Where's the desperation? He's going to make a minimum of 5000元 for each teacher he brings over to China. In my experience recruiting (I've never done it as a business, but to help out a school owner I was good friends with), there's generally about 2 hours of work involved in communicating between school and candidate before they come over. If you think 2500元/hour is desperate, I'd LOVE to hear more about what you do for work!

It's also a shocking misconception that a degree is required to legally obtain a working visa. It just isn't. What is required by the federal government for any foreign expert to get a Z visa is **proof** that the foreigner has qualifications that can't reasonably be substituted by a Chinese worker. Remember, this visa type is not just for teachers, but all job categories. By the actual letter (or Chinese character, in this case) of the law, a degree is simply **an example** of the type of proof which can be provided to show that the foreign employee is more capable of the job than a Chinese employee would be. Going back to the same school owner, I tagged along to submit applications for invitation letters, we actually had this come up. We were submitting an application for a teacher who hadn't finished his degree, but had a long professional career, including certification as a real estate agent, and a TEFL certificate. With some respectful conversation, and referring to the printed law, we were able to convince the officials in question that this person obviously possessed adequate language skills to educate small children.

It never ceases to amaze me how proud some people are of their B.A. in whatever, and how they seem to believe that they're changing the world by doing this kind of work. In years and years of living in China, some of the best teachers I've met were total fuckwits without a scrap of formal education (even a highschool dropout once!) who really loved spending time with the kids.

Fact is, if you can do something (like speaking your mother tongue), you can pass on what you know to others. The people who taught me Chinese were taxi drivers, drunks, curious waitresses/bar dancers, tattoo artists, and small children. You think I asked them for their degree? I'm well past teaching English by this point, and what I'm doing wouldn't be possible without learning Chinese.

I worked hard for my degree (though I'm not sure what bearing it ever had on my teaching English), and I'm sure some of you did too. That said, I can't stand the people who believe that it's a certificate of superiority in some way to those who don't carry one. I honestly regret my decision to spend the money and even more, the time, that I spent to get that degree, and I have nothing but admiration for those who get ahead without doing what we're told we have to do to succeed and have a good life. You think you're brighter than Bill Gates because of your Associate's Degree? Go ahead and think that, but you couldn't buy his used shoes, so kindly ride your high horse back where you came from.