Study on Adaptation to the Korean Culture of International Students from Mongolia

Transcription

1 , pp Study on Adaptation to the Korean Culture of International Students from Mongolia Su-Jeong Han 1, Kyung-Hoon Han Dept. Westminster Graduate School of Theology, Jukjeon Dongbaek, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Corresponding Author: seaedumu@naver.com Dept. Kyunghee University Global Campus, Seocheon-dong, Giheung-gu, Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, Korea Abstract. The research targeted 108 male and female students in the Korean language course of the education institutes and graduate school courses of the universities in the capital area of South Korea. The data analysis included frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation analysis, hierarchical regression analysis using the SPSS program. According to the research, First, This research showed a higher adaptation of the international students from Mongolia with close Korean friends to the Korean culture. Second, The international students from Mongolia had higher adaptation to the Korean culture was indicated when the students from Mongolia had close Korean friends and lower stress of cultural adaptation. Third, The international students from Mongolia had higher adaptation to the Korean culture as the stress of cultural adaptation is lower when they had close Korean friends, and the moderating effect from the social support in the relationship between the stress of cultural adaptation and adaptation to the Korean culture had statistically significant impacts. Keywords: Students from Mongolia, stress of cultural adaptation, social support, adaptation to the Korean culture, hierarchical regression analysis 1 Introduction The international students may face conflicts with or confusion over cultural adaptation to the new environment due to the difference in customs, values and native cultures between their mother countries and Korea. They also may have difficulties adapting to the Korean life because of language barrier, discrimination, sense of alienation, financial burden, academic and interpersonal difficulties. Tenacity that may show up in the process of adaptation to the mainstream culture is the factor to overcome the stress so that strong will and effort of the individuals are important [1]. Sandhu and Asrabadi [2] categorized the stress of cultural adaptation into 7 subfactors of perceived discrimination, fear, homesickness, perceived hatred, culture shock, sense of guilt and others (distrust, sense of inferiority, social isolation and communication issue) by the psychological attributes, and argued that discrimination ISSN: ASTL Copyright 2016 SERSC

2 has worse impacts on health than normal stress since it is basically insulting and personal [3]. In addition, since social support helps the individuals maintain their health and welfare and improve adaptability to the everyday events [4], it is necessary to figure out the internal factors and characteristics of the individuals and establish a smooth social network to respect personality of the international students and reduce their experiences of discrimination. Under the stressful situation, social support helps the foreign students to cope with and adapt to the situation; reduces the possibility of stress in their daily life and contributes to psychological stabilization [5]. An advanced research on satisfaction for life of the multicultural families [6] explained that people are more satisfied for their life as they have friendly family relations and receive more social supports from surrounding people. Therefore, this study intends to identify the aspect of cultural adaptation of the increasing number of students from Mongolia to the Korean society. Based on the information, this study aims to understand the students from Mongolia and find out their difficulties and problem-solving experiences as they adapt to the life in Korea. 2 Method 2.1 Research Design This research explored the impacts of the individual background characteristics and the stress of cultural adaptation of the international students from Mongolia living in Korea on their adaptation to the Korean culture, and the effects of the factors focusing on the moderating effect from the social support of the relationship between the stress of cultural adaptation and adaptation to the Korean culture. 2.2 Research Subject It targeted 160 students from Mongolia, who are studying in the Korean language course of the language education institutes and graduate school courses of the universities in Capital area, and selected 108 male and female students as the final research. 2.3 Research Tools The research used the restructured standard of the stress of cultural adaptation with 33 questions in 6 sub-factors by Kim [7], and reversely coded all negative sentences. The reliability coefficient of the total questions of.946, which was regarded as satisfactory in this research. It used 12 questions in 4 sub-factors used by Kim [7] and Gao [8], as the standard of social support. The reliability coefficient of the total questions of.920, 40 Copyright 2016 SERSC

3 which was regarded as appropriate in this research. It used 20 questions used by Sainjargal[9] on adaptation to the Korean culture and reversely operated the questions with negative sentences. The reliability coefficient of the total questions of.794, which was mostly appropriate in this research. 2.4 Data Analysis Method The research conducted the collected data analysis of frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test, correlation analysis and hierarchical regression analysis using the SPSS program and suggested the values. 3 Research Findings The frequency of the characteristics of the general background of the research subjects are presented as follows: Among 108 male and female students from Mongolia, the number of female students was 75, accounting for the highest proportion of 69.4%, in terms of gender, and the number of the students aged was 65, making up the highest proportion of 60.2%, in terms of age. In terms of academic background, the number of the students graduated from four-year-course colleges was 50, accounting for 46.3%, and the number of the students with monthly income under 1 million won was 71, making up 65.7%. The number of the Buddhists was 50, taking up the highest proportion of 46.3%, followed by 20 Christians, who accounted for 18.5%, in terms of religion. In terms of whether to have close Korean friends, the number of the students without close Korean friends was 72, accounting for 66.7%, which was higher than 36 students with close Korea friends, who accounted for 33.3%. The number of the students who can read and speak Korean a little bit was 68, accounting for 63.0%, in terms of the Korean language skill. As Tolerance was over.1 at and the VIF value was not over 10 at , it was identified that there were no problems with multicollinearity. The correlation analysis between the measured variables in this research identified that there is a significant positive relationship between the stress of cultural adaptation, social support and Korean cultural adaptation at the level of p<.01. There was a significant difference in adaptation to the Korean culture with average 3.42 of 36 students who answered yes to the question on having close Korean friends, which was higher than average 3.01 of 72 students who said no to the question on having close Korean friends (t=4.23, p<.001), indicating that the students from Mongolia had higher adaptation to the Korean culture when they had close Korean friends. The following is a result of the analysis on influence of the stress of cultural adaptation on adaptation to the Korean culture. As a result of the analysis, the significance of Model 1 was appropriate at the level of F=3.813, p<.01 and the explanation on adaptation to the Korean culture was 18.5% as R 2 =.185. Among the demographic background characteristics, the variable of having close Korean friends was significant at the level of p<.001 as t=3.867, among adaptation to the Korean culture. In addition, Model 2 analyzed the impacts on adaptation to the Korean culture Copyright 2016 SERSC 41

4 by additionally putting in the variable of the stress of cultural adaptation to the regression equation. The Model 2 had an appropriate significance at the level of F=5.703, p<.001 and explanation on adaptation to the Korean culture of 28.5% as R 2 =.285. The variable of having close Korean friends was significant at the level of p<.01 as t=3.464 in adaptation to the Korean culture and the variable of the stress of cultural adaptation was significant at the level of p<.001 as t= The next is the result of the hierarchical regression analysis to identify the moderating effect from the social support in the relationship of influence of the stress of cultural adaptation on adaptation to the Korean culture. Model 3 used the variable of the interaction between the stress of cultural adaptation and social support to identify the moderating effect from social support. As a result of the analysis, the significance of Model 3 was appropriate at the level of F=5.013, p<.001 and explanation on adaptation of the Korean culture was 31.5% as R 2 = In terms of adaptation to the Korean culture, the variable of having close Korean friends was significant at the level of t=3.429, p<.01 for adaptation to the Korean culture, while the variable of the stress of cultural adaptation appeared significantly at the level of t=2.517, p<.05. In addition, the variable of interaction between the stress of cultural adaptation and social support appeared statistically significant in adaptation to the Korean culture, having a positive moderating effect at the level of t=2.061, p< Conclusion This research aimed to identify the impacts of the individual background characteristics and the stress of cultural adaptation of the students from Mongolia living in Korea on adaptation to the Korean culture, and analyze the moderating effect from the social support in the relationship between the variables of the stress of cultural adaptation and adaptation to the Korean culture. As a result of the analysis, First, This research showed a higher adaptation of the students from Mongolia with close Korean friends to the Korean culture. Therefore, the relevant educational institutes should provide language clubs and learning activity support programs besides the regular language and degree courses to maintain their smooth relationship and communication. Second, the international students from Mongolia had higher adaptation to the Korean culture was indicated when the students from Mongolia had close Korean friends and lower stress of cultural adaptation. Therefore, the teachers and academic managers of the educational institutes need to implement counseling with continued attention, provide the opportunities and environments of regular meetings including study and friendly cultural activities with Korean friends and run and manage the activities. Third, the international students from Mongolia had higher adaptation to the Korean culture as the stress of cultural adaptation is lower when they had close Korean friends, and the moderating effect from the social support in the relationship between the stress of cultural adaptation and adaptation to the Korean culture had statistically significant impacts. Therefore, various integrated level of multicultural education should be researched in a direct connection with the religious and civic group, 42 Copyright 2016 SERSC

5 educational and social welfare institutes and delivered and expanded to the Mongolian students It is necessary to conduct additional researches by expanding the subjects and regions with differences in adaptation to the Korean culture depending on the residential area of the international students from Mongolia, since the research subjects were collected through convenience sampling mainly in Seoul and Gyeonggi Province. References 1. Kuo, W. H., Tsai, Y. M.: Social networking, hardiness and immigrant's mental health, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 27(2), pp (1986) 2. Sandhu, D. S., Asrabadi, B. R.: Development of an acculturative stress scale for international students: Preliminary findings. Psychological Reports, 75, pp (1994) 3. Landrine, H., Klonoff, E. A.: The schedule of racist events: A measure of racial discrimination and a study of its negative physical and mental health consequences. Journal of Black Psychology, 22, pp (1996) 4. Lowenthal, B.: Effects of maltreatment and ways to promote children's resiliency, Childhood Education, 75(4), pp (1990) 5. Kaplan, B. H., Cassel, J. C., Gore, S.: Social support and health, Medical Care, 15(5), pp (1977) 6. Kim, Y. S.: Development of an acculturation scale for female marriage immigrants in Korea, The Women's Studies, 81, pp (2011) 7. Kim, S. N.: The relationship between cultural competence of the Mongols who were Korean immigrants and their acculturation stress, Doctoral thesis, Seoul Christian University, Seoul (2012) 8. Gao, S. D.: From acculturation types to analyze interpersonal relationship, social support and stress coping strategy of Chinese students in Korea, Master s thesis, Pusan National University, Pusan (2012) 9. Sainjargal, B.: Communication, media uses & acculturation among Mongolians in Korea, Master s thesis, Kookmin University, Seoul (2015) Copyright 2016 SERSC 43