Training centres are for aliens from other planets who want to learn English, Chinese, Eskimo, or whatever.

They also invented the tradition of white monkey dancing in muppet shows at Chinese training centres, and all of them graduated with a PhD in monkey dancing from Cosmos University in the universe.....LOL

During lunch a few days ago, I found myself in the company of a seemingly very nice lady who was in charge of a 'training academy' in a small Chinese city that has a population of less than one million.

A bit bigger than the usual training centre insofar that kids can learn Arts, Science, Maths, as well as a few other subjects, including English.

This lady appeared to be exceedingly honest when I had a chat with her. She told me that their target market was 4 - 12 year old kids, since this age group doesn't have to concentrate on exams, and is the easiest market from which to earn big dollars. As far as English classes were concerned, all she needed to do was to put a non-Chinese person in front of the class and the parents were happy.

She even admitted that Chinese parents would never be able to check their child's English ability when it comes to grammar and spelling etc, and as long as the parents can hear their kid speak and see them scribble a few English words on paper, they think their child is doing well. In short, she confirmed that it's all about the money and nothing else.

'This is a small town,' she said. 'If we don't exploit these kids, someone else will.'

At least she was honest !