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[cheekygal]

I wouldn't be able to stay in Taizhou long either. As what was said above: foreigners I met (except for may be 2-3) were quite unfriendly, pretended you don't exist and turned their faces away. Oh well. And there isn't much to do, it is true.

I didnt' like teaching in Shenzhen. It felt too huge, too urban but in that very pressuring way. And by the way when I was there, foreigners werent the friendliest bunch. As for Chinese who lived there at that time... very arrogant, often rude.

[Vegemite]

A "real" teacher not only instructs, but also learns (irrespective of the source of the knowledge), and would never scorn the lesson.  I have learnt more from my students, as well as the Saloon's "irregular" teachers, than I ever could/did in my Degree classes! 

Remember.....If you send a donkey to Oxford, all you will get back is an educated Ass!!

I agree Amonk - a 'real' teacher never stops being a student.

[Lotus Eater]

I have a little theory about the 'unfriendly foreigner' syndrome.

I figure that from the outside China looks like this massive, monolithic structure that is so alien, so exotic that one puts one's life at risk coming here.  So when the foreigner arrives, sees so many other foreigners that feeling of adventure, of specialness, of bravery is challenged.  if there are so many of them here, then it must be easy and suddenly it doesn't seem like the great risk and adventure it was going to be.

So - ignore them, they will go away and we can keep on with the view that we are brave, daring creatures who have manged to survive in this incredibly alien world.

[AMonk]

LE, that may well explain the unfriendlies in China....however, they also appear here (Bermuda) and England and USA.  (I can't speak to other countries, but I'm fairly certain that they exist in other places as well).  I have come to believe that they are simply an ugly pimple on the face of Humanity.

[ericthered]

A "real" teacher not only instructs, but also learns (irrespective of the source of the knowledge), and would never scorn the lesson.  I have learnt more from my students, as well as the Saloon's "irregular" teachers, than I ever could/did in my Degree classes! 

Remember.....If you send a donkey to Oxford, all you will get back is an educated Ass!!

I agree Amonk - a 'real' teacher never stops being a student.

Indeed...non scholae sed vitae discipuli.