Second, there are the "lao wai" -- 老外, or "foreign" -- Chinese teachers who are not of Chinese ethnic heritage. They may have decided to study Chinese in school, or perhaps learned Chinese while on a mission in China or Taiwan (like a couple of the 老外 teachers from the Hanban workshop that we attended). These teachers learned their Chinese through their schooling and from their experience living, working, or studying in a Chinese-speaking country.
Finally, there are the heritage speakers. Heritage speakers are generally born and raised in an externally non-Chinese speaking environment (examples include but not limited to the US or Canada), but were exposed to and learned to understand and speak Chinese at home by Chinese speaking parents. The proficiency level of heritage speakers is extremely variable. My peers who were raised here in the US by Chinese native speaking parents vary from being fluent in Chinese, to being fluent speakers (but not as proficient in reading or writing), to being able to understand but not speak, to being unable to understand or speak. Much of this depended on the home environment, and I know that some Chinese parents wanted their children to ONLY speak Chinese at home, while other Chinese parents wanted their children to ONLY speak English at home, and finally, some parents who spoke both at home, and raised their children with a balance of speaking English and Chinese so that switching back and forth between languages is natural and effortless. Sometimes the conversations at such homes may sound like what I like to call "Chinglish" (a mix of Chinese and English).
I fall in the heritage speaker category. I grew up here in the U.S., educated in American schools, but spoke a combination of English and Chinese at home. My parents didn't force the language issue either way; my acquisition of Chinese began as a baby when my parents spoke to me in Chinese, and my Mom also checked out many recordings (stories and songs recorded in English) from the library for me to listen to--so I could learn proper English. Even though my parents did not send me to Chinese School (I'm not even sure if there were any Chinese Schools in our area when I was growing up), but I grew up speaking a natural combination of Chinese and English. We spoke lots of "Chinglish" at home! :-) I also learned some Chinese history and culture through the stories they told me.
I honestly never expected to become a Chinese teacher. If I had, I probably would have listened harder, studied harder, worked more at remembering the Chinese characters that my Mom tried to teach me...however, my background and language education from a lifetime of osmosis was sufficient for me to get my start with teaching to the young students in Chinese school. As I've taught, I definitely see how my American upbringing can be an advantage--I was raised here, in the same system as the students here, so I can relate better to them, perhaps, than teachers that grew up in a Chinese educational system, and were thus more familiar with the Chinese style of students, rather than American students. Also, because English is my native language, there is no problem with language barriers when communicating in the classroom. As a heritage speaker, I have learned accurate pronunciation of words from my parents, so I can teach proper pronunciation to my students.
I have discovered, however, that there are also some disadvantages to being a heritage Chinese speaker. First, I feel as if I am a bit of the "odd man out." When a group of Chinese teachers gather, most of the teachers are native speakers. Now, they do make quite a diverse group by themselves, but I don't always feel that I fit in with them, because their experiences tend to be quite a bit different than mine. There are sometimes some "lao wai" -- 老外 Chinese teachers as well. I feel as if I have more in common with the "lao wai" -- 老外 teachers, but once again, I don't have the same shared experience they have--as the speaking of the Chinese language came more naturally to me--and the lao wai teachers had to work hard to gain all of the knowledge they had. I also had the feeling that, because I'm ethnically Chinese and teaching the Chinese language, there is the expectation is that I have the proficiency of a native speaker--which I don't (at least, not yet...but I'm working on it)! In fact, right now most of the lao wai (老外) have better proficiency in Chinese than I do because they have learned through formal training, classwork, and often immersion by living or working in a Chinese-speaking country.
Then, this past weekend, I attended a workshop for Chinese teachers, where all of the participating teachers were native Chinese speakers...except me. The professor who spoke to us stressed the importance of teaching appropriate cultural cues, and that greetings and phrases that are commonly taught in textbooks may not be the way that "real people" talk in China or Taiwan. I realized that I have no clue as to these Chinese cultural cues he's talking about. Of course it's simply not possible to learn all of the different cultural nuances that one might encounter in China or Taiwan or Hong Kong or Singapore...and what might be a phrase commonly spoken in Beijing might not be used in Xi'an or even Shanghai. Chinese people encounter these differences when traveling as well. The professor said, however, that it is important for teachers to teach what they know, so he encouraged each teacher to teach about culture from their own purview, whether they were from Taiwan, Beijing, Shanghai, or any other location. However, I felt as if I didn't have ANY cultural insights to share.
Then, I realized that I can only teach from my own purview. I have more knowledge than I was giving myself credit for. I can teach about how it is important to address people by their titles. That they need to use surnames first--and that the much more familiar given names aren't used unless they're with good friends or relatives. I can teach about the importance of families and that is why there are so many different words for family members. And I can teach my students that my purview is much like theirs when it comes to cultural knowledge, so we need to work extra hard on cultural sensitivity--so even though there may be a lack of experience, we ALL have the capability to observe and learn, and be open to making mistakes, and to learn from them. Also, it's important not to be afraid to ask questions. That is one thing I noticed on my trip to Beijing--that so many people from our workshop were native Chinese speakers, but were still unfamiliar with some phrases and words used that were more common in Beijing--and they were not afraid to ask about the meaning of unfamiliar phrases.
There is no perfect background to becoming a teacher...or any occupation, for that matter. Native Chinese speakers have different challenges than a Lao Wai when teaching Chinese language and culture. Chinese teachers who are heritage speakers may have challenges that are similar to native speakers in some aspects, and to Lao Wai teachers in other aspects, and some aspects different from both. However, there is no perfect combination of backgrounds to make the perfect teacher. We all simply need to use what we've been given, each of our unique gifts, to do the best we can...and to not be afraid to make mistakes on occasion.