It seems that I find myself in the unenviable position of being the only person posting in this forum who is currently teaching in China and who believes that he is living a good life in an amazing country while providing a valuable service to his students.

I love my job. I love my students. I love China. As far as I can determine, I am not yet suffering from dementia.

In the past six years I have worked in three universities with 35 other foreign teachers. I would characterize one of these FTs as exhibiting a borderline personality disorder, two as having substance abuse issues, and three as being closet missionaries. If I was still working in New York in an office of that size, there would be fewer missionaries but more employees in the other two categories. Eighty percent of these foreign teachers appeared to take their employment seriously by generating lesson plans and showing their concern for their students. Perhaps half were, in my opinion, relatively competent in teaching oral English.

As I have often written, I don't consider being a foreign teacher in China as a career. And only one or two of these FTs would be able to teach in their own country. To date, a third of these FTs have already left China to move on with their lives.

I would not characterize any of them as shitheads.

If you hate China, don't enjoy teaching, and need to surround yourself daily with English speaking adults in order to express your views about China and your students, being a FT is not going to be a good job for you.

Perhaps then you should move on. And maybe let it go.