> I think the parents of the kids know - since they are the ones making
> the demands that the foreign teacher look foreign (ie white) and they
> want them young (under the mistaken assumption that anyone over a
> certain age ceases to be "in touch" with the "real
> world") Whether the students know, I am not sure and whether it
> would make a difference -well, the students in most cases are not
> paying the bills-the parents are - and thus the bosses cater to them.
> My experience is based on China and South Korea - of Taiwan and Japan
> I know nothing and thus say nothing :)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> My [adult] Chinese students agree that there is, as you say, a
> decided preference amongst Chinese parents for English schools that
> "feature" Caucasian teachers. None of them however would
> agree that the age of the teacher was particularly important to
> parents when they chose a school for their young children.

> To the question of how important it was to them that the school
> provide competent teachers for their children, there was unanimous
> agreement that this was paramount, but it was pointed out that they
> really have no way to tell how competent the school's teachers are.

> I don't think your assumption that the age restrictions ESL teachers
> face in that part of the world are based on the demands of fee-paying
> parents is correct. If that were so, ESL schools that cater to young
> and middle-aged adults who, even if they are not paying the bills are
> unlikely to entrust the choice of school to their parents, would have
> no reason to exclude potential teachers on the bases of race, sex or
> age which, it is clear, they do.

> May I suggest the real reason is something like the following::
> Many English schools are not particularly interested in improving
> their students' English. Indeed if the students English improves,
> they stand to lose a paying customer. Their real product is
> association with a young, attractive, English-speaking foreigner.

> From the adult students' point of view this association is often much
> more interesting than learning a foreign language. The sad part is
> that most of them probably really do believe the young, energetic
> good-looking foreigner is going to teach them good English and are
> very disappointed when they show up in an English-speaking part of
> the world to discover how little they've really accomplished.

> Examples of this show up in my ESL classes with disturbing regularity

This is also true in Hong Kong. Since 1998, in order to uplift the Engllish proficiency level, the Hong Kong government started hiring Native Speaker to teach ALL the courses. No long ago, this year, I heard the New broadcaster said that students scores not only went down in English but also in other courses. Judging from my experience in China, I found most of the students were not satisfied in their actual learning from the Experts. The main reason might not because of the foreign teachers, but also for the limited time and big classes, students didn't have enough association with the native speakers. Besides, passive learning will never work well. Young kids under the pressure from the parents. Adults learn for the passing of certain exams. Middle school students have too much to cope with.

Alex Wu