Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

Abstract

This paper is an ethnography that explores the acculturation of South Korean exchange students at Southern Adventist university through a triangulation of information from theory, interviews, and field observation. The paper relies on Young Yun Kim’s theory of acculturation, which closely looks at the push and pull of one’s home and host culture in the process of acculturation. In my ethnography, I observed approximately 60-100 South Korean students, ages 18-23, in different social settings such as church, social dining, and study. Full participant, participant observer, and full observer were the three methods of observation used in the various social settings. I found that the South Korean exchange students did indeed acculturate to local culture; however, those who stayed within their South Korean social group acculturated at slower pace than those who left the group.

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