effort to reflect the different linguistic varieties in the dialogues, but also, through his narrators, drew his readers’ attention to the variety being used or the pronunciation employed. Since Scott is writing about post- Union Scotland, he implies that the United Kingdom is a multilingual and multicultural society, and that the British have to be aware of this in order to make their union stronger in its diversity, by preserving national cultural identities and values. Evidence is given from three of Scott’s most relevant Scottish novels.

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Indonesian postgraduate students’ intercultural communication experiences in the United Kingdom

Jurnal Kajian Komunikasi ◽

10.24198/jkk.v7i1.20901 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

pp. 1

Author(s):

Sarah Aisha ◽

Deddy Mulyana

Keyword(s):

United Kingdom ◽

Intercultural Communication ◽

Learning Strategies ◽

Academic Engagement ◽

Course Design ◽

Academic Staff ◽

Research Question ◽

Postgraduate Students ◽

The United Kingdom ◽

Facilitating Factors

Despite the increasing number of Indonesian postgraduate students studying overseas, including in the United Kingdom, not many studies have been done on their intercultural communication experiences and academic engagement. This research aims to investigate Indonesian postgraduate students’ intercultural communication experiences and academic engagement in the United Kingdom. In this study, we address the following research question: What are the hindering factors and the facilitating factors of Indonesian postgraduate students’ academic engagement within their courses of study? A qualitative research method is used in this study, based on semi-structured interviews with 13 participants. The results of the study indicate that the students are more engaged in some areas, such applying deep learning strategies by connecting ideas, and less engaged in others, such as interacting with academic staff. Several interrelated factors were indicated as contributing to facilitating or hindering academic engagement which include sociocultural, institutional, and individual factors. The hindering factors consists of the transition to a new academic environment, intense academic workload, ‘expert’ or ‘boring tutors, linguistic barriers, and having feelings of uneasiness. Conversely, the facilitating factors consist of institutional support service, course design, caring and casual tutors, learning from prior experiences, having the initiative to ask, and realizing to make the most of the opportunity.

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