I don't feel we should discriminate against people with drink problems, they have to work too, and they're good enough for oral teaching in China.

And FTs working in China can easily afford Chinese beer, which can help them slow down their spoken English effortlessly and unwittingly, probably making what they say in English more understandable to their students.
Cheers from China, have a good one!

I can't see a lot of point in having a degree to teach oral English. I mean to say it's the Chinese teachers that teach grammar. Just opening your mouth should be good enough. In any event unless your degree is for English, it's not going to help you much in teaching English. I don't feel we should discriminate against people with drink problems, they have to work too, and they're good enough for oral teaching in China. Anyway, isn't your name Saint Migs a bit of a Freudian slip?

China is still one of those few counties in Asia where you can find different kinds of jobs without a degree and even a TEFL/TESOL cert.

Indeed turnoi.

And that is why it attracts many criminals and ne'er do wells from the West. Burglars, drunkards, the plain bellicose and bigoted...they can all find a home in China, where even a fake degree can get you a job.

Ask some of the long timers in China, why they don't go to work in South Korea or Taiwan where regulations are tighter and lot's of evasion and hyperbole will reveal itself in a discussion.

I knew two kiwis, one a full blown alcoholic, who had served prison time back in his homeland, and had nothing there for him at all, who was a kindergarten teacher. By all accounts, when he wasn't pissed out of his mind every day (which was often!) he was actually a very good teacher, even though he had no degree at all, or anything related to teaching from his homeland.

The other, still a boozer, and a pot smoker, but not as heavily, taught freelance and private classes, very good at talking the talk and walking the walk, but no degree or anything from his homeland. His rationale, working in China is better than going back to my home country because I can't get a job there?! And I can't work in Taiwan because I have no degree...etc etc.

Not meaning to denigrate all kiwis/or indeed all foreigners in China, but most I have met come from the gutter, and would be plain unemployable in even a menial job back in their homelands, if they did work, and weren't dealing drugs, or involved in cash in hand work/dodgy dealings while claiming from the state on the dole.

If China was like Taiwan, would these dosser types be able to find work so easily ? Food for thought?