Stolen from CE&P: In China, English teaching is a

[dulcemariamar]

behindthewall.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/15/11720584-in-china-english-teaching-is-a-whites-only-club?lite

In China, English teaching is a whites-only club

By Brittany Tom, NBC News

BEIJING – Speak a little English and are willing to relocate? Well, you’re probably qualified to be an English-language instructor in China.

As long as you are white, that is.

Chinese teaching agencies are constantly seeking candidates to teach English to the growing number of children who are looking to get a leg up in China’s rigorous academic environment. The opportunity is quite lucrative and requires little or no knowledge of Chinese.

But the ads recruiting these teachers come with a catch.


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Take, for example, Mike Lee and Will Evans, students from the U.S. and Canada, respectively, who applied to be English teachers through the New Development School, a teacher-placement agency in Beijing. Being fluent speakers of English, both believed they would make competitive candidates.

Advertise | AdChoicesWhat they didn’t know is that recruiters would not be evaluating them just on their English fluency or academic credentials. Instead, they were judged primarily on physical appearance.

“We want him [pointing to Evans], but we don’t want you [to Lee],” the recruiter told them, as the two stood side by side at the front counter of the school. “Unfortunately, parents of our students don’t really want someone Asian to be teaching.”

Lee, who is Korean-American, was rejected from the school despite having previous experience teaching English as a second language (ESL). Evans, a white Canadian, was hired on the spot.

“I was shocked – back home this wouldn’t be acceptable,” Lee told NBC News. “I’ve never been discriminated (against) in that way.”

White, Caucasians only
Racial discrimination is a harsh reality within China’s ESL industry, where recruiters actively seek the blond-hair, blue-eyed all-American archetype (along with similarly equipped Britons, Australians and other native speakers close behind). While brown hair also is acceptable, having a white face is a near-absolute requirement.


Courtesy Liz Thomas

Will Evans, a Canadian who teaches English in China, is seen in his classroom.
Byron Vogue, who works for the corporate English training company Stanford English, said that Chinese recruiters will always prefer to hire Caucasian applicants over their non-white counterparts.

“There’s this concept that if you send your children to English class, the parents are expecting their children to be taught by a white English teacher versus an Asian-American or … a black American,” he said.

A post by Vogue on a popular online forum and classifieds site, The Beijinger, explicitly spells out the phenomenon:

“In Beijing this is the general pecking order in terms of a company's recruitment (by Chinese managers):

1. White Americans/Canadians

2. White British

3. White Australians/New Zealanders and South Africans

4. European Nonnatives/Black Americans/Black British

5. American Asians/Black Aussies (Australians) and Kiwis (New Zealanders)/Filipinos/Africans”

The discrimination comes, Evans said, because Chinese parents simply do not believe a non-white person can possibly be a native speaker. Thus, this logic continues, hiring a white person is the simplest and easiest way to ensure that the teacher is truly fluent.

“I was told that it was nice for parents to see foreign or white-looking teachers around the school,” Evans said, adding that he was encouraged to walk outside and greet parents.

Advertisements for English teaching positions are up-front in their bias. A search for “English teacher” in The Beijinger’s classifieds section reveals dozens of ads that include language such as “Job requires American or Canadian white teacher” or “white color is preferred.”

Advertise | AdChoicesThe ESL teaching industry isn’t the only job market in China where being Caucasian is an asset. So-called “face jobs,” where companies temporarily hire a white person to be a fake employee during an important event or business meeting, also are common in China.

Wanna sell something in China? Hire a white guy

‘Makes you feel like crap’

The preference for Caucasian employees angers many Asian-Americans and other English-speaking ethnic Asians.

“It makes you feel like crap,” said Lee. “We all came here on the same boat, at the same time, looking for the same opportunity. I didn’t know the color of my skin was going to be an issue. I find it weird to be discriminated against for being Asian, while I’m in Asia.”

[wise_rita]

May 16, 2012 3:06:32 GMT -5 dulcemariamar said:

The ESL teaching industry isn’t the only job market in China where being Caucasian is an asset. So-called “face jobs,” where companies temporarily hire a white person to be a fake employee during an important event or business meeting, also are common in China.

Where do I submit my CV for a position like this? It will just be a blank, white sheet of paper. White like my face.

But seriously, that racism is just shitty. It's so cultural and engrained, though, so what can be done about it?

[aMrsin09]

Not really wanting to get flamed, but is it truly racism, or more of a cultural bias?

They aren't saying that Asian or Black Americans are bad, they just can't believe that English is their native language.

[bugabean]

Does racism have to be 'XYZ race is bad' or can it be any race-related ignorance? I had always thought the latter.

[clickerish]

I would say race-related ignorance qualifies. It's just as racist to think that all Asians are brilliant as it is to just hate Asians in general. One is more overtly dangerous, perhaps, but both are shoving a whole group of individuals into a mass category.

[wise_rita]

May 16, 2012 7:37:25 GMT -5 bugabean said:

Does racism have to be 'XYZ race is bad' or can it be any race-related ignorance? I had always thought the latter.

Or in this case, 'XYZ race is good' which still qualifies as racial ignorance.

To-may-to, to-mah-to

[GilliC]

Meh. I don't really see it as racism, because they consider it part of their marketing. It's not really about thinking that non-Caucasians can't teach English. It's about having their customers make snap decisions. You probably wouldn't hire a man to work as a stripper in a topless club even if he has enormous moobs, but no one is saying that strip clubs are sexist against men. The customers won't go to the bar selling man boobs.

But don't get me wrong - the Chinese populace is racist in a hundred other ways that are probably way worse than this. I'm just willing to let this one slide. Especially since I know absolutely fluent Caucasian people with perfect American accents (e.g. Europeans who moved to the US as children) and a professional ESL teaching certification or degree turned down for teaching positions because they weren't "native" speakers, while the same place would hire someone with no teaching background at all as long as they had a US or British passport (Aussies almost NEVER get English teaching jobs).

China = weird. This is the first thing you have to accept when you move there, and then you spend the rest of the time raising your eyebrows and saying "WTF?!" before moving on.

[Wanderista]

I had not heard of this before, but it is another example of why I think China has a LONG way to go. It may be a rising economic superpower but the idea that it will overtake the West in cultural predominance is dubious.

[clickerish]

May 16, 2012 12:14:28 GMT -5 GilliC said:

Especially since I know absolutely fluent Caucasian people with perfect American accents (e.g. Europeans who moved to the US as children) and a professional ESL teaching certification or degree turned down for teaching positions because they weren't "native" speakers, while the same place would hire someone with no teaching background at all as long as they had a US or British passport (Aussies almost NEVER get English teaching jobs).

Thus proving that the Chinese companies are not reading their linguistic acquisition manuals or they would realise that an ESL trained supposed foreigner is going to be better at teaching your child English than an American who doesn't know anything about her own language. You want me to teach you other languages? I can have activities ready in half an hour. You want me to teach English (or Dutch), and you are going to be sorely disappointed because I end all of my sentences with prepositions.