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