Job Discussion Forums

[cks]

[quote="Kent F. Kruhoeffer"]This may sound like bragging, but the OP asked ...

"Over the past 24 years in ESL, aside from the teaching, which I love, I've stood at the Berlin Wall, most notably as it was coming down in large chunks in 1989; I've been at the bottom of a deep tunnel dug by North Korea at the DMZ; I've portaged up the jungle river of Pagsanjan in the Philippines, where many scenes of 'Apocalypse Now' were filmed; been four times to Oktoberfest in Munich; hiked around the Carpatian Mountains of Romania where Vlad the Impaler (a.k.a. Count Dracula) once lived; played billiards with real Gypsies; skied down glaciers in the Austrian Alps; stood in front of Lenin's Mausoleum in the middle of a snowy Red Square on New Year's Eve; strolled down Bangkok's legendary Khao San Road; sat in awe on the floor of The Blue Mosque (a.k.a. Sultanahmet) in Istanbul; swam in the Black Sea; played a small supporting role in the Chinese Film 'Yi Bu Liu Shen' and am now enjoying a relaxing six month tropical holiday in The Philippines, thanks to money I was able to save courtesy of ESL.

I could go on, but I think you get the picture.

Never mind the interesting people I've met along the way.

Didn't I expect or hope for more from my life? Um, no, not really."


Nice! I feel like I am a huge success due to all of my experiences that I have achieved and places that I have visited due to my choice to leave the boring office life and see the world! I have done some serious living!!!!! And my friends and family members with corporate jobs and good salaries are jealous of me and upset that I do not blog about my life. Am I rich? Yes, rich with amazing experiences and friendships that I attained abroad. And my aging parents are happy that I am not wasting away in their redneck town in TX doing some menial job to be near them. I see them more nowadays than I did when I lived in the States due to all the vacation that I get abroad.

And as for the job itself; yes it has its ups and downs, but more positives. Most students are such a pleasure. Many parents have approached me in the streets and given me hugs and gratitude for the impact that I have bestowed upon their kids. I can imagine many of us have such stories. We have helped them get into their favorite universities, we have helped many careers of adults advance, we have helped or given a nudge to people allowing them to achieve their dreams. We have all made an impact! We are all valuable unless we are giving minimal effort. We have helped professionals pass important exams, given self-confidence to many students, and the list goes on.

I still believe all work has its honor and value, but do not downplay what we do. We are seeing the world and helping others. And this turned into a tangent stating that language learners do not need us; immersion is the key. Perhaps this is true for some; but for many- they do need us and we have done so much for our own spiritual growth and helping others. So no- I have absolutely no regrets! And I am not going to leave this great job to go home and work in an office again. I want to continue this life. And I started it all at the young age of 33.

[greegor]

Turning 30 is a tyical time to reflect on this sort of thing, I think. Looking back, it's kind of funny. Arguably, you are just coming into being an adult at that age, having gone through "adult training" in your 20s.

It also depends on where you came from. My family was dirt poor. Well, not in the Asian sense, but certainly in the U.S. sense. I'm the only one in my family, going back at least to great grandparents on both sides, to have earned a university degree. (It took me 11 years, and the degree I earned was in music, but I earned it.) I'm the first one to have had a passport.

I DID use to play in bands, and one of them actually got pretty close to "making it," but it didn't. I didn't. I gave it a shot, got close a few times, but ultimately didn't get anywhere. No regrets. I tried.

And THEN I became an ESL teacher. And I am happier now than I ever was as a working musician, or as a U.S. resident.

I understand the feelings behind the original post, and I understand how people could find the question insulting. I remember that age, though, and those feelings are basically the feelings not of losing any opportunity but of finally giving up one's childhood. Painful, but you get over it.