Challenges of Foreign Students’ Cultural Adjustment to Indonesian Culture and Impacts on Their Academic Achievements
Abstract
As an English course to prepare for International Teachers College at the University of Pelita Harapan, the English Pathway Program (EPP) caters students coming from various countries, such as China, India, Nepal, East Timor, and Kenya. These students stay in a campus dorm and meet daily in the same class for a year before entering their academic program. This paper attempts to synthesize and analyse challenges of foreign students’ cultural and academic adjustments in the first year of their stay in Indonesia, particularly at Karawaci, Tangerang. It is a qualitative study with the data taken from focused group interviews, questionnaires, observations, and documents. The subjects of the study are twenty two students. The setting of time was the academic year of 2017/2018. The results of the study indicate that foreign students undergo a few challenges in order to be adjusted among others are language, weather, food, education system, social relations, and way of thinking. The results on their academic achievements indicate that they are on the average grades. It implies that the university hosting international students need to provide a conducive atmosphere, service and environment for these students to adjust well in order to contribute to their academic success.
Keywords: cultural, adjustment, academic, and achievement.
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