Job Discussion Forums

Sunpower · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 256 Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

I imagine that your experiences overseas teaching EFL would be valuable in getting a teaching job back in the U.S./Canada.

Can't imagine much else than that, unfortunately?

Remember, there are lots and lots of young people with Master's degrees back in Canada working as waiters/waitresses and shoe sales clerks.

A lot of young people mistakenly bought into the, 'If you have a university degree you can live the dream in Canada.'

But not quite true.

It's pretty bad, actually.

richard ame · Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Posts: 319 Location: Republic of Turkey

Hi
I hear all this talk about people going back "home" wherever that might be after more than a decade living and working in another country/culture and expecting to walk into a "goodjob" all I can say is good luck mate you are going to need it especially if you are above a certain age . The chances of me being able to support myself in this chosen "profession" back in the U.K would be pretty slim and as for trying to maintain the type of lifestyle I enjoy here forget it ,come on get real why bother you're much better out of it ,just think of those cold winters and wet summers ,what a waste of bloody time .

scot47 · Joined: 10 Jan 2003 Posts: 15343

Yup. The man is right. There is no road back. Once you are into this EFL/ESL game you are stuck with that. So make sure they pay you. Well !

johnslat · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:25 pm Post subject: The road not taken

Dear scot47,
No road back? There can be - if you do a lot of planning ahead and preparation. It also doesn't hurt to " strike up acquaintances " with the right people. I'll be going back to a full-time teaching job in the States, but I started down that road about 4 years ago, using a good portion of my summer holidays to lay the groundwork. Easy? No - but there CAN be a " road back ".
Regards,
John

travellingscot · Joined: 27 Jan 2003 Posts: 64 Location: UK/Eastern Europe

I am surprised that amongst the readers of this thread nobody has thought to criticise the remarks made by "reality",who has commented rather unfavourably on attitudes in UK.
"Closed,xenophobic,Nationalistic" attitudes are not held by everyone,and surely the matter of whether or not they are " antiquated and ignorant" is open to debate.
Perhaps South Africa is not a great example of a country throwing off the yoke of colonialism and racism,before returning to a more peaceful and law-abiding way of life????
Having travelled to a few countries in the past,i would not consider the UK to be the worst offender,and i wonder if anybody out there can name a few countries where they have never encountered xenophobia or nationalism,as it has been mentioned quite a lot on here?
There seems to be a lot of inter-country animosity on this site,and anti-american views have been condemned by others,so i feel i am entitled to speak up for my own country,even with its faults.

johnslat · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2003 3:49 pm Post subject: Bozos in every land

Dear travellingscot,
In my experience, prejudice, xenophobia and jingoism are ubiquitous - I've found them everywhere. Moreover, I'd say that each country has approximately the same proportion of jerks to decent people ( roughly, 1 to 10 ). Those who are down on a whole country, race, etc. belong to the 1, mentioned above.
Regards,
John

Kent F. Kruhoeffer · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国

Dear Reality:

Scot47 wrote: " ... There is no road back."

Truer words were never spoken.

After a glorious decade of adventures in EFL-Land, I decided it would be fun to go back and spend a year in the States ... in honour of the new millennium, to 'catch up' on family ties, etc ... so I did.

Without going into the lurid details, I can tell you that it was the most frustrating and disappointing year of my entire life.

My credit rating had disappeared, and employers in general were NOT impressed with my worldly adventures. I felt basically like a fish out of water; a boat with no oars; a traveller with no place to go.

It was an eye-opening experience. Lesson learned. I am now back where I belong. Wink

If there is a moral to this story, it would be this: People should think long and hard before jumping head over heels into EFL.

When I think back to that painful lesson, I am reminded of the line from Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken", in which he said ... "and both (roads) that morning equally lay in leaves no step had trodden black. Oh! I kept the first for another day, yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back ..."

Yep. Me too. Wink

Regards,
kEnT

Sunpower · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 256 Location: Taipei, TAIWAN

I remember one of my first NOVA supervisors asking me how long I was planning to stay in Japan for.

I told him that I was only going to stay for a year.

He laughed and told me that a lot of people say that.

Well, at the end of the year I went back to Canada, resigned from my job, tied up a few other loose ends and went back to Japan.

That was almost 4 1/2 years ago.

I don't even think I could cope with having to go and live back in B.C. again.

When my students ask me how do people in Canada feel about such and such and I really have to think about it because I've been gone for so long now.

And I've only been back twice in those 4 1/2 years for short stays.

If it weren't for some family pressure to go back for a visit, I'd have no interest in going back to Canada at all.

There are more interesting places for me to explore rather than going back to Canada.

Kent F. Kruhoeffer · Joined: 22 Jan 2003 Posts: 2129 Location: 中国

Dear Forum:

When I read the William James quote below, I thought it belonged here:

"Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice that says, "This is the real me," and when you have found that attitude, follow it."- William James

reality · Joined: 13 Mar 2003 Posts: 105

I guess I will be going on the road again. Theres no point being frustrated,
and bored in Europe.

There are good, well paid jobs in my area. So anyone who has a Trade, does well here. Its strange, in developing Countries Tradesmen and women are low-paid "coolies", here they earn more than an Office Manager.

IT workers and teachers are the bottom of the barrel here. I just wonder what the future holds for people, who opt out of education, and chose the more lucrative Construction Industry. I guess Education, means nothing unless you want to be a Lawyer or an Engineer.

So, if yopu chose to return "Home". Then forget IT work or Teaching, unless you become Self-Employed, or design a successful Website.

Stephen Jones · Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Posts: 4124

There is a recession caused by tthe dot.bomb so there is up to 30% unemployment among IT workers in the UK, and a smaller but siginificant percentage of unemployed IT workers in the US.

However many of these IT workees only had jobs becasue of the previous bubble, and in many cases they neither would have been attracted to the salaries in a saner job market, nor would have been hired had employers not been taking anybody of the strieet who knew how to open a tag in HTML.

Salaries in the States for programmers and systems administrators seem to be still in the $45,000 - $85,000 range and probably higher in hot spots such as NYC, so I doubt if what you are saying holds true. There are of course plenty of web-designers and PC builders who are umemployed and are likely to remain so for a long time because their limited skills are no longer needed.

Incidentally, nobody is making money of a successful website any more. Dave is one of the few exceptions, but I doubt if it has anything to do with his IT skills. In fact considering the choice of software he made for these forums, I would say it certainly isn't.