Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

okey for you pinayinchina.

I appreciate your courage to give your arguments supposedly to defend the Filipino FTs in this land. I patiently read all the posts with regards to this issue...some amused me...some angered me...some amazed me and some really aroused me to air my doxa.

First, you seemed to be speaking on behalf of all the Filipinos which geared the arguments(criticisms) towards all the Filipinos. Please accept the fact that you really made a lot of lapses in your grammar. getting all these insults hurled to you(us) must have been traumatic for you but my advise is "improve yourself" ...learn from the expert.s

Sad to say, there are really some Filipinos who were able to get positions here who lack the fluency...enough reason why we reap criticisms from these language geniuses(???), but not enough to say that Chinese english teachers can teach better than we do...you have already enumerated almost all the other factors which could make a teacher effective so i wouldn't repeat those again.

On the other side, i'm sure that there are also many Filipino FTs who are at par or even better than these native speakers ... taking into consideration all the other factors that would make an effective teacher.
I'm also a Filipino...i'm teaching at one of the biggest universities (one affiliated with Peking U) here,i'm on my third year. I'm not sure whether i did this composition with the correct "structure" or not, there's one thing i'm pretty sure of, i'm sure of my ability as a teacher. For the past years I always got a 100% approval during evaluations and had good rapport with my colleagues (11 FTs, all NSs).

We only need to deliver what is expected of us...our employers sure want to get their money worth...the students only deserve the best...we should behave in a country which is not ours...let's just do our jobs.

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

I won't comment on your post's content, just the way you delivered it - you
are an educator, a model - don't swear.

Ahhhh....this line always apply "All human beings are fallible".

Happy chinese new year kabayan!

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

I am an American-born Filipino and I'd like to share my opinion on this.

To SOME, and let me say again, SOME of the Filipino teachers on here:
I know we are all proud of our country, we are very passionate about our work, but your grammar isn't doing us any justice! If we are going to post and brag about the skills of Filipino ESL teachers, might as well do it right and clean up your grammar! Even though this isn't "formal writing", you must at least show the others that you have a good command of the English language! Now I'm not bragging about my English, but damn, some of you guys got your tenses all mixed up. You even made mistakes on your Subject-Verb agreement, that's so elementary! I can see where the other teachers are coming from when they talk about your mistakes. Yes, we all make mistakes, but being an English teacher you guys shouldn't have committed such trivial grammatical errors. I am ashamed at what you guys put on here, saying you represent Filipinos! No way!

To the other non-Filipino ESL teachers on here:
After reading their posts, you must be thinking that MOST Filipino ESL teachers are like this. Now I am a Filipino ESL teacher myself, but I'm not afraid to admit that we too have weaknesses. You've noticed the grammar already, so let's talk about Pronunciation. It's true we don't say "dree" instead of "three", it's more like "tree" for some teachers.

But those are SOME cases, to generalize Filipino ESL teachers into that category would just be WRONG! There are A LOT of good Filipino teachers working here. If we have weaknesses, we also have strengths. Our educational system, made by the Americans, is taught using English (except for Filipino of course). We use the alphabet for reading and writing, not Hanggul, Hiragana or Katakana or anything like that, we use the alphabet, so it's no problem for us reading and writing in English. If I shared to you guys the strengths of Filipino teachers, there wouldn't be enough space. All I'm saying is, don't judge us (Filipinos) based on the writings of these so-called "English teachers" who are just too proud to admit their mistakes.

And lastly, to Geofrey or however you spell your name. How dare you say you represent Filipino teachers! I am appalled by your behavior! He says he hates racism and then brags about his position that he is ABOVE all white teachers. He's quick to criticize other races but at the same time is quick to defend his. How hypocritical! You have no right to defend Filipino teachers, I won't let you with your kind of behavior (and those little grammatical errors you keep making)! English principal my a**!

The bottom line, and this has been said before, let's judge a teacher by the teacher's skill and passion.

May English strive on to be the international language! Because if the Chinese language takes over, then we'd all lose our jobs.

LONG LIVE THE PHILIPPINES!

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

Thank you Gate. I'm glad you agree with my point that
not all people who are excellent in speaking English
can teach English effectively. And yes, it's up to the
Chinese schools who they want to hire.

Let's just do a good job and stop criticizing
each other.

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

Hi Jeffery,

Well, you told me stop saying dree instead of three.
If it's true,that's how they pronounced "three",
I won't disagree with you. But I don't say dree instead
of three.

In my previous post, I said some Chinese are really good
teachers but I think Filipinos can teach better because
we are more master in English than them because English
is one of our official languages.

And I also said we can even teach better than
"white-skinned teachers" but you know "white-skinned" is
so ambiguous because it refers not only to Americans,
British, Canadians, Australians, and so on. I think you
know that some white-skinned teachers in China don't have
a degree. Chinese schools hired them because they can
speak English very well but it doesn't mean they can teach
English effectively.

I think you know that the ability to speak English
fluently and the ability to teach English effectively
are two different things.

I firmly believe that to be a good teacher in any
subjects one should have a lot of qualities. First,
he/she must be knowledgeable with the subject. For
example, an English teacher should be fluent in both
written and oral English. In addition, he/she be able
to teach grammar, spelling, punctuation marks and so on.
Second, a teacher must love his/her job otherwise he/she
will not be an effective teacher. Third, a teacher
must be patient and understanding towards the students.
Fourth, a teacher must care for the students' welfare.
These are some of the qualities that any teacher should
have and most Filipino teachers have these qualities and
we have more good qualities that make us different from
other nationalities.

If you say you can teach Tagalog better than Filipinos,
I won't disagree because I don't know you in person.
You might be right. But you only studied Tagalog for
12 years. I think to learn a Foreign Language
and be fluent in it you need more time. I think twelve
years is not enough.

I'm 25 now. I start learning English since I was 4 or
5 years old. FYI, English is our medium of instruction
in school. During my time, all our subjects in elementary
and high school were in English except our national
language, Tagalog. But when I was in college all my
subjects were in English. So, I can say I'm master and
know many things in English.

I hope this is my last post to defend my countrymen but
unless you and others will stop I will continue
to fight for my country and my countrymen.
I hate argument but I don't let people underestimate
our capability.

PEACE!!!!

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

Jeffery, the fact that one is a native speak doesn't in any way qualify he or she to teach English.Don't forget that English is a subject just like any other subject.Why is English taught as a subject in schools in native English speaking countries? Can any Australian teach English in the UK? Of course no.According to The Education Crisis report;
60% of all American youth have dropped out of school or scraped by to graduate with barely a 7th-grade education. Where are they? A good number are teaching English in Asia. Yes, their oral English is great,but can they pass the information to the kids? This remain questionable because some dont even know the word "pedagagy". Only Chinese employers or schools know who is the right person to teach depending on the response of their cutomers who unfortunately are innocent parents.It's a "catch 22 situation"

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

Next time, make sure to give REPARTEE.

What's the story behind the "dree" and the "three"?

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

Geeez! Another one with her foot in her mouth. Will you guys please stop making it worse for Filipinos by defending their English teaching skills, yet proving to everyone how inept you are at your jobs?

I'm sure there are many excellent Filipino ESL teachers in the world, but for crying out loud, if you are as incompetent as you sound, please leave it to those who actually can speak and write English well to defend the abilities of your countrymen.

Re: Can non native speakers teach English better than Chinese English teachers?

Quote:
I'm a Filipino and a University teacher in China. I think one can't generalize that non-native speakers can teach English better than Chinese teachers because some Chinese teachers are really good. But maybe compare to non-native speakers in which English is one of their official languages like Philippines then obviously Filipinos can teach better than Chinese teachers.

I'm proud to be a Filipino because we are hard working and very dedicated to our job. And I can say we can teach English as good as the "white-skinned" teachers and even better.

I want to tell those people who are discriminating us, Filipinos, that many countries in the world love Filipinos because aside from we are excellent in English we are very flexible, hard working, patient, friendly and dedicated. Unquote:

Too many mistakes in the above sentences to back your claim to be a good English speaker.