well, I suppose it's part of opting out of the system, but I see what you mean, certainly when you are competing with locals for the droppings. Certainly does look different over here, which is why these international conversations are essential to understanding.
Conversation schools are just that, night schools where you teach people english conversation and share your culture. When I started to look at teaching english around the world, I kept having these strange missionary associations, which is true in a way. There are some important differences - for instance I'm not directly espousing any view or trying to convert people to a way of thingking, and of course, they want me here and are paying me to talk with them, as opposed to me forcing myself down throats, but the similarities are greater than they would appear superficially. In a this more modern age, culture force is more subtle and sophisticated - give people a picture of life propogandized to perfection, then say "You know, you do your thing, but if you wanna be like this..." and then get people like me out here so they can do business in America, or just more fully enjoy the Hollywood features (which I believe outnumber local flicks, or at split em halfsies). So, that's what I mean when I say workin at a conversation school is, in some ways, worse. You are more directly affecting the local culture.
Workin in the public schools, I don't feel quite as bad about it, probably because it feels so much more academic and removed (and the kids are not so into it, sorta like most language classes anywhere that is kinda xenophobic, like US, Japan, Britain...) If I end up teachin in china, well, that's gonna be fascinating. About the only communist country I could have good access to, highly oppressive (I wonder if the blog would even make it thru the firewalls?) and all sorts of interesting things will come up. But at the moment I'm still very much in the air...