Sorry. I left out the drug dealers.
1 Like
The racism against people from SEA is omnipresent.
He said they āwant to pay you in lunch boxes and potato chips.ā They probably would if they could get away with it. They absolutely see Southeast Asians as an inferior race.
3 Likes
Oh yeah sorry if forgot thereās the new teachers assistant program. Just started last year. No license needed but pay is smaller
1 Like
95 percent of cram school job ads ask for teachers from the usual countries, perhaps. However, that doesnāt mean they wonāt take Filipinos. I donāt think the big chains are likely to discriminate. Franchisees might if they recruit independently of head office. Also, contacts make a big difference. The OPās partnerās family and friends will help.
I work with a Filipino in a uni and I used to work with two others at the British Council.
4 Likes
I suspect a lot of bosses in lots of businesses would like to pay the lowest they can. Thatās just good business sense. Supply and demand plays a large role, too.
1 Like
Pinoy teachers in Taiwan are paid in lunch boxes and potato chips? I highly doubt that.
I have no problem having a proper discussion. Itās supposed to make friendships more authentic when we speak the truth.
2 Likes
I donāt know any drug dealers, I was referring to English teachers
Yes, and the less power people have, the easier they are to exploit.
2 Likes
Just accessing Chewy.
and after 1 year being assistant, you can be a public school teacher with a degree and TESOL, without a teacher license.
1 Like
I didnāt know that part!
Recent anecdote:
As many of you probably know, I was roped into subbing for a month at an English cram school for the month of November. During that time I was approached by the owner of the school who practically begged me to take over three classes begin taught by a Filapina. The reason given, āParents hate the awful accent, they want a native speaker of English and want to see a white faceā. I asked why they had hired her and it was because of the Covid Pandemic which caused a huge loss of native speakers of English to depart and no new ones could enter Taiwan. They had also hired two Russians, a Haitian and a Central American to cover classes. I declined their offer.
Near the end of November, I was introduced to the owner of an associate school and asked to take over 4 classes that was currently being taught by an Indonesian female. Same reasons were given. āAwful accent, non-native speaker of English, parents unhappy.ā I asked why they had hired her and they replied that they hadnāt. They contracted an agency who sent a blond hair blue eyed American girl to come do a demo and win the contract. But, when it came time to staff the school, the agency sent Indonesian and South American teachers with the excuse that it was too far for the American girl to travel. After doing some investigations, I found out that all the āteachersā are in fact foreign college students on a student visa who are all employed illegally and teaching illegally. I declined this offer as well.
Epilogue: I tried to explain to both owners of their schools that there was nothing wrong with having Filipinos/Indonesians/Indians, etc. teaching for their schools. In fact, I told them that the experience was quite valuable. They looked confused by my assertions. I went on to say that if their students ever travel to the US, they are very unlikely to meet and interact with someone like me. They will immediately meet airport baggage handlers, taxi drivers, hotel desk clerks, fast food restaurant employees, convenience store clerks, etc. Most of these entry level positions are staffed by new American immigrants from all of these countries and more and will have varying levels of English proficiency and different accents to boot. Hell, learn English from me, then go try to live in Tennessee and understand whatās being said by native speakers of Tennessee English!
But, it all fell on deaf ears as it has for the past 22 years. Buxiban owners would rather have an uneducated, drunk white guy with blond hair and blue eyes than a highly educated, professional and dedicated Filapino English teacher. Unless, of course, the price is cheap enough.
Hell, one school I remember didnāt want to hire a full blooded Taiwanese girl named Victoria who had grown up in San Francisco since she was 2 years old. Close your eyes and you āseeā and hear a blond haired, blue eyed, Barbie doll American girl talking. No Mandarin ability whatsoever. 100% native speaker of English.
Kind of shocking to witness Taiwanese being racist toward another Taiwanese for looking Taiwanese.
5 Likes
You really need to learn how to say no. 
To be fair, the buxiban owners are just responding to market demand. The parents want their kids learning from white people, who apparently have a monopoly on proper American English.
1 Like
Which very small amount of kids are actually learning.
Even the Buxiban I work at has the rubbish term ē¾čŖ on the door in massive characters. Theyāve never hired an American in 20+ years. Taiwanese almost never sound American either. And none of the parents Iāve met really care if the teachers arenāt American. But, they do care about the foreign teacher speaking English natively.
Also āthey want whiteysā isnāt really a fact at all. One of the other schools I work at has many foreign teachers. White, black, Asian. Also from a few countries; Canada, South Africa, Australia and the US. Strangely no Brits, Irish or Kiwis but I guess none applied. All of us speak English as our mother tongue, not all of us are white.
That list is not the be all or end all for all Buxibans. They are just countries that speak English as the primary language of their ancestors. Anyone who speaks English fluently should apply for whatever job they want 
Plenty of schools are racist, plenty arenāt.
For sure.
Your workplace must be pretty progressive.
1 Like
If OP doesnt have to worry about work visa , then being a teacher is not so hard especially outside of taipei. Plenty of non native works as english teachers. I used to work as an english teacher in a buxiban even though i aint native speaker because the boss there told me āyou look like an americanā. The salary is an issue though. Have to bargain hard for that. The bosses here tries best to give peanuts on the name of salary and would try to justify their decision.
1 Like
Yes and no. The buxiban hired a Singaporean once. But he also told my colleague heās glad Iām not American cos heād have to pay me more (as if itās not his choice.) Iām Australian. He likes Australians too, my predecessor is also Australian. He has family in Australia. So depends on the situation 
The other is Kang Qiao which has a terrible reputation on Forumosa but Iāve been subbing at the Hsinchu branch for the last 2 months and seems like a pretty good place to work. No worse than anywhere else anyway. Better in some ways (no illegal payroll practices). Thereās a few black-Americans and theyāre very open to all native English speakers.
Iām not sure how theyād feel about a Filipino but they have an Asian woman who was born and grew up in Canada as the foreign teacher.
1 Like
How much is the American premium? Likeā¦maybe Iām the the wrong business.
2 Likes
I remember when I worked at Shane English School back in the day, the head of recruitment made a big deal of the fact that he wouldnāt discriminate against Asians, blacks, Filipinos, whatever, as long as they were suitable for the job. He said whenever heād employ such a person, heād initially receive blowback from parents, but theyād shut up once they see how good the teacher is. Iām sure that recruiter is long gone, but I wonder if Shane still has that same mentality?
4 Likes
Funny that you would bring up Shane.
Shane is a franchised āchainā and each is individually owned. Kind of like Giraffe and Kid Castle.
So, your mileage will vary based on each ownerās personal desires for their branch.