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Q: Would you work for racist Wall Street English after this happens to you?
You and your roomie are both American-born citizens. You parents are from Poland/Germany and his parents are from Panama/Florida. You have a BA degree in biology and he has a MA in linguistics and you are both native English speakers and of course fluent in English. Roomie has more than 4 years teaching experience and you have just over two. Wall Street English invites you both on the phone to come have an interview and give a demo class. You both do well and leave. The following day you are called and offered a job, but your better-qualified roomie is not. When you ask why you are told "we have to hire people that look most American and his skin color is not white enough to pass as American" Then you learn there are teachers working there that are Dutch, Ukranian, and Belgian, but parents are told they are all Americans. How would you feel about working for this company? I did not take the job and my GF says I am stupid because it is China that forces Wall Street English to be racist. I think Wall Street needs to grow a pair and stop lying about European teachers being American. In reality, my roomie looks like he spent a few days at the beach, he is not black or even dark brown. He is even two shades lighter than the color of cardboard with hazel color eyes and looks very professional with short straight hair. In fact, the HR guy, a Mexican named Cortes would be the same color as my roomie if he spent just one day in Sanya at the beach. What would YOU do?
try solidarity. pretend to look up to your roomie as a mentor. make it clear you come as a "pair". working for the company might be awkward after a better qualified roommate was not hired.
China is all about appearances. someone's appearance easily outranks any experience or qualification. you won't be able to change this level of backwardness in a hundred years. but hey, the studentsand their expectations are equally superficial and hopeless. China excels in dismal situations. you couldalso just put on an insincere smiley face, act wacky in class and collect your salary.
this is China. nobody cares about education, really. it's a means to an end, the end is usually face-gain or wealth. either they want to cram for an exam, to get a profitable degree, or they just want to brag about their kid's light-skinned teacher at the tea house.
these people use others. they want to use a "magical good-quality man from nice-things-land" for face. one roomie got his use-me invite, the other needs to buy a nicer suit to qualify, that's all.
welcome to china, where racism has existed for 5000 years and will exist for another 5000 years
sadly i hope im wrong
Strawberry66:
I went to the interview in a Chinese company,the boss turned me down just because I have no CET8 certificate and I am not from the college through the Gaokao(I have a degree from self-taught college after failed to pass GaoKao).
And I was being told that I have not got enough ability to speak English just because my certificate is not good enough.
xunliang:
Vicky wtf does that have to do with race? You didn't get the job because you don't have the qualifications and probably no experience.
try solidarity. pretend to look up to your roomie as a mentor. make it clear you come as a "pair". working for the company might be awkward after a better qualified roommate was not hired.
China is all about appearances. someone's appearance easily outranks any experience or qualification. you won't be able to change this level of backwardness in a hundred years. but hey, the studentsand their expectations are equally superficial and hopeless. China excels in dismal situations. you couldalso just put on an insincere smiley face, act wacky in class and collect your salary.
this is China. nobody cares about education, really. it's a means to an end, the end is usually face-gain or wealth. either they want to cram for an exam, to get a profitable degree, or they just want to brag about their kid's light-skinned teacher at the tea house.
these people use others. they want to use a "magical good-quality man from nice-things-land" for face. one roomie got his use-me invite, the other needs to buy a nicer suit to qualify, that's all.
It sadly is normal. If you want to find a company without racist hiring policies you are in the wrong country. Accept the job if you want it. If you turn it down then the next company you apply with will be racist anyway. At least that wallstreet was honest with you.
ppzechinacity:
very true ... of course its not right, but I feel much better, or less bad, when someone is honest to me instead of just some bs ... when people give me some bs explanation i feel like they are treating me as an idiot !
Take the job and just fuck around with them and take the cash.This is China.
This is not only happening in China, in South Africa you can't get a job if you are white, because black quotas are being enforced. So I guess if you don't like it, go to a place where you are comfortable with their interpretation of the rules.
But yes, in an ideal world the color of your skin should not be an indication of your competency.
Yes, they are being obviously racist. Wall Street English was started by a European (an Italian man I believe). But has to keep that "We are all about America," feelings to it. Most Chinese know European from North American accents now... so Wall Street is not just insulting their employees and potential employees, but their students as well.
Wall Street isn't even about learning English anyway... it's a place for wealthy Chinese to send their mistress so one of them can speak some broken English while they are away on trips abroad together. It's more for face and a babysitting area for xiao sans.
My chinese mate opened a school. If he hired a black teacher, his parents would take kids out of his school. He d lose his business. Would you expect him to show solidarity? He dosen t make the rules.
The government needs to change attitudes by educating kids at school. For now, if I was black, I'd give China a miss and go somewhere more enlightened.
dokken:
I forgot to mention that my quite dark skinned friend got a job I'm Shanghai 17000 rmb. No complaints thus far. It'll improve probably over time
i had a teacher that was a black american from upper class family in connecticut, he taught engineering and nuclear power at shandong university, but new oriental would not hire him based on race in jinan and new oriental beijing did hire him for a summer camp. having advanced degrees and published works did not mean a damn thing, its much worse in africa but my fellow americans are brainwashed to feel guilty and we are the worst racists on earth from the media talking points, they need to see the rest of the world and wake up to reality and not live in fake perception.
What would I do? If I thought the job was better than any other job I could get I would take it. You can't blame the company for enacting policies in line with the demands of the local market. Wall Street English is a business and it has to do what pleases its customers. You are not going to change a country where appearance trumps substance. The way Chinese people are hired is basically the same - take a highly qualified and ambitious girl who is short, dark skinned and married versus a single, tall, light skinned girl with 0 qualifications and the second one will probably get the job, especially if it's a job that involves being seen by the customers. This is China, you gotta look the part. Not taking the best job you can get is only going to hurt you and it's not going to change Wall Street English's hiring practices or the racism of its clientele.
Now I can't get that 'Panama' song out of my head. Reminds of good times in Mexico.
I know Mexico is not Panama, but it was the 90s, you know? Beaches, bars, seafood, etc.
Good times. Thanks.
It's stupid, racist, ignorant and unfair but ... unfortunately that's the market and it won't change anytime soon.
As others here have said, the reality is that often classes with a white teacher are much easier to fill than a class with a black or asian teacher, regardless of ability. When you're running a business trying to be fair and unbiased will probably just be a financial disaster and who needs that.
I saw it myself. A school I worked at had a foreign manager who did the hiring, and he hired a black American teacher against the wishes of the Chinese side of the business.
There was nothing wrong with the teacher, he was better than some others who made the cut and stuck around but he lasted all of about two months before they had to fire him.
I know it cost the teacher financially, he quit his job back home and bought a ticket to China only to find himself unemployed. It cost the school through the students he lost and the new students he didn't bring in that another teacher - even a shitty teacher- probably would have.
If the school had never hired him (based on his color) it would have saved everyone a lot of pain and expense. The Chinese managers knew it was never going to work, it's not necessarily racist on their part although there might be an element of that, it's mostly just pragmatism.
i wouldn't work for any "training center"
ironman510:
I've been at Wall Street for 6 years and loving it. @imbicus, I don't think you would be qualified to work at a training center. STOP bring up old outdated junk that isn't useful for the folks here.
I was on the SatCom with Admiral Ackbar for literally HOURS and he and I came to the conclusion that this is A TRAP.
RiriRiri:
Where's expatlife26 by the way, haven't seen him in a while 
