| The academic year is nearing its end here in | | | | of teachers. I have next to zero chances of |
| China. Well, not really nearing the end but almost | | | | finding employment there. China is relatively |
| there, especially for teachers who want to look | | | | easier, if hundreds and close to a thousand |
| for a new job. Foreign teachers are typically | | | | applications can be considered easier. After all, I |
| offered one-year contracts and sometimes a | | | | have worked here for four years and that is far |
| one-term contract. Universities and schools start | | | | better than Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico etc. I |
| looking for teachers well before the new term | | | | haven't worked in these at all and don't expect to. |
| year begins and teachers need to start applying | | | | I might need to post tens of thousand of |
| and negotiating with prospective employers.I, too, | | | | applications there to get so much as an |
| need to start looking and going through hundreds | | | | acknowledgement. That is wasting global |
| of job ads. I'll probably need to send in hundreds | | | | resources and putting unnecessary strain on the |
| of applications as well before I get a response or | | | | poor world wide web. Why clog the cyberspace |
| find a job.My ancestors made the cardinal | | | | with pleas for employment, I reason and lay |
| 'mistake' of settling down in India and not in | | | | off.My years of business and teaching experience |
| Europe, US or Australia and I must pay the price | | | | in China, some knowledge of Chinese and ability to |
| for their mistake. Mistake, because most | | | | speak a few other languages means nothing to |
| employers will reject my application the moment | | | | employers. They don't even want to give me any |
| they see the entry for 'Nationality'. Employers | | | | credit for having published my writing and a book |
| want US/Australian/UK/Ireland nationals to teach | | | | of short-stories.My nationality and skin-colour are |
| at their schools. However, if the colour of one's | | | | disqualification enough.I wonder how global our |
| skin is white and eyes blue they might reconsider | | | | world is. Is it global, really global? Or is it just a ball |
| an application.My ancestors have given me brown | | | | that rolls impotently on, spun unwillingly by hands |
| skin, brown-black eyes and black hair. This | | | | that seem to hold all the power?I take solace in |
| compounds their mistake and makes it much | | | | Khayyam, in his wisdom and his Rubaiyat:'The Ball |
| more difficult for me to find a teaching job in | | | | no question makes of Ayes and Noes, |
| China and elsewhere.I couldn't do much to change | | | | But Here or There as strikes the Player goes; |
| the colour of my skin and eyes though I did | | | | And He that toss'd you down into the Field, |
| consider investing in a pair of blue-tinted contact | | | | He knows about it all - HE knows - HE |
| lenses. I have, with great effort, turned my black | | | | knows!Rajesh Kanoi (Jack) is a published writer, |
| hair to grey but most employers can see through | | | | now living and working in China. Many of his |
| that so I earn no brownie points for my | | | | short-stories, poems and articles have been |
| achievement.S.Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Mexico, | | | | published, including a book of short-stories, 'From |
| Taiwan and other countries hungry for foreign | | | | China With Love' (Lipstick Publishing). |
| teachers are more rigid than China in their choice | | | | |