The Study On The Intercultural Adaptation Of The Volunteer Chinese Language Teachers In South Korea

As the Chinese language teaching business is booming worldwide,learning Chinese has become a demand and hobby for more and more foreigners.The volunteer Chinese language teachers in South Korea are the second largest group of overseas volunteer Chinese language teachers after those in Thailand,there is still few studies on the crosscultural adaptation of this group in South Korea.Both China and South Korea belong to the Asian cultural circle and have certain cultural similarities.Which made many volunteer Chinese language teachers in Korea are not well prepared for intercultural communication before they work abroad,as a result,they found that although two countries both belong to the same cultural circle,they still face a lot of difficulties in intercultural adaptation when they work and live in a foreign environment.Based on the questionnaire data and interview results,it was found that the reasons for the difficulties in intercultural adjustment of the volunteer Chinese language teachers in South Korea are mainly the following points:(1)Low level of Korean language proficiency;(2)Incompatible expectations;(3)Unsatisfactory social support during work;(4)Preferential assimilation strategy in the face of cultural differences,neglecting their own psychological experience in cross-cultural adjustment;(5)Disagreement with partner teachers in the co-teaching model;(6)Poor psychological adjustment.The third chapter of the study presents some typical cases of cross-cultural adaptation difficulties encountered by volunteers during their tenure as teachers,partner teachers,colleagues and students in the form of case studies,and offers some reflections based on the cases.Finally,some suggestions were made to help the volunteers to improve their intercultural adaptability before and after their arrival in South Korea.The significance and value of this study is mainly to identify and summarize the common difficulties and reasons for the intercultural adaptation process of the volunteer Chinese language teachers in Seoul,and to draw inspiration from real cases of intercultural communication.The results of the study will help to enhance the crosscultural adaptation of volunteers who go to South Korea as a volunteer chinese language teacher.