Job Discussion Forums

[austeacher]

Why is the Taiwanese Education system bent on hiring only Rhotic speakers? Have Taiwanese Education officials realized that IELTS is a commonwealth benchmark, globally, for testing non-English speakers?

Why are they still clinging to TOEFL when the rest of the non-English speaking world is now changing over to the IELTS system? Duh!

I'm from Australia, I forgot I don't speak with an American accent. Maybe I will take oratory and voice projection classes so I can hopefully get a job in Taiwan.

[Ki]

Ah yes, a rant against theTaiwanese unwarrented preference for the "American accent" I understand only too well having been looked over because of my lack of passport, note not because of my lack of accent. Despite better work history, education and Chinese language, my resume was passed over.

It has happened to me. To others worse has happened. They have been ostrasized from many jobs not because of some apparent accent but because they are not "white".

So as I am annoyed that laobans are sometimes more often than not stupid enough to rank a supposed accent above more useful factors I am also mindful of the fact that laobans think only white people can speak English. And all white people speak English.

Not exactly sure where I'm going with this. I show you empathy but I also can be mindful of my own precarious position here.

[austeacher]

Ki, you will find you have misspelt unwarranted. Nevertheless if one were to debate which of the two accents are sophisticated, Rhotic or received pronunciation, one will find RP( British English), is far more sophisticated.

Lets not forget there are many variants of RP too. Welsh, Scottish, Irish and their dialectical provincial counterparts.

Make a comparison of the two variants of English used in the tabloid press and one will find RP is better executed.

I'm not even of English stock, I'm of European background and I raise a hight toast to RP.

[Ki]

I don't know whether to laugh myself silly or bang my head against the wall.

[austeacher]

Why are you having tough luck finding a job if you are a Rhotic speaker?

[forest1979]

I understand the OP's predicament/point but during my time in Taiwan I didn't find strong evidence that one accent was preferred over all overs. Sure, there are some bushibans and even uni ELCs that wanted to promote a US-based version of English but I also knew others, Brits and Aussies for example, who got jobs because their accent was different and the places they applied to wanted to push forward a diverse English image. If anything the persons who were most discriminated against were South Africans.

True it's very frustrating to venture to work in a climate that generically appears to be so geared to US English but a lot of the problems my friends encountered were largely brought upon themselves. This included a lack of understanding of basic grammar rules, badly composed CVs, which would often be combined with a lack of teaching experience. Putting these things together regardless of where they were from and how they spoke didn't make them attactive to employers. However, going back to the OPs original remark, there is a hell of a lot of narrow-mindedness in Taiwan with regards to English accents. If only more bushibans and ELCs would open their minds to the fact that English is a global language and not just one spoken in North American then it would indeed strengthen the TEFL industry on Isla Formosa.