"Precisely because we FT's ave been infiltrated by too many slackers, losers, bad apples, black sheep, compulsive bad-mouths, liars, cheats and so on."

No way. No WAY this is true. This is repugnant. Evil. Traitorous.

I certainly wouldn't argue that the elements described above don't exist in China, and doubtless other countries as well. They ARE here...in embarrassing and rather nauseating numbers.

But they aren't the cause of the evils in the EFL and other educational scenes here; certainly not the only or even worst one. I see it as largely the other way around.

China gets crappy teachers because they run crappy schools. Period.

If Chinese institutions would set standards, follow rules, require and enforce performance, honor contracts, and otherwise behave in a manner consistent with legitimate educational programs, most of the undesirables described above wouldn't be able to work here in the first place. But the schools in China, to a very significant extent, DON'T do these things. In a tragically common approach, everything is run purely to emphasize maximum possible profit in the shortest possible time. Rules and standards and expectations of performance just get in the way and anger the customers...so they are summarily done away with.

And, to help, too many schools bring over the least-expensive foreign faces they can find. They only respect or care about the qualifications of the teachers insofar as it will allow them to get work/residence documents for their teachers, and hopefully look impressive when they pitch the school to customers. Once the teacher is documented, all that really matters is that they keep the butts in the seats (or at least paying tuition for a seat), and help attract in more. How can we then expect very many of the teachers who come to be any good?

Most of the good teachers are working at home or going places like Western Europe, that actually do require some quality in their schools and pay well to get it. A few good ones, thankfully, DO come here...but it's because of an attraction to China, not an eagerness to participate in Chinese schools. Meanwhile, in our home countries, even the most unemployable landfill is starting to find out that they can probably get steady jobs that come with an interesting and easygoing lifestyle, access to cheap booze and sex, and so much more.
And, in most cases, they're RIGHT.

No. Laying the problems in China at the feet of the foreign teachers, as is often voiced in many places by a number of people, is a damned lie. It's utterly vile and reprehensible. And it's often self-serving: "By denigrating all of my colleagues, I make myself look better than the others."

Well, no, you don't. You're simply wallpapering over the roach-infested reality here, for the benefit of employers who might, if you're a good enough doggie, eventually throw you a bone or two. You look like...a turncoat teacher, at least to the other teachers. And the schools simply know they've got a personal b***h who will reliably do what they're told and say what they're supposed to say...anyone who supposes this will win them genuine respect is self-delusional.

Fix the schools, and the teachers will get better. They would HAVE to be better.
Don't fix the schools, and expect to get mostly just the sludge over here.
Don't fix the schools, and it doesn't really matter who they hire anyway.