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[nomad soul]

Chinese to redefine native speaker teachers?
EL Gazette | Jan-Feb 2019
http://www.elgazette.com

China is set to redefine native-speaker teachers to include citizens of former colonies where English is used as a second language, according to Philippine Ambassador to China Jose Santiago Santa Romana.

Talking to the press after discussions with President Xi late last year, Santa Romana told the Manila Standard: ‘They expanded their definition of English-speaking countries. They said native-speaking countries and countries that were colonised by these native-speaking countries.'

Such news, if confirmed, will come as a relief to recruiters who have struggled to fill posts in the country’s private language schools, estimated to number at least 50,000, with native-speaker teachers who meet the visa requirements of a first degree, a TEFL certificate accepted by the government, and two years classroom experience.

To fill the demand, agents have taken to hiring native speakers with no qualifications and sending them into the country on student visas with the promise they can switch to a teaching visa on arrival. This resulted in waves of crackdowns, where unqualified teachers are rounded up, detained and then deported (e.g., over 50 South African teens were rounded up and flown out of China just before Christmas).

However, teachers from ESL countries may face severe restrictions, if the agreement on Filipino teachers signed early in January is anything to go by. Under the agreement, teachers, who must have a first degree or post-graduate degree in English teaching, are forbidden from working for the state sector and can only teach in ‘tertiary education.’ This is thought to mean they can only work in private language schools for adults and cannot be hired in China’s burgeoning young learner market.

(End of article)

[getbehindthemule]

The demand for teachers is so high here, I'm not one bit surprised. Many Filipinos have better English than the majority of white faces here. Can only be good news for those of us NETs with proper quals and experience. But looks alarm bells for those here on incorrect visas/quals and newbies to a certain extent.

[Simon in Suzhou]

I would say this is a VERY mixed bag. I'm happy for qualified teachers with near-native English. I've met several of them here in China. However, I've also met Filipinos and Indians, etc with TERRIBLE oral English. Students might as well just keep their Chinese teacher in these cases. But that is true for many of the white-skinned blondes thrown in front of students as well.

Perhaps this will encourage employers to actually hire qualified, well-spoken English teachers regardless of their race or nationality...ah, but probably not.

[voyagerksa]

Do you newbies still want to make a career out of ESL? "Yeah you did read that right, we pay a starting salary of 2500 Yuan monthly. Our age limit of 30 was also correct."

[In the heat of the moment]

My first foreign colleague ever was from the Philippines and she was (to me, a total noob then) an excellent teacher. She was also a really nice person.

[RiverMystic]

The average wage in the Phillipines is about 500 Kwai a month. You might like to think about what that means.

[rioux]

It means virtually all of them will do pretty much anything and put up with pretty much anything because it is still so much better than the garbage pay and working conditions they will get back home.

[jimpellow]

This must be considered in the context of what has led to the current shortage. Pre 2013, China experienced a moderate shortage of native speaking teachers and the supply was augmented by speakers from other countries usually working illegally. The biggest reason then why China had a shortage was due to poor working conditions, poor pay, mistreatment etc. Three out of four teachers left within a year. China decided to address the issue by making it impossible for non native speakers to teach via a very onerous work permit process and stepping up the enforcement through raids. They made a very slight attempt to address the issues of mistreatment. Then they added the social tax which directly and more so indirectly has dampened wage increases despite soaring demand. Now they have created the current situation which they are addressing by permitting non native speakers to teach legally. One can argue to what extent non native speakers are qualified to teach English as a second language, but it will undoubtedly suppress wages for native speakers further and exacerbate the shortage they tried to eliminate. A pretty funny and very Mainland Chinese strategy.

[rioux]

[Blistering Zanazilz]