Teaching "assistants" in China are a joke.

I disagree, but that's just my opinion. Now I'll tell a joke involving a teaching assistant in China:

A poor old foreigner on a low salary was teaching at a public middle school alongside his t/a, also provided by a Chinese agent. The FT had acquired the habit of eating out regularly at a small, dirty restaurant very near his apartment. Of course, the dishes there were cheap.
One afternoon he happened to fart in class. It didn't smell good, so he apologized to his t/a in a whisper, adding that no real harm had been done as his pump had been a silent one, and the students were sitting reasonably distant from the blackboard. But instead of answering, the girl t/a quickly scribbled a note on a piece of scrap paper, and handed it to him. She didn't look pleased, and he ascertained why after reading her note. It advised him to buy a new battery as soon as possible for his hearing-aid!