Job Discussion Forums

[moonwatchr]

I'm an Asian-American woman soon leaving for Buenos Aires to teach English. I'm a little concerned that I might have difficulty getting hired because I am of Asian descent, although I was born and raised in the US. I'll be going through EBC to get my TESOL certificate, and hear positive things about that program, as most people report getting lots of interviews shorty after completing the program, but I'm wondering if being an Asian woman might affect my credibility as an English teacher.

Any comments or experiences with this? I would appreciate any advice...

Thanks!

[karen s]

Hi,

I took the EBC course in Buenos Aires and immediately after the course I worked with Bespoke English, its a small institute that worked mostly with banks, accounting firms and while teaching in those companies there were African American teachers, Asian Americans and we all went ahead with our business of teaching. But why will your being Asian American affect your credibility? From what I saw, Argentinians are curious, interested and they always asked where you were from. Coming from Southern California, I wasn't used to these questions maybe because many US cities are real melting pots of races, nationalities, religions, so being around diff. nationalities wasn't really a big deal, nothing out of the oridinary. I grew up with friends of Philipino, Mexican, European decents and nothing seemed so unusual or different. I guess to me they were just friends I grew up with, friends I went to grade school with!!

Buenos Aires is no melting pot, don't look for the international, multi racial feel of San Fran, LA , New York or London, but one thing's for sure, the porte�os know how to have fun and they're good at it!

I guess as long as you are a good teacher, confident of your teaching skills, you'll be alright. Good luck and enjoy BsAs.

Chau!

Karen

[ElNota]

[matttheboy]

You'll be ok. You might get some idiots from time to time making ignorant comments but they're usually just that-ignorant rather than malicious. That said, there is quite a lot of anti-chinese feeling about-you see it in the graffiti on the chinese supermarkets, things like "chino puto" and 'chinos fuera'. And immigration staff are waaaaay friendlier on first sight to white faces, although when they see your passport you'll be treated immediately better. I've got a aussie-chinese friend who's experienced this. I doubt it'll make much difference to finding work. try PM-ing citruscinders as she'll be able to give you the real low down on finding work as an asian woman, although she hasn't posted on this board for a long time.

To my mind, there's a definite pecking order in the asian community. Most accepted are the japanese, then koreans and finally chinese. This is the order in which these groups came to argentina so with time they become accepted members of argentine society. It's just that the chinese are pretty new and have only been arriving in significant numbers in the last few years so there's obviously a bit of fear of the unknown amongst argentines at the moment.

Casual racism seems to be a latin-trait (southern europe and latin america) and is not frowned upon in the way we're used to in england, US, canada etc.

[citruscinders]

Moonwatchr did PM me and I thought I'd share my reply.

Keep in mind that my experience was from 2004-2005 and things may (or may not) have changed since then.

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Overall, Buenos Aires was unforgetable and definitely worth a trip. Here's some stuff that may be helpful for you:

Getting a job:
I got a TEFL certificate in Canada before I arrived in BsAs. When I was there 2 years ago, it didn't really matter if you were qualified to teach or not. If English is your native language, you pretty much got the job. But first you need contacts. Cold calling may or may not get you anywhere but a contact will certainly get you an interview. My advice: use this site to meet up with other TEFL expats, party with them, and get them to recommend you to their boss. (That's what I did.)

{Note: One headmistress questioned my English abilities because of my Asian descent. The other 2 institutes I worked for had full confidence in me. Also, I taught a lot of grammar.}

Racism:
Not obvious in the downtown core but if you move out of the Central, you may get looks and iffy service. I was in a mall about 10 blocks from downtown, buying a back pack and the lady was examining all my cash as if it were counterfiet. A quick, "hablas ingles?" fixed her attitude and suddenly my money was good. (Yes, people like this do exist...) How I handled similar situations: trump with the English and don't admit that you speak another language. Other than some isolated cases, most people are awesome.

I never experienced any violent acts of racism-related hate.

You may get people who come up to you to ask where you are from, mainly out of curiosity. And they may refer to you as Chinita but they're not being hateful.

Oh, and men making noises at you when you walk by is normal; they do that to any female with two legs.

I hope that helped a little bit! Let me know if you have any questions.
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