Educational Filmmaking of English Language-Discrimination-Na...

Dear Stephen,
I am interested in sharing my experience with you about this subject of discrimination and corruption in English language schools and International Schools in Asia.
What has happened to me I am sure has happened to others like me. I am Asian born but Adopted by American family when I was four days old. I am a native English speaker and am an American Citizen. English is my first language. When I was in college I applied to a job in Japan. They were interested in hiring me right away after a telephone conversation. They knew I was an American by my accent. But as soon as I told them that I looked Asian they no longer wanted to hire me. I faced the same problem in a high school in South Korea. The Korean principal did not want to hire me because of my skin colour. After one day he dismissed me and my husband who is caucasion! He sat on his chair and looked at us and dismissed us. They had no materials for us. We had just arrived from the USA and were jet lagged and tired. This school in Korea had said we would not have to go teach all over the place but as soon as we arrived we had to go to other locations. In Thailand we taught at another Korean run school and faced many problems also. I guess you will always find many schools with so many problems. It is hard to know how you can change things unless the governments of the countries have laws so things like this do not happen. Many things in life are not fair. It is good to address the problems but takes many yrs. to change! Good luck in your work.
Sincerely,
Joanna Fama

Dear Stephan,

I am African American living and working in China for the past three years. I have over twenty years teaching experience in the USA yet
I find that many recruiters and schools here shy away from when they
see my photo or meet me face to face I have even been asked to leave a restruant because I would frighten the Children. BUt current employer
even admitted that She pays me less than white teachers with no experince at all. I have had students tell me that they preferreed a white
pretty girl teacher. As I am simply waithing for my retiement fund to come to fruition I can look on all this with kind of sense of irony. I can
half way around the world just to treated like a NIGGER.

I would also like to address this Issue of curriculum ...Let me puase while I laugh. I been asked to use books here thar are a complete joke.
and teach nothing. YET COST Chinese parents a fortune. If you deviate
from the books and try to really teach the parents get upset. Some of this is the parents own greedy faults because they only go by looks .
If a program has slick advertisement then they by it any teacher that actually tries to teach the parents get upset. You must understand Chinese children are spo[led into state of complete uslessness. You aren´t supposed to challenge them just sing some songs and play some games!!!

I find that discrimination and stupidity are rampant in China. I really hate saying these things because back home, I´d feel a bit unrealistic and bigoted in saying such broad statements, but I really do feel this way! For example, m students have books (I teach college), but I don´t have a copy of the book. The school says I don´t need to teach it, but that the students had to buy it to use in their free time. I teach a lot and spent about 40 hours per week doing my job, which is something insane to them! They think that us foreigners only go to class, then leave, get drunk and get laid. It´s really a depressing state of affairs here. I know that many Chinese hate black people, which is a conundrum to me because their contact with black people have been limited (and to my knowledge, not negative).

I think that the programs are there, at least until the funding goes away due to pocket-lining/ bribery/ etc. This happens quite often, along with the establishment of pointless programs (let´s send the freshmen into their fields - being inventory supervisors - BEFORE we put them into a classroom).

There are some who care, but I think that most of it still revolves around money. To successfully work here, you need to be white.... And it sucks.

My college here (I use the term "my" loosely) is thinking about letting me recruit foreigners! I´m excited because that means I get to be at least a little more fair to applicants than most schools here.

No one will like the answer and it is not born of bigotry. Simply, Africans brought AIDS in abundance to Asia so they are skeptical of any color.

if you´re looking for real stories of job discrimination in ELT...visit Thailand!!

Education corruption in China

As a teacher who has been in China for 5 years education has taken a distinct turn for the worse over the years I have been here. There are many who will talk about their (usually bad) experiences here but the problem lies a lot deeper. In the last decade China has created overnight millionaires by the hundreds who inturn go into what they see as lucrative businesses, English being one of them.
These ´millionaires´ have a lot of money and have adapted Chinese culture to the new world. The more you have the more respect you get. At least thats the idea.
With English being a commodity that is easily sold through slick advertising, ESL has become a multi billion dollar business with even many foreign so called English centers cashing in. EF, Wallstreet, Web, ING international just to name a few. China has an almost inexhaustible supply of not only gullible people but now gullible teachers (me too) who all jump on this band wagon called English teaching. In China there has never been any serious attempt to use english education as a means to improve the society at large but more over just a way to cash in and get out quick. Its all about money for Chinese and foreigners alike. A foreign teacher would no more teach in a rural community for for small money as would an English training company pay a teacher what they are worth. Generally speaking.
Chinese have an instant gratification complex where they see English as a tool to make more money but don´t want to spend the actual time it takes to learn it.
In China they say it is a developing nation and yet it has a GDP greater then many developed countries. Perhaps the difference between a developed country is not so much in its economic prosperity but more so is education values. When many Chinese realise that proper education cannot be bought or bribed but must be earned then China will stand as a developed nation rather then a gossl copy of a developed one.

Larrie,
Believe it or not, here is a bone fide whitebread that knows how you feel. I got age (62) discrimination in the US, no China has a cut off of 63 for teachers....I could stay home and be treated like that! The hiring people don´t tell me why, just that it is gov policy. In the US, of course, they won´t say anything about my age, gender or race, but the result is the same. Hey, look at the bright side, you have a pension to look forward to...I´ve got zip.
George

Nationality Discrimination: I have been teaching in South Korea for over 6 years.I am a native English speaker from Trinidad and Tobago. English is my mother tongue, and it is second to none. I have a BA, MA in Education, and TEFL certification. All my education was done in the United States.

Inspite of my experience and qualification, many universities and public high school employers would rather choose another person with limited qualifications, but has a US, CAN, AUS, UK... passport.
Having a passport from one of the 6 "English Speaking Countries" seems to be more important than experience and qualification.
I have seen some teachers coming from the US, and had no difficulty receiving a teaching contracts and E-2 visas. However, their contracts had to be terminated because they were more fluent in Spanish than English. Not every citizen from the "6 English speaking countries" are fluent in English.

What advice do you have for teachers like myself who are already in the ESL teaching system here in Korea, experienced and qualified, but not given an opportunity to teach at a higher level because we don´t have a passport from one of the major six "English Countries"?

Donald Johnson-English Teacher Shenzhen China - I got hired here after changing careers from the IT industry. I was told by my agency that it extremely difficult to get Black people hired. He is the co-owner with his Chinese girlfriend. I recently interviewed for teaching positions in Taiwan and from my observation and background; they are doing this just as some attempt at an intellectual exercise ( I use the term intellectual very loosely). I agree with a lot of the sentiment of the other responders here. The Chinese are all about the money. They could care less about English. It is sad because you stand in the class and realize at the end of the day; these kids are no more going to use English; than I am going to wake up tomorrow morning and be white. To use an idiom from the Days of Jim Crow: If it´s white; it´s alright. If you´re black; get back. While interviewing in Taiwan; I met an English guy at dinner and we started talking frankly about this subject and he said it was true. I asked him if it´s racism or classism; he replied it was both. Racism in terms that the Chinese don´t know Black people so they have an out and out fear of Black people. Based on my many years in sales; " a confused mind; will automatically say No. " As I have been told that the Chinese don´t like anyone who is not Chinese; but they have bought into the White Supremacy ideology. Part of the belief system of White Supremecy is that the Asian community racially identifies itself more closely to the white community in terms of color, hair, skin. So everything white people say must be true. Case in point is the proliferation of cosmetic commercials that are geared toward Asian women " whitening " their skin in the belief that they will be " more pure; the whiter they look ". So in my life observation Stephen; yes it is true´ they only want to hire white looking teachers.

To all the EFL Teachers reading this; I wanted to add one more thought on this topic. In the back of my mind; I always wondered why Asian schools requested a picture as part of the application process. Was this a suttle form of discrimination? No, it is a blatant form of racism. They are trying to make sure that you are white; and anything less than that goes unanswered. They can use the " government " excuse as a cover for not answering questions about one´s application or follow up questions you may have.

Don Johnson

Well Stephen and to the rest of Teachers of Color it is true. This just happened to me less than 72 hours ago. While sitting in Starbucks I receive this email from a recruiter who said " Don, I have just had a bunch of teachers leave and I have positions open right now that I need to fill. " I sent him the cursorary required information. He then sent me an email saying could I send him the required " picture taken within the last 6 months " because Taiwanese parents usally want to know who are teaching their children" . This is the dead racist give away sign that they want to make sure that you are " not a person of color ". In my answering his request I decided to " call him out " on this one. In the body of the email; I told him I know for a fact that this is a racist tact used by Asians to make sure the person is anything but " a person of color ". Well the recuiter answered me back immediately and said " Yes, Don this is an email that he has to write at least 3-4 times per month ". He said that the Taiwanese have this " twisted concept in their heads that th only people who can speak proper English are the blond-haired, blue eyed types ". He said I know this is sick, but a factof life in Taiwan. He said he has to write 3-4 emails per month saying he cannot get people of color hired. He said Don " I know it makes no sense to rty to ask you to understand, but it is a fact. No matter what your qualifications are; if you are of the wrong " hue " you won´t be hired. he said that the Taiwanese said they only want white or very light skinned people in front of their children . I have kept all of the emails of our correspondence. So let call " a spade; a spade " this is out and out racism. If you are anything but white; you will not be hired in Taiwan. So we have come 17k miles to be confronted with racism and white supremacy. He also said " and they wonder why they have not advanced as a society, but want to be taken seriously in the global community".So why is it that we cannot make any unkind remarks about the Chinese people and we must respect the Chinese culture with it´s 5000 year history. And this is the best they have done 5000 years is " become a developing nation ".

iIwould like to talk with you about your overall project- discrimination certainly exists, but is growiing less and less overt as Asia opens. Corruption exists too of course (corruption is key to China´s economy and schools being granted licenses). A big interests of mine is the influx of missionaires into China to prosylytize. Secular teachers are often foils for schools to run underground churches, etc.