Lingo-cultural adjustment of international students in Ukraine before the war

Abstract

Education is a sphere among a lot of society activities, which is very sensitive to geopolitical changes. The war in Ukraine has influenced educational preferences. Higher education must remain open, global and international regardless boundaries. Education is a sphere among a lot of society activities, which is very sensitive to geopolitical changes. The war in Ukraine has influenced educational preferences. Higher education must remain open, global and international regardless boundaries. The aim is to find out cultural challenges and ways to overcome them. In order to achieve the aim there are 3 tasks: 1. to establish whether there is a difference between host students and international students; 2. to formulate a complete model of cultural adaptation, 3. to explore the hypothesis of "cultural fit" in relation to self-interpretation. The study was conducted online among former students and current teachers of the Kamianets-Podilsky Ivan Ohienko National University due to the fact that during the war in Ukraine recipients are not available in person. Two groups of people participated in data collection for this study. The survey involved 5 teachers of foreign languages of the university and 10 foreign students who have already completed the programs. All respondents voluntarily participated in the survey; they were informed of the purpose of the capture and guaranteed anonymity. The obtained results show that students and teachers stressed the importance of developing speech and communication skills through organizing a conversation club and organizing events dedicated to Ukrainian culture (festivals, concerts). Such extra-curricular activities can be useful for students, as representatives of different cultures will be involved; this will force them to communicate and work together, preventing them from communicating with each other. Therefore, cultural adaptation is a type of interaction of a student with the educational environment of an educational institution, during which the subject's requirements and expectations are reconciled with his/her capabilities and objective reality. Knowing the cultural characteristics of different nations, one can explain this or that behavior of individual people, and therefore find solutions to overcome possible misunderstandings caused by cultural characteristics. Intercultural communication affects all areas of students’ activities in the process of education.