Here we go, I bought another domain! I already own this but think it’s too long, and I bought this by mistake. Really loving the .me domains. Don’t expect photos for this one, it’s going to be verbose and pretty technical.
After 4 interviews and 3 unsuccessful outcomes at the same institution, I finally got the job. Before this, I applied for more than 20 schools but got only a couple of replies and two interviews. Reason: 我不是高鼻子，蓝眼睛的外国人。(I’m not a foreigner with a sharp nose and blue eyes.)
I’m a Singaporean.
Before enrolling myself on the CELTA course, I contacted the British Council in Singapore to ask them if Singaporeans are considered native English speakers, and the answer was no. Am I a native Chinese speaker then? That doesn’t seem right because our curriculum is conducted in English. There are no answers on the Internet either but I like what seasurfer and aeon wrote here. I am perfectly capable of conducting a full conversation without Singlish (just as I would using it) but my accent is a mix between Chinese, American and British. At the beginning of the CELTA course, I felt inferior to my classmates who are either from America, Australia, Canada or the UK. I was extremely conscious of my accent and thought that I wasn’t speaking correctly. Thanks to my tutors’ explanation and encouragement from my peers, I learnt that my pronunciation, intonation and word/sentence stress are fine and that there is no such thing as a correct way of speaking English. I have a unique accent and being different doesn’t necessarily mean it’s incorrect. Without this clarification, I myself would have thought that having a British or American accent would be more correct and I don’t blame people with this same misconception that I had. Admittedly, however, a large population of Singaporeans do speak poor English (wrong pronunciation and stresses). Add some Chinese, Malay and dialects to the conversation and this makes it almost incomprehensible to any foreigner.
I’m Chinese.
Armed with my Grade B CELTA I travelled to China instead of Japan, thinking my ability to speak putonghua (Mandarin) would give me a one-up. Unfortunately, my Chinese descent gave me more problems than favours. Almost all the schools here want ‘native speakers’ and some even have specific nationality requirements. A frank recruiter told me that as much as he would love to hook me up, the school wanted a “white face” because it is better for their business. After speaking to the locals and ESL students, I feel that this discrimination seemed to be more so imposed by the schools which are really money-making businesses using the Caucasian face as a marketing tool, than the needs or wants of the consumers/students. Thanks to Hollywood and MTV, the American accent is very popular here.
It’s been three months before I finally got the job I wanted – teaching English at a recognised institution with real curriculum and lesson plans, with a competitive salary to boot! This is the real beginning of my life in Beijing.