xieyang

English teaching in China focuses on memorization of isolated words, sentences, short paragraphs, which are never put to any real time use. So Chinese students end up tongue-tied even if they may have 6,000 words in their head!

I had 10 foreign teachers in my secondary school, all of them conversation teachers. In retrospect, their command of English differs significantly, some had a richer, and more refined vocabulary, others tended to speak in a more colloquial manner. But I think it's also part of learning to know the differences among native speakers themselves.

Also what I have learned from those foreign teachers is, apart from the language itself, the culture they come from. It was my first real encounter with Western culture which I had previously only known from books. The foreign teachers are, each in their own way, an embodiment of their culture. They may not realize it themselves, but by simply being with us, by being physically present, they deliver to us a picture of how Westerners really are and think and how they differ from us Chinese.

So my point is that academic credentials aren't that important. Each foreign teacher can be enrichment to our experience.