Hi CL, I agree with most of what you wrote in your post, it is one of the better posts I have seen on here for some time.

However, could you elaborate a bit more about the FT who was dismissed half way through his contract? I can understand that a first tier university ( by Chinese standards ) would want to uphold certain standards, but what was the teacher teaching exactly?

Was he teaching oral English only, or writing, phonetics and grammar also? As for getting involved in arguments with other FT's and Chinese teachers, I hardly think that is grounds for dismissal. I have often been in conflict with my Chinese colleagues at universities, usually because they were rude, or because they were incompetent or had plagiarised my work. There are two sides to every story, and as you would know the Chinese can be very irratating at times.

Not to say that all of them were like that, I have met quite a few decent Chinese people at universities in the past. I am surprised that your uni fired the FT, especially during mid-semester. Most uni's I have worked at have begged me not to leave, even though I was quite rude to some of the Chinese staff there at times. Usually it is the FT who leaves voluntarily, I have never heard of an FT being fired from a Chinese uni, although sometimes they will threaten dismissal , typical Chinese bluff tactics.

As for students, I think that you are pretty spot on, I especially agree that many students can easily sense if a teacher in anxious or not. I was very surprised to notice how switched on the freshman girl English major students at my last two universities were. They were much more curious and more motivated than even my male and female sophomore students. I think maybe at your university you are lucky enough to have students who are really serious about learning English.

At many places, even some well known universities, the students only care if the teacher is good looking and funny. If so, you're in. If you are fat and ugly then you have no hope, no matter how engrossing your class is, or how creative yourself or the students percieve it to be .