How can I prevent discrimination due to my name?

Question

Firstly, I was born and bred in California. I consider myself American and I'm fluent in English and speak in an american accent.

Unfortunately (well actually I don't feel unfortunate about it other than this case), my parents are Chinese and I have a Chinese name (surname and given name).

I'm trying to move to China to become an English teacher and been sending resumes across and it's been very difficult. Largely I get ignored. However, some of my friends who have "white" names, well they can't seem to get enough offers. We have very similar resumes all having gone to the same college and done the same TESOL qualification.

This leads me to believe that it's the name that's putting people off. It kind of makes sense. Who would you want to be teaching you English? Mr. Smith or Mr. Wang?

So yeah I don't know what else to do? I've actually started listing the languages I know on my resume like this

• English (fluent)
• Mandarin (intermediate)

Mandarin is actually not required for the job and I'm actually fluent at it. But it's just there so I can highlight the fact I'm fluent in English.

But no, doesn't seem to help.

It's gotten to the point I feel like maybe I should change my name, at least on my resume, and then after I get a phone interview, I can mention that my name is not my formal name. Somehow that just feels a tad degrading doing that...

What else could I do?

Answer 1

I wouldn't say "fluent". I'd say "native English speaker." And I'd say it in the first line of the resume. Something like: "Objective: To obtain a job teaching English in China where I can leverage my native English speaking skills." Similarly, make sure it is prominent on the cover letter if you have one.

The reason I say this is that "fluent" tends to be used as a word to describe someone who learned English and obtained fluency.

I don't like the idea of changing your name for the resume. It decreases credibility when you do get the interview.

Answer 2

Others gave you general answers. I am going to answer the specific part of your question.

I live in Taiwan.

My answer is going to disappoint you. However, it's better to learn the cruel truth now than later.

The same thing happens in Taiwan. Many Europeans who do not speak fluent Engilish can easily get an English teaching job in Taiwan while an ABC (American Born Chinese) (you're by definition an ABC) cannot get any of those jobs.

The reason is, those students and their parents do believe that those whites speak English while Chineses do not. Period. It is the perception problem rather than your ability to teach English.

I don't know how to make you feel better. I think you need to accept this fact as early as possible so that you won't waste any more time looking for English teaching job in China.

I believe the situation will get better when people realize that you would do a better English teaching job than your counter parts do because you speak Chinese.

However, it won't change overnight. I think it will happen in the next decade.

Your Alternatives

1. Use your other skills (such as programming) to get into the job market in China first. Then find a teaching position as the second job. This is not impossible. Still very hard.
2. Run your own English school. Start from being an English tutor there. Expand the business to larger customer base ...

Both alternatives are long shots. However, you can start to do them now instead of waiting for calls from China in the next 5 years.

Answer 3

Executive Summary

Private language schools sell the image of English as much (if not more) than they sell actual English education. As a Chinese-looking person, you would likely make a poor salesman of the English image, and don't have a snowball's chance of getting hired. However, there are other routes you may be able to take to teach in China if you'd like.

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There are four main types of English Teaching jobs in Southeast Asia:

1. Private Language Schools
2. Private International Schools
3. Private Universities
4. Government-run Organizations

Private Language Schools

These are by far the most common. There are many different types of these schools, from cram schools (juku in Japan, hagwon in Korea, buxiban in China), to conversational schools to everything in between. Generally speaking, "native" speakers are hired to teach English conversation.

These schools are 100% for-profit, and sell the image of English as much as they sell actual language training. Many use deceptive billing practices, complicated contracts, and high-pressure sales to make money without providing much in the way of service (see Nova, among others). Many are shady and do not provide their employees with the wages or benefits promised, and sometimes don't pay their employees at all. Point is, a lot of these places are fraud wrapped in pretty wrapping.

This works because many customers are just as interested in the feeling of English as they are in actually learning the language. As a result, a lot of these companies will make more money hiring a non-native English speaker who fits the image than they will with an extraordinary teacher who doesn't. And the image of English is Caucasian in Southeast Asia.

For these companies, no amount of changing your name will help. You are not the product they are looking for. You are not going to help them sucker students in and milk them for all they're worth. Sorry.

Note: There are plenty of good schools out there I'm sure, who actually focus on teaching English. They are also the minority. China < Korea < Japan when it comes to 'legitimacy' of English teaching jobs, and the major Japanese chains are going bankrupt and/or contracting because of a drop in demand. Not saying that Japan is better than Korea or China, just that from an English teaching perspective, the general consensus from people who have taught in multiple countries is that the working conditions follow that hierarchy

Private International Schools

Most private international schools are popular with expats and are located in more urban places. They are also usually swimming with applicants. There may be exceptions, but for the most part these schools will not care too much about your ethnicity as long as you are a qualified and experienced teacher of the subject(s) they are hiring for. Qualifications depend on the country and school.

Since you are talking about teaching English and sending out many applications, I am guessing this category doesn't apply to you (if you are a qualified teacher, however, I would suggest giving this a try).

Private Universities

You can also get hired by universities if you have the necessary qualifications (usually a Masters in Language Education or something similar). However, this path is also fraught with all sorts of danger. At least in Japan, foreign teachers are almost always put on contracts, and will not receive tenure at a Japanese university. While the pay is good in the meantime, the nature of Japanese employment law means that they are reluctant to hire someone they can't get rid of in the future, and due to the nature of university (students are only there a few years), there aren't so many consequences to rotating professors in and out to minimize long-term risk to the school.

This may be different in China and Korea, but my guess is that you aren't applying for university jobs.

Government-run Organizations

The Japanese government hires foreigners to teach on the JET Programme each year. You are assigned as an assistant language teacher in a public school, but due to education laws are always going to be an assistant. There may be similar programs in Korea or China, but if so I have never heard of them. At any rate, at least for the JET Programme there doesn't seem to be a bias against people of Japanese descent (there are plenty of 2nd and 3rd generation Japanese, many of whom know the language). If there is a Chinese version, this may be a good bet to have a chance, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Answer 4

Add a section to your resume called Cultural Experience. In this section you can point out your lifelong experience with American culture and American English. It would probably include this (adapted from your question):

I was born in California and consider myself American. I have native fluency in English and speak with an American accent.

You could also add information about other boots-on-the-ground knowledge you have of US culture that would be relevant in the context of teaching English. This is also where you can put that summer you spent in France or Argentina, or the culinary training you did, or whatnot. I would put this section towards the top of the resume, and refer to it in a cover letter also.

Answer 5

Often HR/recruiting gets so many applications that they sort out a large percentage in a very fast first pass. In this case they might just take quick glance at some criteria, like obvious strange formatting, spelling mistakes, names, missing degrees, etc...

If they get a lot of application from mostly native underqualified Chinese (I don't know the job situation there, but it's possible) they might indeed just sort out everyone with a chinese name. Please note, that I am not saying every native is underqualified, but if a lot of people search for a decent job you get lot of applications where the applicant does not fit the position.

So, I am not certain that the answer from Quibblesome quite deserves it downvotes. I don't think the answer by Kate will help, they might just toss your resume into the garbage bin before ever getting to a section like this. Even with the answer from Jeanne I am not all sure they will actually read this. But I also don't think the minor deceit proposed by Quibblesome is a good idea.

Instead, I would just add an additional page title "Before reading my resume" and explain your situation there precisely and most importantly in a very concise way. Don't hesitate to use a somewhat larger font than usually, but not too large. I would use very simple formatting for that page. Put this page at the very start of your application, even before the cover letter. Make sure that it's the first page they read. The correct way to do this may depend on the form of the application. I have seen people do this with their age or certain disabilities and it often works.

Answer 6

I know its sneaky and it might not be the best advice but if you're really having difficulty with the application process then forge your name at the top. Then in the final section of your CV (general interests usually) correct your name. Something like:

Contrary to the cover page my name is actually: XYZ. Sorry for the deceit but I've been having trouble getting people to actually read my CV with a Chinese cover name.

This helps you get past the discrimination yet at the same time you've still been upfront to anyone that has actually taken the time out to read your CV. If someone is still unaware of your real name at the interview then it's their bad because they failed to read the whole CV. You can then counter the negative aspect of:

you lied about your name

with

well you obviously didn't read my CV then ;)

Thereby levelling the "professionalism" playing field.

If you've got enough places to apply to so that you might be able to experiment with some then it might be worth a shot.

To be honest though a lot of this question is about Chinese culture and I'm not really qualified to answer, neither are probably most of the people here. Might be worth speaking to someone immersed in the modern working culture of China to see which ideas would actually fly.