Beverly Hills language school

October 6, 2007 (old blog entry)

Had an interview with the director of a language school in Beverly Hill this afternoon.
I have a great feeling that I will work very pleasantly there.

Filed in Interviews, Job Searching No Comments »

p.s.: I didn't hear back from the director at all by the end of December as she promised. I guess 2 reasons I didn't get the job.

1. When she asked me this question during the interview:

"How would a teacher from Taiwan like you can really present Chinese' culture? "

I was kinda stunned at that time. I didn't expect a seemly sophisticated language school director like her would ask, and had prejudice against "Taiwanese" Chinese.

And I know I should have had answered something like:

• "Not only people from Taiwan can present 'Chinese' culture, but they actually preserve more 'Chinese' culture since they are NOT Communists and had not suffered from the disastrous 10-year Cultural Revolution in 60's..."

Instead, I had only responded to her question saying something like:
"If you''re worried about the accent issue, I can tell you that both my Chinese teachers in elementary school were from Northen China. I have pretty 'standard' accent. At schools, we had learned everything related to China, the mainland, not the tiny island, Taiwan, we live....You name it, history, geography, social science, Mandarin... blah blah blah..."

I knew my answer wasn't good enough to clarify her doubt.

2. After the interview, she kinda chat with me about my personal life... I should not tell her that my husband and I are thinking about having a baby... And then the female director rumbled "Hmm... want a baby...." and put a note on my resume... D&**! So what? I was surprised that a female directer would have such prejudice on another female teacher candidate...