I am half-white and half-Chinese

Work Teaching English in Taiwan
21

[quote=“jaykay1620”]I suppose I was not expecting this sort of rude, ad hominem and utterly unhelpful response. I want to teach English in Taiwan, and I plan on dealing with any obstacles I face pragmatically. If someone won’t hire me because I’m half-Chinese, I can cover my eyes, stay home and pretend there is no problem, or I can try to make it through any sort of discrimination I face and teach English anyway. Of course, I’m trying to do the latter. On here, I’m trying to figure out exactly how many barriers I will face, and how I might deal with them. I believe this is constructive. (And I should note I’m not really that concerned, but it seems to be a tight market.)

This is not just about heritage. There are all kinds of unethical grounds for discrimination practiced constantly in Taiwan (and lots of other places, like right here in the good old USA). People will have trouble getting employed if they are too old, too ugly, too dark, too fat, (to some extent) male, or any combination of those. This subject has probably been beaten to death on here. I am a male who doesn’t look completely white, and I’m trying to see how much trouble this causes. I’m awfully glad I am who I am–in fact, I am trying to learn Chinese because of my heritage, and this is my entire reason for wanting to come to Taiwan! But that has nothing to do with my practical question.

I’m also certain this won’t be the worst practical problem I’ll have. Just like everyone else, I plan on trying to stay afloat while breaking as few laws as possible. I’m way more worried about that than I am about my ethnicity.

Are there a good number of half-white-half-Chinese folks running around, or are they a rarity? I hope the previous poster is right about a half-Chinese dude being considered attractive. :slight_smile: I was initially hoping there might be a half-Chinese person on here with some firsthand knowledge. Girls in the US have always liked that I look a little non-white, although no one has dated me for that reason. My impression are that the Taiwanese are a little less nonchalant about skin tone.[/quote]

Girls’ll be flocking all over if you’re good-looking, or just normal-looking.

Hell, even if you’re ugly I’m sure some would still stalk you anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:

Taiwanese like white/asian mixes. They’ll probably be fawning all over you. no woooorries.
As you’re not considered “really chinese”. They believe when Russians and other Europeans claim to be “American”. As you are actually American, you should not have too muhc trouble getting them to believe you are!

22

My kid (as with most of our kids on this site), is also mixed. I don’t see any problems for him growing up here. Of course, he is still very young and still in the hao ka ai stage.
My friends kids are older and they also seem to be well accepted here.

I only know one adult mixed guy , and he was my boss.
I guess it wasn’t an obstacle for him to get promoted.

Good luck to you.

23

Thanks for all your help. Considering the very real hardships others face on this matter, I feel a little bad for thinking I have much to whine about. Good luck to you too.

24

Can you “pass”? If you can, that’s what I would do. That is, if you act “American” (no speaking Chinese, obvious American clothes) and don’t bring up your heritage at all, most people probably wouldn’t even notice.

25

I’m ABC, and I look completely Taiwanese. When I first started looking for a teaching job, I was looking through the newspapers and I had to filter through for all the jobs that specifically said “ABCs welcome” - which weren’t that many. There were a lot that said something like, “seeking teachers that look North-American”.

But the large chain school I’ve worked at for 5 years has a very strict non-discriminatory policy. The first class (adult) I ever taught, one of my students complained to the head office because I didn’t look like a foreigner.

I didn’t even find out about the incident until a couple years later, after I had become friends with the human resources assistant in the head office, and she told me about it. Apparently, my director and the staff had protected me. The hilarious thing is, I had also become friends with the student who had complained about me! Ha.

Schools that discriminate do exist. One of my fellow Asian-American co-workers once went to a school for a interview, and when he showed up, they immediately turned him away, saying “I’m sorry, we thought you were white!” (from the phone)

But that was only one case out of many. So I’d just suggest, support the schools that are non-discriminatory. They do exist, and they do have openings (mine does, you can email me for info if you want).

My friend & co-worker is also half white-half Taiwanese, and he’s got it good at our school. He’s well-liked by his kids, and popular among the girls (he also doesn’t abuse that popularity, which makes him even more popular). Heck, he’s even popular with the parents. But more importantly, he’s a conscientious teacher, so he recently got promoted. You’re not going to have problems if you do a good job.

I’ve had a few minor incidents regarding some students not being receptive to my race. I’ve had my instinct tell me a few times that a student is not too happy about my race on the first day I walk into class. But I don’t remember many of these incidents - they don’t happen often enough. You learn to deal, and let it go. If somebody doesn’t like me because of my race, that’s not my problem - it’s theirs. And I don’t care to educate them or complain about it, because I have better things to do with my life. And besides, these problems just disappear if you’re becoming a better teacher - because there are not that many of those around. At that point, race becomes a non-issue. It only stays an issue if you’re average.

Being a good teacher obviously has nothing to do with race. So if a school thinks they need white faces to teach as a marketing ploy, then they really have no idea what it takes to be a good teacher, and in the long run, they’re not going to survive. So don’t help them make money. If a school can’t handle the real you, then it’s their loss if you’re a potentially good teacher.

Don’t let fear get the best of you. Best of luck.