Why do teaching jobs in Thailand prefer native English speakers over non-native speakers like Indians?

1- it is command of the English language

2- Teaching jobs do not have preferences, people doing the hiring can, and may prefer a native speaker as rhe chances of better command of English is more probable.

3- It could be assumed you have a thick to moderate Indian accent when you speak.

"good command over English". Really?

Cos sometimes u b saying it wrong, add to that your accents 🤣

Would you learn Hindi from an European

When the phrase NATIVE ENGLISH SPEAKER is referenced it has different meanings to a Brit than to a Yank and with it goes all the accumulated biases of modern history...just saying

For starters It breaks down to American v English accent. As an American if I had to raise a child who disses me with a British accent patience would be off the table. Raising Freddy Bartholomew would be rísky business for all concerned. 🤣👍💪

Thais don't like body odour or sharing a Pepsi... just saying...

I do believe that the majority of foreign english teachers in Thailand are Philippine

My wife has a good command of English as well, and lived in the UK for over 10 years…. Certainly not native level and I still struggle to understand her sometimes too 🤷‍♂️

Because your friends and relatives have a good command of Hindglish but believe they speak English perfectly

Indians must teach Yoga and Whites must teach English. That's how Gods designed the brains of Vietnamese.

Because the way Indians speak English, the pace and inflection, makes it difficult for others to understand them.

@Abhishek *****

around the world native speakers are preference in teaching language. Native speakers can offer advantages like natural fluency and a deeper understanding of the language's culture.

Maybe because you speak indian?

There is a difference between "good command" and "native speaker". Racial prejudice definitely plays a part too.

Also some parents want their kids speaking English in British and American accents.

your idian accent is tough to easily understand.

The racist card again, there is your answer M8... Work harder talk less rubbish

Maybe the accent

1. "Good Command" doesnt mean you're fluent and speak it naturally.

2. Bringing up skin color seems to be an attempt to rationalize (and impugne racism) for not being hired because of #1.

3. I'm guessing that Thailand isnt the only country that prefers to hire native English speakers to teach English...

4. When I take a language course, I look for native speakers in that language. There's nothing wrong or racist about that.

Me thinks ? It is because your not a native English speaker.. your Indian right? CONSIDERING your self good at anything won't get you the job over a native who has qualifications to show ?..is it cuz I is brown or black or whatever? don't have the same effect as usual?.....oh yh that 💩 dying out with the liberals .. imagine err let's say a none indian native went to India & believed they were better than natives?. & GOT THE POSITION'S?. i think the Indians would probably have something to say about this 🗡 🏃

Likely accent. I once translated for two people speaking English. One was a Thai bar girl the other was a German tourist. Both were speaking English, but neither could understand the other. It was pretty funny, the German guy kept getting upset saying "that's exactly what I said!". 😆

Brown and dark skinned folks are not attractive to the ladies and the student’s won’t be interested in their class. Simple! 😂

English needs to be taught with no defined accent

So British English

India English

etc have an accent

Fact.

When your taught English by a foreigner

You pick up their accent. In a lot of cases those students go to an English speaking country and cannot be understood by it people.

Go to the teachers country. You stand a far better chance of being understood.🥺

Thais are brown skinned to.

I've seen vlogs from black Americans teaching in Thailand so I dont think its a skin color thing. It could be an accent issue.

Skin tone or accent?? You make the call. Doesn't have to be a race thing.

given your propensity to use trigger words.. like "innate arrogance" "entitlement" and other similar words... you expose more about yourself than anything else... you avoided the question regarding "caste system".. why is this?? could it be that you wish to avoid the mirror?? as Christopher stated... "did you ever think that maybe they're not hiring you because of something else."...

Thailand has no anti-discrimination laws. Too short, too fat, too bald, too old, perceived disability, actual disability, skin color, etc. Superficial judgments.

...watches in amusement as they give the job to someone from Yorkshire! ;)

Its actually a stupid question. I feel its so dumb we are being baited. Are you happy now?

Accent

In China years ago many India nationality were hired as English teachers.

Other countries based it on nationality as in US US Canada and South Africa.

Unsure about Thailand bylaws but I don't think it is ever racism.

There IS a negative bias against darker-skinned people, and a positive bias for lighter-skinned people, in many parts of the world. One only need check consumer products to see it; the more skin lightening products, the more likely a higher prevalence. To ignore it, or posit that it does NOT play a role in hiring practices, is just silly denial. There is also the accent to consider, depending on who is doing the hiring. No offense, but many Indians speak English with a very heavy Indian accent that even native English speakers have to “actively listen to” to understand what they’re saying. Other Indian English speakers have a heavy British accent that takes little “active listening” to understand. Not knowing what your accent is, I couldn’t judge, but it may also be a factor.

Before of your sound, you don't speak Queen s English, need a newcastle accent or a yorkshire accent,.

There are a few reasons, but one of the main ones is rooted in the idea of authenticity. It's the same reason I wanted to learn Thai from someone who actually grew up in Thailand—because they’ve lived the language. Native speakers have often absorbed idioms, cultural references, and nuances that are hard to teach or fake, even at near-native levels. I know ample of people who can speak English at a near native level but when it comes to idioms they are utterly dumbfounded. Idioms are crucial for sounding natural, understanding native speakers, and grasping the richness of English expression and without the ability to understand and teach key parts of the speech it's understand why there is a preference for native speakers.

Don't get me wrong, there is an underlying tone of racism sometimes, but not all the time. I have friends who are british-indian that teach/have taught in school in Thailand.

It’s because you’re not native. There are plenty of Indian/turkish/african/carribean - British people who working in Thailand as teachers. Because they are native speakers.

Vindaloo vindaloo

deary me, deary deary me

Cause Indians wobble there head to much when there talking

Thai people don’t like invasive Indians.

Probably because you wobble your head's when you talk, so people don't know if you mean yes or no 😂😂😂😂😂😂

It could be pronunciation, especially word and sentence stress. Some non native speakers find this challenging. Just being a native speaker doesn't make someone a good English teacher though, there's a lot to know about how to teach grammar and all aspects of the language properly. I certainly couldn't have done it without the relevant training and study. Do you have a TEFL or TESOL qualification? That might help.

Click bait

Your grasp of the English language is not as good as you would like it to be.

We have a similar situation on the uk I’ve been reading.

Some police forces are refusing to employ white people. Now just to come out with that statement would get people looked up if the roles were reversed !!

can you speak English WITHOUT the Indian slang?

mate, there's a typo in your post. Racism exists for sure but doesn't explain everything

Indian English is not good English - that’s my opinion!

I would rather have a Chinese teaching me Chinese from China.

Indians are getting more into IT jobs here, or maths teacher as compare to English language teacher

I tried for the computer teacher job, but I need to have teaching license Even though I have formal training with masters in information technology

English spoken by many Indians is really hard to understand hard to understand. Just returned from India and had no idea what most people were saying

I teach English online. The site I work for only accept native speakers. Accent is one as it’s clear and we are born into the language. We also have a much wider range than someone who has a ‘good command of it’ idioms, casual phrases, slang (yes that’s also important when teaching ) Many reasons.

When i speak english in india most can not understand unless you speak slowly and need to modulate the words you use. Otherwise it is hard for a non native speaker to understand.

Open the door and all the rats will invade

The same reason id want a Native brown skinned Indian to teach me Hindi. Its literally your accent and non native tongue.

You also need qualifications. A bachelor’s degree and TEFL certification.

The Indian accent can make their English difficult to understand. This is probably why.

Why waste your time asking such question! If your are talented than you can search in a country where people are matured and intelligent enough to evaluate tutors based on merit qualification. Not search in place where people judge you based on your nationality not talent ! I would advise u to try Middle East

Ali G summed it up perfectly...

Also not for nothing, it will always be the old white man with a SEA woman on their arm who is the final authority and arbiter of all things in regard to SEA… or any discussion on any topic that may arise. He loves to snigger and try to humiliate and leave laugh emojis as evidence of his righteousness. Boring, predictable, inflated. Mediocre? Feel you’re not appreciated in your home country- move to SEA and be acknowledged and treated accordingly to your superiority. 🤮

We can say not all, but certainly well more than half - this is the landscape. Been out here a long time,

stereotypes are born from types that are a majority. Boohoo somewhere else wankers.

You’re just being divisive don’t complain be happy you’re here

I’m not a native speaker also I’m not white but I always land good teaching jobs. I think for Indians the accent is hard to get rid of

You’re asking about the irrationality of human behavior?

May be accent? I mean people like Henry Kissinger, and Albright had a better command of English than most native, but they still had an accent. If one learns a socond language after age 11 won’t matter if you get a PhD. In that language, one would never lose accent. And that is just a fact. That goes for Indian, French, German, etc…

That’s my guess💁🏻

Some people want to learn from someone that knows all the weird idioms that can occur in conversations

Because no Thai wants to sound like an Indian call centre when they speak English

Because you're always late and difficult to manage..

@Abhishek *****

- there is nothing personal in what I am about to say as I do not know you. In some countries there is a negative perception of Indian men due to the mistreatment of women, and in reported cases of rape both within and outside India. It is not necessarily in any way a personal reflection on you, but it is a reflection on the cultural values of the country - India. Values which many countries do not want to import.

I always thought because the native speakers of English are from England who are white, there was an automatic preference for them; and if not them, then someone clearly descendent of them i.e. American, Canadian, Australian, South African; if not white, then someone who was at least born and raised in one of these countries.

I wouldn't take it personally. No one would bat an eye if you wanted to teach them Hindi or some other Indian language.

It should be case by case but, most of the times people just generalize. Unfortunately a native English speaker wouldn’t have said “I have a good command over English…” this is just one of the many examples why. Also many parents want teachers with American or British accent. Learning a language from a native speaker has certain advantages and benefits.

Remember when Trump met Modi, modi spoke in English and had an English translator too

I ( Native English speaker ) find Indians hard to understand .Yes they are fluent in English but have a terrible accent .

Would you get a Thai to teach you the Thai language? Or somebody else. Question answered

My son’s English teacher is from the Philippines

Wow! I have read many of the comments here and most of them are poorly written to say the least.

Why on earth would you want to have a teacher who has zero to basic command of written English. Therefore, I would ascertain that their spoken English is sub standard as well.

Africans are often English teachers in Thailand.

From my experience as a native-English business professional. My adult students chose me because of my level of English which has been acquired through years of being a business professional, and travelling the world. When you haven't grown up and worked in an native-English speaking country you may lack skills in that area. Many parents chose me for their kids because I am a business professional and a critical thinker. They are happy with the schools teaching their children grammar, but want someone with world knowledge, and an abundance of experience to teach their kids about the world we live in.

Because, and I say this with respect, you probably speak it with a heavy Indian accent. Even if you don’t, without hearing you speak they’re going to assume that you do.

A heavy or thick accent can make it more difficult for those learning English to fully understand what you are saying. Even native english speakers can struggle to understand people speaking English with a thick accent, so imagine how hard it would be for someone learning the language.

It’s the same reason you won’t find many Scottish English teachers!

You made a mistake in your post, so perhaps your "command" is not as good as you think. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Accents and enunciation.

Even within the UK there are bias with regards to people’s speech. A few call centres are based geographically to take advantage of this.

For myself - I struggle with thick accents and close but not perfect English, due to hearing issues, I just don’t take calls - it ends up frustrating both ends of the call.

English is different from different locations or countries... Thai people want to learn spoken English..

accents vary so much;

English from England

English from USA

English from Australia

English from India

English from Ireland

Ect ..,

even from USA (as I know ) sounds different from southern states to northern states .. East and north east accents are totally different from California (west coast)

It's gonna be hard to learn spoken English from a person with thick foreign accents from many of these countries...

did u see trump had an interpreter when he met with the leader of India even tho the Indian leader was speaking perfect English 555

I cannot follow lots of Irish accent English ...

Its the accent that is not helpful to the students future prospects.

“Command of”. They probably don’t want their kids sounding like they’re phoning from a scam call centre. It’s more accents and dialects. Doubt they would hire many other Europeans with perfect English either. English, American, Australia make better and easily available options.

Probably a bias against skin color and accent. Thais have a prejudice against dark skin, even amongst their own ,and for their own English accent which is not the same as someone from India.

Native speakers also have a different accent/dialect according to the region; eg. In U.K. Queen’s English, BBC English, London accent, east London accent, Lancashire male/female accent, northern accent (Lancashire/Yorkshire), and so on. (many regional accents such as areas like Scouse (Liverpool), Geordie (Newcastle), Brummie (Birmingham) etc are hard to understand… yet people prefer the “native” English speaker to teach their children…sometimes an unqualified backpacker takes this job, but things are changing.

Perceived prejudice of parents.

I have met Filipinas who speak better English received pronunciation than many English born folk with strong regional accents. Yet salaries for a regional English teacher will be far higher than can be earned by a far 'better' Filipino/a.

The parents assume the English English teacher is better at teaching their child.

First of all, I might ask are you a teacher? Are you a credentialed teacher? As to the rest of it it’s just bait and I won’t take it. If you can’t connect the dots to understand why that is you definitely shouldn’t be out in the world on your own.it is absolutely wrong but I know why it exists?

You haven't worked that out yet .

Can’t speak English clearly

The highest proportion of English speakers now live in and originate from India. However, being a 'native' speaker seems, anachronistically, to imply you should have been born in a country with English as the native language. This implies you should fit a particular stereotype (of which being white is one characterstic) to meet the demands of that marketplace. These prejudices are built into most capitalist marketplaces and based on false premises, since 'native' English is a marketplace invention; there are many forms of English and 'native, meaning standard, is just one small minority element in that range or field.

At the same time, teaching English requires pedagogical expertise and content knowledge; subject matter expertise. These are typically acquired via standard industry qualifications. RSA CELTA and DELTA and also Masters Degrees in TEFL and Applied Linguistics.

The assumption that you are fit to teach English simply because you speak it is equivalent to suggesting you can be a surgeon because you have peeled a potato.

It's an accent. There are many in English-speaking countries. I really don't see the problem. Apply and let the chips fall where they may. Indians master English as well as any other country where English is the educational language but the native language is different. Philippines comes to mind. Just go for it.

Because most Indians have very thick accents and nobody can understand what you say. That is why most Indians are only hired to teach math and science. Well spoken English isn't needed for these subjects.

Because they wanna learn from somebody who grew up speaking the language, I don’t know why that’s a difficult concept. It’s like, they learn from listening to you and people who don’t grow up speaking English sound different than people who do.

Why is the world racist against dark skin? This is like an old thing that it’s funny because coming to Asia you really kind of learn about how it’s more of a class thing because all all the skin whitening in Korea and all the skin whitening products in Thailand, That being dark skinned is not just an issue in my home country of the United States. It’s an issue apparently all over and has been for a long time.

People have this obsession that if things are white, they are more pure for some reason, it has something to do with purity and upper class system, and a lot of other things besides race it has something to do with a race, but it also has to do with the myriad of other things

Racism for one. colonialism is the other. White faces are valued while colored ones aren't. If a color person can speak English, then there must be something wrong with it.

Your question holds the answer! Because Indians are not native speakers.

Because you sound like a Indian speaking English!

Probably perception of your (likely accent) potentially with a bit of racism thrown in. Sad to hear so much silly racism and silly woke in some of the responses to your post.

Without being racist, I’ve encountered many Indians in the Middle East who claim to speak English. Speaking face to face with them you could usually come to an understanding but on the phone, forget it. I’d suspect they hadn’t been taught English by a native English tutor.

I don't understand it neither, because native speakers are not the best teachers. What do they want? English English, Wales English (not intelligible), Scottish English, American English 😂, Australian, New Zealand, Canadian, ...

The only teachers I know who speaks a clear and understandable English, are none native speakers ...

Don't think the colour of your skin has anything to do with it. The main criteria is native speaker. Many non native speakers command of English is good but their accented English is difficult to understand. Indian call centres a good example.

Having said that native English speakers from Geordie land are not easy to understand 🤣

Being fluent does not necessarily mean the accent is correct.

The Answer is in the question.

Clear clean pronunciation and intonation

Hmmm, why would someone prefer to pay for native teacher? Isn’t it pretty clear?

Color is secondary but learning from a native teacher helps with accent, vocabulary etc.

"good command [of the] English language".

Otherwise you sound like you've conquered the English, and some may take offense to that.

(I had to edit my post a couple of times because my English sucks also)

I don't think this can be truly answered without sounding racist.

Mostly predjudice. Often in Thailand the lighter the skin, the higher the status. Similar to a caste system, only colour based. You know the caste system?