I remember back in a previous lifetime when I was standing at a bus-stop in England. A car drew up and the Australian driver said ''Scuse me mate, how do I get to looga beroo?'

After a lot of repeating and head-scratching, I finally asked him to write it down. 'Loughborough' was where he wanted to go - and Loughborough is pronounced 'Luff Burra'.

Pronunciation may not be the 'bee-all-and-end-all', but it's certainly not unimportant.

Of course pronunciation is important, especially during one's teaching. A Chinese teacher of physics whose reading comprehension was good, but whose oral and listening were abysmal, once asked me if I had read 'Janner'. I knew not what he was referring to, until after thinking again about it, I had a moment of inspiration, and came up with 'Jane Eyre'. I was right, and felt proud of myself for having solved the problem.

Turnoi says we should all obey China's visa regulations. One of them specifies countries from which job applicants should apply, which are all native-speaking English countries. The reasons for that visa regulation are obvious. But even then, a job applicant's fluency and pronunciation need checking in my opinion.

Another point I feel I should make - I have notuced in the 'resumes section' of the board most jobseekers claim to have TESOL/TEFL qualifications. However, some of their resumes/introductions are basically dismal in sentence construction, spelling and grammar. I'm sure they can't all be in possession of false credentials, or are bare-faced liars. It seems to me that some such qualifications are awarded to low quality English language users. That is a a disgrace!