#nnes

Roaring twenties, tossing pennies in the pool

roaring twenties is a term that refers to the decade of the 1920s, which in US history was the decade before the great depression. it was a period of economic prosperity and huge societal change (the car and electricity were introduced, there was a sexual revolution especially with women's place in society). it’s symbolized by flappers, jazz, progressive politics, luxury, and flamboyance. the great gatsby takes place during this time and as we know, gatsby and fitzgerald is a big influence on taylor.

it also probably refers to taylor's twentieth decade, especially since she celebrated her 30th bday in december.

tossing pennies in the pool refers to the practice of throwing your spare change/coins into fountains to make a wish. idk about other countries but if you go anywhere in the US with a fountain, you'll see pennies at the bottom from people making wishes.

so this line is looking back on an exciting time where they were carefree, before a big crash; and a time they had a lot of wishes that probably didn't come true.

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We never painted by the numbers, baby / But we were making it count

paint by numbers is a common art activity; it's basically a coloring book page, with literal numbers telling you what color paint to put where. (here’s a good example. so in this picture, all the number 3s on the page should be painted the green marked 3.)

to make something count means to make it worth your time, or to make it meaningful. and she is using it as a little pun: they didn't follow the numbers in the paint-by-numbers kit, but they still made it 'count' (like counting numbers.)

thank you for your patience!! this got long so i am putting this under a cut. 

This is a topic that usually seems to crop up in South East Asian teaching job groups. Mostly for the fact that a flood of Non-Native English Speakers (NNES) usually comment within the group or on job posts asking if they are able to teach based on their situation or qualifications. 

The frustrating thing about this is actually from the Native English Speakers (NES) and the sense of entitlement and privilege that immediately seen from their comments and replies. A large majority of NES seem to think that due to being able to speak with an ‘English Accent’, they are entitled to lead the field of TESOL and that they have priority, everything else is second rate and a laughable matter.

Scottish, Irish and Welsh are 3 types of accents that reside in the UK, a native English speaking country. If you tried to speak to people from these places, there is a high probability that you will struggle, even if you are a native English speaker yourself. So with accents understandably being a variable that doesn’t determine ability, what does then?

Qualifications. Qualifications can be seen clearly, regardless of where you are from, which country or language you speak. Qualifications show what you are capable of and what you know and what you have learnt. The time you’ve taken to understanding something and the effort you’ve put in.

Person 1: A TEFL qualification and 1 year of teaching experience in a kindergarten

Person 2: A BA degree in Education, a Master’s in TESOL, a CELTA and 5 years of teaching experience in Public Schools.

Looking at these two types of people, Person 2 definitely seems like the more qualified teacher, with more qualifications and experience in teaching. The issue is, Person 2 is from China and Person 1 is from the UK. Who are schools and companies more likely to hire?

A really common overlooked point is that NNES have actually BEEN where their students are. They’ve struggled in learning that language. They’ve understand that the difference in pronunciation between Read in the Past and Present tense is learnt and understood in a certain way because they were in the exact same position. So wouldn’t the NNES be better qualified in a manner of speaking from reasons such as this? Of course! But the issue is, they don't look ‘Western’ or have a ‘Western Accent’ or a ‘Western upbringing’. 

With teaching, one thing I've come to learn is that learning through relatability is extremely beneficial and really enables students to learn more efficiently. So, a white, British teacher from Scotland doesn’t really seem that relatable to 10 year old Chinese students then... Whereas, a Chinese teacher with a BA and MA in education and 5 years experience probably would be more suitable in understanding their needs for Second Language Acquisition, right?

Since I’m not a native english speaker, I’m using few words.

Influence is strong in two ways: North to South, and West to East. This exist since imperialism and colonialism, with all the “we bring civilization to this people” (I’m thinking more about the African one, but any type of colonialism works) specially since the Cold War, when “ways of life” were selling types of economies, and the media were used as propaganda all around the world. Of course, colonialism wasn’t right anymore, but the influence persist.

This includes political, ideological, linguistic, economic and cultural influences.

The influence to South to North, and East to West is weak. So, as you can deduce, influence is not equal.

This means that all people from East and South can speak english, can use jeans, can like TV shows from Britain and the USA, and can do whatever the North and West do: It’s ok to do so, no one ever is going to tell you that the type of jacket you are using was created in the USA and that you are appropriating their culture. No one is going to tell you that you have to had an english-speaker parent or grandparent to learn english. No one is going to tell you that that is cultural appropriation.

But when it is something from the South or East, it is almost sacred. People from North and West see it like “the other’s thing”, not something that they can use. They think they are respecting other cultures, but what they are really doing is keeping the inequal influence. “It’s ok if you wear jeans, but it’s not ok if I wear something of your culture”, “it’s ok if you speak english, but it’s not ok if I speak spanish”.

Anthropologists studied people from other cultures because they were not equals, they were something to study, not something that could speak for themself. The clothes, languages, and culture in general was something to study, but not something to learn from, or to take things in equal influences. Nowadays, people say “you can not use it/study it, it’s cultural appropriation” because the “other” culture it’s not seeing as something as equal as the North and the West.

What if someone wears something, celebrates something, learns something? You know what he is doing? It’s seeing the other culture as equal, as something as good (or better) than his own.