NB: Before you go on reading the article, I want you to know that I have the utmost respect for ALL and EVERY teacher, regardless of any features/characteristics.
The purpose of writing this article is not to argue who is better or worse, but to raise more awareness on how much discrimination, inequity, bias, and even humiliation so many teachers encounter every single day and are treated differently, just because they are non-natives, have ‘accents’, don’t have the ‘right’ skin color, have a passport from a ‘wrong’ country, belong to the LGBTIQA+ community, have any type of physical disabilities, or are neurodiverse.
It has been a while since I’ve had a strong urge to write an article devoted to supporting all the teachers who are discriminated against in any way, as I’ve seen and heard lots of stories similar to mine. I cannot speak for all teachers who have been/are going through any injustice – I can only share my own experience, feelings, and the sad reality that I’ve myself faced when teaching abroad as a NNES.
However, I want each of you to know that I can feel the pain and frustration you’ve experienced, as I’ve experienced it just like you.
Being a non-native speaker myself, I didn’t know until recently that there are still countries and cultures where the majority of the population have strong judgments/prejudice against non-native teachers, moreover, even skin color can play a big role whether you’ll be hired or not for a language teaching position.
It has absolutely ZERO IMPORTANCE what kind of person, how committed, respectful, supportive, result-oriented, student-centered, open-minded, productive, and caring you are; what methods, methodologies, energy, enthusiasm, approaches, knowledge, interpersonal, and other practical skills you bring to your lessons, doing everything possible to support, facilitate, instill confidence, get your learners engaged, involved, encouraged, and motivated; neither your performance, passion, morals, principles, standards, work ethic, corporate culture, or integrity; what education/qualifications you have and what it took you to make a vast contribution, effort, time, finance, and even sacrifice, to obtain all your PD (Professional Development), such as degrees, diplomas, certificates as well as still doing CPD (Continuing Professional Development).
I strongly believe that all the features that I’ve mentioned above are an integral part of what it means to be a ‘professional teacher’. Moreover, a collaboration where a teacher just ‘teaches’ without creating the bonding which goes beyond just ‘teaching’, won’t work and won’t last. And it absolutely does not matter where you are from, what accent or skin color you have.
I equally believe that being a true teacher in the modern highly-competitive world requires being a guide, mentor, and coach who is also an all-rounder, especially if you work with adults. Just teaching book-ish English or boring grammar rules is not enough. What you need to bring to the lesson in the first place is an IDEA that will be wrapped up with grammar, lexis, pronunciation, etc.
However, all that matters is:
- If you’re a NES
- If you’re white-skinned (Caucasian race)
When I meet some potential students for the first time, one of the first questions that comes up is whether I’m a NES. When I say that I’m not (and I’m always very open about it and don’t hide where I’m from, or try to imitate some accents to come across as a NES), this is where the communication ends. It’s like, if I’m a NNES, I’m absolutely worthless as a teacher and a human being by default.
Another thing is an accent. Some people believe that if you have an accent, your language can’t be at a proficient level. On top of this, it’s like when you go out into the real world, you will hear only the ‘right’ accents. Moreover, many publishers of Business English coursebooks have audio and video recordings with different accents to get the students used to them as well, as they will hear lots of them in real life.
There are lots of cases when tourists/backpackers from English-speaking countries go traveling somewhere and like these places so much that it makes them start looking for ways to settle down there. So, having the luck of being white-skinned and a native speaker, there are tons of places that are willing to welcome them to provide with a teaching job, which will enable them a legal right to stay; and it completely doesn’t matter if they have any education or clue about teaching whatsoever.
Moreover, I’ve observed cases from real life when NES, having this privilege, could allow themselves to come to work hung-over with having absolutely ZERO understanding or interest in teaching and what they were doing. And the company, being aware of it, would still keep them, just because they are NES.
My strong philosophy is that EVERY teacher must be assessed equally, according to the same standards, regardless of their passport, first language, some nonsense like skin color, or whatever is implied under being a ‘NES’.
Some of the non-discrimination standards I believe must include having a language proficiency certificate (such as IELTS, TOEFL, etc.) – not EVERY native speaker would automatically get CEFR C1+ level; the other thing is teaching qualifications (such as TEFL, TESOL, CELTA, DELTA, etc. – must have at least 120 hours on the certificate with assessed teaching practice (TP) of real students, preferably in-person). I’ve seen teachers with and without the teaching certificates and there’s a HUGE difference, despite being a native speaker or not. There are only two companies in the world that follow this non-discrimination policy, unfortunately (International House and the British Council).
What many people are not aware of is that research has actually shown that, in the beginning, it’s more effective to learn a foreign language from someone who has gone through the same learning process and understands what kind of difficulties students can have when starting learning a foreign language that they themself had to learn; rather than being taught by a native who may not be able to explain things to a beginner level learner.
However, it’s also true that when a student reaches a high level, it would be more beneficial to be taught by a native teacher, but it’s also important that they have a teaching degree or training of some kind. Otherwise, it is just a conversation with a native person, which can be done with anyone.
To provide a personal example, by the time I’d been teaching English for ten or more years, I tried to teach Russian (my native language). What I came to realize is that it was not as easy as I thought it would’ve been, despite it being my mother tongue and I ended up not being able to teach it!
It’s also true that if you don’t come from an English-speaking approved country, you cannot work legally as an English Teacher in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and South Korea due to visa requirements/restrictions. In China, it’s possible to be legally employed under a different job title, e.g., a Teaching Assistant, Educational Methodologist, Associate Tutor, Librarian, Counselor, or as a Teacher of a different language, but not an English Teacher.
As NNESs, we can only accept this challenge with dignity, stay strong, hopeful, and confident, always believe in ourselves, and never let anything lower our standards.
Good luck to all of the deserving teachers out there, both NES and NNES.
A BIG hug to everyone that this resonates.
Thank you.
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