While the demand for foreign English teachers continues to rise in China, many teachers find it hard to be treated fairly. (Photo: IC)
"I'm so happy to see Ivan. I'm so happy to see Tiantian. I'm so happy to see everyone. Everyone, let's have fun in music class." With a welcome song, Cami Maureira starts her English music class with a group of preschool children and their parents.
She dances, runs, jumps and falls from time to time while introducing different instruments in imagination-evoking ways. Sticks need to be woken up by beating them on the ground. Later, she puts them on her head, mimicking the antennae of a robot and finally, makes them into a cross and pretends they are an airplane.
While Maureira was provided with teaching materials and guidelines, she said she had to adjust for the class and adds her own creative parts.
"One of the issues I had was that this was a program made for English-speaking people, so a lot of the songs were super hard," she said.
After about 40 minutes, the children get excited, the parents seem exhausted after the exercises and Maureira adjusts herself for the next class.
Born in Chile, South America, Maureira is one of many foreign English teachers in China.
She was first attracted to China two and half years ago because she found it hard to achieve her life dream of being a teacher in her home country due to oversatuaration. She later developed a deeper love for her career, but she was disappointed to realize that because she was not a US native, she was not fairly treated when looking for jobs.
More Chinese are starting to choose English teachers based on ability rather than skin color and country of origin. (Photo: IC)
Different backgrounds, the same language
In the early years, there was chaos in the English teaching industry. Many teachers were getting jobs simply because they could speak English, and it was discovered that some of them even had criminal records back in their home countries. In 2016, a new work permit policy was issued by the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA), which required foreign language teaching staff to teach in their country's native language, have a bachelor's degree or above and have at least two years of language teaching experience.
This new policy has set the bar high for English teachers in China. Yet, according to those interviewed by Metropolitan, the policy is not the only reason, there are also social stereotypes in this industry.
Maureira went to the US at the age of 14 to attend high school. She later received her bachelor's degree from the University of Minnesota, majoring in early education. After that, she worked for about two years in training centers.
However, she had to struggle to compete with native English speakers, many of whom have little teaching experience.
"Many non-native English-speaking people struggle a lot to be treated fairly, especially in terms of money. If you check offers online, you will always see a different salary for native English speakers and non-native," Maureira said, explaining that she thinks it is unfair because all the foreign English teachers "will end up doing the same job for the same amount of hours."
"It took me around two years to get a medium salary range all because I wasn't American," she added.
Maureira is a white, blonde woman, which in Dheeraj Kapoor's (pseudonym) opinion, is more of an advantage than he has.
Kapoor grew up learning English and Hindi at the same time but has an Asian face.
"Despite learning English as a first language, I am not recognized as a native speaker in China," he told Metropolitan. "A large number of people consider white skin more important than English teaching ability."
Kapoor has been an English tutor in Beijing for a year, and his current salary is about 60 to 70 percent less than that of a native English speaker who comes from nations like the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Alexander Gedo, who comes from the US and currently works as an English instructor in Linyi, Shandong Province, however, thinks a higher salary for native speakers "makes sense."
"If I wanted my kids to learn a foreign language, I would definitely want a native speaker to teach them," says the 22-year-old.
Though fresh to teaching, the young man who studied economics and political science finds that he adapts well with the help of more experienced co-workers at his institute.
He said he teaches small children, reads books that American children read and teaches them the alphabet.
"Obviously, if they are looking for more nuances in the education, I think native speakers do have an advantage but not a significant one," he explained.
Zhou Ya'nan is a Chinese English teacher working in an English-language institute for children between the ages of 5 and 10.
She says the class is co-launched by a Chinese teacher and a foreign teacher and that while the Chinese teachers are teaching for two out of the three hours of class, they are paid much less.
"I think foreign teachers are only beautiful vases; most of the real knowledge is taught by the Chinese teachers," she says, adding that she has felt this was very unfair but now accepts it because she has no ability to change it.
The crazy demand
According to statistics published in October 2017 from the report ELT (English Language Teaching) Market in China 2017-2021, the ELT market in China is expected to grow "at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.93 percent" from 2017 to 2021.
"Under such a huge demand, the demand for foreign [English] teachers is about 1 million people," the report said.
Maureira agrees. "I believe the teaching demand in China is crazy high," she said. "There are offers every day. There are people who will actually stop you on the street and offer you a job. [Almost] every single day there is a new school."
While the earlier generations of Chinese learned English from Chinese teachers through exam-oriented programs, more and more of them now want their children to take a different path.
A report from the consulting website ocn.com.cn said today learning English has become a normality, with 65 percent of the motivation for social communication and only 20 percent for studying or examination purposes.
"English should be a language well mastered," Jiang Nan, a mother of a three-year-old boy, told Metropolitan. "I don't have many demands for a foreign teacher, but he or she has to be standard in pronunciation, fun in class and know how to raise kids' interest in learning English."
Jiang's son now studies in a kindergarten where there is an English class taught each day by foreign staff.
But Jiang further noted that she does not want a Chinese English teacher or even an English teacher that looks Chinese to teach her son English.
Luo Tao (pseudonym), a mother of a kindergarten child, is stricter with her requirements for an English teacher.
"From a native-English speaking country with an educational background and experience and a love for teaching" are Luo's requirements, adding that currently, only a few schools are able to meet those demands at an acceptable cost.
She also pointed out that she has a neighbor who comes from Zimbabwe. He speaks English and has experience in education, but cannot find a job in a good school in China.
What makes a good teacher?
"Like I said, being a native speaker will give you a certain level of nuance of the language that a non-native speaker won't have," says Gedo. "But a good teacher is a good teacher." To a certain degree, Maureira agrees.
"I do believe they all should have a chance if they have the proper experience, proper training and proper qualifications. I don't see what's wrong with that," she explains. "I have known people from Russia, Poland and Monaco, and they speak very good English; they know how to teach, they know the techniques and they know what they are doing."
"The clients I currently work with are wonderful and open-minded people who look at my skills and qualifications rather than my skin color or passport," Kapoor explains. "Generally speaking, if a potential client agrees to an initial trial lesson with me, then they always sign up for more lessons after seeing the child's progress in the first lesson."