If someone puts you down so they can put themselves on equal footing with you, then where did they begin before engaging? Hardly something to lose confidence about I'd say.

Seems a bit deep for ordinary oral English FT's, mate- however, I think I have decyphered what your driving at- looking up greedily at anothers elevated position, axe in hand to chop the buggers legs off??? am I right or am I right?

No, what it was all about is this- there are, believe it or not, [edited] FT's out there (making life difficult for the rest of us) prepared to bring along their own teaching equipment by way of a laptop, because some schools (and I don't blame the Chinese) have cottoned on to the fact that FT's in general are none too bright, so they don't have to do what they should do, to provide the FT with his own PC (for the use of) installed in his flat; and also another one for him to use within the school if there is such a need.