Non-Caucasian looking native English teachers

citruscinders · Post by **citruscinders** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:25 pm

I am a Canadian born native English speaker with Chinese roots. I am currently teaching English in Buenos Aires. Recently, a student of mine decided to question the grammar point I was teaching and proceeded to ask if, perhaps, I was confusing the grammar with Chinese (in not so nice words). Although I ignored his racial comment, I was put off enough to be unable to give him a solid enough answer that was more blatant than what I was already teaching him. My plan of attack will be to show him the correct usage of sentence structures, from lower-level texts, in my next class and drill him. A bit passive aggressive but, he will learn and I won't get fired for punching him in the head (what I really wanted to do).

Anyways, if anybody has any other ideas or recommendations, please share!

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Wed Mar 02, 2005 8:50 pm

Why didn't you just explain to him (patiently but firmly) that Canada, like America, has been a destination for immigrants for a long long time, and that you were born there, are a Canadian not Chinese citizen, and thus grew up with English as your first language (if not mother tongue, depending on the circumstances of your parents - not that that really matters given the predominantly English-speaking society you grew up in. I'm presuming you hail from the "English" rather than "French" parts of Canada, but hey, if you came from e.g. Montreal you could well speak French too!). But HEY this guy probably "knows" all that and is so stupid he just can't accept what his ears are telling him - probably better that you saved your breath (and/or punches).

Does this idiot student of yours have something against bilingualism/multilingualism? Is it so difficult to accept or believe? Why? Isn't that what he is trying to achieve himself?! Maybe he is just ultimately insecure in the fact that it is HE who will always be the non-native speaker of English*, and resents having to learn it and sully his native (Argentinian) identity. Or perhaps he is a rabid Anglophile and believes he has a better grasp and take on things than even a white demigod ever could? (Actually, that could well be true, given the crap teachers around of whatever ethnicity, but as this student is probably the same guy who thinks Who did wrote King Lear makes perfect sense and is grammatical, standard English, I think it's safe to say he has a long way to go before he can contradict even the greenest certificate-level newbie).

*Non-native speakers can, of course, attain a level that is indistinguishable from even the most educated native speakers, but that doesn't change the fact that they did not grow up in an English-speaking country and culture.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:18 pm

What a knobhead! (Heyy! It got past the filter!)

Argentina saw a lot of immigration from European countries other than Spain - just look at the surnames. Does than mean that Argentinians from non-Spanish backgrounds can't speak their language as well as those who have surnames like Perez? I don't think so.

If your student can get his head around that, he should be able to grasp the concept of a non-Caucasian native English speaker.

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 8:49 pm

Not to justify what your student did, but it is disconcerting for students to have a teacher who does not fit the sterotype. We had a Russian Japanese teacher and when we walked in the room, looked around for the "teacher" and even, stupidly, asked if she knew when the teacher was arriving. The same happened for the Spanish teacher who was an African Cuban. The same happens all the time for a Kurdish English teacher. One young teacher who wore current student-style clothing used to sit at a desk with the students in the first class until they got restless and asked when the teacher was coming. There are many situations like this and you might want to use it to encourage discussion about stereotypes and what they mean for both parties. This would be as valuable a lesson as teaching a grammar point.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 1:06 am

Sure, Sally, but this student of CC's is being openly confrontational about something as irrelevant as skin colour. The only true test of a teacher is whether what they say or present creates an impression upon and trace in the mind of the student that, upon conscious reflection and/or in the light of further encounters and usage is confirmed as being accurate and valuable to know. This is an area in which non-native teachers, if they've done their homework, can put native-speaker "teachers" to shame, but in this instance, a discussion about stereotypes would, I feel, be unproductive and distract attention from cc's most likely satisfactory teaching (not that you're suggesting that cc has such a discussion with this particular student, Sally!

).

Basically, if the teacher is satisfactory (appears to know their stuff), most students soon get over the shock of having one who doesn't quite fit their preconceived image of what e.g. an "English" teacher should look or exactly sound like; those students who can't should go and find a teacher who fulfils every last one of their exacting and ultimately rather silly criteria, rather than giving the teacher they currently "insist" on remaining with a hard time.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:53 am

It further beggars belief that this response should have come from a Latin American. Immigration has led to people of all sorts of different ethnic backgrounds speaking Spanish. Hasn't CC's student heard of Alberto Fujimori or the black Spanish speakers in the Dominican Republic?

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:05 pm

Wherever I have taught, I have had to establish my credentials as a warm, caring human being who was willing to do almost anything to help my students learn. I am Caucasian and in Mongolia students thought I was Russian. In Greenland they thought I was Danish. In France they thought I was from the UK or the US. I agree that students should accept you for your qualifications but they don't. I always spend the first class giving them my background, letting them into my world and then finding out about theirs. I don't think that you can teach people if you don't know what is important to them and they can't really study without knowing what you are all about. If CC spent the first class telling students his background, this wouldn't have come up as a problem.
Students who want a good mark try to find out what pleases you. Students who want to get under your skin usually have no trouble figuring out what will do it. It sounds like this student has another agenda in the class - to keep things tense and to establish his place of power in the classroom. I don't imagine that he cared in the least about the grammar point although I may be wrong. There are a few students who really care like us. If that was the case, then CC's solution will solve the problem. I wonder though if this student wants his classmates to know that he has power in this classroom and can get under CC's skin. Then this kind of behaviour will continue and CC will have to meet privately with him and straighten it out.

fluffyhamster · Post by **fluffyhamster** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 8:34 pm

I guess CC is out round the back alley of his school privately straightening things out with that student (with the help of gong fu, Bruce Lee-like cat yowls etc.

). When he gets back he can maybe tell us how his first classes went - I for one am presuming he spent a little time telling everyone he was from Canada (with the implication, "Me no step step off of yesterday banana sampan, isn't it"

).

As for the student caring about the grammar, that may be so, but the point he seemed to be championing has been discussed on the AL forum (see link below), and the consensus seems to be that it is ungrammatical and a waste of time discussing, much less studying...so, as you say, Sally, it's probably just a way of trying to dominate the class, gain whatever small measure of power in asserting himself and "his" English on the part of this student, to get "under" CC's skin (at his skin colour).

http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/teacher/v ... hp?p=14790

Sally Olsen · Post by **Sally Olsen** » Tue Mar 08, 2005 9:32 pm

Yikes! I didn't mean to take the student out back. Just ask him what the problem is in private on the way to class or in arrange a private interview in an approved school facility with the door open so that nothing can be miscontrued. I realize that one third of your students will probably not find you their favourite teacher just because of your personality or some personal traits will grate on them but you can persuade them to leave you alone usually and concentrate on impressing their fellow students in other ways. I personally have a laugh that sends students who are hunters looking for the bird to kill and my usual voice is soft, high pitched and "sweet" and that drives some of the male students mad so I have to work on that.

citruscinders · Post by **citruscinders** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 2:54 am

Hi guys,
Thank you for the support!!! I didn't even realize that I was demoralized until I felt comfort in all your words. Well, I don't have to worry about the lesson anymore. I never had the chance for the next class because it was cancelled. This was a group-intermediate class but he was the only one that signed up. We were about 4 lessons in when he pulled this stint. I gave my introductions when we had the first class as part of the icebreaker. I explained the multicultural blessing my country has and that I am 3rd generation Canadian. Plus my educational background in Eng. Lit, Journalism and business. Plus, I do as much preparation and research before a lesson so that I won't be balked by grammar questions.

Buenos Aires, in my point of view, has a fairly chauvanistic, class-focused elitist (sp?) structure. Being female, a foreigner invading his city and making more money than him, AND of Chinese origin, may have been too much for him to handle.

Actually, in hindsight, I think he just wanted a conversation class with a pretty girl and I didn't meet his standards. Well, it's not an escort agency and I don't flirt with students. Funny, all my female students like me. LOL!

Thanks again for everyone's support!