Native English-speaking teachers (NETs) should never have been deployed in Hong Kong's practical, pre-vocational, Band Four or Band Five schools.

Such schools are kiss-of-death postings for enthusiastic young foreign teachers. After seven weeks in one such school, I find that I am serving mainly as a bouncing board for loutish students to try out their lewd English insults. Such students appear to have no interest in learning even the simplest levels of English. They remain beginners despite years of English instruction.

What possible impact can non Chinese-speaking teachers have on classes of approximately 40 negatively motivated, barely literate students, who are either asleep on their desks or out of control? NAME AND ADDRESS SUPPLIED