Feeling bad - interviewing people

fwan

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I am currently interviewing people to take over my place in September for when I go.

I specifically posted that only native speakers are wanted due to accents. I work in a language school and all customers always ask for a specified accent. Some american, some ask for Australian and others majorly ask for a British accent.

But so far i have only had Indians apply, and after having some conversations with them, and reviewing their CV I notice a number of spelling mistakes and not only that but their accent is too Indian.

I really do not want to discriminate any of them or sound racist towards them. I told them i will email them in a few days and get back to them.

I don't know what to say. I just want to say in the nicest possible way that she is not suited for the position and nobody will hire her as an English teacher, I have hinted she should be an Indian teacher but its not like the schools really offer that language anyway. I also told her that as a foreigner that is out of the EU does not get the freelancer papers easily and she was asking me why she cant get a normal contract, i suppose other people don't know about being a freelancer much but it's just so heart breaking as some people really need a job to get by.

I feel really cruel
 

calico2222

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Oh hon, you shouldn't feel cruel. You are just doing you job. I'm guessing you teach english as a second language? In that case, accent is VERY important. It's hard enough for Americans to understand Britians and vise versa sometimes...heck, it's hard for some American's to understand each other due to dialect, but throw in an Indian accent and it sounds like a different language all together!

I would feel bad too, but I'm sure they understand it's not a personal rejection...they are just not right for the job.
 

forensic

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If you requested native speakers with the typical accent then they should not be too stunned by a rejection for that reason.

I'd just say that they aren't right for this job and you're very sorry.
 
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