What I am sure about is that the meaning of words can change with their usage and that different people with different aims in mind have a different interpretation of the meaning of words to begin with and in the process of communication a meaning is negotiated and settle upon or not. I am not expressing that the meaning of anything can be so rigidly pinned down, but is fluid and changes with usage. Of course, if I were to find myself in the dock at the Old Bailey, I hope my barrister could split the finest of hairs.

Do I take it from your words that you believe people should conform and not express their view in a public forum, except with the permission of people like yourself? I would have thought that knowledge and language are one of the same things. Are you expecting me to believe that the real meaning of what I say lies behind my word and resides in a part of my brain, because surely as soon as I express what I know with language then that knowledge becomes a publicly shared concept: unless the possessed knowledge is shared, how can its existence be proved?

Look at your example:

I do so love people who try to impress others.

Do you really love me, even though you havent met me? Or is there a cynicism behind your words, a more negative meaning? Is the real meaning of what you write the opposite of the words you choose to use? Why didnt you write something like: I dont like people who try to impress.

How does a person possess knowledge? Besides, I would have thought the opposite to be true: a learned entity is characterised by study; while being educated implies a person has received a formal education; although, the meaning of these words may change depending on their usage as Wittgenstein rightly argues: E.g.

his own milieu, except to give lectures or to participate in learned debates. He was a socialist, a democratic reformer

which Hamilton was involved. A text critical edition replete with learned commentary will be developed and become

strongly in her memory took place in the town's most learned book shop, a charming building that dated

Some years ago I discussed my beliefs with a learned Professor of Agriculture at a leading university.

"The population in general is very well educated about AIDS," says Anthony Kasozi..."

"Based on statistical data for Roman catholics educated in both Roman catholic and other..."

"Eton and Sandhurst educated Sir Vivien, 28, was last seen..."

British National Corpus: http://corpus.byu.edu/bnc/

Marks: 4/10

Remarks: Can do better but lacks concentration.

----------------------------------------
Choatle, after reading your post, I think it rather presumptous of you to criticize someone else's grammar etc. when your post is riddled with all kinds of mistakes, grammar, spelling and punctuation to mention just a few.

If you preview and correct your text before pushing the 'post your message' button, you will have a great deal more credibility when expounding on the use of the English language.

(sorry to be picky, but it's cold and snowing here)

Ahhh, eng.teacher. You said British English teacher !! There is a difference, so maybe my end of the stick WAS from the tree you were wrongly barking up ?

Mind you, "really pisses me off" is very British English.
I can think of others equally descriptive, however there may be ladies following this thread so I'll leave it at that.

....these young foreign teachers you mentioned maybe
"educated but NOT learned". How is this? Teachers out there,
please explain further. Thank you.

Can I just say here I have really enjoyed reading this thread. It has made me laugh so much. I think the biggest problem here is the word 'Education'. Foreigners come here for a few reasons, 1, They want to help a country who feels a need to develop it's skills in dealing with the rest of the world. 2, they are young people who just finished uni and want to travel a while before going home and getting "a proper job". they are the targets for the recruiters who can manipulate them for their own ends. Recruiters charge the schools to find a foreign teacher for them and they , the schools, have no idea of the different culture these young people are from. sometimes they just leave after a few weeks as they can't deal with the problems and no one is ther to help them, certainly not the recruiter, who got his/her fee and is is "off like a bag of prawns in a heat wave". the young foreign teachers need to be "Educated" before they even try to think of coming to China to teach, to learn to avoid the bogus and crooked recruiters, who come and go like the very rice they should be out cultivating, but there's money to be made from the unwary. they have an expression here in the south of CHina it is "sui yue" it means water fish literally, but really means easily cheated... there are a lot of sui yue out there...

I myself have made this very suggestion many times in the past, that schools handle their own hiring, but it makes too much sense I think.

What I have told school owners in the past is that they need to hire someone who's sole job is to find teachers. An Hr director would be in charge of all human resources, and to be fair, finding teachers is a full time job for some schools. With the ridiculously low pay some of these schools pay Chinese teachers, if they employ a lot of foreign teachers, it might just be cheaper to hire someone.

Now for smaller schools who only have a few it might help save money, this is true, to use a recruiter. however to be fair, it's not that hard. It's just that Chinese for the most part don't understand foreigners, or how to attract them. Most recruiters have no idea either.

Take Mandy and Lynn for example. I came to them looking for work because, where I live, the job market is actually very competitive. While they were very good at providing opportunities, Lynn herself was extremely rude. Not only that, but at the same tame I was talking to Lynn, I was also talking to Mandy, not knowing she and Lynn were partners. Mandy claimed to not know I was working with Lynn, and if that is so, then these two are the least familiar partners I have ever seen, and not so good at their jobs.

Anyhow, the rudeness was what surprised me. It was little things, comments she would make about me that were personal in regards to my talking with one school, observations of a personal nature that were completely out of bounds. After I asked what she thought were too many questions she became very annoyed and started to become even more personal. Those questions being if I could talk to the other foreign teachers at that school, and was told no. After that she called me cheap, for asking the school to pay for my train ticket to the school. Then things just got worse and in every message it was like I was talking to some school yard bully, who took every chance he nor she could to degrade and deride me. Whats worse, what can you do, you need them, and they know it. At that point I said I told her I did not appreciate how I was being treated, at which point I was threatened, the job I was to take canceled, by her of course, and was told in no uncertain terms to watch myself or my visa might be revoked.

The moral of this story is, recruiters are indeed bad news, especially these two. No doubt after this landslide of unfavorable posts about them they will change their emails, if their smart, and continue on their merry way.

This is one reason why Chinese schools need recruiters. Just think about it, if they are that bad at recruiting, imagine how bad the schools must be at it.

What you really need to do, if you want to put these folks out of business, is just give the schools you know of a list of all the esl websites you know. Every single one allows advertising. I was quite shocked myself to learn that the two schools they told me I would be hired at had never heard of Daves ESL cafe or this site. Consequently I let them know, and Lynn and Mandy promptly lost those schools as client

You do have power, you can exercise it, let these people know you are not just a commodity, like pork bellies or cars, but a human being with real feelings.

Hi Pumpkin ! Its great to hear from someone who is " plenty happy " with the service they have recieved from a company in China and who managed to extricate themselves from " a pot of water " because the original school they worked for was illegal. Perhaps now you would like to tell us all the name of the Company you used to find your job so we can ALL use it.
Why do you think you are earning more than other posters here? Do you know how much we, as individuals, earn?
Finally, judging by your grammar and use of rather unusual phrases, it would seem to me that English is not your first language. Are you by any chance CHINESE?
I guess you are not a native speaker, and have been taught your English by a British English teacher. Am I correct?
I look forward to your next post as I am very keen to find out the organization you work for so that I might be able to contact them with a view to future employment.
Have a nice day.

Look, to be honest, we teachers (the mass majority) do not want to deal with any recruiters or agencies. For over 5 years I have been doing ESL in China, and I have seen many recruiter/agency names come and go.

The final say is we don't want to have to deal with any middlemen / recruiters. We don't want them. We know they are no good because they do not have the best interest of the school in mind nor do they have the best interest of the teacher in mind. They are just trying to fill a spot in order to get a commission.

The solution is for schools NOT to use recruiters and agencies. Rather most company schools have an HR department or the owner will hire the teacher personally. For universities they should have a department head, this person can try to hire a teacher. Direct communication between the school and teacher is critical. Not only that, the school could save themselves a lot of money by avoiding the recruiters.

NO MORE RECRUITERS NO MORE AGENCIES!!! TEACHERS AND SCHOOLS ONLY!!!

This is just your prejudice, I know Mandy sine 2005,she has been a good recruiter for the passed three years for me and my friends, the jobs we got from her were pretty good. So,when you judge someone you need to be careful,cause you are not telling the truth,man!