Abstract:
This research consists of a triple objective: 1) to study the language and cultural difficulties experienced by Thai exchange students in Mexico, 2) to analyze the causes and effects of such difficulties towards the adaptation of Thai students in Mexico, and 3) to elaborate a proposal of preparatory audiovisual materials that help these students to overcome both language and cultural barriers in Mexico. The research methodology consists of the data collection from the questionnaire taken by a sample group of 84 Thai AFS exchange students in Mexico during the academic year from 2009 to 2019, and the interviews conducted with 8 students of the same group. In terms of language difficulties, their communication skills prior to the departure to Mexico were evaluated on average as "very low". Due to the inadequate proficiency of Spanish, most of the surveyed population struggled “significantly” when communicating in Spanish with Mexicans. In terms of cultural difficulties, most of the Thai students admitted to struggling “fairly hard" to adjust in Mexico. The issues that received significant high scores, ranging from most impactful to least impactful, were as follows: unpunctuality, late lunch and dinner times, physical contact on sensitive parts of the body for Thais, curriculum of Mexican host schools which was not compatible with those in Thailand, social space of Mexicans compared to the personal space of Asians, such as Thais. In addition, a proposal of 13 preparatory lessons for Thai exchange students in Mexico has been presented. Their contents are mainly based on the results from the questionnaire and interviews with the target group. Finally, an audiovisual material on the topic "doing the grocery shopping" has been elaborated as a pilot lesson.
