Non-native speaker
Hi~
Anyone here working as a language teacher or translator? Actually, I’m interested in people who are teaching or translating a language that’s not their native tongue. How do you go about with it?
I’ve got aspiration to be either a TESOL/TEFL teacher (hope to have the chance to teach in Korea/Japan as an experience) or an English-Japanese-English translator. However, neither language is my native tongue. English is a second language since the moment that I could talk, which covers 20+ years in my trilingual world. If that’s not enough, I could always get myself a Diploma in TESOL/TEFL. I speak very elementary Korean, but I could pick up very fast if I’m in the environment. Japanese is a language acquired during my teens via pop culture, and only seriously learnt in recent years. I’m thinking by the time I complete JLPT Level 1, I should be more than halfway there.
However, what’s the probability of employers being biased to the fact that I’m not a native speaker? For instance, in teaching English. I know some Asians in particular who don’t place confidence in an Asian teacher to teach them English; they’d prefer a native English speaker from US, Canada, Australia or UK. In fact from job postings in Korea and Japan, I see that’s one of the requirements of an English teacher: native speaker. And same case goes with a translator job. I’m afraid employers might think that I lack the credibility and skills because I’m not the native speaker of the languages that I’ll be dealing with.
What d’ya think? Kindly share your thoughts and experiences.
Cheers,
Antonia
PS: Thanks for such a great community! <3
Anyone here working as a language teacher or translator? Actually, I’m interested in people who are teaching or translating a language that’s not their native tongue. How do you go about with it?
I’ve got aspiration to be either a TESOL/TEFL teacher (hope to have the chance to teach in Korea/Japan as an experience) or an English-Japanese-English translator. However, neither language is my native tongue. English is a second language since the moment that I could talk, which covers 20+ years in my trilingual world. If that’s not enough, I could always get myself a Diploma in TESOL/TEFL. I speak very elementary Korean, but I could pick up very fast if I’m in the environment. Japanese is a language acquired during my teens via pop culture, and only seriously learnt in recent years. I’m thinking by the time I complete JLPT Level 1, I should be more than halfway there.
However, what’s the probability of employers being biased to the fact that I’m not a native speaker? For instance, in teaching English. I know some Asians in particular who don’t place confidence in an Asian teacher to teach them English; they’d prefer a native English speaker from US, Canada, Australia or UK. In fact from job postings in Korea and Japan, I see that’s one of the requirements of an English teacher: native speaker. And same case goes with a translator job. I’m afraid employers might think that I lack the credibility and skills because I’m not the native speaker of the languages that I’ll be dealing with.
What d’ya think? Kindly share your thoughts and experiences.
Cheers,
Antonia
PS: Thanks for such a great community! <3