uniclown
- 2009-12-19
Chinese universities must start paying FT's decent salaries eg: 8000-10000RMB a month.
I don't think they want to pay clowns that much!
Supercat
- 2009-12-19
I would like to know what you mean by "well educated" teachers, if you mean anyone with a degree them that really makes me laugh! There are plenty of foreigners working as teachers in Asia who can't teach, both degree and non-degree holders.
The degree v non-degree issue has been done do death on boards like this, it is just a red herring and is not even worth talking about. If you don't actually have a teaching degree, then to be blunt, you are not really qualified to teach, although like any job, people can learn how to do that job by experience alone. It is why this degree only rule has been such a failure in Thailand for instance, only a tiny percentage of teachers there were previously teaching in the West. Many Westerners want to live and teach in China and Thailand, they will do so regardless of whether or not they are "qualified" to teach. Better for the Thai government to drop the stupid degree requirement, maybe many of the honest and highly experienced non-degree holding teachers like myself would return there, and Thailand would have less illegal workers. However the crap salaries on offer there are not exactly an incentive for teachers!
As for teachers "earning their daily bread" in China, well, that really makes me laugh! The pay for FT's in China is so pathetic it is no wonder that "backpackers" are attracted to such jobs, especially uni jobs. Training centre jobs are not even worth considering, the private EFL sector in China ( and Korea ) is nothing but a joke, as people like the Turnoi poster have pointed out many times.
Chinese universities must start paying FT's decent salaries eg: 8000-10000RMB a month.
Pay peanuts and you just get (white) monkeys!
Flyonthewall
- 2009-12-19
Quite a few of the Australians I've met here speak English with strong, local accents, and, rather surprisingly, many of them haven't come from regional Australian towns, such as those in the outback miles from civilisation. I've also met some Kiwis, also with strong local accents that are difficult to comprehend.
I cannot imagine how Chinese students can understand what either nationality from the southern hemisphere is saying in English. I've also discovered that the menfolk from there tend to drink too much beer and love womanising. They just live for dancing with attractive Chinese women at nightclubs until the early hours of the morning! They'll turn up for class half-asleep with hangovers, so can not teach well. That's a crying shame for the cleverer and more motivated of their students.
Oracle
- 2009-12-19
I'm not sure if Canadians have the best English pronunciation as a rule. As for Americans speaking the best English, I doubt that is the case. All I can say for sure is that native speakers of English tend to speak much better English than non-native speakers of English do. As a result, many, many educational institutions in China only accept applications from native speakers of English for teaching vacancies requiring the English language to be spoken and/or written in class. You see, almost all non-native speakers of English, even most of those with post-graduate academic qualifications, cannot speak and write English nearly as well as well-educated native speakers of English can. One would have thought that what I have stated is common sense, but clearly it isn't to some foreigners teaching in China, and so needs to be posted here in black and white!
Albert Mondragon
- 2009-12-19
Cut me a break. 90% of the time I meet a ridiculously unqualified or undereducated FT here he/she is Canadian or Australian.The Canadians and English I've met here speak clear English, if, and only if, they are decently educated. Sadly, most of those types are not choosing to come here to China to teach English.
Very true, pangmei. China gets the bottom of the barrel in the EFL industry. It's a fact. There are many reasons for this, which I'll not go into here.
Backpackers abound, and they're doing very little in the classroom to earn their daily bread. However, they shouldn't be blamed for that - they're merely taking advantage of the bad state of the EFL marketplace in China at present. There are too many vacancies and not enough applicants with decent qualifications. This bad state of affairs has been going on now for a decade or so, and it seems as if it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future.
pangmei
- 2009-12-18
Ya, I know exactly what you're talking aboat! (Not a typo...that's how most Canadians pronounce it.) Canadians speak great English, eh?
Cut me a break. 90% of the time I meet a ridiculously unqualified or undereducated FT here he/she is Canadian or Australian.The Canadians and English I've met here speak clear English, if, and only if, they are decently educated. Sadly, most of those types are not choosing to come here to China to teach English. As for French Canadians, my word. Their English is laughably bad. BBC English is indeed pretty good. But so is Voice of America English. That's why they're on the radio. As far as a country's "average" speakers go I'd put Americans at the top. Some of the folks here who harbor anti-American sentiments (and I can't blame you for that) have simply lost your objectivity on this issue. Yes, we're imperialist, war-mongering jerks but it don't mean we ain't able to speak English.
Maple Leaf
- 2009-12-16
Many people will agree that Canadian English is the best. After that comes British English. I've been a foriegn teacher of English here for a long, long time. Many Chinese have told me how easy it is for them to comprehend Canadian english. Case made, I think!
kjk
- 2009-12-16
I also agree that I would not want to speak with an American accent. I would recommend listening to either BBC or the Canadian CBC for what is close to a flat speaking. Every country in the English speaking world has an accent but the BBC and CBC people used to be trained to speak in a flat tone. I know others will disagree.
Juan
- 2009-12-15
You are quite correct that the Canadians have the best English accent- clear and articulate. In the United States I worked with a Canadian ESL teacher, and his accent is what impressed me the most. Last week I played for my Chinese students differrent radio shows from English speaking countries around the world. Their task was to choose an accent they thought was the clearest one to practice repeating the words. The last thing I told them was that after I am gone they would be luky to get a Canadian teacher.
However, not all American English is bad. The English on radio stations like National Public Radio have excellent accents from which students can learn. That said, Texas Twang and the accent from New England would not be advisable to practice imitating.
Paul, foreign expert, China
- 2009-12-15
I would not recommend speaking English with an American accent, and I would also not encourage anyone to learn it.
It is like having chewing gum in your mouth when you speak with that accent.
It's painfully obvious Turnoi dislikes Americans. He has attacked the American accent once again.
Of course,let's not forget the best accent is the Russian one, when it comes to speaking English. That's why Russians are in great demand internationally to teach English as a foreign language, just as Turnoi is doing on the dark continent...lol!
Joking apart, the best spoken English emanates from Canada. So many Chinese employers are bending over backwards to hire Canadians like me!