Study Abroad, Intercultural Friendships, and Transformation of Self and Society

Intercultural contact is the aspect of study abroad which differentiates it from both tourism at at-home education. The contact zone - where intercultural encounters occur - is on the edge of the comfort zone for many students abroad and provides an opportunity for increased clarity of positioning and the dismantling of mental boundaries. Students who have engaged in reciprocal intercultural relationships have increased understanding of self, the other, and their mutual interconnectedness. Student transformation through intercultural contact is supported by Contact Theory (Allport, 1954; Pettigrew & Tropp, 2011) and standards for this contact are provided by Martin Buber in his book I and Thou (1954). In this study, I find that American students prefer conationals for friendship and company, with host nationals serving as means to ends related to consumption and tourism. I describe the student-consumer and student-tourist and offer methods for supporting positive student transformation