Okay, fish, I have your post printed and mounted. And yes, it's right beside my picture. I'll be cheating a bit, though. I'm going to call your post MY post, as at one time, I thought just like you do now. I'm not saying you're "wrong", I just know I wasn't "right" when I thought that way.

After doing TESOL for two years and some odd months, I now see this for what it really is--a tool the west can use to maintain the status quo. The status quo is "maintain the colonies". Yeah, places like Thailand are colonies, and English helps make the workers (slaves) in those colonies more able to perform their roles. Capitalism loves efficiency, and more efficient laborers mean more profits for the masters back in the west.

Also, English allows incomes to rise, as those who learn it will enjoy higher incomes in positions they wouldn't get, and may not even EXIST, if not for their knowledge of English. And when one group is able to climb the ladder to better jobs, others fill the job-vacumn below and begin to make more income for themselves. More income for everyone means more disposible income for everyone. Of course, this means more demand for products ranging from Ferraris to jacuzzies to our TESOL classes.

Yeap, TESOL is nothing but a product that we teachers supply. And our "methods" we use in the classroom (clowning, hard-ass, whatever) are the packaging. TESOL programs teach us methods to use that make that packaging as "pretty" as possible to attract as many purchasers as possible. But is this a "bad" thing? I guess it isn't if you like having a job.