Qualifications shmalifications.
As soon as they figure out that a Fillipino can teach basic English to their kids as well as anyone else and will happily accept 1/3 of the westerner salary, we’re all outta here - BA’s B.Ed’s and MA’s fluttering like confetti behind us.
I’ve always considered myself an “English coach”, rather than a “teacher”.
Language is a motor skill. So I’m really coaching the kids and helping them to “jia-you” for a very intricate motor skill.
I don’t think it’s an issue of qualifications at most language schools in Taiwan. It’s more an issue of personality. Some people just can’t coach. Can you imagine Snape being the Quidditch coach?
But “gold diggers” actually make me feel bad because they often make a lot more money than I do in a shorter amount of time. It makes me feel like I should just be a gold digger, too. But that’s really not why I came here.
[quote=“Avrom”]Qualifications shmalifications.
As soon as they figure out that a Fillipino can teach basic English to their kids as well as anyone else and will happily accept 1/3 of the westerner salary, we’re all outta here - BA’s B.Ed’s and MA’s fluttering like confetti behind us.[/quote]
I don’t agree.
The average Fillipino, IMO, cannot teach English as well as a native speaker from a western country. That is not a statement against a race or a country, just, IMHO, an idea or concept that I have. There may well be some awesome Fillipino English teachers that could do a better job than any of us, but, I doubt that this is the norm…
Am I wrong?
At the risk of starting the North American vs. everyone else’s English accent debate…how many people speak Filipino English or use it for business purposes? It’s not a matter of prestigious dialects. It’s a matter of usefulness.
Of course, the same could be said for Taiwanese Mandarin… Or Canadian French.
[quote=“Jaboney”]I agree people shouldn’t deride you for doing your job properly.
But I also think if somebody doesn’t do their job properly, whether they be teacher, baker or candlestick-maker, that shouldn’t be any of our concern.[/quote]
I agree with Tetsuo. If someone wasn’t pulling their weight in my school and was acting in an unprofessional manner, I’d have something to say.
I teach adults exclusively now because I don’t want to have any influence in a childs behavior, education or view of westerners.
Also, teaching adults means you have to have an air of responsibility and professionalism about you, otherwise the students complain or simply bin you.
[quote]At the risk of starting the North American vs. everyone else’s English accent debate…how many people speak Filipino English or use it for business purposes? It’s not a matter of prestigious dialects. It’s a matter of usefulness.
[/quote]
I disagree. I think that it won’t happen because Taiwanese people wrongly wan’t to see a western face, and usually a white one (no offence, Imani).
Also, the Taiwanese wrongly see themselves as far superior to Filipinos and I doubt that they would have a Filipino teaching them anything.
Filipino maid. Yes.
Filipino English teacher. No.
And just out of curiosity, why is it Filipino, not Philipino?
I, as usual, was ignorant of skin color and the hang-ups some people have over it. Sure it won’t happen here in Taiwan, yes. The only capacity most Taiwanese see Filipinos in are as housekeepers, nannies, and nurses…taking care of the things that the people who can afford as such want to neglect - chores, children, and the elderly.
But I meant in the capacity of language, not nationality. Saying that we ignore the prejudice that people here have for certain skin colors and nationalities. Most English interactions are done with North Americans or speakers of a British dialect (sorry, my sociolinguistics background only covered North American dialects so I have no fancy catch-all term for the brand of English spoken in the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand) so it only goes into hand that those are the dialects of English that people want to learn.
It has some to do with prestige, but more so in practicality. If you learn Singlish, you’re going to have a hell of a time trying to live day-to-day in rural Oklahoma.
[quote=“Sinister Tiddlywinks”]Language is a motor skill. So I’m really coaching the kids and helping them to “jia-you” for a very intricate motor skill.
[/quote]
If you’re really serious about this, I am glad you don’t consider yourself a teacher. 
You’re missing the main reason why Filipina/o’s shouldn’t be hired as English teachers in Taiwan.
They are not native speakers. English is their second language, after Tagalog or Cebuano or whatever dialect they speak on their native island.
[quote=“Quentin”]You’re missing the main reason why Filipina/o’s shouldn’t be hired as English teachers in Taiwan.
They are not native speakers. English is their second language, after Tagalog or Cebuano or whatever dialect they speak on their native island.[/quote]
By that argument, Taiwanese people shouldn’t be hired as English teachers either.
According to the World Factbook, the Philippines has two official languages - Filipino (based on Tagalog) and English. English is spoken as a second language by 74% of the population. English has never been eliminated as a medium of instruction in the school system, although in recent years its role as been
delimited to the areas of science, math and technology. In many private schools English is still used as the language of instruction. The government of the Philippines has also used English as its principle means of written and oral communication.
South Africans may be considered foreign English experts although less than 10% of South Africans speak English (3.6 million speak English, slightly more than the population of Ireland). In my opinion, if you think people from the Philippines cannot teach English as Native Speakers, neither can you consider South Africans.
PS: AFAIK Filippinos refers to both males and females.
Some good points, twocs, except for a few important mistakes.
In fact, just as your “74%” of people from the Philippines speak English as a 2nd langauge, you would find that more than 40% of South Africans speak English as a second language, and that number is rapidly increasing as English is pretty much the lingua franca now, despite the lip service paid to the “11 official languages”.
In fact, there are about 2.5 million South Africans who are genuine English native speakers, whose parents speak English and are of English-speaking descent, as are Kiwis and Ozzies. Of course, the Taiwanese do not and almost certainly cannot tell the difference between a South African speaking second language English and home language English, which says a lot about both the high standard of language education in SA and the low standard of English education here.
If the issue is NATIVE SPEAKERS versus non-native speakers, I’m broadly with you. When it’s based on ignorance, which you have displayed to some degree, I have to disagree. If we followed your line of reasoning regarding SA, we’d have to toss out all the French native speakers from Canada, or first generation Americans of German / Spanish / Asian descent. :loco:
I read most of the posts here and I have to agree with the people saying that each individual teacher can be either good or bad depending on their training, work ethic, and character.
I think that any job worth doing is worth doing well. Don’t accept a job that you can’t, or don’t want to, put your effort into.
I’m working to get my BA now and plan to go to Taiwan with my girlfriend when we graduate. I’ll be teaching English as a way to make money to support myself. I’m a graphic design major so teaching isn’t my best skill, but when I start working I know I will be doing my best. Just because teaching isn’t your main passion doesn’t mean you can’t do a good job at it.
Like a lot of you have said a qualified teacher can be horrible. I’ve had mathematician arithmatic teachers who have no communications skills and hate students. They know math but can’t teach. I’ve also had teachers who just don’t care and just sit around telling their students personal stories. I guess you just have to judge everyone on a personal basis and try not to group them. Thats my take on it.
And for the argument about philipinos not being allowed to teach this goes for them too. If they know English very well and want to do a good job teaching then they are fine. I’m sure there are plenty of people with English as a second language who are more qualified than me, such as my girlfriend. She speaks Mandarin, Taiwanese, and English fluently but chinese is her first language. If she wanted to be a teacher she’d be great at it.
I didn’t think it’d be too hard, either. But it was.
I didn’t think it’d be too hard, either. But it was.[/quote]
Almost darn impossible
Is it still?
No, its not. MK, you know as well as I do that it’s not the background or the label, but the person that makes the teacher.
Do people here believe that assessment tests (aka psychometric, personality, IQ-EQ etc) would be important to them to know if the person is the right fit?
Do people believe there is a “teacher profile”?
In other industries and professions, I know that HR folks believe there is. For example, using the Meyer-Briggs test, lawyers are typically INTJs. Is it laughable to think that buxiban owners would care to use them to help their businesses?
[quote=“Yellow Cartman”]
Do people believe there is a “teacher profile”?
In other industries and professions, I know that HR folks believe there is. For example, using the Meyer-Briggs test, lawyers are typically INTJs. Is it laughable to think that buxiban owners would care to use them to help their businesses?[/quote]
Tell me more of this test. 
That’s a good question. Some of those tests, like standard IQ tests, should be thrown out immediately, since they test a very narrow band of aptitudes. I wish they’d be scrapped altogether, to tell the truth. I scored very high on mine, but I also saw the implications it had and wasn’t happy with the assumptions made based on that test.
But other sorts of tests covering a wider range of abilities, outlooks, etc…Could be something to it. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself about such things can comment. 
[quote=“Jefferson”]That’s a good question. Some of those tests, like standard IQ tests, should be thrown out immediately, since they test a very narrow band of aptitudes. I wish they’d be scrapped altogether, to tell the truth. I scored very high on mine, but I also saw the implications it had and wasn’t happy with the assumptions made based on that test.
But other sorts of tests covering a wider range of abiltities, outlooks, etc…Could be something to it. Hopefully someone more knowledgeable than myself about such things can comment. [/quote]
I agree.Multiple Intelligences
Sure, but 2 school owners (who’s opinion I trust) say it is/was hard (one “Almost darn impossible”).
I’ve seen a variety of schools now, and some seem to have very good systems in place that would make (just about) anyone a decent teacher. What are these things?
A very structured cirriculum. Another (head) teacher there to help answer any questions. Some training to show the person how the system works. A bank/database of games/activities to use. Those are just some things that come off the top of my head.
So what makes it so hard (to transform a “Joe Backpacker” aka newbie into a decent teacher)?