Skin color

I wrote an article for Nguoi Viet 2 from Vietnam. Nguoi Viet is a Vietnamese-American newspaper based in Westminster, Calif., which has the largest Vietnamese population outside of Asia. Nguoi Viet 2 is their weekly English version.

Anyway, this article is about the preference of some English schools for white teachers. Some of my Viet Kieu friends (interviewed in the article) have had problems getting hired or getting the same pay. Although I didn't have these problems, I did have one class that complained to the school about me, for no other reason than that I wasn't white. I wanted to drop the class, which I was teaching with a white Australian man, but the school told them to give me a chance. I can tell you it absolutely sucked walking into that classroom afterward, thinking that at least some of the students didn't want me.

But I found out later that a guy who I considered the class leader had challenged the dissenters to give one logical reason for dropping me when I was born in the States and was a native speaker. So they kept me, we got along, and they eventually asked that I be the class's sole teacher. One of my friends now teaches some of the same students, and he told me recently they were complimenting my teaching. "Maybe they want you back," he wrote.

Anyway, the article's below.

http://www.nguoi-viet.com/absolutenm/anmviewer.asp?a=38361&z=19