A Study On The Cross-cultural Adaptation Of Kenyan Students In Nanjing

Since the establishment of the forum on China-African Cooperation,the number of African students enrolling in Chinese universities to pursue different courses has been increasing steadily.A great number of these students hail from Kenya.Kenyan students who come to China for study are either self-sponsored or beneficiaries of the different Chinese government scholarships.International students face many challenges in their quest to adapting to their new study environments and with the recent internationalization of education,the cross-cultural adaptation challenges of these students can no longer be ignored.In regard to this,many studies have already been carried out in China and other parts of the world about the cross-cultural adaptation of international students in different countries across the world.However,very few studies address the question of the cross-cultural adaptation of Kenyan students.Therefore,this study examines the cross-cultural adaptation situation of Kenyan international students in Nanjing so as understand their overall well-being since they are studying in a country whose cultural orientation is totally different from that of their homeland.A total of 101 Kenyan students from 13 universities in Nanjing took part in the survey questionnaire.The survey questionnaire consisted of three scales covering the social-cultural,academic and psychological adaptation issues.Upon completion of the survey questionnaire,the researcher went on to conduct interviews on a total of 20 students so as to probe further into some of the respondent's responses to the questions that couldn't be captured through the questionnaire.The study found out that Kenyan students experienced a general degree of difficulty in terms of socio-cultural adaptation.In regard to the academic and psychological adaptation situations,Students experienced a bit of difficulty.While adapting to life in Nanjing,language barrier brought great challenges to Kenyan students.With regard to psychological adaptation,some psychological adaptation problems were caused by the failure of individuals to attain their learning goals.A significant correlation relationship was found to exist between socio-cultural,academic and psychological adaptation variables.