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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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 Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 3:46 pm Post subject: |
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| Been here 12 years, love. |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:27 pm Post subject: |
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Women would have to work if supporting a family.
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Well, yeah. And in which professions back home is it common to raise a family on a single income these days?
I honestly don't understand what all the hysteria is about. Here's an idea- TEFL is an unusual field, as it's requirements for entry level jobs are quite low. (THink about the living you'd make in your home country with only a four week cert as a qualification.)
And if you stay at entry level all your life, in this field as in most others, your life is pretty much going to suck. Sorry, but that's reality in a lot of areas.
If you were to invest in further training, look for advancement, try to move into better positions...then life tends to look a bit better as well.
If, for reasons of freedom, mobility, and lack of constraints, you want to stay at the entry level, easy to find jobs, I respect that choice.
If you choose to do further training and move in directions that are interesting and fulfilling to you, I respect that choice as well.
If you choose to stay in dead end language schools, and pretend that's the only option going, that's honestly sort of sad.
Obviously some people will have trouble trying to relocate to their countries of origin- it's sad but true that in most cases when one is a long time away from a place, one's possibilities don't progress as much as they would have if one had stayed. And if one marries, and multiplies, responsibilities DO grow...makes it hard to go home again.
But the fact that things are hard in some cases doesn't really mean that TEFL is a lifetime poverty sentence. I like it, I'm living well now, and the future looks about as bright as it probably would if I'd stayed in Iowa to do...honestly, I have no idea what I'd have done in Iowa.
Justin |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:35 pm Post subject: |
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| If you had stayed in Iowa, surely you would have got a real job by now and no doubt be well secured in a real profession. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 6:47 pm Post subject: |
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| younggeorge wrote: |
| Sorry, thrifty: now you've really lost me. Maybe your bit of it is an industry, but there are a lot of good people out here for whom it is, indeed, a profession. |
Don't buy into the negativity and pessimism of "thrifty." He is a repeat troll on Dave's forums, having previously gone under the monikers "31" and "Mark Loyd" before taking breaks from posting. 
He is well known as somebody who is terminally unhappy in his life and career. He does nothing to remedy his sorry plight. But he will ceaselessly try to convince everyone (experienced as well as newbie) that there is NO future in English-language teaching except the bleak future that he has carved out for himself.
Check out this sample thread:
http://www.eslcafe.com/forums/job/viewtopic.php?t=31503&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
Take everything that "thrifty" says with a tiny, tiny grain of salt. Or no grain of salt at all. It's not worth it.
All you need to know is that teaching English as a foreign (or second) language is a true profession for those with the right attitude and with the right qualifications and experience. Dead-end jobs at language schools are common, but you don't need to get stuck in those jobs the way "thrifty" has done. He's just a sad complainer. |
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paulmanser
Joined: 28 Nov 2005
Posts: 403
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| Posted: Mon May 01, 2006 7:27 pm Post subject: |
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Put it this way.
You live for approx 75 years. Would you rather spend that getting qualifications to be able to have a TEFL career to enjoy the country you wish to work in, despite the money. Would you rather work in a horrible country earnign large amounts of money and hating your life day after day and die a unhappy guy?
Money is only paper.
My way of thinking.
Don't take life so seriously, because it doesn't take you seriously. Death smiles as us all, you can only smile back.
p.s and no I'm not a goth lol. |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 12:14 am Post subject: |
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| thrifty wrote: |
| If you had stayed in Iowa, surely you would have got a real job by now and no doubt be well secured in a real profession. |
Oh, really? So all the people you knew way-back when in your home country are now all rich and successful in their "real jobs"?
Yeah, sure.  |
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Rin
Joined: 09 Jan 2006
Posts: 173
Location: Doha
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 2:08 pm Post subject: |
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What is this "real job" thing anyway. Is it a "real job" just because you are doing it back in your home country?
TEFEL isn't what I want to do for the rest of my life, much as I love the kids, I don't find TEFEL to be very satisfying-FOR ME- And I agree that the private language schools are dead end jobs just looking for the cheapest TEFEL teacher they can find. But there are real TEFEL jobs out there, at univeristies and private schools that pay good money. At least as much as you would make at a "real job" back home, if not more.
As for retirement, you making good money and living rent free. Save, invest. Not everyone in the world gets a pension plan.
And as for your wife having to work, what's wrong with that? If your wife isn't willing to work towards your financial goals, than what kind of women is she?
(However, if you can afford to live on a single income and you have children and she wants to be a homemaker, than more power to them, good luck). |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 3:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Justin Trullinger wrote: |
| And if you stay at entry level all your life, in this field as in most others, your life is pretty much going to suck. Sorry, but that's reality in a lot of areas. |
And that sums up the sorry plight of "thrifty/31/Mark". Yet he maintains that his particular plight is the norm (and, indeed, is the only future for English teaching around the world). He is clearly wrong, as other posters have repeatedly shown. |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 5:18 pm Post subject: |
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| ls650 wrote: |
| thrifty wrote: |
| If you had stayed in Iowa, surely you would have got a real job by now and no doubt be well secured in a real profession. |
Oh, really? So all the people you knew way-back when in your home country are now all rich and successful in their "real jobs"?
Yeah, sure. |
No, love. Nobody sa�d anything about rich and I was referring to people like Justin with postgraduate qualifications. |
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Justin Trullinger
Joined: 28 Jan 2005
Posts: 3110
Location: Seoul, South Korea and Myanmar for a bit
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 6:11 pm Post subject: |
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ls650 wrote:
thrifty wrote:
If you had stayed in Iowa, surely you would have got a real job by now and no doubt be well secured in a real profession.
Oh, really? So all the people you knew way-back when in your home country are now all rich and successful in their "real jobs"?
Yeah, sure.
No, love. Nobody sa�d anything about rich and I was referring to people like Justin with postgraduate qualifications. |
No post grad quals completed as yet, but soon...  And thanks for the vote of confidence.
Not that I'm convinced that those are as decisive as you seem to think. Educated unemployment is sky high in America's heartland, and more and more, the educated employed are working in Starbucks. I have a brother who just finished college, and found himself working in a movie theater. My only point in this is that when we complain about opportunities for TEFL teachers abroad (And there are plenty of legitimate complaints!), we shouldn't compare with some rose tinted image of what things are like back home. Most of my friends from college are working their ways up from entry level jobs in industries totally unrelated to what they studied. Many have two jobs just to get by. Loads are still far, far in debt over student loans for a degree that hasn't increased their earning potential enough to cover the payments. Benefits are declining as well...the job market in the US isn't anything to get excited about. I doubt very much that in the US, I'd be earning more than the national average, or living as well as I do here.
But when I said that I didn't know what I would have done in Iowa, I was speaking for my soul, at least as much as for my professional life. The reason I left is that, much as it was a nicish place to grow up, there was simply nothing I wanted to do in Iowa.
Happy teaching, everybody.
Justin |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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| thrifty wrote: |
| Nobody sa�d anything about rich and I was referring to people like Justin with postgraduate qualifications. |
Actually, you wrote 'well-secured', so I'll rephrase my response to more accurately reflect what you wrote:
Oh, really? So all the people you knew way-back when in your home country are now all 'well-secured' in their "real jobs"?
Yeah, sure. |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 7:22 pm Post subject: |
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I never said all the people. I was referring to people with postgraduate qualifications and subsequent experience.
You do not sound so happy in your TEFL career. |
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Henry_Cowell
Joined: 27 May 2005
Posts: 3352
Location: Berkeley
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 7:30 pm Post subject: |
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"thrifty/31/Mark Loyd"
Don't you have a CELTA? So you and Justin have equivalent qualifications. But why have your life and your attitude turned out so differently from Justin's? A little self-analysis here would be most illuminating for all. |
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ls650
Joined: 10 May 2003
Posts: 3484
Location: British Columbia
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 7:38 pm Post subject: |
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| thrifty wrote: |
| I never said all the people. I was referring to people with postgraduate qualifications and subsequent experience. |
Uh huh. Good thing you left yourself some wiggle room.
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| You do not sound so happy in your TEFL career. |
That's a rather odd comment, considering I wrote this just a few posts back:
Geez, I guess I must be the odd one out - I really love teaching English! Most days I actually look forward to getting up in the morning and going in to my office.
It reads to me like you're the one who's unhappy in TEFL! |
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thrifty
Joined: 25 Apr 2006
Posts: 1665
Location: chip van
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| Henry_Cowell wrote: |
"thrifty/31/Mark Loyd"
Don't you have a CELTA? So you and Justin have equivalent qualifications. But why have your life and your attitude turned out so differently from Justin's? A little self-analysis here would be most illuminating for all. |
The great TEFL qualification, the CELTA did not exist 12 years ago DR. I thought a veteran such as yoursefl would have known that. |
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