Job Discussion Forums

[guatetaliana]

I just wanted to introduce myself, because I have a feeling I'll be asking all kinds of questions and participating pretty frequently on here, so if anyone is curious about who I am, here is my introduction.

My story is something like this: I grew up just outside Chicago (one of the best cities on Earth!) in a community of immigrants from rural Michoac�n. To further complicate things, my father immigrated from Guatemala shortly before I was born, and my mother is Italian-American straight out of Chicago's Little Italy. Additionally, my husband was born and raised in a family of doctors in Monterrey, Mexico but was brought, very much against his will, to Chicago at age 15. I'm glad he was, though, because he's a really smart, awesome guy and my life is way better with him in it.

I graduated from college with a degree in Elementary Education, and taught bilingual elementary in Chicago and back in my hometown for a couple years. Somewhere in there, my husband and I decided to leave the US (this was partly due to his migratory status there, which is pretty much un-fixable despite our marriage). I went to Barcelona and got a TEFL certificate, and then we moved there last summer. We loved it, but after awhile, we decided we weren't up to both living and working illegally, so we traveled Italy, France, and Belgium before coming to Monterrey in October 2007.

Since then, I've been teaching fourth grade at a private school (miserable, every horror story about spoiled rich brats is true here), while my husband teaches adults with Interlingua. Considering he's never taught before, it was a great way to start out, and it seems he's a bit of a natural. He might pursue TEFL certification later on, if this really ends up being the right career for him.

We're doing well here, but not really sure what we want to do long-term. We're still looking into other countries, dreaming of returning to Europe someday, and considering Asia as a short-term possibility, but it looks like it will be Mexico for at least another year. So we'll probably be looking for help making the most of our time here.

Looking forward to meeting and exchanging ideas with other teachers here!

[Samantha]

Welcome to the forum! You sound really positive (I read some of your blog) in spite of things, especially day-to-day when your students are not the most enjoyable. It will be great to have you posting here.

[Linda T.]

I'm fairly new here too so don't know if I've earned the right to say "welcome" but I've definitely earned the right to say it sure is nice to have another newby on board.

I'm not surprised that Samantha was the first to officially welcome you. Sometimes it takes a while for us newbies to get the hang of how things are done around here (actually, I consider life to be one huge learning curve, so I don't know why this should be any different), but Samantha, you helped to bring me into the loop as well.

Although I'm now in California, I got my TEFL certificate in Guadalajara a couple of years ago. Instead of staying on the teach then, I decided to come back to the states, finish up my BA degree, and try to get some ESL teaching experience under my belt.

Consequently, I've taught ESL to young adults from all over the world the past 2 summers at a private language school and am 1 quarter away from earning by BA in Communication.

After one last summer teaching ESL here, I hope to join you all as an EFL teacher in Mexico come September.