1 Introduction

This article introduces the important role of international Chinese language teachers in global cultural exchange. They help people around the world learn Chinese by teaching Chinese and organizing cultural activities, promoting cultural exchange and understanding between China and other countries. Since the 20th century, research interest in cross-cultural adaptation of international Chinese language teachers has gradually increased, mainly focused on Asia and Oceania, especially Thailand, with relatively less research on South Korea. Existing research focuses more on teachers of the Korean Chinese Language Program (CPIK), and there is a lack of research on teachers at Confucius Institutes. CPIK teachers mainly teach in primary and secondary schools in South Korea, while Confucius Institute teachers mainly work in universities and community education institutions. There are significant differences between the two in terms of work environment and work mode. This study focuses on the cross-cultural adaptation of international Chinese teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea, emphasizing the national characteristics of the research and adding diversity to international Chinese education research.

2 Research Design of the Study on Cross-Cultural Adaptation of International Chinese Teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea

Introduced a research design on cross-cultural adaptability of international Chinese language teachers in Confucius Institutes in South Korea. The research steps include designing a demographic based questionnaire to collect basic information about teachers, developing a survey questionnaire based on Ward and Kennedy's (1999) Social and Cultural Adaptation Scale and Zung's (1965) Self Rating Depression Scale to collect quantitative data, using SPSS software for statistical analysis, and conducting in-depth interviews with some teachers. The questionnaire design is divided into four parts: personal information, socio-cultural adaptation survey scale, psychological adaptation survey scale, and work adaptation survey scale, all of which use a 5-point Likert scale. The research subjects are teachers in the Confucius Institute project in South Korea from 2022 to 2023. A total of 93 questionnaires were distributed and 87 valid questionnaires were collected through an online questionnaire platform, with a response rate of 96.67%. To ensure the rigor of the questionnaire, a reliability and validity analysis was conducted using SPSS22.0 software. The reliability analysis adopts Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, and the Alpha values of the three scales are all above 0.8, indicating that the questionnaire has high reliability. The validity analysis is mainly based on Kaiser Meyer Olkin (KMO) measurement and Bartlett's sphericity test. The KMO values are both above 0.7, indicating that the scale has good validity and is suitable for cross-cultural adaptation research.

3 Analysis and Results of Cross-Cultural Adaptation of International Chinese Teachers at Confucius Institutes in South Korea

A detailed analysis was conducted on the cross-cultural adaptation of international Chinese language teachers working at Confucius Institutes in South Korea. Cross cultural adaptation was divided into three dimensions: socio-cultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, and work adaptation, and quantitative analysis was conducted using questionnaire survey data. Evaluate teachers' cross-cultural adaptation status by calculating the average value and conduct correlation analysis using SPSS software. The results showed that the adaptation levels from high to low were work adaptation, socio-cultural adaptation, and psychological adaptation.

4 Conclusion

Summarized the research on cross-cultural adaptation of Chinese language teachers working at Confucius Institutes in South Korea from 2022 to 2023. The study explored three key aspects of social and cultural adaptation, psychological adaptation, and work adaptation through questionnaire surveys, quantitative analysis using SPSS software, and open-ended interviews. Research has found that work adaptation is the strongest, followed by socio-cultural adaptation, and psychological adaptation is the weakest. There is a positive correlation between the three, with the relationship between socio-cultural adaptation and psychological adaptation being the most significant. The study also explored the factors that affect the cross-cultural adaptation of these teachers, and found that English proficiency, gender, educational background, professional background, and overseas experience had a relatively small impact, while Korean proficiency, pre departure cross-cultural training, understanding of Korean culture, and length of residence in Korea had a greater impact. This indicates that international Chinese language teachers from different countries have different characteristics in cross-cultural adaptation, emphasizing the importance of country specific research for the sustainable development of international Chinese language teachers. The study also identified nine challenges faced by these teachers, including differences in living costs and services, South Korea's stereotype of Chinese people, cultural differences in communication and eating habits, South Korea's catering etiquette, mind adjustment and emotional management, classroom cultural differences, teaching strategy adjustment, teaching preparation and resource sharing, and limitations of online teaching. In the context of globalization, with the increasing frequency of exchanges between countries and the flourishing development of international Chinese language education, the findings of this study not only provide reference for the pre departure preparation of Chinese language teachers working at Confucius Institutes in South Korea in the future, helping them improve their cross-cultural adaptability, but also provide valuable insights for the sustainable development of international Chinese language teachers.