When you deal with an issue, you may get a result. People responsible for the "detergent balls" have just apologized publically. This means that directly confronting the flaws of the society may as well be educational in China.

Teaching a language one ought to bring in the culture, social behaviors/attitudes and other trends of the nation(s) where the tool of communication is being used. In this very language, students should learn from the day one how to interact verbally and nonverbally. Otherwise, there'll be a plethora of problems that many will be affected by later.

Anyhow, we can choose to have a troublefree private/professional life or a troublesome one, and that's our prerogative. However, we need to consider the consequences of our actions on daily basis. How people from around the world will change the communication, and English language in particular, remains to be seen. Whether we'll be able to understand each other or not is at question too.

How well does U.S. education address familial obligations? Chinese would consider this a glaring oversight.

How well does U.S. education address provision of respect to colleagues and sensitivity to group emotional integrity? Chinese would be aghast by U.S. exclusive focus on individuality.

My comment recognizes the opportunity that FTs have to address issues of race that students will confront as they enter a global workforce.

I do not recommend that FTs directly confront what they consider to be glaring flaws in the Chinese educational system. They possess neither the power nor the requisite education to address endemic institutional failures.

Our battle field is the classroom and, for the most part, we are free to choose our lesson-plans, our ideological weapons.

And you two prolific writers have balls too. Chinese education at primary and secondary level addresses racism poorly. The subject of English that's taught in many schools doesn't prepare the locals for much at all. So, this isn't about how FTs approach the local students but about how dull the system is. Seeing a "white guy" for the first time in one's life is one thing, teaching the language without preparing students for the "black/white guy" is another. The commercial is only the tip of an iceberg of how ignorant the local educators that only raise obedient and xenophobic soldiers are.

Amused wrote:
A good teacher, FT or other, will take time to sensitively and non-judgmentally communicate to his students the nature of this unique unitary personal perspective that citizens of China share.

Dr. T replied
Yes, amused, that is how it should be when working as a teacher abroad, no matter where you are. Let me add that since an FT with cross-cultural soft skills also normally deals with people outisde school on a daily basis, the requirements you have stated below also apply to ALL nationals, both foreign and native, and expat may be dealing with either in China or somewhere else. Then, for example, to state such a thing like "all Filipino women have an entitlement mentality" is exactly the opposite and not only counter-productive but also a bit racist (by way of unduly generalising) and perhaps also sexist (I am not so sure of the latter in that case but it might be taken as such).

I am fully aware that some of the posters on here may now come up with the moral brigade argument. To them, I say that it is their good right to hold such views and when they respect others holding opposite views then it's fair enough and people like me should do likewise. However, they should also deal with Filipino women respectfully when they can't avoid it. Whether they date them is their private matter and up to them.

You see I just expanded the topic a bit because the question of Western FTs with cross-cultural competencies of soft skills is NOT limited to classroom or school life alone.