Asian Teachers and European Teachers: Who Do You Prefer?

Edgar is a Filipino teacher. It’s been 5 years now since he arrived in Thailand from the Philippines. After he rested for a day, he was lucky to be offered a position as a part time teacher at one of the language center in Thailand. On his fourth day, he received a call from one of the oldest bilingual schools in Thailand. To cut a long story short he took the job. Why have I used the words ‘’he took’’? He told me that he didn’t apply for teaching but his sister did it for him without his knowledge. He wasn’t aware the system in Thailand during his first 3 months, but the day passed by. He eventually became aware of the racism and fell victim of that.

As he goes on teaching , he became more familiar in the field of teaching. I have talked to his Thai co-teachers and they are comparing the European teachers and Asian teachers. Teacher Nok (one of the Thai teachers) told me that most locals think all or most at least ninety percent of Europeans can speak English fluently.
Most of the Thai people tend to call them ‘’native speakers’’ due to the color of their skin, eyes and hair. In Thailand, majority of the people have only two races. These are the Asian and European. European teachers are enjoying a VIP treatment from Thai administrations. They have higher salary compare to Asian teachers mostly Filipinos. Thai parents have more respect to the Europeans than Asians when it comes to financial status and standard of living. (This is quite obvious)Thai parents are willing to pay more money just to send their kids to school with European teachers. These things are the reason why most agencies exploit Asian teachers by giving them a very low salary and more teaching hours. In short, over work underpaid.

Thai teachers noticed that European teachers come earlier than Asians most of the time. (I think it’s because most Europeans observe time management.) But on the other hand, Asian teachers are always observe school rules, professionally dressed, observe personal hygiene, prepared for their lessons, follow school administrations rules without any complaints, polite and always ready to teach whenever the Thai administrations wish them to teach the students. His Thai coordinator told me that she always saw the Asian (mostly Filipinos) teachers armed with teaching materials or visual aids and that the Thai classroom teacher doesn’t need to worry about the students while they are in the hands of the teacher and they can continue their work without having to be worried that students might not listen or do something else aside from the subject. They care about the students and create a friendly relationship to inspire the students not only to educate them but to care for them as well.
On the other hand, European teachers are better than Asian teachers when it comes to English pronunciation. (No offense this is just my observation during my stay in the classes) It clearly shows the Thai teachers who work with Asian and European teachers know the differences between these two groups. It’s very obvious that there are advantages and disadvantages learning with these two groups of teachers