The Sooner The Worse (5/12, Wix broke down)

Throughout the years we've all heard about how learning English/foreign languages should be as soon as possible. As always, I'm opposed to it by these reasons:

1. confusion of mother-tongue and purpose of learning

2. cultural recognition

3. loopholes in the education system

Children nowadays, or in this decade, started their second language learning at school when they're in grade 1. Needless to say, most of them have been encouraged/forced to do so in or even before preschool. On the flip side, when I, myself first learned English, which may surprise you, I was 13. It was the time I wrote my first ABC (at least with consciousness...) . Yes, I found my true potential quickly and started this path of becoming an English teacher. To be honest, I did not remember much about learning anything else but it and if I could rewind the clock, I wouldn't choose otherwise. Actually, I couldn't LOL. If I love it so much, why would it occur to me that learning English early might be bad then? Well, just look at me (rhetorically). My Chinese is a joke! Yeah, it's no news that my mother-tongue is Chinese and yet I'm so bad at it. For years I put my efforts in learning English and didn't realize that I had lost Chinese until it happened. What happened was that I couldn't speak Chinese for a while although being able to understand. That was when I was 16. Shockingly, it took me about a month or two to become a dummy in my first language. It can really happen. Fortunately, I regained my speaking due to one worried and angry mother, mine. Ever since then, my Chinese has been stuck to an elementary school level.

The problem with early second language learning is that "people" are prone to lean on it too much, thinking that it's more important than the local/native languages. Of course, some of these "people" are our worry-monger Asian parents who send us to bi-lingual/All-English facilities. Though my parents didn't, I worked with many kids whose parents did. I don't mean to say none of the students thrive later on but I could say, according to personal experience, early learning is one of the reasons that made them numb in learning. Lacking motivation is about the worst it can get in learning anything. Students who felt bored because of the excessive amount of classes are deprived from their potential. Not all have a talent in language but this affects more than just that. The time spent in craming English would have been better if used on the right subject, wouldn't it?

Moreover, this urge in early learning is reinforced by our infamous "supplementary schools". There are only so many students a year. In order to make more profit, they obviously would expend their rage of target which is the age limit. Cram school owners welcome the idea of the earlier the better; school teachers bows to cram school teachers to do their job; parents can't help but to be brainwashed by them in person and by the articles they write. What's the cure? None. Perhaps time will solve it but I'll be long gone before it happens.

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Thinking that English is the language that will get you the job, travel, and make cool friends, does it make us feel that Chinese isn't important and in addition, "we are inferior"? By this time, you might have noticed that we've all got that one or two friends that mixes some English words on their Facebook or Instagram posts.

Taiwan and its people, like some others, have the struggles between culture and language regarding nationality, however, are truly in a particularly difficult spot in the world. We know that the two Koreans respectively, the U.S. and the U.K., Russians, and Ukrainians...etc. and though China and Taiwan face similarities, there's always been an issue about our true identity. The English speak English; the Americans speak the same and we don't have any second thoughts. The Chinese speak Chinese; the Taiwanese speak..f. Chinese but differently? It may seem a bit off topic here but since we lack recognition of our own language, stressing on English deepens the pit. Unless we have a sense of nationalism as strong as the Koreans or others, making a foreign language almost more important is dangerous. While there's a growing number of patriots, people who oppose to local culture education also emerge, thinking it's a waste of time not learning English instead, or that it's useless for the future and our career. How are we planning to join the world without knowing who we are first?

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Would it be shocking to you if I told you there are fake teachers all around us? Given the background above about Taiwanese people and English, we know the kind of frenzy that exists in English learning. Public school projects, cram schools, fancy academies, private tutors... and so on, we know them all too well, or do we? No, most of us only know what they tell us and I'm not going to base my disapproval on mere dislike here. I hereby share my only experience in cram school, and a well-known one, too.

About a decade ago(aww...) when I was pretty much how I am now, I paid quite some money and went undercover into this big language school franchise that has 12 branches in Taiwan and some overseas with one sole purpose, to discover. I certainly am not here to diss. every teacher out there because there's much for me to learn as well. That being said, the quality control we have in the language teaching field needs serious upgrades. Again, this has something to do with how we worship foreign culture. Even now, "if you're a foreigner, you're a teacher" is still valid in too many places and I'm not going to talk about how "being the right foreigner" is a key this time because that involves racism.

As I paid for about 100 classes, I tried to go over all that I could and see if I could find something worth my time. They sure can teach about exams. I'll give them that. The teachers who dare to open a test-based course know what they're doing. Don't expect them to be fluent or practical though. Tests are never meant for real life. You can have 990 in TOEIC but still need help getting a meal order. Obviously, I was most interested in teachers who are holding speaking/conversation courses. Taking part in those classes was where I found great pride in myself and disappointment in education at the same time. They... suck... hard... I would never forget how this pretentious female who fooled every student and taught them all the wrong terms while feeling confident. It's the kind of fraud that makes you doubt yourself(as you could see in the video). While it's good to know that I could be way better that her, I realized that I probably couldn't find education in this system. I did go on and tried a few more years after that. It still led me right where I am now.

What we require to be and offer to both local English teachers and foreign English teachers is ridiculously hidden and little. Just to be sure, I took the trouble going through one of the job banks to see if they improved at all. Of course not... For Local teachers, no requirements listed, not so much as a degree, certificate or license; for foreign teachers, this is what they say,

1.ESL Teaching and develop the lesson plan  2.Work sheet develop  3.Participate with school curriculum  4.Evaluate students‘ class work. 5. ARC is provided.

The pay is even worse than the last time I checked, which was a couple of years ago. Now it's about 30~40K with locals starting at as low as 28K. How insulting. This is the result in Taipei by the way. The point of going over this is that with such low or no qualification and salary, what kind of education do you expect? I'm not here to fight for a raise for us all because there are already and will always be people taking advantage of it(salary) and still be terrible. If you care at all... (I mean, you've read this far. You must've cared enough), don't go so easy on searching for classes or schools, focus on teachers because a good teacher is not just able to teach what you need but tell you what you need. A good teacher is honest, caring and reliable. If you're looking for a teacher for your kids, start by looking for someone who loves children. On the other hand, if you're looking for your own teacher, listen to his/her story in education. Don't go around asking for "how much" or "can you also help me write a resume for free". Get past that, and you'll be fine learning sooner or later.

#education