The Ethics of Teaching English
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Historian’s Notes
by Mai Trang
When Mai Nguyen & Hanika delivered their talk on Peter Singer and Effective Altruism in Hanoi Rock City nearly a year ago, we noticed a strange pattern. People in the room, mainly expats, start to veer off and question themselves.
"By the way, how do you feel about the salary of your teaching assistant?"
An awkward, intense vibe tingles in the air. Is this even real? Some of us ask each other.
The spirit of self questioning and regulation, is, in fact, not so rare in Hanoi. Being on the other end of privilege spectrum seems not to stop them from examining the root cause of the very reality they are living. After a talk on "Immigrants or expats", this time, Hanoi Philosophy Forum tackles one of the most controversial topics - "Ethics of teaching English".
Starting by statistics on number of english centers, the talk is designed as a series of open as well as small group discussions. Quite different from other topics, this time, we had a chance to challenge and confront each other in various spheres:
How do you think Vietnam is benefiting from English? How is it suffering?
Do you feel a saturation of english centers?
How can salaries of ESL teachers be justified?
is EFL in Vietnam an example of linguistic imperialism?
Not only involving in spicy and intense discussions, this time, we also have the chance to listen to Tu Linh, a 19 year old Vietnamese studying in Georgia University, US do a presentation during her summer break in Vietnam. Focusing on "brain drain", or as Tu says, "mất gốc", she pulls us in an open and engaging talk on questions Vietnamese overseas ask themself on a regular basis.
Next week, we might have the chance to talk about Orientialism, presented by someone-you-will-know-later ;)
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