Hire me, I'm round eye.

I had my interview yesterday at the English teaching position at the Education center, and it was by far the most amusing interview I'd ever had.   The person meeting with me was this really smily sweet and bubbly Chinese woman who was extremely chatty.  I felt right at ease with her...she was not unlike all the aunties I've met at church.  And extremely blunt like the aunties too.   This woman did not bother to make idle small talk and got right down to business, as she said to me,

"You know, as soon as I saw your name, I was happy that you applied.  I don't mean to be discriminating, but the fact that you're Canadian really provides reassurance to the parents who send their children here.  I mean, when they see a person with yellow skin teaching their kids English, they don't like it...but with someone like you, parents don't mind paying more."

omg.

She said it so candidly that I honestly almost choked out laughing.
She then brought up the next topic which is usually almost akwardly avoided discussing in an interview: money.  And we talked about my pay for pretty much the remainder of the meeting. 

"A real English teacher like you will be payed $17 to start with bonus incentives after a 3 month probation...."

Mind you, I have no experience teaching nor did she even ask me about my qualifications, teaching methods, or even my past employments.  It goes without saying that I didn't have to answer any lame questions like "Name your favourite book or movie and try to get me to read/watch it." that interviewers believe will help them determine your best assets and therefore qualification for the job.  She was more interested in the fact that I speak English without an accent and that my last name is Morrison.  Fortunately, growing up in a Chinese community has made me all too familiar with the culture.  Being told that that my skin complexion looks  off, that I should consider getting braces or losing weight upon being first introduced to someone new is completly normal and familiar to me, however awkward and uncomfortable. 

The Chinese do business like nobody's business.