引用:
原帖由 Brat 於 2007-6-24 23:12 發表
Do you accept that a teacher is an illiterate given that he is not teaching language?
As the question seemed to be addressed to me, I am obliged to reiterate my opinion once more.
Perhaps it's due to my illiteracy, I might have misled you to believe that I do accept illiterate and unqualified teachers. Definitely it was not my intention. I do not think our society should tolerate "unqualified", "illiterate", "lazy", or "irresponsible" teachers. On the other hand, our society should be responsible and careful enough to avoid the kind of casual unjustified accusations.
I simply cannot agree with the conclusion that a primary school teacher is “illiterate” and “unqualified” just because there appeared to be a kind of communication difficulty between that teacher and a Filipino maid.
It is my opinion that :
1. It is not mandatory for a teacher of a Chinese primary school to be proficient in spoken English.
2. One should not casually jump to the conclusion that the teacher was weak in English proficiency because there appeared to be some sort of communication problem between the teacher and a Filipino maid. This should not be considered as very unusual as both parties were non-native English speakers. Even in Britain, some very well educated English people may have difficulty to understand their fellow countrymen’s spoken English with strong accents (Yorkshire accent, Black country accent, Cockney accent, Scottish accent, etc)
3. A teacher is supposed to be well educated. Nevertheless, education is not the equivalence of English proficiency. Even if a primary school teacher is not proficient in written and spoken English, he/she does not deserved to be called an “illiterate”. Similarly, some Filipino household helpers are also very well educated, however, they speak English with a very strong Filipino accent which prevents people to understand them comfortably in the first instance. They are definitely not deserved to be called “illiterate”.
4. On the other hand, a person who is fluent in spoken English is not necessarily an educated person.
I may not be literate enough to understand your point, so please forgive me if I misinterpret.