In my country tehre is a sying - "don't sh*t on your host's white carpet"

In China, it's very hard to find anything that stays consistently white. One person I knew spent like 600 dollars on an imported filter for his washing machine as he said that the local water turned all his clothes brown XD. On to the main point, any goodwill that is displayed only on the surface by the locals cannot be taken as true virtue. Doing something for "face" is similiar to doing something in the name of "vanity" in western countries, in fact in many cases it's the absolute same thing. People are a lot similiar than you think.

The way they do things is rooted in 5,000 years of their culture and you aren't going to change it. Not this year, not next, not ever.

Wrong again, Steven. The "5,000 years of culture" phrase has been repeated non-stop, but let's just call it for what it is: a DOGMA. China may or may not have 5,000 years of history. They certainly DO NOT have 5,000 years of culture. Modern day Mandarin Chinese which is the offical language of the country certainly has an official, accounted, written history of less than 1,000 years old, it might even be almost half that. The beijing dialect which it is based out of was considered to be a border language spoken by minority outcasts and tribal types who mixed with chinese who moved there. Modern day simiplified chinese, the offical written language supposedly had roots going back maybe (and that's being generous) 200 years almost all of which I've heard is basically based on legend rather than hard evidence. It has been implemented successfully on a wide scale for less than half a century as most books printed in China in the 50's and 60's were still in traditional chinese format. If you go out on the streets and ask a Chinese person what life during the Tang or Han dynasty was like, what the language back then was like, the customs, etc.; would they know anything?? NO. Modern day Chinese culture or "culture" depending on what you're talking about is very new. The only consistent behavior that is passed down is largely negative and even most Chinese will not acknowledge to a foreigner that these habits should be considered "chinese culture". Why would you call something by a name when in fact the people who inherit that very thing do not want you calling it by that name?

The dishonesty you find in China is everywhere. It was back in your own country, it is in your new country, it will be in your next country. The only place where everyone is honest is the cemetery. Get used to it.

The dishonesty can be found in every country. Will you say that this dishonesty is in fact even in every country? I don't see that. No you only want to be an ignoramous and generalize all dishonesty as being on the same scale relatively speaking. I'm sure you've abused the law and screwed someone over sometime before, which is why it's so easy for you to make such a crass and narcissistic statement.

The Training Schools in China don't teach? Neither do the Chinese High Schools I have taught at and even the Chinese Universities I have taught at. 65 students in a 45 minute class gives, even under the ebst circumstances, 40 seconds of "face time" with the foreigner. How mjch Englishg can someone learn in 40 seconds? Half your class is fast asleep in class? The parents don't care, the princiupal doesn't care and as long as you let them sleep the students don't care. Why should you care? Teach the ones who want to learn and let the rest sleep.

I have worked at public school jobs in China before and what you have described is in fact true for the students. But we are talking about teachers not being cheated out of their salaries, being given tolerable living conditions, and not being abused physically and verbally if they only make a stand for themselves. Public jobs have a better chance of giving what they promised. At training centers you will find a lot more politicking and backstabbing amongst the foreign teachers, this is a fact. You can stop with the unnecessary tangents.

Save your breath, save your bandwidth, save your career (those who complain too much get labeled as a "troublemaker" and find their contracts not getting renewed) and save your sanity - go with the flow, not against it.

If anyone needs a good example of a person with their head in the sand, they should keep the link to the post that this "Steven Katz" made. It is not important to speak out, it is not important to be your own person, it is not important to listen to any bad news. Go with the flow because BY GOD everyone should have a sane experience as long as they do what you do, Steven! You're the end which justifies the means! I went with the flow before, and got burned for it. When you allow yourself to be abused, if the employer has already made up their mind about you merely because of your looks the abuse will not stop until you lose the job, your money, and dignity as they will try to take away as much of it as they could before they kick you out of the door.

You are probably an [edited][edited][edited][edited] for telling others to think like this. That is my opinion of you. How much extra money did you make this month for ratting out your fellow co-workers, huh? 50rmb? 100rmb?