> Sleep easy. You don't 'appear', but take a look.

> Thanks for your good wishes, but I'm not married!

I thought the Mike you mentioned was your husband, but apparently that was an error on my part.

To answer your blog - because I did indeed appear even if you didn't use my name.

I confess to the Pig remark - that was rude and out of line.

Nothing I said to the colleagues you mentioned was racist or sexist - I criticized them because of their inactions and their constant excuses for their inactions.

No one living in my flat threw a toilet paper roll down the toilet - we didn't even have a toilet most of the time.

The "row" you mentioned you said caused your Coca-Cola lambasted colleague to worry about my wife's safety. Actually my wife and I were not even having an argument but were telling jokes that got out of hand (noise wise) apparently. SHE was not worried for her safety and I deplore your assumption that she needed to be worried. To call that an argument was one of several mischaracterizations in your blog (which you basically lied to get me to read, it appears.)

As far as not going to class is concerned, my attending class is based on my contract. I was to teach class and the school was to provide the following:

1) Immediate re-imbursement of our travel funds to reach Nanyang.

2) A Western-style working toilet

3) A flat with a running shower

None of these were provided- the school broke the contract and I was no longer obligated to keep my end of the contract. I went on "strike" and Dean Wang denied that this was ever a tactic used in the West to get management to treat labor properly. He was, of course, as were you, wrong in this characterization.

As far as the key situation is concerned, the school broke the contract unilaterally. This was, in essence, a firing. The school - by Chinese law - must pay one month's salary for this breech of contract. They did not do this. No one was demanding any ransom for the key, but simply the pay the school owed me.

As far as the idea that one cannot legitimately criticize without being called a racist or a sexist is concerned, pardon me, but your notions on that are ridiculous.

I still hold with the idea that a Chinese woman is a much better judge of what constitutes racism and sexism towards a Chinese woman than is , say, for example, an English citizen. I also believe that the cry of racism and sexism is a simple and devastingly easy one to make. I also believe that it is legitimate when accused wrongly of such pejorative terms that one can and should certainly defend one self and it is legitimate to point out the number of Chinese and women who would find such an accusation of me both laughable and inexcusable.

If Zheng Ping had been a man and white and still did what she did, I would have criticized her just as much and with just as much reason. My wife - who is both female and Chinese - also criticized Zheng Ping - does that make her a racist and a sexist? A sexist against her own sex and a racist against her own race?

As far as reductions to tears are concerned, my wife and I did quite a lot of crying ourselves because of the way we were treated by Zheng Ping, her assistant, and Dean Wang. Dean Wang lied to a man we were told was the President of the college in a meeting- he then threw a temper tantrum and left the room. Later, my wife and I met with this man -who told us he wanted us to stay at the college and asked what conditions we would want. I had told him earlier that I wanted Zheng Ping fired - he had said that was impossible because of school regulations. My wife and I told him we wanted a Western-style working toilet, which was advertised in their job ad. We both requested that Dean Wang apologize to me for having called me a liar on numerous occasions- some of which were witnessed by the President. The president sympathized with us and was willing to make the request of Dean Wang, but my wife and I decided we had had enough of this treatment and thanked him for listening.

I hope the teacher who supposedly wanted back after a week after quitting was not intended to be me - because that would be a very big mischaracterization (notice how I am avoiding the word lie).

I also wondered about whether the trashed the flat comment referred to us. Our flat was never cleaned up when we came in - the toilet was ripped out by the workmen, and was sitting in our LIVING ROOM when we left while we had a "wonderful" hole (not even a Chinese style toilet, but a HOLE!) where the toilet was supposed to be.

Dean Wang bragged that he had made a teacher named Maria cry and she still came to class. That all the teachers came to class no matter what went wrong. He seemed proud that he was able to abuse foreign teachers and that they would take his abuse. My wife and I refused to take his abuse - and I refuse to take yours, Sandra.

As I have told you in our private e-mails, you only heard part of the story. I didn't really feel the rest was worth getting into, but when you attacked me(anonymously but pretty obviously to anyone who has read my posts about Nanyang), I was not about to leave such abuse unanswered.

I have a question for you,too. I know that at least two of the people you attacked were white male Americans. By your standards, I could now call you a racist, a sexist,a nationalist, and even a xenophobe.

But I realize that is ridiculous - although if you are thinking of ever being a good teacher, you might want to realize that every story has two sides to it - and you only heard one. I certainly hope you do not use the same techniques if there is ever a disagreement between two of your students.

As far as criticizing teacher's experiences and credentials is concerned, would you do the same if you were dealing with a doctor or a lawyer or would you prefer the inexperienced practitioner? I have found that those criticizing a teacher's experience and credentials rarely have any of their own to refer to.

As far as the references to not knowing their arse from their elbow and the social graces of an irate rhino, please tell me who it is that made this highly negative post that I am replying to. Please tell me why I taught at the same school in the USA for seven years at the university-level and in the same school system for ten years at the middle school level if these schools had serious problems with me. Don't resort to any comments about the unions- neither of these two places had unions. Each contract was for one year and I signed sixteen of them. If I am such a bad teacher, why am I constantly employed for 27 years with two schools(systems) accounting for over 60% of that employment?

A first-year teacher who has taught one place and has had nothing to compare it to attacks a teacher with 27 years experience in the USA, South Korea, China,and Turkey and who has masters degrees in education and English. I am proud of my accomplishments and that is why I mention them. If you had any similar accomplishments, I have litte doubt that you woudl mention them,too.

Which teacher is the inexperienced one? Which teacher has nothing to compare her/his experience to? Which teacher has never taught before - and is LEAVING the one school she taught at after one year? Which teacher continues to teach having signed another contract at a Chinese university(Sichuan Agricultural University) that is quite satisfied with his teaching?

I do agree with one thing you said - you will never understand.

I have not had to resort to any bad-mouthing of Nanyang Teachers College(aka Nanyang Normal College) because simply stating what occurred is much more effective.

The same holds true in replying to Sandra's post.