Social Skills on the Formation of Personal Relations betweenInternational Students in Japan and the Japanese

This study investigated what kind of social skills international students staying in Japan learn and use throughout their stay which are significant fur funning relationships with Japanese. Informants were international students who have been staying in Japan for at least two years. Semi-structured interviews were carried out on 12 students from various countries. These interview responses were analyzed by using the KJ method and contenr analysis. The analysis revealed three major categories of specific Japanese skills: politeness, especially toward their proffessors; keeping harmony instead of insisting their opinions all the time; and steps for closeness, which means to take time to be close to others. We also found that they switched behaviors when selecting the appropriate acquired social skill and changed levels of using social skills depending on the context and people with whom they interacted.

本研究では、日本に滞在する留学生が、日本人との対人関係においてどのようなソーシャルスキルを学び、実行しているかを調査した。2年以上に渡る比較的長期間、日本に滞在する留学生12名を対象に半構造面接を行った。留学生が用いるスキルについてKJ法と内容分析を用いて分析を行った結果、教師に対しての礼儀正しさ、自分の意見を主張するのではなく和を保つ、そして親密になるのに時間をかけるという3つのカテゴリーを日本文化特有のスキルとして獲得していることが分かった。また獲得されたソーシャルスキルを文脈や相手に応じて選択したり、水準を変えたりする行動のスイッチングも見られた。