:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
My wife is Taiwanese, and can teach circles around such people, both experience-wise and in terms of proper grammar. She can easily pass for an ABC or CBC. Fortunately, there are a very few schools that have a clue, and will pay her the same wages as some drop-out who doesnât know his pp from his widdle pee pee. If you know your stuff, and can teach well and get the students to re-enroll, there are schools that will value that. You do have to do some serious hunting, though.
[quote=âbismarckâ][quote=âDuckedâ]When I first got here someone told me of a French Canadian friend applying for a French teacher post (I think in a public school) and being told âSorry, you are Canadian. We can only accept native French speakers. But we have another vacancy for an English teacherâ
According to my informant, their friends English was very limited, but they worked through the text before each lesson and got through the classes OK.
âFriend of a friendâ story, so I canât vouch for it, but Iâd say it could easily be true in Taiwan, and if it isnât, it should be.[/quote]
I worked with a French Canadian guy for a year in Tainan about five years ago. Before classes I had to explain things like Simple Present Tense and the meanings of words like âallowâ. At the same school we had a bloke who taught all day kindy. Sure enough, he had a US Passport, but he only lived there a few years (with his family) and originally came from Morocco (where he was born, raised and educated). At the same school/company we have several Saffas of which I am one of only three English Saffas (well, was, as Iâm not a Saffa anymore ⊠technically), the rest all being Afrikaners. Of those Afrikaners only about two speak decent English and the rest make frequent grammar errors with the typical âI are Sef Efriken, I isnât bleck.â accent. The real travesty, apart from the obvious infliction of Eengleesh unleashed on the kids, is that these guys get paid the usual NT$600/hour whereas the Taiwanese teachers, even the ones with awesome English, get around NT$350/hour. 
Iâve only had three experiences, personally, with being a Saffa in the âinterestingâ Taiwanese EFL/ESL [strike]circus[/strike] marketplace.
- Sorry, we only hire North Americans. (Schoolhouse)
- May I ask, are you black or white? (They werenât interest in black people of any nationality.)
- After I told the owner I was a Saffa, just so he knew, âYes! I saw on your resume. I only hire South Africans, because they work hard, donât complain and do what theyâre told.â
[/quote]
Well, some of the things you mention are disconcerting. I also had the aforementioned agent, Jenny, refer to South African as âloyal as dogsâ - a back-handed compliment if there ever was one.
Older South African struggle with the English and the accent. Not younger ones (mid to late 20s). Easy to spot, those. We basically grew up with American television so their pronunciation and approach to English is familiar to us.
Who decided South Africans qualify as English teachers, anyhow, despite their linguistic background? This is curious, to me.
Israel, South Africa and Taiwan used to be allies. It think it goes back to then. Also, SA is the top dog in Africa (for what itâs worth), and it probably still has that veneer of White Ruled British Colonialism about it. Added to that, itâs seen as an English speaking country, even though English is only one of 11, but still the major lingua franca. Who knows? To tell the truth, I donât really care anymore.
[quote=âDrKeithâ]Itâs safe to say that I am moving on. Iâm more than willing to show Uncle Jasonâs School the finger (if only in response to their finger) and move on. Was curious about the experience of others and the changing dynamics in the English teecha job market.
.[/quote]
Itâs still the same as before: parents wanting a blue eyes, blonde hair woman teech-ing their spoiled little brats. When the brats grow up, theyâll turn to Taiwanese Engrish teecha teech-ing materials straight from the entrance exams so that theyâll all try to enroll into National Taiwan pathetic Uni which is currently ranked a paltry one hundred and something in the world.
Buxiban owners are just trying to be accommodating, thatâs all. Wouldnât you wanna give the parents/customers what they ask for even if they want their children to become fluffers someday 
:ohreally: 
[quote=âPigBloodCakeâ][quote=âDrKeithâ]Itâs safe to say that I am moving on. Iâm more than willing to show Uncle Jasonâs School the finger (if only in response to their finger) and move on. Was curious about the experience of others and the changing dynamics in the English teecha job market.
.[/quote]
Itâs still the same as before: parents wanting a blue eyes, blonde hair woman teech-ing their spoiled little brats. When the brats grow up, theyâll turn to Taiwanese Engrish teecha teech-ing materials straight from the entrance exams so that theyâll all try to enroll into National Taiwan pathetic Uni which is currently ranked a paltry one hundred and something in the world.
Buxiban owners are just trying to be accommodating, thatâs all. Wouldnât you wanna give the parents/customers what they ask for even if they want their children to become fluffers someday :ohreally: [/quote]
Whatâs a fluffer? Some safrican term?
I believe a fluffer is someone who works in the adult entertainment industry to keep the male stars ahemâŠready for action.
Is that how Big Fluffy Mathew got his name?
Is that how Big Fluffy Mathew got his name?[/quote]
He was a fluffer to the fluffers.
I have written before, in a cynical way, that if I were a Taiwanese buxiban laoban, I would only hire South African females, slightly frumpy, in their late twenties or early thirties. Because Iâd know that when I needed someone to make a whole lot of posters over the weekend in their own time, theyâd do it precisely because theyâre subservient and they wouldnât have a social life/boyfriend anyway.
At the other end of the scale, I would NEVER hire a male from Australia, New Zealand or Britain. It would be like the Western Front in WW1 and Iâd have to battle them for every square inch of territory.
The Seppos and wannabe Seppos are somewhere in the middle. Females are almost always better than males, unless the male has a hen-pecking wife/fiancee.
One of my friends is working at a hardcore, foreign-run buxiban now, but when he was in the general buxiban circuit, he never used to work at any place that had other foreigners, especially females, for the above reasons. Basically, you could do your job well and still look bad for not spending your Saturday evening with a box of crayons and a glue stick. He said it also basically kills your hourly rate. When I was at Hess, I never took work home with me. I suffered being compared to my frumpy South African female colleagues, but I also maintained some dignity and really needed the sanity/break from the job. The only time Iâve ever taken work home with me in other jobs here was if it was something I was doing/controlling/profitting from on the side.
OP brings back memories of whoring myself around to find a job years ago. After a day of typical buxiban laoban frustration (e.g. expected to do a âdemoâ 15 minutes after entering the âschoolâ premises, being asked 3 important questions about my educational attainment - 'Are you under 30? Are you Caucasian? Are you North American?), the end of my tether was reached when I told one woman over the telephone that I was Scottish. She immediately told me âsorry, we only hire native English speakers.â When I asked her what my mother tongue is, she confidently said âyou guys speak French, right?â
Non-French expletives were uttered and I hung up. It does not surprise me that nothing much seems to have changed.
[quote]
Re: âIâm South African.â âSorry, we only hire native speakers.â
Unread postby tetentikov » Sun Nov 27, 2011 4:41 am
OP brings back memories of whoring myself around to find a job years ago. After a day of typical buxiban laoban frustration (e.g. expected to do a âdemoâ 15 minutes after entering the âschoolâ premises, being asked 3 important questions about my educational attainment - 'Are you under 30? Are you Caucasian? Are you North American?), the end of my tether was reached when I told one woman over the telephone that I was Scottish. She immediately told me âsorry, we only hire native English speakers.â When I asked her what my mother tongue is, she confidently said âyou guys speak French, right?â
Non-French expletives were uttered and I hung up. It does not surprise me that nothing much seems to have changed.[/quote]
DAMN!
This and many of the previous posts remind me of why I finally left Taiwan. While things like this exist elsewhere. It is just tough to deal with that crap year in and year out when it pertains to teaching. As a black person I always got jobs, but had to do lots and lots of footwork. I wonât repeat some of the nonsense buxiban bosses and managers spouted. Taiwan is still a good place, but as one of my brightest Taiwanese students once said. âWe need an upgrade, a big one.â It seems to be image first, image 2nd, image 3rd, quality 57th on the list. One of my favorite activities in Taiwan was what should an English teacher look like?"
And the reply is âNo I am 35, Oxford graduate, brown skinned and an English major.â Reply âSorry you are not suitable!â 
She MUST be an English teacher!
Without checking Google, what language are you more likely to encounter in Pretoria, South Africa? And are you more or less likely to encounter the same or otherwise in Perth, Australia?
Edit: In fact, come to that, how likely are you to encounter that same language in a pub in Taipei during a rugby game?
For me the point is that whatever accent of English you speak it should be enough for you to teach English, if your grasp of the language is native enough for you to not be making horrific errors when you teach. And letâs face it, most native teachers make some basic howlers because, letâs be honest, the most qualified they are to teach English is that they grew up speaking it and can write at a bachelors level standard. How many teachers out there are teaching the phonics putting a schwa on the end of every single alphabet letter (if they even bother to teach the phonemes)? âA ah. B bah. C cah. D dah. Now repeat after me children.â (I bet some people even read this and think âdonât all the phonemes end with a schwa?â Iâd wager further than some people reading this wonât even know what the schwa is, or how to write it, or could even attempt to explain how the schwa is formed.) Not to bash teachers at all, just to say, ya know, you arenât selecting from a broad range of skill sets when you pick your teachers. Employers are looking for a nice face and a compliant attitude, to swallow the horseshit they feed you.
I think it is the image that the parents are being sold or the image that the parents have. They all seem to think that their children Johnson and Winny are going to be Harvard graduates and so donât want them speaking with some South African accent in case that spoils their chances of some arbitrary goal being achieved. Reality is that even the kids who give a damn about English still never get an accent beyond some Chinese dominated one. Winny is never going to see the light of day as an adult except when she goes to the shops and Johnson is NOT going to leave Taiwan, because MOST of the worldâs population do not go and make their lives overseas.
And Winny is probably going to marry Jimmy whoâs going to drive a blue truck for a living. While Johnson isnât going to become a doctor, but rather work from 7am-10pm for 30k/month after he finished his MBA from NCKU and post pictures of his dinner to Facebook, because heâs lonely (yeah, I do that too) and all the other little xiaojies have run off with the latest batch of English teachers, which is the closest theyâll ever come to the USA.
Mean time, little Johnny who learned his English from Edward from India is making a killing with his own private import-export company, because he can actually communicate with speakers of English, regardless of where they come from.
Jammer, ons net huur moedertaal sprekers.âŠstuk van die koek Bro⊠
You musta be the native speaker. When you can start?
:roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao:
[quote=âbismarckâ]And Winny is probably going to marry Jimmy whoâs going to drive a blue truck for a living. While Johnson isnât going to become a doctor, but rather work from 7am-10pm for 30k/month after he finished his MBA from NCKU and post pictures of his dinner to Facebook, because heâs lonely (yeah, I do that too) and all the other little xiaojies have run off with the latest batch of English teachers, which is the closest theyâll ever come to the USA.
Mean time, little Johnny who learned his English from Edward from India is making a killing with his own private import-export company, because he can actually communicate with speakers of English, regardless of where they come from.[/quote]
Can I nominate this for classic post status?