I sound naive? Yet you think it's ok to threaten people with physical violence because they asked you to teach a class at the last minute! Nice deep breath, count to 10 and stay calm. Haven't you noticed that the person who loses their cool in an argument is generally the one who ends up looking rather silly?

I disagree that giving students the chance to practice their English is a waste of time and i would have thought that any oral english teacher with half a brain would be able to understand that their primary role is to help provide situations to do just that. That these English corners are not organized properly or that you have trouble managing your students is the fault of the individual school and teacher. I guess when you go into a situation with the idea in your head that this is a waste of time then the result is that it generally becomes a waste of time both for you and the students. If you read my post I actually agree that some schools are misusing the term English corner. My post was a positive approach to trying to improve the situation. I don't think you have ever contributed anything positive to this board in the few months I have posted on it. As for training centres, I thought your golden rule was to never work for them in the first place. Tell me, how long did you work as a GW in one of those places?

Tell me which job you've found whereby ever single duty you might have to perform is listed within the contract or job description? You wouldn't come across as being very employable in any industry in any country if every time someone made a request of you you flopped out your contract and started reading though it to find if 'photocopying' was included as a task. Ah, but then you're not employed are you, so I guess I've just answered my own question there!

If you are happy to have them use you to further their english then that is your choice

Ha ha. Yes I'm very happy for the students to use me to further their English perhaps because that's my job! If you are not happy to do this then perhaps you shouldn't become an English teacher or at least perhaps you shouldn't complain when you are treated by your employer with distain for refusing to do the job that you are paid to do.

But I guess on this part you are correct. Students do undoubtedly come to the English corner because they see me and other FTs there. However, like I said, all we are doing is talking, we don't prepare anything, we don't do any 'activities' we just stand there for a while and then we generally hop in a cab and go to the bar for a few hours. I think that if I had taken the negative approach to students that you are suggesting and told them to sod off and stop wasting my time when they asked me to support to their English corner then they might well have decided to take the issue up with the head of the foreign languages department. Then he's going to be ringing me and trying to force me to go and I'm going to end up in the kind of confrontational situation you've described. You see if you take a defensive stance on everything at all times in the way that you and San migs have advocated dealing with the Chinese or anyone for that matter then you only invite them to use subversive tactics to get you to do things.

Teachers do need to be aware of how to deal with large class sizes if they come to china because its a reality. I'd be happy to exchange ideas on how to manage the situation if you'd like? However, going back to the topic, an English corner is (as I stated in my previous post) not an oral English class. If some students can only come and talk about what they did this morning then that's fine for them if others can discuss more high level and abstract concepts then now is the time. Because its not a class and it is without structure, English corners cater very well for differences in the levels of students.

Of course teachers needs need to be met. But based on what you said, go back in time to when you were at school and think about the teachers who made a difference to you. Do you think they just took the same minimalist attitude as you? I doubt it very much. For those of us who have taught public school in a western country one of the best things at least about teaching oral English is that you can throw that rubbishy old, printed in Beijing by some guy who has obviously never held a conversation with a native speaker in his life out the window. Be creative, enjoy teaching and you might find that you enjoy life a bit more!