Acculturation of international students on Malay food acceptance

Looking into the tremendous growth of international students pursuing their higher education in Malaysia, it is a common for them to experienced culture shock symptom which is an excessive feeling on a situation that they are not familiar yet. Despite experiencing culture shock, international students are also vulnerable to the process of acculturation towards the host country. Therefore, this current study investigates the influence of acculturation among the international students towards their acceptance on Malay food in Malaysia universities. A total of 350 students from Asia, Middle East, America, Europe and Africa have participated in this survey and findings revealed that acculturation has a positive relationship with Malay food acceptance (beta = 0.262 p < 0.001). As a result, study indicates that international students able to accept Malay food while staying in Malaysia although there is a difference in taste, texture and aroma.