earticle

영어

This qualitative study was designed to understand a role of culture on the experiences of Korean study abroad graduate students who tried to adjust to the U.S. academic and social life. Data was collected by semi-structured interviews and analyzed by the inductive process to identify analytical categories that emerged from the data. Three participants decided to go to a U.S. college in order to have an efficient learning environment, financial support, and career after schooling. They were satisfied with the factors that motivated them to study abroad as well as the American’s attitudes and observance of the rules. However, they experienced frustrations and difficulties in classrooms and in social settings due to limited English proficiency, the lack of familiarity with the American learning environment, and certain American’s unfair treatment. They developed strategies to cope with the difficulties and succeed at the university. The present study also revealed that the participants’experiential backgrounds played a crucial role in their perceptions of their own experiences in the U.S. The students acknowledged that there are cultural differences between two countries that were grounded in all findings of the research and those differences affected their attitudes and behaviors throughout the study and their stay in the U.S.