I don’t have much faith in the screening process for foreign teachers, because it seems that almost anyone can become one. About 16 years ago, when I was living in Ubon Ratchathani, I remember meeting a Japanese national who taught both English and Japanese. At the time, the area where I lived was much less developed than it is today, and he was the only foreign teacher at the school. As for people from South Africa, I don’t want to generalize, but in my own experience, I have often encountered individuals with very poor attitudes people who looked down on the country they were living in and displayed racist behavior. Some even mocked students who struggled to speak English, despite those students putting in considerable effort to learn. There are also overlapping issues involving race and perceptions of Black people, as well as people who have emigrated from countries affected by serious political and social problems, including disputes over land ownership. As a result, we sometimes see individuals who carry a sense of having been treated unfairly into another country and, unfortunately, reproduce attitudes rooted in resentment or hostility toward others there.
