you wrote:
"Anyway, our university has decided against hiring any more Africans. Once bitten twice shy."

...is that smart? is your school generalizing that all africans speak bad english?
africa is a big continent of over maybe 30some countries (not just cameroon).
do you expect out of so many nations that all africans speak bad english?

will your school hire africans from other african nations? or was the twice bitten lesson enough to simply discriminate against all people from africa, who apply to teach english at your "university."

my gut feeling tells me it's just a ready excuse to prevent hiring africans or african americans..."blacks" as termed by asians, from teaching the "queens" english to "non-black" asian people.

believe me sister, very few people speak that level of english "queens level"...white or black. although my own ears have heard people from africa speak very clear british english. (and they were black) (^_^)

...but the biggest news is, most "blacks" who do speak very good english haven't much interest to teach english in traditionally racist countries.

why would anyone?

countries like, hmmm let's go down the list...japan, korea and china.

well, the whole ESL industry seems a big joke in the world today.
discrimination, bigotry, and corruption seem to be the keywords to describe the quality of such an industry.

i know....i've been there and done that. even been made aware in class one time, that i was "black".

english teaching is not my professional or real skill, though i was able to teach because of my so-called good clear english.

i once remember while in asia, an englishman mentioned to me, that the people want to learn english from my mouth, but would prefer i had his white face.

enough said.

With all due respect, I'm a fourth year student in China and will be
> graduating in a week time. I'm not being critical but just stating
> the truth.
> Our university previously engaged a Cameroonian teacher and his
> pronunciation is terribly horrific. Believe me, we could not
> understand his English and he is not as efficient as he is supposed
> to be. I wouldn't know what lies ahead for other Chinese students, if
> they were to get teachers like him. I know there are many good
> Cameroonian teachers but I have friends from other university having
> the same problems like mine.

> Here are some examples of his pronunciation.

> "Patient" pronounce as ="par sion"
> "ready" pronounce as = "ra dy"
> "Batteries" pronounce as "But terries".
> "Cake" pronounce as "Gakes"
> "Fairy" pronounce as "Farry"

> Like I said, I'm not here to criticize. We have had British,
> Canadians, Singapore and Australians teachers before. They do speak
> Standard English, not much I can say for the Australian but he is
> still good.

> In any case, good luck to you and your teachers. Anyway, our
> university has decided against hiring any more Africans. Once bitten
> twice shy.