ESL "native English speakers"

D

dumpthemonarchy

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ESL Instructor (Downtown Vancouver)

Reply to: leanneq@telus.net [?]
Date: 2008-09-16, 5:59PM PDT

St Giles Vancouver is currently hiring part-time and on-call teachers for General and Executive English programs.

Candidates must have a university degree,TESL Canada recognized certification, a minimum of one year's teaching experience and be native English speakers.
  • Location: Downtown Vancouver
  • Compensation: $20.00 per hour
  • Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
  • Please, no phone calls about this job!
  • Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
PostingID: 843647401
================================================

I took a current ad from Craigslist.org for an ESL school in Vancouver that is looking for teachers. This school teaches international students from Asia, Europe and Latin AMerica. In the ESL business, Canada, Korea, Japan or China, the term "native English speaker" is used to get a teacher whose first language is English. This person is from England, the USA, Australia, New Zealand or Canada.

Native English speaker is a term you never hear outside the ESL business, and usually in an international language context. In the Canadian media, the term is non-existent as far as I can tell. Yet in this business, it is essential.

Has anyone else heard of it much?
 
Machjo

Machjo

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I'd heard the term often in China. It also has a very strong ethnic connotation (i.e. white anglo-saxon).
 
china

china

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I'd heard the term often in China. It also has a very strong ethnic connotation (i.e. white anglo-saxon).
Click to expand...
Yeap ,that's why a Chinese person born in Canada or US will have a hard time getting a job as a native English teacher, 'cause he ain't no Anglo-Saxon.Though he can get a a job as a Chinese /English teacher .Diffrence in pay ?....about 60% less than the "regular" native english teacher
 
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scratch

scratch

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china said:
Yeap ,that's why a Chinese person born in Canada or US will have a hard time getting a job as a native English teacher, 'cause he ain't no Anglo-Saxon.Though he can get a a job as a Chinese /English teacher .Diffrence in pay ?....about 60% less than the "regular" native english teacher
Click to expand...

Racism.
Pure and simple.
 
Machjo

Machjo

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But in China, it's absolutely ridiculous. People not only try to learn English, they try to learn American English, act American, eat American, dress American, listen to English songs and Hollywood movies.

I remember once meeting a Chinese who literally sounded as if he'd just jumped out of a TV screen. His slang, mannerisms, even personality just made him look so strange, though he still kept the Chinese accent. I think that's what made him come across as so strange. the accent made it clear that it wasn't his culture, yet he ws more excited than even the native English speakers bout Christmas, Halloween, etc. It just made him look so fake.

Unfortunately, though, that is the education schools expect of the 'teachers' there. Some kindergartens and even universities have caucasian-only policies, and want the students to sound just like us.

I remember a friend tell me once that elementary school students had put on a show for their parents. The song? Horny! I guess the teacher who'd chosen the song had looked up the word in the dictionary but found the wrong meaning (ie. having horns). Needless to say, I was shocked to hear the story. I can only imagine how shocked he was to witness it. Teachers and parents were applauding!

I'd seen English T-shirts too. One teenager walking with her parents was wearing one with 'Sex Kitten' on it. Another common T-shirt that comes in a variety of colours says: 'It's not cheating if you don't get caught'. And respectable women wear this!

And the best T-shirt I saw was during the Beijing Olympics. It said 'I love China'... in English! And there was no Chinese version of the T-shirt.

A few years ago, the PLA belt-buckles was in... English only. I heard that they've since changed it owing to ridicule, but I haven't been able to confirm it as of yet.

But truly, the religious-like fervour behind the so-called 'English Fever' in China is truly embarrassing.
 
Machjo

Machjo

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In fact, some more intelligent Chinese scholars have been complaining about the falling standards in the mother tongue. I remember one friend, a professor at one Chiense university, who'd found that in translation assignements, the errorst often stemmed not from a lack of mastery of the second language, but of the mother tongue. I'd met Chinese interpreters admit that they knew little of the grammar of their own language!
And about 50% of Chinese can't even speak Mandarin!

English is compulsory from elementary school right through to university in China, while even in Europe schools give students choices, and do not penalize them for not knowing English.

In China, I hate to say this, but their minds are truly colonized by the English language.
 
scratch

scratch

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May 20, 2008
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Machjo said:
But in China, it's absolutely ridiculous. People not only try to learn English, they try to learn American English, act American, eat American, dress American, listen to English songs and Hollywood movies.

I remember once meeting a Chinese who literally sounded as if he'd just jumped out of a TV screen. His slang, mannerisms, even personality just made him look so strange, though he still kept the Chinese accent. I think that's what made him come across as so strange. the accent made it clear that it wasn't his culture, yet he ws more excited than even the native English speakers bout Christmas, Halloween, etc. It just made him look so fake.



Unfortunately, though, that is the education schools expect of the 'teachers' there. Some kindergartens and even universities have caucasian-only policies, and want the students to sound just like us.

I remember a friend tell me once that elementary school students had put on a show for their parents. The song? Horny! I guess the teacher who'd chosen the song had looked up the word in the dictionary but found the wrong meaning (ie. having horns). Needless to say, I was shocked to hear the story. I can only imagine how shocked he was to witness it. Teachers and parents were applauding!

I'd seen English T-shirts too. One teenager walking with her parents was wearing one with 'Sex Kitten' on it. Another common T-shirt that comes in a variety of colours says: 'It's not cheating if you don't get caught'. And respectable women wear this!

And the best T-shirt I saw was during the Beijing Olympics. It said 'I love China'... in English! And there was no Chinese version of the T-shirt.

A few years ago, the PLA belt-buckles was in... English only. I heard that they've since changed it owing to ridicule, but I haven't been able to confirm it as of yet.

But truly, the religious-like fervour behind the so-called 'English Fever' in China is truly embarrassing.
Click to expand...

I don't know how much exposure there is to Canadian English but in my opinion it would be a better choice.

 
Machjo

Machjo

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Oct 19, 2004
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They have little exposure to any English outside the classroom, and even most teachers can't speak it properly. But it's cool, trendy.

Even if they were learning Canadian English, the problem would still be the same. That's why more and more Chinese scholars are starting to openly criticize the Chinese government over this saying that they must go to a more European system where they would no longer force students to learn English and instead give them more language options to choose from. More intelligent Chinese are well aware that compusory English is just causing them to become increasingly colonized culturally. It's amazing how deeply entrenched the colonial mentality has dug into the collective psyche.
 
scratch

scratch

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May 20, 2008
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Machjo said:
They have little exposure to any English outside the classroom, and even most teachers can't speak it properly. But it's cool, trendy.

Even if they were learning Canadian English, the problem would still be the same. That's why more and more Chinese scholars are starting to openly criticize the Chinese government over this saying that they must go to a more European system where they would no longer force students to learn English and instead give them more language options to choose from. More intelligent Chinese are well aware that compusory English is just causing them to become increasingly colonized culturally. It's amazing how deeply entrenched the colonial mentality has dug into the collective psyche.
Click to expand...

This has merit as Anglo-America is so inter-woven.
 
D

dumpthemonarchy

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Not all Parisians think of Quebecers that way Scratch. They likely hardly think of Quebec at all. Size matters here. Quebec is a small province, not even a country of its own. Parisians would think differently of them if all of Canada was French speaking. A province is no big deal.
 
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