Ethnocentrism

Okay, I am not judging anyone but stating a fact that many foreign language teachers in Taiwan in one way or the other feel superior to local people. Whom should we blame? This is not a one-way trek; rather it’s a two-way street.

When I hear someone complain that his or her English teacher is incompetent or lacks of teaching qualification, I just sneer at it. What can I say? Tell all those trashy people to get out of here? What has our government done in terms of screening foreign teachers’ qualification? What have cram school owners done in respect of hiring quality teachers?

Before criticizing those foreign teachers, we ought to think whether we have done our best to ameliorate the circumstance. Does speaking English fluently make you a better person or bring you to a higher social status? Although English is regarded as the international language, it can’t make a person become better automatically. I hate to admit no matter one goes, lives, or works at, it is inevitable to encounter ethnocentric individuals. Yet, I personally think why we bother being provoked by this “issue”? If we understand the essence of being a human, then we should tweak our way of thinking and switch our focus to more important things in life.

In this era of high technology and globalization, one has to know he or she is no longer competing with domestic citizens but people from all over the world. I believe bias will forever exist; but one must not look down on himself or herself regardless of skin color, race, or language.

Everyone has a talent and we just need to discovery it. It is thrilling to find a talent. And perhaps you have more than one. Wouldn’t it be great being able to know more about oneself? I dislike many foreign teachers I’ve met over here; yet there are still some cool ones, really…

Maybe I’m just plain-looking but don’t judge me by my appearance only. If you don’t know me well, then do not jump to conclusions saying I know less than you. Native-speaker doesn’t make a person necessarily better than non-native speaker in the regard of teaching a language. Some of my high school fellow students had bad Chinese too and this analogy applies to all other parlances.

Suddenly I have an idea. Why don’t we lock up all those ethnocentric people and make them compete with each other? I bet the survivors will be some interesting subjects for certain neural or psychological researches… By the way, those who possess ethnocentrism might change when being challenged by someone that feels superior to them. Don’t say it will never happen; it might just come later!!