A Study On Cross-cultural Adaptation Of Chinese Volunteer Teachers In Mongolia

Mongolia and China as neighboring countries are inextricably tied in politics and economy, as well as in the cultural exchange. With the economic globalization and the internationalization of education, Chinese and Mongolian cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, education, culture, etc., are becoming tighter and tighter. Chinese language is being widely promoted, the number of Mongolians learning Chinese is rising every year, and numerous new Chinese language schools are constantly emerging. Consequently, the demand for Chinese teachers is higher than the available teacher resources. In order to meet the demand for Chinese teachers, in2005Chinese Confucius Institutes (Hanban) were set up all over the world, and recently more and more Chinese volunteer teachers are sent to Mongolia as well.The number of volunteers in Mongolia is increasing every year. However, due to the differences between the Chinese and Mongolian cultures, the Chinese volunteer teachers working abroad have to undergo the process of cross-cultural adaptation. The cultural adaptation of the volunteers is attracting more and more attention among scholars. This paper intends to explore the problems experienced by the Chinese volunteer teachers in Mongolia. Through questionnaires and interviews we analyze their cross-cultural adaptation (including the volunteers’ social and cultural adaptation, mental adaptation and work adaptation) and summarize the factors influencing the adaptation.Through the research studies it is found that the overall cross-cultural adaptation of the Chinese volunteer teachers in Mongolia is on the good level. However, further analysis reveals that the most problematic aspect of the cross-cultural adaptation of the volunteer teachers is lack of the sense of security. This phenomenon is caused by the insufficient level of Mongolian language and culture understanding, lack of social support, as well as by the stereotypes, discrimination and prejudice. Based on these findings, the thesis presents some suggestions for increasing the cross-cultural adaptability of the Chinese volunteer teachers in Mongolia, hoping to shorten the time needed by the teachers to adapt to the life in Mongolia, and therefore facilitating them successfully finishing the mission of spreading the Chinese culture abroad.