The thesis deals with the issue of International Management procedures in multinational corporations regarding sending their employees abroad. Its aim is to describe the process of expatriation, define the importance of culture and the role of the company in the process as well as to analyse the situation of expatriates in the Czech Republic based on a questionnaire research.

This diploma thesis deals with the issue of culture shock and its relationship to the pedagogical activities of North-American teachers working in kindergartens, primary and secondary, or language schools in the Czech Republic. The aim of this work is to understand how North-American teachers experience culture shock in the Czech Republic, and to find out how they perceive the impact of culture shock in their pedagogical activities. The theoretical part of the thesis presents a description of the concept of culture, the specifics of intercultural communication which is followed by the concept of culture shock, presents selected theories dealing with culture shock, its phases, and preparation for the experience in the new culture. At the end of the theoretical part, the specifics of foreign teachers in the Czech Republic and the educational system in the USA will be described. The practical part of this work is a qualitative research conducted in the form of semi-structured interviews with 12 North-American teachers who live and work in the Czech Republic. The results were analyzed by the method of thematic analysis. It brings the finding that participants are negatively affected by interactions and contact with strangers, while in a positive way, culture shock is affected by voluntariness of their...

Traditionally, in our globally diverse and intertwined society, study abroad has served as a valuable, enriching, and life-changing aspect of college and university offerings and opportunities for students. Today, the lives of post-study abroad students will be defined by the ways they make sense of unexpected major events surrounding the history-changing COVID-19 pandemic and the contemporary protests against racism and social injustice. A large body of research exists on study abroad, culture shock, self-authorship, provocative moments, cross-cultural reentry, and reverse culture shock. A lack of research exists on what ways post-study abroad U.S. students make meaning of their experiences in emerging self-authorship, and research on post-study abroad students and the COVID-19 pandemic is rare. The overarching purpose of this exploratory inquiry was to describe in what ways, if any, that the post-study abroad experience facilitates the development of emerging self-authorship of U.S. college students. Self-authorship provided the theoretical framework for this inquiry. Clarke and Braun’s reflexive thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews and journals of two U.S. post-study abroad college students. The findings revealed that the post-study abroad experience facilitated the development of emerging self-authorship of U.S. college students through the themes of pain, partnerships, and perspective, with grief layered among each of these themes. The students eventually accepted their realities of post-study abroad, found meaning, and showed signs of nudging ahead in emerging self-authorship. The implications from this inquiry provided ways for stakeholders to support students through their post-study abroad experiences and support emerging self-authorship.

Background: This study explores the psychological well-being of Asian international students in Sweden by identifying their sources of stress, coping strategies and resilient factors and their sources of support. The aim of this study is to have a deeper understanding of challenges for Asian international students during their study-time in Sweden to find more efficient ways to support them in the future. Method: with a qualitative approach, the data are collected through semi-structured interviews in April 2023. Participants were chosen by purposive sampling method from Asian international students in a Swedish university who study a same program. A descriptive thematic-analysis method was performed on the data to allocate the data into themes which are driven from previous relevant social theories. Findings: Five participants with an age range of 28 to 45 were enrolled in the study. all participants indicated accommodation, different academic system and being assigned an organizational number instead of personal number as well as the language barrier as sources of stress. The main emotional support source was family and appraisal support by self-motivation. Problem focused and emotional focused coping strategies were indicated by participants. They were located in the integration category, of acculturation process, in most of the aspects which helps best in maintaining psychological well-being of international students. Based on the findings, a lack of formal informational and instrumental support from the university to tackle the challenges is necessary to be planned and addressed in the future. However, there are limitations to this study therefore findings of this study should be interpreted carefully by the researchers. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicates that Asian international students in Sweden are exposed to various sources of stress. The support services can play a crucial role by providing more detailed information to ease the challenges for them. Furthermore, the study can contribute to making Sweden more attractive for highly educated international students as a future highly skilled workforce. Further research is needed to investigate other factors that influence the psychological well-being of international students in Sweden.

Det är en väldigt spännande möjlighet att resa utomlands för att studera, men anpassningen till enannan kultur kan vara desorienterande och isolerande. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka sambandet mellan kulturchock, bedömning av klimat och stress bland utbytesstudenter i Sverige. Tidigare forskning visar att kulturchock är en biverkan av att flytta till en annan kultur och klimat. Bland utbytesstudenter finns det två typer av kulturchock; akademisk och språkmässig.Tidigare forskning visar även kulturchock påverkar stress hos utbytesstudenter. Klimat påverkar kulturchock då väder, temperatur och miljön varierar mellan länderna och kräver då anpassningsstrategier för att kunna hantera förändringen. En enkät skickades ut till utbytesstudenter över hela Sverige och sextionio studenter (26 män, 40 kvinnor, 2 icke-binär och 1 som inte vill ange kön) besvarade den. Resultaten visar att det finns en positiv korrelation mellan kulturchock, stress och klimat men att klimat inte förespråkar stress. Resultaten visar även att utbytesstudenter har utvecklat anpassningsstrategier för att bli en del av den svenska kulturen och bevara sin egen psykiska hälsa. Förslag till fortsatt forskning är att undersöka hur olika kulturer påverkar graden av kulturchock i Sverige. / Studying abroad is an exciting opportunity, but the adjustment to another culture that follows can be disorienting and isolating. The aim of the study is to research the relationship between cultureshock, the assumption of climate, and stress amongst exchange students in Sweden. The literature review found that culture shock is a side-effect from moving into a new culture and environment. Amongst students studying abroad there are two types of culture shocks commonly experienced: academic culture shock and linguistic shock. The literature review also emphasized that cultureshock has an impact on a person’s level of stress. Climate also impacts culture shock because weather, temperature, and environment differ between countries, and it requires the person to adjust to handle the changes. The authors of the study shared and sent out an online survey to exchange students in Sweden, and 69 students (26 men, 40 women, 2 nonbinary, and 1 preferred not to state) responded. The results present a positive correlation between culture shock, stress,and climate, but climate is not a predictor of stress. The results also present that students have developed coping strategies to become a part of the Swedish culture and maintain their own physical health. The study recommends future research to do a cross-cultural analysis to investigate how diverse cultures impact the experience of culture shock in Sweden

Diploma thesis " Approaches to children in multicultural Nursery and Primary schools. It deals with the current approaches to children in Nursery and Primary schools, both in Czech schools and foreign schools located in the Czech Republic. First this thesis tries to find some historical context and understanding of the situation that Czech and foreign schools are faced with. Further attempts to map out the involvement of multicultural education into the curricula and teaching practice in the selected schools. Primarily it creates a comparison of approaches to multicultural education in selected schools in the Czech Republic. The thesis is trying to find inspiration for working with multicultural education in Czech schools, which do not pay much attention to multicultural education. Thesis should highlight the importance of multicultural education in schools and the benefits and positive impact of integrating this education into the curriculum of schools.

The focus of the ethnographic diary study is introduced and contextualized in the opening chapter with a site description. The thesis examines the diaries written during a sojourn of over two years in Japan . and proposes to answer the question, "How did the sojourner's initial maladjustment subsequently develop into satisfactory adjustment?"

本論文旨在以民族誌研究方法觀察美國國際交流協會(CIEE)留學生的華語習得期間之文化適應。身為一位CIEE的校友，以及目前在國立政治大學就讀華語文教學碩士學程，並擔任CIEE 語言助理，作者想要透過CIEE美國學生在台灣的經驗來觀察他們學習華語的過程。 本研究提出，美國學生在台灣留學時，同常會經過四種文化適應的發展過程:(1)期待(2)文化衝擊 (3)迷失 (4)適應。研究結果顯示，雖然大部分的人都覺得東亞洲美國學生不可能經驗文化衝擊, 本研究發現正因為他們缺乏了文化衝擊之意識, 使他們在華語習得習期間無法順利適應文化以及學習語言。因此為了有效的幫助華語為第二語言學生學習華語，作者建議學生與老師應該增加文化衝擊之意識。 / This qualitative research study investigates exchange students from the United States (America) in the program of the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), in terms of their experiences during their process of acculturation while acquiring Chinese Mandarin language skills. Previously as a study abroad program student in National Chengchi University, Taipei, and currently as a graduate student in Teaching Chinese as a Second Language Master’s Program, and Language Coordinator of CIEE, (a study abroad program on the same campus), the author proposes to do a case study on the program’s students. The purpose is to understand the effects of cultural experience in second language acquisition by American students through ethnographic methods. The author proposes that in order to effectively acquire Chinese Mandarin language, it could be important for tracking American students’ acculturation process of 1. Anticipation, 2. Cultural Shock, 3. Disorientation, and 4. Adaptation. It is observed that although most people assume that East-Asian Americans experience less culture shock due to their Asian heritage, the study shows that their lack of ‘culture shock awareness’ in fact puts them at a disadvantage, which delays their adaptation, and impedes upon their success in Mandarin language training. The study concludes that decreasing social distance and promoting social interaction through acculturation in classrooms may be effective methods for both East-Asian and non-East-Asian American students to become successful in acquiring Chinese Mandarin language. Thus, it is suggested that students and teachers should increase their level of culture shock awareness in the study abroad context in order to assist Chinese as a second language (CSL) learners.

Dėl galimybės laisvai judėti tarp šalių, labai išaugo darbo jėgos judėjimas. Tad multikultūrinė komanda įmonėse tampa įprastu reiškiniu pastaraisiais metais. Šiame darbe nagrinėjama problematika yra susijusi su skirtingų kultūrų sandūra įmonių viduje. Analizuojamos komandinio darbo sritys, kuriose daugiakultūriškumas sukelia daugiau problemų, aptariami vadovų vaidmenys, susiję su tų problemų sprendimu. Pagrindinis šio darbo tikslas – pateikti įmonėms darbo multikultūrėse komandose gerinimo kryptis. Darbas susideda iš trijų pagrindinių dalių: Pirmoje dalyje pristatoma mosklinė literatūra apie kultūrą įtakojančius ir jų įvairovę lemiančius veksnius, pristatomi mokslininkų siūlymai multikultūrinės komandos darbo gerinimui, pristatoma tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos samprata bei jos reikšmė multikultūrinėje komunikacijoje. Antrosios dalies pagrindinis tikslas – išanalizuoti ir įvertinti atlikto multikultūrinės komandos darbo tyrimo rezultatus, identifikuoti taisytinas vietas. Trečioje dalyje pristatomos multikultūrinės komandos darbo gerinimo programa, kuri susideda iš 4 krypčių. Tai – siūlymai kaip sumažinti kultūrinį šoką, kaip suvaldyti ir panaudoti kultūrinius narių skirtumus, pristatoma tarpkultūrinės kompetencijos plėtros programa, kur siekiama tobulinti tokias asmens charakteristikas kaip – kultūrinis supratimas, kultūrinės žinios, kultūrinis jautrumas ar reikalingi įgūdžiai. Paskutinioji kryptis, pristatoma šioje dalyje, yra – įvertinti tiek asmens, tiek įmonės socialinės... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Multicultural teams in the companies have become very common in recent years. With cross border mobility becoming much easier the number of people moving from one country to another has grown significantly. This paper focuces on the conflict of different culture inside the multicultural teams in the companies. This paper analyzed activity range where the majority of multicultural appears problems in the team, there are discussed the roles of managers related to the solving of those problems. The aim of the paper is to provide ways to multicultural team work development at enterpises. There are three main parts in this paper: The first chapter concentrates on the theory of culture factors, impact of different cultures, scientists advices for improvement of multicultural team work, intercultural competence conception – existing approaches and models and it’s value for multicultural communication. The main reason of the second chapter in this paper is to analyse and to evaluate the results of the multicultural team work at enterprises, to show, which characteristics do not ensure the effective intercultural communication and work in the team. In the last chapter of the paper there are present 4 ways - exhaustive programs for the improvement of multicultural team work at enterpises – advices – how to reduce cultural shock, how to manage cultural differences, intercultural competence program, which includes development of the following attributes: cultural awareness, cultural... [to full text]

This autobiographical study relates my personal experiences as an international student in Canada to curriculum theory and issues in multicultural education. The study takes a creative, cookbook journal format, using a selection of recipes for exploring cross-cultural experiences and making connections between self and the multicultural environment, and between curricular theories and educational practice. While sometimes recipes refer to simple instructions, the curriculum recipes in this study do not provide simple solutions but rather creative ways of thinking about curriculum. The research question guiding this study is how we can understand multicultural curriculum so that majority groups (the host people in Canada) and minority groups (the people from other cultures) acknowledge a space of shared responsibility for intercultural adaptation, and so that there are not two sides or positions for people when crossing cultures, but a space in between where people dwell together.