Job Discussion Forums

[matador]

Just two cases recently came to my attention:

1. Parents both British but lived in Africa for 10 years from age 2. Left UK before she could talk so misses out on all the cultural norms. Speaks with a slight West African accent.

2. One parent a native speaker/other not. Lived in UK from age 4 having arrived from Germany. Speaks fluent English with a very slight German accent.

What are the guidelines that eikaiwa use when selecting native speakers to teach at their schools?

[Glenski]

1. Many Africans have English as their mother tongue.

2. Native parent, most of life in native English country = native speaker.

Bear in mind that there are many countries out there that Japanese employers don't even realize have English for L1. They just consider the native English countries as USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Stupid.

[fluffyhamster]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Anglospeak.svg

[Waldorf Salad]

In this business a native speaker is someone with a passport from an English speaking country (just look at all the ads). So if you were born and raised in Russia and moved to America when you were 16 and you hardly speak a word English, but you do have an American passport, you're wanted and you can teach legally in Korea and Taiwan.
If, on the other hand, you were born somewhere in Europe and you moved to America when you were one, and English is the only language you speak, but you still have your passport from a European country, you're not wanted and you can't teach legally in Korea and Taiwan. Japan doesn't have this ridiculous passport demand, but most employers do.

[markle]

[B0RGNINE]

Here's a really good article by Christina Higgins published in the TESOL Quarterly that tries to give the native/non-native speaker argument a fresh look:

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~cmhiggin/TQ_Higgins.pdf