Two words i hate to see used these days, genius and professional. It all began with genius which used to be reserved for the likes of Steven Hawkins and Sir Isaac Newton. These days you can get on the list for cooking some grub on the TV. Now you can be a professional for cleaning the toilets out nearly. Unlike being a doctor or a proper teacher (been to teachers' college for a few years after leaving Uni) Ft's as a whole are not professional people. We arrive in China with a degree (could be in pottery) On the way to the airport we go on a course for a few weeks and come out clutching a TEFL. Being an FT in China is not a career, you try asking Fuzhou about your pension plan. No, it's a long working holiday and a lot more interesting than stacking the shelves at Tesco supermarket. You try arriving at a school in America, and say you've come for the English teaching gig, they'll be falling off of their seats laughing at you.

Your English sounds okay but after reading some posts and info from this school-play cricket, professional is not the word you should use, now is it?

FT's are mainly asked not to bother about teaching grammar in China, the reason being is not many of us and I include myself are up to it. We are white monkey exponents of oral English- If most of us are asked to go over the simple verbs lay and lie we find ourselves helplessly out of our depth because we are not proper teacher. Slopping together a PowerPoint, yes we can do that, and doesn't it look "professional?l" We can collate chinglish lesson plans that fuzhou give us, sit in our gleaming glass classrooms and look all "professional.

FT's should come to China to have fun, not to pretend we are something we are not, find a job in a state school or university where we are asked to only work 15 hours a week, get everything paid for including our flats, enjoy the ladies and learn Chinese. If we don't have that pottery degree buy one. If you are a proper teacher, get a well-paid job in London with a pension and very long holidays.