[achobo]

Well, I understand what you are saying and can I agree that I'm a "visitor", not necessarily a guest.

I don't necessarily see the difference between the two as someone who visits somewhere is usually referred to as a guest. But this is arguing semantics, which is something I have no interest in. The point I was trying to make is that anyone who is working for someone else must be respectful of what their employer allows. This is not only true when teaching in another country but is also applicable at any job. It just so happens that when working overseas you have two "employers" per se, the school and the country.

Can I ask that we all, not just here, but in other places start adding "I think ..." "I believe ..." "..., in my opinion." or things like that?

I agree whole heartily that people add things like this to their speech on a daily basis. It is the sentence structure of choice when talking about belief. Not only for religion, but other topics such as politics and economics as well.

I am going to be presumptuous and guess where you are going with a question such as this. Belief does pervade our daily lives and many things people take as solid facts are considered beliefs by others. A prime example is the arrangement between creationism and evolution that subtly creeped into this thread. Stating "facts" such as these is equivalent to stating beliefs because they can not be scientifically proven either way at this point. These types of "belief-facts" are especially dangerous as they can be partially proven by science and are often taken as true facts.

But that line of thinking aside, we are teaching English as a Second Language and debates and pitfalls such as these can be easily sidestepped as they are not the focus of the class. Saying "These people believe this..." is sufficient to explain any holiday or phenomenon sufficiently for the class. Again, I believe phrases such as you mentioned earlier have no place in the classroom because they are words of indoctrination.

I apologize if my assumptions on where you were going with that question are wrong.