I am sorry for Arnie and other competent teachers who are not from these countries but that's the way it is, like it or not.

And I am NOT sorry for Chinese kids duped by Russians who say they are British, Ghanaians who say they're Canadians, and Cameroonians who say they're from British Cameroon. That's the way it is.

As for the Chinese recruiter/ English training centre owner living in Shijiazhuang, he said he can place Germans, Portuguese and Poles, but not Africans nor teachers from the Philippines, as foreign teachers of English! I know him very well. Unlike you me, he knows the EFL market in China very very well! It's not just about native and non-native speakers of English. As he said, that city's parents and kids won't accept BLACK teachers.

As for the visa regulations here, they're B/S! Eire doesn't even get a mention, neither does South Africa. China would be better to discard the list of the five English-speaking countries.