A couple of days ago, my friend Ian and I talked about the possibilities of me going over to Vietnam to teach as soon as I have fulfilled my bond period with MOE. He passed me a URL listing some of the teaching vacancies in some of the international schools in Vietnam and I glanced through almost all of them.

What I am about to discuss about is not on my future career path but an issue with perceptions on “native speakers of English Language”. Before I proceed on any further, here’s an extract of one of the listings for an English Language teacher:

We recruit only qualified/certified teachers from the following countries:

- United Kingdom
- USA
- Canada
- Ireland
- Australia
- New Zealand
- South Africa

Teachers must be fully trained to teach in state schools in one of these countries and possess full qualification/certification with teacher training such as a Bachelors or Masters of Education, PGCE, Higher Diploma in Education, etc. South African teachers with only a diploma of education will have very limited opportunities as most Ministries of Education require a Bachelors degree in Education, and do not like the word Diploma.

Please note that these are not jobs teaching English as a foreign language and therefore a TEFL certificate and/or non-educational Bachelors degree alone is not enough.

Due to the volume of applications, only successful candidates will be contacted. If you do not meet the above qualifications you will not be considered.

I was taken aback when I saw that only “Westerners” are qualified to teach English Language. So I told Ian and he said that it was because they were native speakers of English Language. Okay wait! Here’s the problem. English Language is my first language because my government has made it that way. Arguably, it is one of my native languages along with Mandarin and Cantonese. And besides, Singapore has got one of the best teacher training institutions and I am proud that I am studying there and obtaining my teaching qualifications from there as well.

I guess the problem lies with my outer appearance. I am, after all, an Asian by appearance and nationality. [Ignorant] people perceive Asians as people who have bad command and speak incomprehensible English and tend to communicate with a foreign language. It is true to a certain extent but there are exceptions. Singapore is one and Singaporeans do, in general, speak relatively good English as compared to her neighbours. Unfortunately, we still fall with the SEA region and we tend to fall within their generalisation. But as soon as I start speaking, I tend to get comments like, “Wow, you speak good English!”

As my lecturer Ms. Charlene Rajendran explained in one of our classes, it can be read as, “You are not supposed to have such good command of English Language!”. Hence, I’m being viewed as an anomaly like I’m some weird specimen. And that has happened before when I was in Australia! Closer to home, I was in Hong Kong and when I told one of the salesman that I was a Singaporean, he immediately asked with great enthusiasm, “Do Singaporeans speak many languages?”. I still remember what my reply was. I simply told him that most Singaporeans speak two languages – English Language and their mother tongue. Of course, more than two would be an asset especially when it comes to business and travelling.

Whichever the case, Singaporeans tend to be viewed as anomalies in most countries as we do not fall within the stereotypes of being Asian and Western. Not Western but not quite Asian. We fall within the periphery or lie within the limen, an elusive limbo. Strangely, I enjoy this feeling as I tend to surprise people. The Westerners tend to be astonished over my good or even better command of English Language and the mainland Chinese envy that I can speak relatively good Mandarin and grapple with English Language. As for the Hong Kongers, they provide better service as soon as I communicate with them in Cantonese.

Is the issue of the native tongue ever important in my case? I don’t think so but I guess my nationality would be a big minus to people who don’t understand our region well enough…But, I have faith in God that He will provide and open doors. That is all that matters…