I am not a proponent of rigging, of course. It’s just that there is always rigging to varying degrees, even in the best of countries. I dunno, maybe Taiwanese businessmen in Switzerland will play on level terms with the Swiss? Anyway, my respect goes to the people who are successful despite the rigging and who don’t complain about how unfair the game is.
Talking about it and voicing our concerns to the people in charge is how things improve.
Even if not initially, most of these countries have clear policies and paths to attain to a level playing field. Unfair playing fields hurt you too. You are a victim too.
There is no argument. You are as much a victim as anyone else.
We all are. We in Taiwan, Taiwanese and foreigner alike all are worse off when there are clear systematic barriers to having a fair chance at social mobility.
It always amazes me the amount of people that bury their head in the sand and think foreigners get good treatment from government and business.
I always assume they are either married and have their wife do everything (she can also run off with everything too one day since it’s all in her name, plus take the kids with no recourse) , or they simply live in a bubble where they just work and save and never really use any services outside of getting a job and renting an apartment (which can also be hard due to discrimination).
Just because a xiaojie behind the counter at Starbucks smiled at you and gave you extra whip cream because you are a big nose, doesn’t mean you are special in society in any way that counts
Communism reads well on paper. In reality, a huge disaster.
People are projecting their view on an industry that is a circus. English teaching in Taiwan is PT Barnum.
Now, many industries in the early 20th Century were a jungle in the Americas, and it took government action to correct.
People criticize me for taking the piss out of backpacking English teachers, but there are decades old posts that mention my preference for professionally certified ones to strengthen the profession and its oversight. With that, higher salaries would likely follow. However, I don’t think the industry demands it (as referenced above by another poster), the government on this issue is gormless, and it would negatively impact a lot of of the foreign talent pool that do not have such qualifications.
It will be a circus for years to come despite well intentioned dreamers.
If the foreign talent pool doesn’t have the qualifications, then they should not be there. Simple. Their advantage of skin color should be done away with.
You do realise you will be kicking out a majority of the teaching workforce in Taiwan with such measures or forcing them to repatriate to English speaking countries (UK, US, Canuckistan etc.) for a year or two of upgrading running in the tens of thousands of dollars?
I’d trade the benefit of being able to teach English even though I have zero teaching credentials for the benefit of dual nationality in a heart beat. Particularly in light of the fact that the R.O.C. might not even be here in twenty years.
Let’s try to quantify this. This might not be the best method, but it’ll give us a clearer picture.
A native speaker with English proficiency and 20% teaching skills, which means the teacher is only able to pass 20% of their knowledge to their students.
100*20%=20.
Students suck at English.
A non native speaker with 80 points worth of English proficiency (who knows what that means lol) and 80% teaching skills.
80*80%=64.
Students is communicatable using English.
A non English speaker with 120% teaching skills. Let’s say this teacher is just super heuristic and have magical power that’ll boost up student intelligence.
0120%=0.
Students still can’t speak English.
But they might learn some transferable skills that’ll help them (learn a new language) in the future, so when they meet teacher 1, they’ll get 10020% + 40 = 60 or even 100*0 + 100 = 100 (self taught)
You get what I mean. As long as students learn, race, fluency, experience, nothing really matters. The out come (long term) should be the only thing that matters.