ABSTRACT
This study aims to reveal the experience of adapting the communication of foreign teachers while carrying out their learning assignments in Indonesia. The focus is the exploration of the communication adaptation experience of foreign teachers at Jakarta International Senior High Schools. The dynamics of interactions involving negotiations, face-to-face conversations, situations and contexts of conversations, communication adaptation tips in which there are challenges, difficulties, and even communication failures may occur which lead to social rejection until the acceptance of foreign teachers. To understand the communication adaptation experience of foreign teachers, the researcher uses a qualitative approach using descriptive phenomenology. This phenomenon is analyzed by combining two analytical methods, including the analysis developed by Rossman and Marshall (2006) and the Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) by Smith. 10 foreign teachers were selected by purposive sampling with the following criteria: foreign teachers who teach at least one year at an International Senior High School in Jakarta. The results of this study show that many foreign teachers explain that there is a “culture problem” when they meet cultural differences.
Keywords: cross-cultural communication, phenomenology, international school