A big part is due to cultural differences - some parents might see foreign teachers as not meeting expectations for a stricter work ethic or higher level English language skills compared with local Chinese instructors who are trained from an early age. As reported by the China Daily in 2020, "foreigners teaching at schools and kindergartums can be less qualified than native-Chinese ones" which further adds to their low social status (China daily), some have even gone as far as stating that they won't hire a Westerner due to these misconceptions. Additionally there are also issues of trust between different cultures - an expat might find difficulty being taken seriously by Chinese colleagues who often view them through the lens of suspicion or inferiority.
According **The New York Times**, English teaching positions for foreign teachers in China have been widely available since as early as 2015 and yet very few were hired from Western Countries. Even after this, many got rejected due to low ‘’qualifications''. A notable point is that these issues aren’t unique - they're part of a broader pattern where Chinese instructors face similar trust problems within their own cultural contexts.
For instance **The South China Morning Post** has indicated in 2021 "Chinese teachers and students alike are having trouble distinguishing Western from locals", meanwhile, some parents were unwilling to pay extra fees for foreigner tuition due largely as it was seen they might be lacking local customs - let's take a look at these examples which include trust issues.
In the same year **The Beijing Review** noted that "foreigners" could face rejection simply because of their accent or lack thereof, meanwhile Chinese teachers are trained from an early age and seem to hold onto higher standards (Beijing review). It is worth considering too whether English teacher’s LBH perception may be due in part at least some level of bias - this however does not change the fact that they would face distrust.
It seems **The Global Times** reported "that Chinese instructors are more than three times as likely to land work compared with expats" indicating an increase of 'hometowen' jobs after being laid off from their teaching positions at best. On top, and despite this many foreign teachers had no choice but go back home - a sad truth is that without prior knowledge LBH isn’t exactly well-known let’s get into what these are by delving further.
It goes beyond the issue of trust to an even greater problem where English instructors see themselves in ‘less’ than optimal situations; there may be less teaching positions available for them once they move on from their previous job - this is often seen as LBH due to said 'lack' which implies a sort experience gap between Chinese teachers who are trained young, and foreign expats.
The same **Global Times** noted further that "Chinese instructors were 85% of the market" by end year (2020), meanwhile Western ones only held up about ten percent - this has been an indicator for English teaching positions where locals could provide job seekers with 'hometowen' experience and yet found themselves underrepresented.
In conclusion, it appears there is a perception that having LBH doesn't exactly make them look good. This comes down to the fact foreigners are in minority compared against native-Chinese instructors who hold higher standards - at least this indicates something should be done so English teachers can feel supported by their local Chinese colleagues and vice versa; until then, it would seem these teaching jobs will continue being 'hometowen', with less LBH attached from locals but rather seen for what they are.
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Teachers, Chinese, English, Teaching, China, Instructors, Foreign, Trust, Positions, Expats, Higher, Compared, Local, Trained, Early, Foreigners, Further, Issues, Western, Locals, Meanwhile, Hometowen, Despite, Comes, Situations, Cultural, Parents, Level, Reported, Daily, Colleagues, Available, Having, Beijing, Noted, Standards,
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