Jummping the Gun

OK, I know it’s trite but…
Maybe if you changed your name from namahottie, to GRAMMARhottie, people would take you seriously.
Forget your colour, sex, height, age, weight etc. Go and PROVE that you can provide a valuable service to your customers (The school, the parents and the kids) and they will want to hire you.
Simple pimple.

  1. Tidy up your c.v.
  2. Write English gooder!
  3. Surround yourself in a layer of positive energy.
  4. Go get 'em tiger.[/quote]

Oh you guys are gonna ride me until the sun goes down about my grammer and spelling mistakes. I hope it’s all in jest? :wink:

Why would it all be in jest?
To be perfectly honest, Namahottie, I think you should study English before you think about teaching it.

From your previous posts, it’s clear your spelling and sentence structure leave a lot to be desired. How are you going to mark a writing exercise, for example, if you don’t know basic rules of English?

Please don’t treat this as coming from the ‘grammar police’ or any kind of ‘holier than thou’ position. I’m just thinking that you may embarrass yourself when your English limitations eventually come to light, which they inevitably will.

BTW, I’ve personally known two black guys and one black girl who have all worked at Kojen, so you might like to try them. Bear in mind though, they’ll be looking for better English skills than you’ve displayed on this board.

Good luck.

I didn’t realize that this was a space where i would be judged by grammer and spelling. I have taught writing courses before, and aware of what it requires. Generally, I am speaking off the cuff here, just typing as it comes to me. Therefore, i am not writing to be published rather having a conversation, where we all know that grammer rules go out the window. I realize that the same applies to my blog, where I have caugh several mistakes myself. But these mistakes are mistakes, nothing to do with charater.
Bring back the spelling bee, for us weaker mortals!!!

I didn’t realize that this was a space where honest advice would be received with delusional paranoia.

fark. Who gives toss about spelling and grammar on a BBS anyway? This is relax time peeps and what you say has more weight than how you spell it.

(I’m not a teacher btw)

“You and several white males…”

Nama, why do you write things like this? How can people help you if you look at them as a color first and a person second? I really want you to do well, but frankly this kind of attitude deeply offends me. We’re all foreigners in Taiwan. Who cares what color we are? We’re all in this together. I understand you’ve experienced a form of racism in the hiring process. I don’t want to deny, belittle, or cheapen that fact. But you started a thread here soliciting opinions, and then you jumped on everyone who offered them since they’re “white”.

It’s time to let the White/Black baggage go. You’re not in America anymore. Redefine yourself and the way you see racial interactions. Accept the fact that White people are minorities here just as you are. If you don’t think Whites experience racism and prejudice, then you haven’t been here very long.

I realize you’re having a tougher time than a Caucasian might in the hiring process. Unfortunately, Asian Americans have exactly the same problem. Betcha didn’t know that. But you need to see yourself as part of a foreign community and listen to the genuinely helpful comments of people who have taken the time to reply to your post. I hope you can learn to drop your bitterness towards White people.

It’s grammar! GRAMMAR! g-r-a-m-m-a-r! And this is the Teaching English forum. If your grammar and spelling were to be judged anywhere on Forumosa, surely it would be here… :stuck_out_tongue:

But aren’t the same processes involved when you’re in front of a whiteboard? I mean, you can’t exactly consult your dictionary while you’re in class, can you?

I’m going to help you out, though. “grammer” is now going into the auto-censor…

That’s some nice praise Namahottie. You get the black woman of the month award for that. :unamused:

[quote=“Jefferson”]“You and several white males…”

Nama, why do you write things like this? How can people help you if you look at them as a color first and a person second? I really want you to do well, but frankly this kind of attitude deeply offends me. We’re all foreigners in Taiwan. Who cares what color we are? We’re all in this together. I understand you’ve experienced a form of racism in the hiring process. I don’t want to deny, belittle, or cheapen that fact. But you started a thread here soliciting opinions, and then you jumped on everyone who offered them since they’re “white”.

It’s time to let the White/Black baggage go. You’re not in America anymore. Redefine yourself and the way you see racial interactions. Accept the fact that White people are minorities here just as you are. If you don’t think Whites experience racism and prejudice, then you haven’t been here very long.

I realize you’re having a tougher time than a Caucasian might in the hiring process. Unfortunately, Asian Americans have exactly the same problem. Betcha didn’t know that. But you need to see yourself as part of a foreign community and listen to the genuinely helpful comments of people who have taken the time to reply to your post. I hope you can learn to drop your bitterness towards White people.[/quote]

Thank you Jefferson.

Nama, you respond to a post about hickism bymentioning race twice. You call me ‘white man of the month’ because I don’t want to bother differentiating between people of ‘different’ races.

You’re making yourself look like an idiot, someone to whom race is more important than spelling and grammar. We teach this stuff in the belief that it’s the right way to do things. If it’s just a job and you don’t believe in writing decent English then I for one wouldn’t hire you.

Now, for the final time: SEND A PHOTO WITH YOUR RESUME, so that you never get invited to interview with the racists, AND NEVER EVER MENTION YOUR RACE AGAIN BECAUSE IT’S NOT IMPORTANT TO ANYONE HERE EXCEPT YOU.

[quote=“Namahottie”]
Yes, I do have gripes against the TW like EVERY OTHER person has had, and talked about on THIS BOARD. I don’t relate my gripes against them due to my race, and well aware of how many of them haven’t travelled,etc. My last post of “is it me?” Was asking for another point of view on what I had. You may have not liked how I put it, but rather than degrade them, as western women have been degrade on this board so many times to make a point., i simply asked whether it was [color=darkred]me[/color] or xxxx. Not politically correct, but I’m not that anyway.[/quote]

You know what, you’re right. Race has nothing to do with the sort of hyper-defensiveness you display at all. You should take your own advice and read what others have written to you, properly.

Try not to take the mostly well - intended answers to your postings the wrong way, ok.

As with the the hiring process elsewhere, in Taipei you are required to hold an ARC and a work permit - Applicable only by your perspective employers. Since you have listed your occupation in your profile as “student”, you’d do better to check with the offices on whether you are eligible for a work permit.

Perhaps you should think about how you come across while interacting with other people, rather than just on how people react to you. Jumping, indeed.

That’s all.

Maoman, point made and you are correct.

Jefferson, I don’t have any bitterness against whites. Look I simply meantioned what I obsticles I ran into. That’s it. Now, its been you, Loretta, and one other person who brought this in to the racist realm. I meantioned the problem that occured, and wanted to know what things i could do to increase my chances before i began thinking things weren’t right. You read all the racial information into that. What am I suppose to say?

If you wanted to help, you could have said. Too bad that that happens, had/known friends that it’s occured to . But it’s not the standard case. Here’s are things you might want to be aware of, things you can do, things you may overlook that would help you.

Is this apart of the discussion we had? No. It was implied that I went looking for it. That i shouldn’t say anything and so forth. When did sharing become UnPC?

I realize that I am not the only one here in Taiwan that is/will experience things negative related to race.

Ok, let me pick my words carefully. This has become one hot bed of discussion.

Namahottie I have to direct this at you, as this is your thread.
It is truly bad that you are told that you may not ‘fit in’ because of the colour of your skin. In England you’d be able to roundly sue his ass for being what we plainly call a ‘racist c*nt.’ I feel very sorry for you that you have to put up with that kind of abuse. It isn’t pleasant.

The advice has been given to you in many forms, but with the same two-fold message. 1) Ignore the racist fuckers and find a job with someone who isn’t racist. Be patient. 2) We all face prejudice here, whether we are white, fat, short-haired, ginger, lispy. Whatever the reason is, every big conked foreigner on this beautiful island is troubled by racism and prejudice. You will have to accept that you will stumble across the odd git.

I’m not North American and I’m not female. Thats about half the friggin jobs in Taiwan gone.

Another example: Mrs Hill’s father won’t eat anything I cook, cos he says he is too traditional. More curry for me then ape man. Whatever… He just won’t eat anything I cook. Racist? Prejudiced? Twat? Probably number three. Give yourself a big break, and let the twats be twats. Not everyone will be so openly rude to you. When you find a boss who appreciates you for your skills then you can give the finger to those who were small minded.

So, yes I mean it, clean up your grammar, (Or change your name to Grammar-Shottie) it will help inordinately, dont ever think about racism on a daily basis cos you just help it to breed, open your eyes and ears, and go get 'em girl.

Yeah, but the ginger ones deserve it. Just kidding, some of my best friends are ginger. :wink:

Liar!

[quote=“truant”]fark. Who gives toss about spelling and grammar on a BBS anyway? This is relax time peeps and what you say has more weight than how you spell it.

(I’m not a teacher btw)[/quote]

Hm, I dunno, but in the age of Google, news crawlers, etc. almost anything and everything may eventually be captured for posterity. When I used to post in the pre-Internet age, I always posted thinking that someone, somewhere will see it and make judgments based on it. If you were to google me now, stuff that I posted in a private university system 15 years ago come up :astonished: I am glad that I didn’t come across as an ass most of the time :neutral:

[quote=“Loretta”]
Now, for the final time: SEND A PHOTO WITH YOUR RESUME, so that you never get invited to interview with the racists, AND NEVER EVER MENTION YOUR RACE AGAIN BECAUSE IT’S NOT IMPORTANT TO ANYONE HERE EXCEPT YOU.[/quote]

In all fairness to Namahottie on this last point on the race thing… in the US, we (US folks) been conditioned for a long time to really care about it. Racial awareness is quite ingrained in the national psyche – socially, politically, economically. Many ethnic minorities from the US see things through a racial lense (unfortunate IMO but that’s US society for you) so it’d be hard to “deprogram” oneself, if you will, because one might not be consciously aware of it.

I agree with Jefferson’s post. When one is in Asia, one should think about doing a personal ‘face lift’, create a “new you” so to speak, leave the former social paradigms behind because it’s a different world here.

That sounds reasonable and believable to me. In my experiences teaching here (2 years and four months, three schools), I have observed fairly substantial evidence of prejudice against blacks. It’s not usually out in the open, but it’s there, and I believe it’s sufficient to create a real obstacle to a black person seeking a teaching job here.

I’m not privy to everything that goes on in the process of hiring a teacher here, but I feel pretty comfortable with the following observations as to my experiences as an employee and a job-seeker here:

(1) Two of the three schools I’ve worked for definitely preferred people from North America. I’m not sure they could truly distinguish between North American accents and others; I think they mainly wanted to be able to say to parents that they had a person from North America.

On the upside, one of those schools hired a South African. On the downside of the upside, they harassed her about her accent until she left. And when I say harassed, I mean, they made her miserable.

(2) Two of the three schools I’ve worked for definitely did not want to hire an Asian as a native-speaker-type teacher.

On the upside, one of those schools hired a Taiwanese who had lived mostly in the US since the age of three and didn’t have a trace of an Asian accent. On the downside of that, they harassed him for being of Asian heritage, in various ways, until it looked for a while as if he might be coming unglued. On the upside of that downside, the school went out of business, and he found work with a school that seemed to want and appreciate him.

(3) Two of the three schools I’ve worked for definitely did not want to hire blacks as teachers. One boss told me plainly that she didn’t like blacks, and the other mainly, or ostensibly, didn’t want to hire them because she thought it would hurt her business. On the upside, the school that gave commercial reasons for not wanting blacks did hire a black teacher. On the downside of that upside, they hired him part-time, a couple of nights a week, and I know for a fact they wanted a full-time teacher. There was also other, subtle evidence of prejudice on the part of the management, and before the black teacher got there, I noticed very obvious prejudice against blacks on the part of some of the kids, but as far as I know, none of this has been expressed to the guy’s face.

(4) The third school? I didn’t stick around there long enough to find out whether they were prejudiced against blacks. In my view, the management of that place seemed prejudiced against teachers in general, so in the words of the old country singer, I “set that water bucket down.”

And that’s been my experience.

In my opinion, though, the above doesn’t constitute a reason not to look for work as a teacher.

This is only a suggestion, but if you haven’t found a job in, say, a couple of months of fairly serious looking, maybe you can consider “slowing the pace of the game,” i.e., making it more of a long-range project.

Hope this helps.
xp+10K

[quote=“Yellow Cartman”][quote=“Loretta”]
Now, for the final time: SEND A PHOTO WITH YOUR RESUME, so that you never get invited to interview with the racists, AND NEVER EVER MENTION YOUR RACE AGAIN BECAUSE IT’S NOT IMPORTANT TO ANYONE HERE EXCEPT YOU.[/quote]

In all fairness to Namahottie on this last point on the race thing… in the US, we (US folks) been conditioned for a long time to really care about it. Racial awareness is quite ingrained in the national psyche – socially, politically, economically. Many ethnic minorities from the US see things through a racial lens (unfortunate IMO but that’s US society for you) so it’d be hard to “deprogram” oneself, if you will, because one might not be consciously aware of it.

I agree with Jefferson’s post. When one is in Asia, one should think about doing a personal ‘face lift’, create a “new you” so to speak, leave the former social paradigms behind because it’s a different world here.[/quote]

Yes I agree with doing the personal face lift an all and good point about the conditioning that we have in the US. But if i were in the US, and someone posted this, I would ask a couple of questions about how the person approached their job hunting to get a sense of where they may be hitting those landmines.

We have gotten so far off topic. I simply shared that I had a couple of encounters. Not all of my encounters, but a couple, so that means 2 out of a possible 10. If someone was writing to me from abroad about coming here and was concerned about the race issue I would just stated here’s what you can do to make it as non-existent as possible. Yet, this became a dialogue on race, and how racist(feeling: implied) I am and I’m looking for it as such. Hell, it’s become frustrating having to explain myself over and over and as clear as possible but it’s still not getting thru. If you are willing to help me, just let me know what to look for, how to go about it, and so forth. But lets get off this topic of race. It’s getting to be redundant.

[quote=“Namahottie”]I’m jummping the gun on this one, but it’s nice to have some voices of reason to go to so that I can have PMA. I’m looking for work, as a teacher, and have encountered a couple close doors due to my race.

Any suggestions, and ideas about how long I should gage the hiring process in Taipei, before I know something is truly afoul.?

[/quote]

There’s not really any need to gauge anything, your race is going to be an issue. However certainly people of all races have found and do find work here as teachers. if you want to teach don’t let the bastards get you down, keep that PMA, it will show through to the right person sooner or later.

Nope…in the U.S. we are taught to ignore it and hope it will go away but it is always a boil waiting to fester underneath.