Interethnic Relations between ESL Students

This study is part of a larger investigation into Japanese students’ use of English and friendship buildup inside and outside Canadian English as a second language (ESL) institutes. Both qualitative and quantitative data were garnered primarily from formal in-depth interviews with nine Japanese students and questionnaire surveys with 216 students. Based on the data, the present study explores Japanese students’ friendship with Korean students, large numbers of whom are enrolled in ESL schools in English-speaking countries. The study provides evidence of the frequent opportunities for members of these two groups to communicate with each other, which sometimes leads to Japanese students’ overgeneralised positive perceptions of Koreans as a whole. Also documented are the varying impacts of Korean students’ references to Japan’s war-time invasion of Korea upon Japanese students, ranging from appreciation of this new knowledge to the development of negative perceptions of Korean students. Furthermore, the study reveals that the combination of quantity and quality contact can cause the formation and consolidation of bonding between Japanese and Korean students, which then opens up a historically sensitive dialogue without jeopardising their long-term relationship.