Adjectives corresponding to nationalities

Question

As far as I understand, nationalities in Japanese are expressed either using the name of the nation together with [人]{じん} to form an adjective, or directly using the name of the nation with the の particle. For example, to say "Chinese person", we can say either

中国[人]{じん}

or

中国の[人]{ひと}

I suppose the same holds for a generic term like 外国, which translates to "foreign country". So, I would either use 外国[人]{じん} or 外国の[人]{ひと}. I've found a sentence in my textbook, both written and spoken, which goes like:

この大学に外国[人]{じん}の先生が35[人]{にん}います。

So, is it incorrect to attach 外国 to 先生 (unlike it is for [人]{ひと}) saying

外国の先生

just like one says

外国の[人]{ひと}

or to use 中国[人]{じん} directly as an adjective (so without the particle の, that is 中国[人]{じん}先生). Probably English is leading me off track and this is not an adjective in Japanese (also, would it be a -い or -な adjective?), but even then I don't understand. Can you shed some light on this?

Incidentally, here's the audio. The sentence is at 0:37.

Answer 1

中国人、外国人, etc mean actually Chinese nationals, foreign nationals, etc. So 中国人の先生 is "teacher of chinese nationality", hence a Chinese teacher. 外国人の先生 is "teacher of foreign nationality", a foreign teacher. 中国の先生 is more generic, meaning teacher from/of/relating to China. The same for 外国人の先生。

Answer 2

A more careful search lead me to this answer by the user naruto, which addresses my doubts, confirming what the user Arfrever mentioned in a comment in the answer by Daciu Barbat. Nonetheless, I shall write this answer for the sake of completeness, mutatis mutandis. According to the answer above, the phrases

中国の先生、外国の先生、外国の人

correspond the meaning 1 (cf. answer above) of the particle の, that is affiliation/belonging. More schematically, in this specific case, if B is a country and A is a noun, A の B is B from/of A, (the choice between "from" and "of" ultimately depends on the meaning)⁽¹⁾

On the other hand, the phrases

中国人の先生、外国人の先生

correspond to the meaning 2, that is state/description/apposition. Here the の particle seems to be the same as the copula である), so the literal translation would be more or less A teacher who is Chinese/a foreigner, which is more easily adapted as A Chinese/foreign teacher.

Finally, I will address this query, made in my original question:

or to use 中国人 directly as an adjective (so without the particle の, that is 中国人先生). Probably English is leading me off track and this is not an adjective in Japanese (also, would it be a -い or -な adjective?), but even then I don't understand.

As I understand, 中国人 is just a noun, not an adjective, so it can't be used to modify a noun by direct juxtaposition. This may confuse some learners because we translate it in English with an adjective:

田中さんは中国人です。

is usually translated as "Tanaka is Chinese." Probably "Tanaka is a Chinese person" is a better rendition to understand this point.

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⁽¹⁾ As the other answer and the comments cleverly suggest, the phrase 中国の先生 - unlike the one below (中国人の先生) - is more generic. One possible interpretation is in terms of nationality (B **from** A), but is may also interpreted as relating B to A without necessarily speaking of nationality (B **of** A). In our case, teacher(s) of Japan, which are the teachers who work in Japanese and may not be Japanese citizens.