Hi Turnoi, welcome back, and glad you did not suffer form the unrest in Haiti.

Returned to China yesterday after a very busy time in the UK. Decorating my house in the south, which is up for sale, and then to my father's house in the north to do some maintenance - not much of a holiday but I'm glad to be back. We have a curriculum meeting tomorrow that I will leave after an hour. I've told my bosses that all business shoud be concluded in an hour - if if isn't then the meeting is not properly organised and wastes my time! I insist on an agenda, otherwise it's just the Chinese briefing, that consists of a boss telling us what he/she could have said in an e-mail. There is a difference between a 'briefing' where we sit and listen (the Chinese way), and a 'meeting' which is participatory.

I hope you are right about the Moderators controlling the board but I still see the venom! When I reminded posters of the rules, I was given a mini-lecture about freedom of speech. The poster failed to recognise that I might tolerate something but that doesn't mean I accept it!

As from the new word "Chigger" ,this is worse than the original. " Wigger" presumably means " White Nigger" - and 'nigger' is a term that blacks use in Hip-hop and Rap against themselves. To purloin this phrase is a joke for white Americans and I for one will not use this derogatory term for teachers in China- regardless of their situation - so much for a community!! No doubt the 'lurkers' will have an opinion but so be it!