Dear Colleagues,
I think I'd like to get in on this discussion today, though I've been
lurking for a long time. Johanna Katchen, National Tsing Hua University, in
Taiwan at NTHU since 1985.
It seems the discussants are in agreement. Taiwan English teaching needs
qualified people, not people with vague credentials who would rather be
doing something else. I believe from what I've heard that at NTHU we have a
little more freedom in hiring than at some other schools.
University rules require that all full-time teaching positions be filled by
those holding doctorates. This rule was in position even back when I was
hired. It certainly makes sense for content teaching--literature,
linguistics, and also for EFL if the person will be teaching in a graduate
program that trains EFL teachers. But our colleagues all agree that for
teaching skills courses, an MA in TESL/TEFL is excellent training.
Unfortunately, we have only been able to hire these people as part-time (and
for many this is a good solution, e.g. housewives who only want
responsbility for one or two classes per semester). We have been slow in
following the solution of many other universities and establishing a
Language Center; in this way we are starting to give full-time contracts to
holders of the MA to work only for the Language Center. They do not have
all the privileges as the professor track. Nevertheless, it gives those who
enjoy working here more stability. Some of them are even our former
undergraduates!
Are we concentrating this discussion on non-Chinese? When I think more
carefully, I find I probably hold an opinion (and prejudice?) similar to
that of my colleagues: I think, if given a choice of two people with equal
qualifications (an unreal situation), I would rather hire the native of
Taiwan who obtained advanced degrees in an English-speaking country than a
native of an English-speaking country. Why? The foreigner has a steep
learning curve; the Taiwanese is already familiar with the system. The
foreigner may be dissatisfied and leave Taiwan; the Taiwanese is far less
likely to leave for a job in another part of Taiwan (except maybe to join a
husband). What do these attitudes say about our effort to internationalize?
Nevertheless, we did hire an American this year to teach literature courses
and writing.
Tim raised the question of what characteristics make up the foreigner who
stays. I suppose we've all mused on this one. My ideas:
1. Sense of adventure, willingness to take a risk. The average American
thinks we're crazy. They would never dream to leave their own country, most
not even to go on holiday much less to actually take up employment. Others
feel sorry for us and think that somehow we weren't good enough to get a job
in the good old USA. But our ancestors were travellers who may have been
brave enough to make their way to a seaport and book passage below deck,
enduring the crowds and smells for weeks before greeting the Statue of
Liberty and the officials on Ellis Island. We got the right combination of
genes.
A number of years ago, some of us foreigners did an informal poll among
our foreign acquaintances and found that all the foreigners who stayed liked
to eat hot peppers. There you have it--sense of adventure.
2. Love of constant challenges and surprises (also hot peppers confirm
this). Is not life every day in Taiwan at least a little challenging as you
are faced with using a language you feel you will never master? Or dealing
with situations where you are not sure whether the problem is your lack of
understanding of Chinese culture or whether the person you are dealing with
is just a jackass. But the daily challenges are more often delightful: a
chat with an old woman while waiting for a bus, a role-play your students
made up. One enjoys the challenges, learns from them. Challenge is viewed
as positive, not negative.
3. Freedom. In one's native region, one may feel the constraints of other
people's expectations. Family may think you would have done better studying
something else, whatever. I suspect some of us were, if not the black sheep
of our families, at least painted a little grey. Not bad, just different.
We came to Taiwan and felt a tremendous sense of freedom to develop in the
direction we always wanted to. In my case, the job was a perfect match for
my training--teaching undergraduate linguistics courses and EFL.
I suspect that those people who are more self-directed do well in other
environments (they carry the important stuff within); those who depend more
on outside forces have more difficulty when the familiar surroundings
disappear.
That's just my two NTD on a cloudy summer day. As to why some are 9 to 5
and others aren't, that one I leave to someone else. I've got ETA work to
do now.
Johanna E. Katchen
National Tsing Hua University
PAC4/11th ETA Conference, November 8 - 10.
Register:
www.eta.org.tw Sent by
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