> Hello Mike - the school my wife and I planned on going to have cut
> her hours down to almost nothing and so we won't be going there-
> neither one of us is under contract there - whereas my school in
> China will re-hire me - so, unless we come up with something great,we
> will stay in China. My suggestion to you is the same I have to the
> hitters in the major league all-star game - watch out for the
> curveball and steer clear of the screwball

As you foreign teachers can see, almost all the students respect you highly in the Orient. If you could speak even a little bit their language, they would treat you much more respectfully. That's also a very good example for the students to appreciate the wonderful effects if they could learn a foreign language.

Besides, foreign teachers are the best diplomats for culture exchanging. Please try to introduce the good foriegn manners and behaviors to your students. They see us from "developed countries", and we suppose to give them something decent more than only the language. Don't do anything in front of the students that we usually don't do in the public in our countries, such as: smoking in the public place, etc.

As for the language itself, I would suggest that it's better to let them be exposed to all the accents, so they wouldn't have trouble in understanding people from other lands. I usually slated some time in class to let them listen to English radio broadcasts from England, Australia, Poland, Hungary, India and Texas. I speak North-American English, but I'm also quite familiar with the British and Aussie tones. My students' listening ability improved quite a bit by my way.
Alex Wu