I am being discriminated by my own people

I have been teaching at this school for 1 and a half year, now they just fired me for not being “white” without giving an early notice. They want to attract students with “white” faces. I have 6 years of teaching experience, never miss a day at school and speak more languages than any white teachers there. I realized no matter how good I am, how hard I work, I will never be as good as “white” teachers just because I am NOT "white. I have traveled to many countries and have never encountered any discrimination. Here I am, being discriminated by my own people in my own country. :imp:

My deepest sympathies. You mention that Taiwan is “your own country”. Is it fair to say that you are not a native speaker? If you were born and raised in the US, Canada, England or Australia, would your English be better? The reason I ask is because of the title you gave the thread: “I am being discriminated by my own people”. I’m sure you mean “I am being discriminated against by my own people”, right? Maybe it’s not your skin colour, but the fact that you’re not a native speaker. Just thinking out loud here.
Anyway, the rest of the English in your post is flawless, so I’m sure you’ll find another job soon. Don’t let the bastards get you down. There are all kinds of places that would love to have a teacher with your qualifications, even if you aren’t a native speaker. :slight_smile:

I can understand your feeling. This topic had been on and off on segue forum. You can’t blame anyone but the whole society setup and the local mindset. You can blame the school, they’re just out to run a business. You can’t blame yourself, you’re as good as any white or black or any color preference.

Better leave your own country if it discriminates you. Or change your profession to teaching Chinese instead of English.

regards

ax

There are many “white” faces are not even native speakers are teaching English in Taiwan.

From that little piece of Chinglish, I suspect perhaps there might be other reasons why you might want to reconsider a career in teaching English. The fact that other “white faces” who are not native speakers teach English, not the best of ideas, IMHO, doesn’t make non-native, non “white faces” teaching it a good idea either.

Let’s not be picky and start using grammar checker each time you post:)
And isn’t regional English the trend of the world now. I switch from Singlish to Taglish most of the time since I don’t do Germlish nor USlish:)

regards

ax

No. If it were, Taiwan would prefer to hire Taiwanese English teachers for their buxibans, kindergartens and language schools.

Without standards, Anton, quality suffers, whether it’s hygiene, engineering, or language. Broken English is broken English, no matter where you find it. :unamused:

I agree with you on this one if it is for teaching profession. However, for daily use, I have many options in my repertoire.

I have also purged myself out of English teaching profession and let myself sails the uncharted waters of foreign languages madness, latest struggle being Hindi and Arabic.

regards

ax

Chicaloca - You have been working at this place for more than six months. That gives you certain rights as an employee. If you feel you have been unfairly dismissed, you can go to the authorities and ask to be reinstated or paid severance. If you feel unconfident about doing this, there are some organisations that can offer you advice.

If you’re a Taiwanese citizen you enjoy an albeit limited selection of rights we foreigners can only dream of. I can’t quite follow your post - when you say “my own people” what do you mean ?

With 6 years’ experience you should be accustomed to the random discriminations the Taiwanese bushiban owner makes. Oh we like blonde hair this week, oh we’ll have American accents next week, and you’re too old/fat/young/sexy/not sexy enough/too much like my wife/like my wife too much/remind me of a teacher we had here 4 years ago who farted a lot etc etc

I assume you are teaching English ? Having re-read your post I’m now slightly confused as you say the school wants to attract students with white faces. Eh ?

I’m a trained waiter but I can’t get a job at any Chinese restaurant in the US. They all want “yellow faces”. :shock:

I presume she means that the school wants to attract students by having teachers with white faces, not that they want to attract students who have white faces. As in they want to attract iron filings with a magnet. The sentence is ambiguous, but it’s not wrong.

You mean you actually applied for the job and got turned down? Poor you. Back in London, some Chinese friends of mine offered to have a word with a restaurant manager and get me a job washing dishes. I can’t remember now why I didn’t take up such an attractive proposition.

:laughing:

just curious op, is that what they said? they fired you because you’re not white?