Job Discussion Forums

[Mardy]

I am back to this board after a lengthy absence. I used to teach in Vietnam and had a website on tips (I wrote under my actual name). Some of you might remember me, but I guess most of you have joined the ESL scene more recently

I returned to Australia in 1998, studied an IT qualification, joined the public service following year, and have spent the time since then working for the same employer in our beloved bush capital.

Some of you here probably are thinking to yourself: 'Golly...what am I going to do back home ?' Well, let me just tell you the idea of a career is dramatically exaggerated. You pay a fair slice of tax. You work with people who are incredibly narrow with their life aspirations, and you need to think twice before envying them. And it is going to get a whole lot worse when the baby boomers start retiring.

On TV it is just reality shows, Jackass or dumbed-down documentaries. Marriage feels like playing Russian Roulette with three bullets out of six chambers.

When I was overseas in the mid-1990s there were 300,000 other Australians living abroad. That figure has now more than *tripled*, and while immigration makes up the shortfall we are still loosing our best and brightest. Clearly I am not alone in jumping ship

Yet I have done reasonably well in the five years here - and now I finally plan to return back overseas somewhere and do something. Don't know yet, but I can be certain I am not going to be fretting about 'what am I going to do back home ?'

[denise]

One sure-fire way to avoid the returning-home-blahs is to make EFL/ESL your career! When I do finally return to the States, ideally it will be to a teaching job in which I am surrounded by like-minded EFL-turned-ESLers. That way I will never feel the need to pack up and leave, and if/when I do, it'll be because that's what I want, not because I'm running away from a mundane job/life.

d

[struelle]

[Lynn]

I vaguely remember a guy who had a website about teaching in Viet Nam.

I also left the biz. I now work for an airline. I get to see the world and fly for free. It's amazing the people we have working in our office. We have a lawyer, woman with a masters degree in education. My trainer was a former high school Spanish teacher. A few nurses. I guess the flight benefits are just too much for some people to walk away from. As for me, I first saw this as my new career and I had planned to work my way up the airline ladder. But my Japanese husband is still in Japan and has yet to get a job in the states, so I might have to say good bye to my airline career. The thought of becoming an eikaiwa teacher in Japan is so depressing. I've already decided that I'm just going to become a student if I have to move to Japan. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard for one person to support two people in Tokyo, so I'll probably have to work anyway.

I admit, I totally miss immigrant students in NYC. But there is a lot I don't miss: I don't miss having to worry about my job security everyweek. I don't have to worry about one student not coming to class and the class gets cancelled and I'm out of work. I don't have to worry about begging tooth and nail to use the photocopier. I don't miss having to be visa police.(f-1). I don't miss the managers telling me I have to change my personality to this or that so the students won't get bored.

In the airline industry I am guaranteed full time work, and could even get overtime. I get health insurance for the first time in my life. I get sick leave for the first time in my life and vacation leave and personal leave and even bereavement leave. AND it's PAID leave!!! And I don't have to worry about losing my job should I choose to take a leave.

There is a very small part of me that wonders if I'll ever go back to teaching, though. I think this is a good test to see if I am cut out to be a teacher.

[Gordon]

Lynn,
No job is guranteed. My wife had many of the same thoughts as you. She was working as a flight attendant (5 years) and then came 9/11. Good bye airline and flight benefits and medical and stock options. That was not a good time to be in the flight business.
Hopefully you will have a better future. Where are you based now since your hubby is still in Nihon? It must be tough to be apart. I don't miss my wife's long layovers and trips to Oz or Europe. She does though.

[Lynn]

Hey Gordon,
The events of 9-11 had zero effect on our company. I'm not joking. It's a regional carrier, and we've never had layoffs. This is one reason I took this job over the bigger carriers. Ture,it is tough being away from my husband. It's been over 4 months now. I don't think I could handle being a flight attendant. I get airsick sometimes. I give your wife credit. That job is harder than people think. I'm sure you know what it's like.

[scot47]

When I think of returning to the land where I grew up (Scotland) I feel physically ill. On my visits back there I feel totally alienated - I will stay in the land I have adopted as my own.

[gugelhupf]

C'mon, Scot. It's not five minutes since you were sniffing around for jobs in Asia.

[Ben Round de Bloc]