I have been a controller in Australia, Dubai and Hong Kong for some 36 years, and basically I spend my whole time training locals (in HK). It just about drives me nuts when I have to try and force people to be a bit assertive when it is culturally difficult for them. Of course I also try and keep my students from "hopping into the cockpit". The basic problem here, and no doubt in most other places, is that many of the young student controllers recruited these days, have little or no base interest in aviation. Well, that is certainly the case in Hong Kong. I often ask new arrivals as to why they are with me in the tower, and 90% of the time the answer is: "I saw the advertisement in the paper". Obviously this doesn't neccessarily apply to places like the UK etc, but it is what I am seeing. As to the observations on comments such as "Do you think you will be able to make a successful approach from where you are?" and some of the responses from pilots, well just remember that we are trying to be a part of the picture also, and if we can anticipate the likely hood of a missed approach (particularly in IMC)..the earlier the better. We have our issues and jobs to do to ensure separation with parallel departures, so we are not just sitting in the tower/Approach radar sipping tea and twiddling our thumbs. There is an interesting air/ground clip doing the rounds on the internet at the moment with the Kennedy (NY) ground controller having fun with a number of aircraft, both US and foreign, well that guy is being assertive, as one would expect from that neck of the woods, but he sure aint achieving much! So I guess the bottom line as I see it, is to have the right amount of assertiveness to be useful!