Controversy over schools' demands under the native English teachers scheme, much discussed in whispers and related through unsourced anecdotes, has finally emerged in concrete form.
News that a report by a recruiting agency to the Education Department claiming a school principal and an English panel chair demonstrated racism will, or should, throw key issues to the fore relating to the fundamentals of the scheme.
Setting aside the specifics of the case that is the subject of the report, agent Spencer Douglas claims he has encountered various incidents that can only be described as racist. One school is alleged to have said that no dark-faced man was wanted because he would scare the pupils. And the most common request is, Mr Douglas claims: don't send us any Indians.
Racism is an ugly accusation and is sometimes bandied around when, in fact, it is not race, but rather other prejudices that are at play. The kindest interpretation of Mr Douglas' experiences is that this is the case. The confusion, therefore, is really about what constitutes a mother tongue. Indeed, with English - universally employed in commerce and academia - is there a definitive version anyway? An American, a Briton, Canadian and Australian may all consider themselves as mother-tongue English speakers, and they can certainly (all jokes aside), communicate effectively with one another. But who has the correct or desirable accent? Who places syllabic stresses correctly? Whose English offers the definitive spelling? And when words are false cognates, who offers the proper definition? A bonnet to an American is something worn on the head. The same American will scratch his head when a Briton also uses the word to mean something at the front of a car that is lifted to reveal the engine.
So what, ultimately, is all the fuss about mother-tongue English anyway? There are many types, styles and accents within spoken English. And within those variations there is a core of what you need to know to make you an effective communicator. Where or how you learn that core is irrelevant. How much more irrelevant, therefore, is the person's racial origin?
The fact that, as in the case highlighted yesterday, a British born and raised Chinese man was not - it is claimed - thought to be a native English speaker because he didn't speak to his mother in the language, is clearly an inadequate, even ludicrous, definition of the term mother tongue. Perhaps it is time to scrap the whole notion of mother tongue and native speakers and concentrate instead on competence and effectiveness.