Good old Thailand. I had to block out the name of the school but if you really wanted to find out you can find it easily enough with a Google search.
The funny thing is this ad isn’t too bad, I have seen much worse and actually witnessed blatant racism by prospective employers. I can truthfully say that any dark skinned person, another words a black person is pushing shit uphill in most schools to get a job.
It doesn’t matter if they are a native English speaker, have a degree in education or they are a fantastic teacher. Because they are black, Thais for some reason think parents will not accept them and the black thing seems to scare them for god knows why.
I have witnessed black people come and leave resumes at schools and once left they have been ridiculed or laughed at by the Thais because they are black.
I really do not understand it; maybe someone can explain it to me.
Can you imagine printing this in Australia, America or another country with strong equal opportunity laws? “Note. This is for native speaker only with white skin.” And “preferably female.”
There would be an outcry. The splinter groups would be calling for blood; heads should roll and so forth.
I am one for, if you are an employer you should be able to advertise and choose who you want. So “if” I wanted a large breasted, slim waist, long legged girl for a bar," I should be able to ask for that, but you cannot.
So you advertise the position, have people send in resumes with up to date pictures and start screening. You interview and say, “We will let you know if you were successful,” already knowing they have no chance and the “I am sorry you have not been chosen for the position” email ready to be sent.
They are the laws of today, so you cross the t’s and dot the I’s, and just keep doing what we were many years ago.
I remember young guys coming onto jobsites and asking for work, and I would just shake my head and say nothing was available. In all the years we never advertised a position. I can tell you now that I turned guys down when we needed workers because of the way they looked, too puny, surfy, or old. I mean we are in the building game and the guys we had were rough and ready.
We had some very interesting characters, the co-owner was an ex Sergeant of Arms of a Hells Angels chapter in New Zealand. He was and still is the best boss I have ever worked for by a mile.
Geez, I sacked labourers and also tradies on the spot at times, no written warnings, a few verbal ones and then down the road. Tradies, some of the best are guys who have no tickets but know their trade. And others are absolute cowboys.
At times guys would arrive, you give them a start and within a few hours you know if they are the real deal or pretenders. A simple, it is not going to work and they are on their way. None of this 3 warning letters and mediation and other shit required in many places.
Maybe in many years to come Thailand will also enforce the political correct madness like some of our native countries do, but for now you can still witness the good old 80’s stuff from days gone by.
Brunty
10 comments:
Thailand is incredibly racist, and I think this is reinforced by the education system, which over-emphasises "Thainess" and reinforces the fact that Thailand is different, combined with unchecked nationalism which you can see everywhere - dominant military, national anthems played constantly in public places and a prominent culture ministry which tells people how to behave.
However, they are not yet politically correct, and I like this a lot. We still practice employment racism in the West, it's just done under cover of the selection process to ensure the wrong type (skin color, age, sex, etc) will not get through. I prefer Thailand's approach of being honest upfront, although it's not generally adopted by language schools. My wife works for a branch of English First in Bangkok (I won't mention which one and they are a franchise). One young prospective teacher travelled from Chonburi to Bangkok for an interview. His cv was excellent but contained no photo. When he arrived at the office and they saw he was black he was told by reception the position had already been filled. He didn't even get an interview.
Siam I agree but they can be racist to their won if they come from a certain area, are dark skinned or uneducated.
Thainess is something that most Farangs cannot fathom, all the in your face nationalism many whites shake our heads and laugh but it is the Thai way.
I agree it is good to be able to ask directly for what you want.
The advertisement says a lot about many things in Thailand.
To ask for a lady teacher may mean that they are fed up with the dead-shit male teachers they have experienced. From being here close on 40 years I would say over 90% of the single male teachers have serious problems. Many have been married 2-3 times, they like to screw around with girls 20-30 years younger, they get pissed every weekend or they are gay which schools may not like.
The schools may believe that a nice quiet western lady would be far better.
Regarding the whites only. That is not right but shows you how Thais think. Yes, they are racist and I doubt if it will change in the near future.
I certainly hope that the school receives no applicants.
On a different subject. I got caught out today when buying my wine. I completely forgot about the advance voting being on today. As Brunty has pointed out, it is easy to buy a beer or a whiskey in the small local shops anytime but for a decent wine one has to go to Big C or Lotus. And don't get me going on about those trading hours.
My neighbour said he voted for #5 as Chuwit was a straight talker.
Having a good work environment is half the battle in running your own business. For this reason whenever I was looking to hire I would know ahead of time whether a male or female and roughly what age would fit the office dynamics.
I used to feel very sorry for people who used to apply for jobs in my office. They would take the time to do a CV and apply and I would not even grant an interview due to their sex.
People who smoked were always relegated to the bottom of the pile. Of course I could not find this out with out having to interview them and once again wasting everyone's time.
Unlike Thailand colour never came into things but why could I not advertise for Male aged between 25 and 40 who is a non smoker and save everyone a lot of time.
I don't know if it is racism per se... I think the Thais just have this fetish about white skin. Period. They'd go out wearing layers covering practically everything to golf in 40C heat, preferring heat exhaustion over getting tanned. :oP They even discriminate (maybe not so openly) against the darker skinned Thai folks (those from the south and that patch of 'Ngoa' on the eastern seaboard, I think.
They are indeed nationalists, though. I suspect it was something that was necessary in the early 1900's to keep the country together. I didn't quite realize that when I was there in my grade school days (tho I remember it was taught in history class that Berma wasn't doing so well because the 5 tribes just would not assimilate into one nationality).
It hit me when I moved back to the USA and started running into the various SE Asians. The ethnic Chinese from places like Vietnam and Loas and Malaysia, for example, almost always consider themselves Chinese first even though they were born in Vietname or Laos or Malaysia. The Chinese Thais, though, were Thai first and Chinese and other things second. And the Thai school teachers very happily drummed into the kids (at least in the 1980's) that because of assimilation Thailand remained the only country in the area to be independent from Western colonialism (I do note they never said anything about Thailand's capitulation to the Japanese during WW II, tho... It's amazing how countries conveniently omit things they aren't proud of from being taught in school :oP ).
That said, the Thais do take expressions of nationalism a bit overly seriously... I got tired of hearing the national anthem twice or more a day pretty quickly (and what the heck is with playing it and the king's anthem before each movie at the cinema anyway? Way over the top!).
So... I understand how a lot of what the Thais do can be perceived by Westerners as racism. I'm not sure that their notion of racism jives with ours. I'm afraid their perception is also influenced a lot by Hollywood films. And they tend to lag a bit behind on the politically correct thingy. One of my Thai friends was visiting in California a while back and referred to a black guy nearby as a 'negro'. The Americans standing nearby were horrified and took great offense. They didn't realize that that was what the Thai kids were taught to call black skinned folks as (and they called the white folks 'caucasoids' and themselves 'mongoloids'... They don't mean anything racist by it. Those are just terminology to them).
Hope summer is treating y'all well! :oD
By the way... I was surprised the ads forgot that the Brits also speak... English! ;oD
David, I agree that there have been too many dead shit teachers and this is one of the reasons foreign teachers have such a bad name in Thailand. Many, as you said have a lot of baggage and are teaching through necessity not because they want to.
Thais do not think the ad is wrong as they are just asking for what they want…..
Haha, love the trading hours… they make so much sense……… Vote for a tidal wave in Bangkok and wipe all the politicians out and they can start again :)
Memock, agreed a happy environment could be the success or failure of a small business.
Andrew, I like you pretty well knew within a minute is the person had a chance or no chance for the position. It was a shame as you said they took the time and made the effort to apply.
I remember a guy who was on the dole (unemployment benefits) on the Gold Coast, came into my work and asked if any jobs were going. He was dresses like he wanted to work, or looked like he wanted to work.
When he asked if I could sign a form for him I gave him a bit of my mind.
I felt bad later on after sending him on his way as he had at least made an effort to get out of his house.
When no smoking rules became law on worksites it was a nightmare as many construction workers like a smoke.
After a few guys were issued warnings and then fined and threatened with termination it sank in they had to be very careful or stop.
But was very hard to enforce and keep on top of.
In your line of work in Thailand, smoking is not the best look.
I agree you should be able to ask for what you want and save everyone time.
When you needed a worker, it was pretty easy, pretty female, slender, great body.
Smorg, Thais do have a fetish with white skin. As you know there is hardly a product you can buy that doesn’t claim to whiten you.
Thais with dark Isaan and country folk, I have heard Thais say some terrible things because a person is dark skinned.
I have had some ripper things said to me by students after they have watched a western style movie, and asked me what this or that means….. always entertaining.
Hearing black rap or hip hop music blared on stereos during sport days and other events across Thailand with the most explicit lyrics gives me a good laugh.
My first time in a Thai cinema was many years ago, a group of us wanted to get away from the heat and also nurse some hangovers and when the national anthem started and people stood we just followed them wondering what the hell was going on.
Summer is good mate and hope all is well with you as well mate.
Didn’t you have rabbits? I am sure that was you but again my brain cells have declined of late
Howdy Brunty,
Summer has started quite well here. Thanks! I'm not getting to golf much, but will caddy for a friend in a tournament in a few weeks. :oD
Nah, I don't have rabbits. I think you're thinking about that Brit in Bangkok blogger who hates Thailand one moment and loves it the next. ;oP I am bouncing a lot between many dogs, though, training dogs is turning into a fun hobby for me. :oD
Stay cool, bro, and hope you and everyone are having a good July!
Hey Smorg, no it was not her and she was on a love and hate relationship, wasn't she.
She has disappeared after the red shirts and teh deaths, she voiced about the government being bad and posted her pictures of dead and people lying in blood and then her blog and she went.
Not sure what happened to her...
No it was a guy but not you then.... caddying for a mate, what kind of tournament and I hope you have your yardage book and green reading skills up to date as it will always be your fault, always....
I know you are quite a linguist and a classic mucic lover, you and my father would get along well but only in English....
Having a good trained dog is a blessing but also fun to do as well. The best dog I had was a retriever, best duck dog ever and so bloody smart. even my pitbull that was one of my pig dogs was super smart but was like a puppy dog at home, on the hunt absolutely fearless.
I miss having dogs here in Thailand, I don't have one as there are just so many that are neglected and we look after a lane dog as best we can.
Have a great day mate
Hi Brunty,
Thanks for caddying tips! :oD It's a friendly local pro-am tournament thing. My friend is a scratch amateur thinking about turning pro, and his coach thinks playing more tournaments with the pros might help him prepare for it. :o) You're right about the plight of caddying, of course. This boy seems a nice guy, but he has better not carry too many frivolous stuff in his golf bag or I might not last all the 18 holes. ;o)
I think I should do ok with the yardage stuff. I think the only time when I had trouble was when I played somewhere in Malaysia or Singapore during the Asian Tour in the early 90's and discovered that they do meters instead of yards there. I'm one of those that would love for the USA to join the rest of the world in using the metric system instead of all the irregular inches and pounds, but man... on the golf course it's gotta be in yards!
Seems Brit's blog was abandoned indeed. I didn't know. I guess she's just concentrating on Yahoo/AC now (she writes there as Cassandra James, mostly on Thailand... still hates it one day and loves it the next :oP ). I hadn't visited her page since she wrote an article about how WTC (during 9/11 attack) was a controlled demolition job, though. That was a bit too much for my taste. :o(
It's good of you taking care of the lane dogs. :o) My dad used to do that a lot when we lived there... Well, actually dad would come back with stray dogs he picked up from the street or from a golf course, then mom was the one that ended up having to take care of them. :oP They were a terrible untrained lot and barked their heads off at pedestrians walking by outside. A weird thing since they supposedly never barked at anyone when they didn't have a home!
Cheerio,
Smorgy :o)
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