ABCs and Fake ABCs
March 28th, 2006 by MarkEarlier, I wrote about how happy I was that my boss doesn’t have racist hiring practices (as nearly every boss I’ve met in Taiwan does). Far from the outpouring of, “that’s great!” comments that I was expecting, commenters generally attacked all kinds of side topics in my post. Nobody was impressed or even seemed to think it was good that he interviewed an American of Asian ancestry or that he was willing to hire black teachers, both of which are big no-nos at many schools on the island. One topic that came up was the fact that my boss won’t hire “fake ABCs”.
All over the greater China region, the term ABC means “American Born Chinese”. I’m not too fond of the term. First off, it implies that “Chinese” is a race, which it most definitely is not. Beyond that, the term is used to separate foreigners based on their ancestry. Can you imagine Germans calling me an “American Born German” and then not really considering me a “true foreigner” despite the fact that neither I nor my parents have ever set foot on German soil? Extending it a step further, can you imagine if the German government made special regulations so that “ABG”s could get residence and work visas more easily? I can’t; but in effect, this is what the Chinese do with the term “ABC”.
What’s a “fake ABC”? A fake ABC is a Chinese (in the case of my example, Taiwanese) person who studies abroad in America. After some period of time, this person returns home and tells everybody that he or she is an “ABC”. I’ve had a couple of co-workers at English schools of this type. One, who I’ll refer to as “Jenny”, was such an gutsy liar that it was shocking. She was barely comprehensible to me. Despite the fact that she had a large English vocabulary, nearly every sentence she uttered had both pronunciation and grammatical errors. When I asked her where she was from, she replied “I am come from Meesooree in Amereeka”. Sure enough, she had studied at a college in Missouri, come back and retroactively became an “ABC” in her own eyes. Her English was terrible, but since it was better than the boss’s, nobody else at work ever knew she was a fake. I think some of the local teachers (who earned half what she did) had their suspicions, though. I felt pretty conflicted about it at the time, since her kids and her boss were obviously getting ripped off. Not wanting to make any waves at the time, I kept my mouth shut.
The way I see it, the whole situation is caused by one critical problem. Way too many bosses who run English bŭxíbāns can’t speak English themselves. It’s for that reason alone that Fake ABCs able to pull it off at all. Since so many bosses are incapable of evaluating English abilities of their applicants, the only way they can be sure their employees can speak English well is to hire native speakers. Thus, ABC is a title that will get a teacher higher paying jobs, and some less scrupulous local people will start telling people they are from other countries.
The results of the “fake ABC” phenomenon are bad all around. Bosses get tricked, students get short-changed, and teachers willing to lie get higher paying jobs than their more honest peers. Worst of all, it makes it tougher for real ABCs to get jobs. My (Asian-looking) friend Jack, who is from the same state and attended the same college that I did back home, is constantly questioned by his students’ parents. Despite the fact that his English (and Chinese) skills are pretty much identical to mine, they’re worried that he’s a fake.
For the record, my boss would love to get employees like Jack. He just won’t hire people like Jenny.
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March 30th, 2006 at 10:44 am
I was just talking to one of my students, C., whose boss at the English school makes her pretend to be an ABC so he can charge more for the class.
Michael
March 30th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
I would like to talk about fake ABCs here, not racism. When one of your customers wants to buy American goods, you must not sell goods made in other countries. That is a wrong act both morally and legally. It is just a matter of sincerity and contracts.
Of course, you can not say, for example, all Americans are execellent speakers of English, and they are not necessarily competent teachers at the same time. But employing native speakers above standard is surely profitable for learners and local teachers.
Students expect American teachers not only to teach them real English but also to give them a broad knowledge of American life, culture, customs, and the way of thinking. I can not find any excuse for justifying fake ABCs even if they speak excellent English.
March 30th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
I completely agree with Kanwa-kyudai’s comment on the fake ABC phenomenon, with the caveat being that if they’re not actually born there but come when they are three and do speak native English, a little fudging wouldn’t be a problem in my book. But yeah, those cases people brought up are as they say here, tai kua zhang le.
March 30th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
I appreciate someone getting back on the actual topic of this post. I completely agree. Fake ABCs, regardless of how good their English is, are deceiving the customer. In the case Michael brought up, the employer was telling employees to knowingly lie the customers.
The thing is, as you pointed out, some non-native speakers are better teachers than some native speakers. Somebody like my friend Warren, who was born in Taiwan, moved to the US in third grade, would have advantages over anybody who grew up entirely in one place or another. His English is great, and unlike most real ABCs, he can also speak Mandarin and Minanyu. If I were a buxiban boss, guys like Warren would be on my short-list. If I had a teacher like that, I’d brag loudly about his skills. I wouldn’t tell customers that he was born in the US, though.
March 30th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Off-topic comments related to the topic of discrimination as it affects laowai in Taiwan have been moved. Please restrict comments here to discussion on your thoughts about the term “ABC”, fake ABCs, teaching, issues real ABCs face finding teaching jobs, etc.
March 31st, 2006 at 5:57 am
Hello all. I’ve been worrying about this issue recently. I’m an “ABC” from Seattle and I’m going to study Chinese in Taiwan next year. I want to pick up some work on the side, but I don’t know how it is for Asian Americans.
Also, I don’t speak Chinese. My parents sent me to Sunday Chinese classes when I was little but I don’t remember much. My roommate’s a first year Chinese student and he speaks more than I do. I can understand some Taiwanese, though. I’ll be in Taipei. Where do you suggest looking for teaching jobs?
BTW, how do you make those pop-ups with the pinyin and the translations like on the material girl post? Those things rock!
March 31st, 2006 at 12:02 pm
I always used to go to Tealit and Buxiban.com to look for work. Also, if you’re a language student, you might try looking in your school. Shida always used to have a board with job openings tacked to it. I think you should be able to find something. I had several classmates there, and they all had work. Some schools tried to offer them less money, but the big chains were usually okay. You might start looking at Hess, Kojen, etc…
April 1st, 2006 at 3:24 am
I have worked with tons of fake abc’s and some were great teachers and some weren’t. Some had excellent English and some didn’t. I have also been working with tons of fake native speakers lately and they seem to follow the same pattern. I am not sure what my point is but from a purely emotional point of view I find the fake native speakers much more deplorable. Again, not sure of my point.
October 30th, 2007 at 12:47 am
Hi, I totally agree with what you wrote. Firstly, why are they called ABCs anyway. It’s like this term they use to pigeon hole ALL overseas Asians. I’m Taiwanese, but I was raised in South Africa and people here call me an ABC which isn’t technically wrong if you think “African Born Chinese” but then again, Im not Chinese either.
Secondly, I have been working at this CRAM school in Tainan, Taiwan for two years and my boss still only pays me 350 per hour, and she keeps saying its because I’m not experienced enough but I honestly think those are all excuses because you get foreigners who have NO experience in teaching but they get paid the SAME amount as that of those with experience.
Thirdly, I can speak basic colloquial mandarin, but my boss insists that I tell the parents that I don’t know a word of mandarin. It really bothers me because what does it matter??I mean the point is I was raised in SA, so what does it matter that I can speak mandarin?
Anyway, I’m still working here and if you need someone to hang out with, my msn and email is [removed by admin]
Ciao