Everyone who cares about David (Canuck),
As a person who lives in Xinjiang, I was a little sad when I saw some of your posts. Yes Xinjiang is an undeveloped area. As China has entered WTO, more and more foreign investment with foreign companies will target huge market on this big area. Those place like Shanghai has already developed. So competitions for business are very violent in such places. Comparatively, Xinjiang will be less competition and more opportunities for business. I think foreigners must know this because they are smart. In a few years, foreign companies will be interested this vast land and people. They will hire local people as leaders, workers, and laborers. If we have no skills, we will be laborers. If we have excellent skills with excellent English, we may be chosen to be leaders or workers.
English is a tool for communication. It will make you do better in some areas. Take management for example, if we don't know English, how can we learn advanced system for management in developed countries? Why is China undeveloped? Because it would not be willing to open its door to the whole world and thought it was right on everything. Now the opportunity is coming up. Why are we waiting for? Yes, some people haven't realized this yet. Those will find themselves already being eliminated through competition when they begin to realize it.
English is not a thing to be easily commanded. It needs long-term effort. Could it be said that you just start learning it when you badly need it? China has a saying, "As the war begin, you just go and find your gun." If you just start finding your gun as the war begins, you won't probably be able to find it because you are already shot by your enemy.
In my own opinion, students in Xinjiang do indeed need native speakers as their teacher, especially those middle school students. They need a teacher who can inspire their interest in English, who can give them a relaxed environment to study, who can encourage them to speak. In my area there is no foreigner in any school, but look at Shanghai or Beijing, the percentage of having foreign teachers is much higher than Urumqi. The less communication, the less development.
I am very esteem the spirit of sacrifice David has. He doesn't care of the low salary and poor modern conditions. He wants to help the students in the west. That's why I have the same feeling of Mary's, angry. I feel pity for those students. I wish the students would see all the posts about David. Some of students are a little shortsighted. They think oral English won't help them at present and they don't want to spend their time on the thing they think is useless. Russia is China's neighbor. So they think Russian is much useful than English, but little do they know Russian is not a universal language. China will be the cooperation partner of other countries, too, not only Russia. David should tell them this. Of course, it doesn't mean let them stop learning Russian. Everyone has their own goal. It will be enough to tell them the future use of English.
I don't want to make comments on whether David should leave or stay or change a school, because he has the right and be able to choose when he analyzes the situation carefully. All I want to say is Xinjiang does indeed need open its mind, and if it can't attract a foreigner, what on earth can Xinjiang attract?
Jenny
