Study On The Cross-cultural Adaptation Of The Volunteers Of Chinese Teachers From Inner Mongolia Normal University To Thailand From 2013 To 2023

With the increasing comprehensive national strength of China,there is a global upsurge in learning Chinese.Thailand is the country with the greatest enthusiasm for learning Chinese in Asia.Every year,the Sino Foreign Language Exchange and Cooperation Center(formerly known as the "National Han Office")sends a large number of Chinese language teacher volunteers to Thailand to teach Chinese and disseminate Chinese culture.Due to the cultural differences between China and Thailand,and the fact that most Chinese language teacher volunteers have not had a long-term experience of living abroad before taking up their posts,many volunteers have encountered cross-cultural adaptation issues during their tenure,which have attracted the attention of the academic community.In order to promote the development of Chinese language education in Thailand and enable volunteers to more smoothly teach Chinese and disseminate Chinese culture overseas,this article takes Chinese language teacher volunteers from Inner Mongolia Normal University,who majored in Chinese International Education and taught in Thailand from 2013 to 2023,as the research object,to comprehensively explore their cross-cultural adaptation during their tenure.This study addresses four issues.First,how does the cross-cultural adaptation process of Chinese language teacher volunteers to Thailand change at different stages? How is "dynamism" reflected? Secondly,what typical cross-cultural adaptation problems do volunteers for Chinese language teachers in Thailand encounter during their tenure? What is the reason for the problem? What are the solutions? Thirdly,what are the factors that affect the cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese language teacher volunteers to Thailand?Fourth,how can future volunteers to Thailand better adapt to the life of teaching in Thailand? For domestic colleges and universities,how to effectively enhance students’ awareness and ability of cross-cultural adaptation?This article adopts the research idea of "combining quantitative research with qualitative research,and combining retrospective investigation with follow-up investigation".It uses three main research methods: questionnaire survey,interview method,and case analysis method to conduct a comprehensive investigation and research on the above issues.The study concludes that cross-cultural adaptation is a dynamic process,in which sociocultural adaptation presents an inverted U-shaped curve of "rise flat fall",psychological adaptation presents an inverted V-shaped change trend of "rise first and then fall",work adaptation presents an N-shaped curve of "rise fall rise",and language adaptation presents a V-shaped change of "fall first and then rise",The intention to return home early in life satisfaction shows an inverted N-shaped curve of "decrease increase decrease" in which social and cultural adaptation presents an inverted U-shaped curve pattern of "rising flat falling",psychological adaptation presents an inverted V-shaped trend of "first rising then falling",work adaptation presents an N-shaped trend of "rising falling rising",and language adaptation presents a V-shaped trend of "first falling then rising",The intention to return home early in life satisfaction shows an inverted N-shaped trend of "decrease increase decrease".Chinese language teacher volunteers are influenced by both internal and external factors in the process of cross-cultural adaptation,namely,volunteers’ own factors and non volunteers’ own factors.Due to the individual differences in the research objects,different issues may arise in terms of sociocultural adaptation,psychological adaptation,work adaptation,language adaptation,life satisfaction,and early return intention.Different solutions are required for different issues.Based on the above research results,the author gives feasible suggestions from the perspectives of volunteers themselves and training units in Thailand.