1. For example myself at the age of 62, but also many other older people, are not necessarily "ill-educated". Or would you say that someone with two Master degrees and 2 doctorates plus a lifelong teacher and research career plus many and relatively widely read publications to his credit is "ill-educated"? There are many others at my age, good men and women, with a similar profile, and some of them are even in China. Very often, however, they can't make use of their full potentials because their employers would not allow it and make them part of the rigid system of rules and control instead.

2. "Bad attitudes" towards older people may concern those in all walks of life, the more and the less educated, and it is foremost a problem in Western societies. I am wondering what all these employers would do when the demographic change (people get older and have a longer life expectancy, at the same time less children are born and the rate of younger people succeeding older people in professional life is significantly in decline...) will take effect and employers will urgently seek qualified and experienced employees that they then will not be able to find?

3. Regarding ESL in China, it is first and foremost the Chinese themselves who know nothing about real education, who maintain a system that does not allow for a free flow of information, creativity and materials and is bound by a tight system of useless rules and control instead, who are running unethical businesses, and where education is more of a show and pretence than real with a quest for high quality. The Chinese, then, invite white monkeys to perform in their muppet show, and if it was at that level, you are right in saying that for "teaching" Oral English, no qualification and degree is required at all. If on the other hand, you want to increase academic standards and make it better, and if therefore you don't want to keep it the detestable way it is right now... - well, then the Chinese themselves must take on the responsibility to add more professionalism and quality to their education system in general and to ESL in particular. In practice, it means they should employ foreign teachers that meet a minimum set of requirements, both in their education and their personality. That's the other side of the coin but it will not happen soon. BTW, if things get upgraded one day or the other and thus will gradually become better in this respect, the days will definitely be over where we discuss things whether to have sex with students or not on a board like this. The fact that we actually do indicates to me the rotten state of the ESL industry; I haven't seen that happen anywhere else in my life in the educational area. Things like the latter are simply points that a professional and ethical teacher needn't discuss as he is expected to have a clear stance in the matter. Overcoming this rotten state will mean that we will see a different type of foreign teacher in China - well educated with a mature personality, but all of us then will be history there, I am afraid.