Native Speakers

[George Fowler]

Greetings!

I'd just like to elucidate the Chicago situation a bit as a long-time
friend and graduate of the dept. For many years Polish was taught there by
Janina Golab(owa), wife of the Polish linguist Zbigniew Golab. She had a
M.A. degree, taught first- and second-year, and had some kind of "lecturer"
position. The number of students of Polish was always pretty modest: there
were 6 in my first-year class in 1978-79, and two in second-year in
1979-80; those must be pretty typical numbers. I do not know the details of
her salary, but I imagine it eventually rose to something like the level
advertised. Thus, what the dept. is able to do, I imagine, is to replace
her position with something equivalent. Therefore regardless of what they
might like in the ideal, I daresay this is the best they could do. There
could well be an inside candidate, perhaps not a faculty spouse but
possibly an advanced grad student. (I have no information about this, but
am speculating.) Chicago is an expensive school, support is finite like
anywhere else, and I would not think it abusive to hire a native Polish
graduate student for such a position for a few years while doing
comprehensive exams and/or dissertation research/writing.

As to the general native speaker debate, which has been very interesting
and I hope will continue, here's my $0.02' worth. If it is in some sense
discriminatory to advertise for a native speaker per se, while ignoring the
prime non-native speaker, it is also discriminatory to circle the wagons
and spurn any applicants who did not come from U.S./Canadian education
system, i.e., say a Russian who is currently in the U.S. for a year, or has
recently immigrated with a kandidatskaja, or the like. Such a candidate has
his/her positive and negative features, just as our students from Indiana
do, and in shopping themselves around for a job, each type of candidate
must seek to package his/her best features so that they look good for the
job. I do not see any justification for preferring one type of applicant
over the other per se; rather, a hiring dept. should simply look to see
what meets their needs.

As a (decidedly!) non-native speaker of Russian, I have long felt inferior
to native Russians. Indeed, my notion of the "ideal" job candidate in our
field, who I would feel inferior to, is a native Russian who came to the
U.S. at the age of 18-20 or so, has perfect and fully literate/educated
Russian but also went through the U.S. higher educational system and has
impeccable English, savvy for U.S. institutions and practices, and does
linguistics or literary analysis within established U.S. models. This type
of candidate converts his/her native Russian into simply one of several
potent assets. I quiver in my boots (no, make that in my krossovki) at the
prospect of competing on the job market with a dozen or more such
powerhouse candidates!

George Fowler

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George Fowler                [Email]    gfowler at indiana.edu
Dept. of Slavic Languages    [Home]     1-317-726-1482 **Try here first**
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Indiana University           [Office]   1-812-855-2829
Bloomington, IN  47405       [Dept]     1-812-855-9906/-2624/-2608
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