You are exactly right here, nick. You have hit t' nail on it's head so to speak. A degree and a TEFL (whats one of them, a kettle?!) is not needed for China. No, no, all you need is a good native english accent, rapport with your students, a bit of humour, and a few downloaded handouts off the internet. Too many eggheads in their ivory towers on here making it out to be some kind of arcane science, when it is not. It's much like making a batch of pies to me, some will bake and turn out great and another batch not. Much like baking, you learn the same way in teaching what works and what don't, one lesson may not go so well like, and another may well turn out to be chuffing brilliant. I has no time for these snooty lot on here like this nasty turnoi telling others what to do....what does he know, unless he is a native speaking expert, he can prove us all wrong, but I certainly wouldn't listen to someone who doesn't have the queens own english as their first language bandying about ill founded advice on China and teaching.

You and the other poster know your eggplants when it comes to China, no doubt about that one.