I didnât read the whole thread, but Iâll weigh in regardless.
My girlfriend is from the Philippines. Of course Iâd love her to have English teacher opportunity (not that she needs it as a qualified technician), but many filipinos do have a heavy accent when speaking English.
Passport from a native English country is held as the standard by which the Taiwanese bureaucracy identifies language experts. I wouldnât expect that to change any time soon. As far as bureaucratic metrics go, itâs among the less terrible ones.
Culture matters too. Filipinos have altered meanings of words by their own culture. Donât tell a beautiful filipina that she looks exotic, and her jewelry is fancy. You just called her ugly and her jewelry fake.
Filipinos would need to be screened for accent and cultural acuity before qualifying. The same would apply to South Africans and all others who arenât from a native English country.
But, when proven to be capable of teaching on near-native level, should they earn the same salary as a native speaking âforeign expertâ? Iâm unsure about that one. They should be making more than an unskilled migrant thatâs for sure. ESL isnât easyâŚ
This could easily borderline racism.
Filter the Quebecians from Canadians.
Filter the Boers, others non-English speakers from South Africans.
Filter Welsh, Scottish and Irish from UK.
Filter Southerners from the US.
Filter non English speaker from Australia/ NZ.
It isnât racism on its face, though it could become racist practice pretty quickly (such as the non white people being considered to have lower English proficiency after some stupidly put together âassessmentâ that means nothing)
One day, Taiwan will accept that they need trained language teachers, not âexperts cuz itâs the language of your passport countryâ. . As if that day will ever comeâŚ
They could easily require some kind of standardised test. It wouldnât cost them anything. However, most native English speakers wouldnât get IELTS band 9. Iâve heard of some who couldnât even get TOEIC 990.