China Girl,

As the proverb goes, 'you can take a horse to the water but you can't make him drink', one can state a point of view but can't get some people to think.

There are people around these parts who take advantage of their nationality, skin colour and their background and having taken that advantage are very insecure, nonetheless. It's hard for them to accept that there are English teachers all over the world who can do a darn good job teaching English, and many who do it better than these teachers. Their thinking goes along these lines: reduce the supply of teachers from countries other than the big 5 and then there will be a shortage of teachers in China and that will enable them to comand higher salaries, better conditions and so on. China is a big country with a huge demand for English teachers and any apparent shortage will ultimately help these teachers to negotiate top dollars (RMB, if you like).

There are enough stories around the esl world (in China, S Korea, Japan etc) of the utter trash that passes as teachers, admittedly not in all cases, though - but an amazing number of 'no-gooders' nonetheless. It's time the esl community woke up to the facts and started considering tecahers who fit the bill as teachers, and not merely on the basis of the country of origin, colour of skin etc.

This is the only way to impart an English education to the countries' aspiring students - hire teachers, not nationals of certain countries. To assume any native of a certain country can teach their language is akin to assuming any creature of the sea can teach another how to swim.