Job Discussion Forums

[amaranto]

I've observed what you might call anti-American attitudes with respect to ideology, that is, I've had people express their opinions to me about how Mexico is, in their opinion, unfortunately too close to the US, which has had some negative effects on the country. I've never, however, encountered any hostility on a personal level as a result of being American. Maybe this is because I speak Spanish and show an interest in Mexican culture. Certainly, walking around and talking about how bad everything is in Mexico compared to the US is not going to help a foreigner make friends here.

[Isla Guapa]

Amaranto has hit the nail on the head. Of course, there's a lot of resentment here of the US for all sorts of historical and political reasons, but I've never felt these feelings directed at me personally as an individual from the States. Apart from political resentments, most Mexicans I know still think the US is a neat place they would like to visit one day, if they already haven't done so.

[Guy Courchesne]

[MotherF]

[Samantha]

Teresa wrote:

[Isla Guapa]

Amazing tales, Samantha, about the rudeness of some types of tourists! Did it happen partly because they were vacationing in a touristy city or town? Maybe they thought they thought they were in a theme park of typical Mexican homes . I can't see that happening in Mexico City, though. In any event, it's lucky for me I live on the 4th floor of a building with a front door that's always locked.

[Samantha]

It's the Historico area of the city, and I think it appears to visitors as one big museum. We see them looking in house windows and yards all the time. The day trippers off cruise ships are inclined to do that kind of thing. They skip formal tours and set out on their own self-guided sight-seeing adventure in "real Mexico" (how visitors often refer to the downtown area).

To get the thread back on track a bit, when I taught in that area, I used to turn the tables on the cruise ship escapees, and take my English class over to the pier where we would stalk them for conversation practice. It helped the students get over their fear of speaking to strangers in English, and gave the tourists a new experience. They loved it (the tourists, not the students).

[Isla Guapa]

[Isla Guapa]

[Samantha]

Most of them had no real contact with foreigners, so they were quite frightened. I had to do a lot of coaching to get cooperation. They would try to hide behind me, like little kids do behind a parent. I would then remind them that we could be back in the classroom, maybe taking a quiz. That usually did the trick.

[Guy Courchesne]

[Isla Guapa]

[Samantha]

They were young adults studying to be English teachers. I took every opportunity I could to get them out of the classroom to speak to native English speakers. It was against school policy and I had to get special permission.

[fieldsofbarley]

I agree with Teresa in that the ad is most likely aimed to Mexican teachers and not to foreigners. I very much doubt that a foreigner with the qualifications requested would agree to work for $50/hour, especially in Mexico City.

I�d like to know who the employer is. Non-descript schools I�ve had the "pleasure" to visit employed Mexican teachers who were earning even below $50/hour and, no offense, some of my advanced students had a better level of English than those teachers. I guess you get what you pay for, and this goes for employers too.

Regarding those anti-American attitudes and the lack of interest in learning languages...well, that�s not my experience so far.

[Enigma2011]