My girlfriend and I are planning to come to Taiwan to teach English. We’re both Canadians, and she is of South Asian (Indian) origin.
I’ve heard anecdotally about racism against Black teachers, and of a general bias toward white teachers over Chinese-origin ones. Can anyone comment on the level of workplace discrimination there might be against South Asian-origin teachers?
If there are any brown English teachers in Taiwan out there, we would love to talk to you directly at: simongoback at rediffmail dot com.
She will be discrminated against. In Taiwan, people tend to think that white people speak English, and nonwhite people don’t, or at least not as a native language. Therefore you get the common situation where a white non-native speaker from, for example, Russian or Italy is quickly hired to teach English, but actual native English speakers from America have a harder time getting a job because they’re not white.
It is in this type of situation that I advise the nonwhite native English speaker to set up a job, preferably salary-based, not hourly based, before they get here. Kojen, for one, willingly hires nonwhite teachers. If you get a salary-based job with them, your monthly income is guaranteed, even if the parents don’t like you and so you don’t have too many classes.
The attitude here is kind of disorienting at first, I have to say. Back home I am considered, and have been criticized for being, a typical WASP. But my hair is black, so here I’ve had Taiwanese say that I’m not really white.
The English-teaching market in Taiwan has been poisoned by 20 years of advertising with blond-haired and blue-eyed teachers. The fact that pretty much all “foreign” TV talent is blonde doesn’t help things.
A South-Asian teacher would be extremely rarity would thus face an uphill battle in terms of perception by parents. Taiwanese parents have a general disliking toward dark-skinned people teaching their kids. She may also be mistaken or seen as a Thai/Philipino/Indonesian/Whatever domestic helper. Not trying to scare you, just wanting you to be aware.
Check out some of ImaniOU’s posts on this topic. She’s not South Asian, she’s African-American. She had to deal with some of these issues, and handled them quite well. From what she’s written, she found a stellar job.