Dear Teachers[white,black,brown or what have you?]
I read all your comments&I really feel so sad,about your experiences in your teaching in CHINA.I'm not a teacher myself,but just like the rest,I also have difficulty finding job in china,because I'm not white&I'm not a native english speaker.I've been to Africa,Asia&Europe,but CHINA is the worst,if you are white,you are treated here like a KING!!!YOU ARE JUDGE ACCORDING TO YOUR COLOR&TONGUE,NOT IN YOUR CAPABILITIES!!!!!

> Mr Observer,

> If you HATE to say it, why say it?

> If you think Julie was overpaid in earning
> 1400rmb per month ,then do you believe the Germans at her school are
> worthy of their wages?

No, problem Gary . Mr observer can critical of my English. I'm not ashame of of that,the truth is that I'm proud and stand tall amongst the millions of English learners in China and the rest of the world. The one that should be ashameful- is he himself.

How many of his students are able to hold a candle towards me-"A Non-English major" .

I got my BA in Business from a country where English is not their native but first language. Furthermore, I did not have the liberty of being taught by a Native English Speaker throughout my schooling days .

He should count himself lucky and appreciate countries wanting to learn English for communication purposes. If it is not for this fact, he could possibly be busing dishes somewhere back in his home country.

Don't bother emailing them back with grammar advice. I did that to an "applicant" whose application letter was even worse than the one you recieved, and I was labeled a member of the KKK and still reciecve death threats from the idiot!

Well done Julie, I salute your actions. I wish your boss(es) had your integrity.

Your little story highlights why schools want native speakers. Obviously they want qualified natives, but again obviously there are a lot of crappy native teachers out there. The answer isn't, I am sorry to say, to hire non-natives, but to improve checks and conditions and hire qualified teachers.

Before I am hate-posted to death, let me say that I have recruited several non-native speakers in my time at my current school (both times after arguing with my boss). Whilst one was a good teacher, the other isn't, but the POINT IS I can't give them advanced classes because their English isn't good enough. They make mistakes (as per Julie's post) and the advanced students pick up on these.
Now this is no reflection on their teaching skills, there are bad and good native and non native teachers, and both these teachers were/are popular and did well with lower level classes.
I still can't hire non-white teachers, but that is for China to sort out, I have given up arguing about this, I am not going to win. :-(

Let me just say something else. This forum is littered with posts slagging off teachers in China. Now I *know* there are bad teachers here (both native, non-native, black, brown, white etc) BUT there are also a whole heap of GOOD, QUALIFIED teachers. I know many more of this latter group than the former, mainly because the former get moved on after a while.
My school only hires qualified teachers, with degrees (which is something I actually disagree with at times) and a TEFL.

Now then, Guy. Laowai means foreigner, so your are a laowai as well, and 'native laowai' is an oxymoron, but I understood what you meant.

Finally:
Here is an actual job application I received from a Nigerian. (One of about 50 I get everytime I post an ad, despite saying I won't reply to them). This is a bit of an extreme example, but it isn't uncommon! :

"just from xxxx i now apply for a position in ur school.I gonna be happy to teach in ur schoolif u gonna give me the chance ok.If u need me i can then forward my ducs to u ok."

Good txt English, but hardly a wonderful example of an application letter! I won't be employing this person, though I will be sending them a reply telling them how to improve their chances of employment!!

Happy new years everyone (Laowai and Chinese new years).

Dos

> Sorry to remind you that there is a place also called Munich in North
> Dakota in the United States. Please check if the couple were from the
> States, or Germany, before jumping to any conclusions.
> Alex Wu

Thanks Alex, the fact is that both of them are German pasport holders and I did mentioned that during one of their observed lesson, "When one of my student aked where Munich is that id##t said "Europe, Munich is in Germany".
It's a shame, our schools in China are just going after the monetary reward and not the welfare of student's education.

Dear Julie:

You have my sympathy. I was born a Chinese, too. In the last 25 years, I had been qualified and certified in Canada as an English for Second Language Teacher and several other subjects. But after my retirement, I meant to help my people back home in improving their language skills and then found most of the schools were looking for "White, native English speakers". Some even shamelessly claimed for "White, Caucasian", I felt so awful. I myself had never been taught by an English Native speaker in the English learning process. I respect my teachers just the same. Though their pronunciation were poor, but I managed to have it improved by imitating from all sorts of media. It's really sad to see the silvery money wasted and no apparent results by hiring all those foreigners. I believe that you'll be a good English teacher, too.

Sorry to remind you that there is a place also called Munich in North Dakota in the United States. Please check if the couple were from the States, or Germany, before jumping to any conclusions.
Alex Wu

I wonder when all these nonsense about hiring whites is going to stop. I am a new teacher, the middle school where was teaching got rid of our American couple because the poor lady's husband is Black. Our authorities told them that they do not want to hire a non-white - after 2 months of teaching. Both decided to leave and are now teaching in a nearby University.

What makes it more disappointing for me is that they employed another couple from Germany and appointed me their co-teacher. They keep telling everyone that they are Americans. When did Munich became a part of USA? What's worse is that I can hardly understand their English, they have got such a heavy German accent. When I asked my students what they have learned from the present teachers all of them said German's English.

This is what I heard when we observed one of their lessons.

Good Morning, we name is Oliver and she my wife Gretel. I and Gretel are Americans. We are born in Munich and still living in there 35 years.

When one of my student aked where Munich is, that id##t said "Europe, Munich is in Germany".

After their lesson, I took over and my students asked me this "Where about in America is Europe and Germany "?. I had to tell my students the truth and show them where Munich is on the map.

Words got around and now every students knew they are not Americans.Through another English teacher-they complained to my headmaster, and I was hauled into his office and told to shut up. I told him that I did no wrong, but he refused to listen to me and I walked out of his office returning half an hour later with my resignation letter. I left the school and my pay(1400rmb) for the month of December was docked. It's the way the system work in my country. As for me,I can live with that..it's not the money but a matter of principal and pride.

So please, all you foreign teachers out there do not complain. You're not the only one suffering. WE local teachers are in no better position than you are in. Well,I have decided not to set foot into teaching, ever again in my very own China.

To all you teachers out there, have fun teaching in my country's wacky teaching system. As for me, I'm going to head back to the country where I spent my University days after the Spring holidays.
Happy Spring Festival go all you folks.

It is high time the Natives learned how to teach English from Non-Natives Qualified,Experienced holders of University Degrees !It is high time the ESL teacher recriters realised what an ENGLISH TEACHER should be!