Abstract: Psychiatry is an important branch of clinical medicine. However, due to the lack of objective diagnostic indicators, the assessments and diagnoses of mental disorders are very different from other medical disciplines. Basically, the diagnosis of mental disorders primarily depends on the clinical interview and mental status examination, involving various social and cultural factors. It would be very challenging to teach psychiatry to international students who are studying in China. This article summarizes the challenges and difficulties in the lectures and internship of teaching psychiatry, taking into consideration various factors that may have an influence on teaching activities, such as the characteristics of the discipline, linguistic and cultural factors, participation of patients, and abstract technical terms involved in theory teaching. This article also goes into details about some specific aspects when discussing these issues, puts forward some possible solutions for these challenges, and evaluates the outcomes.