Job Discussion Forums

[Hod]

I wasn�t always a teacher you know, I once had a proper job jet-setting and going to meetings and stuff. It was during one such drinking session that I visited some long-distant relatives in Los Angeles. Our conversation went something like this:

Hod: Hello
Uncle Hod III: Excuse me?
Hod: I�m Hod.
Uncle Hod III: Oh hey Hoddle (it�s always the full name, isn�t it!). Come in and have an Irish whisk(e)y.
Hod: But it�s only 4 o�clock in the afternoon!
Uncle Hod II: Excuse me?

Minutes later (felt like a decade)�

Uncle Hod III: Hoddle, can I ask you a question?
Hod: By all means, if I can understand you.
Uncle Hod III: What�s your nationality?
Hod: I dunno. English I guess.
Uncle Hod III: We�re Irish Americans
Hod: Excuse me?

Some time before the last ice age, Hodd, an Irish caveman (painter decorator), ended up in America, couldn�t control himself and reproduced. Generations later, on a sunny January teatime in LA, Uncle Hod III, as Irish as an igloo, made this hilarious claim. It was partly the whisky, but didn�t hide the fact that he, like most Americans, believes they have roots elsewhere.

To you Americans I ask only this: Why do you love Europe so much? I know Americans working in dustbowls like Morocco, or in some former communist vodka factory masquerading as a country, just so they can be oh so close to that Holy Grail, the Mecca - Europe.

If that�s not enough, some of you go one step further! You actually pluck up courage to get on a boat to Europe itself. There you fill in enough paperwork to destroy Brazil and go to work for 10 Euros an hour!

This is understandable for Vietnamese boat people, but you lot come from the Land of Freedom.

Please explain.

Didn�t we all come from Adam and Eve anyway? You wouldn�t catch me wanting to grow a beard and teach naked in some garden in Africa.

Have you seen my school?:

[longtimeteach]

Teaching EFL in Germany allows me to contribute to the fundamental well-being of others because:

- I have the opportunity to help finance the reunification of East and West Germany for as many years as it takes
- I'm able to help the unemployed take courses in English, Computer Studies, etc. while never insisting that they actually use that training to try and get a job, especially not for poverty-standard pay
- I'm able to pay taxes to help the government fund programs in which I would never be permitted to participate because I'm a freelance worker and not a German citizen

I believe that the quality of life is infinitely better in Germany because:

- I can't afford a car so I don't contribute to polluting the air with auto exhaust, tire wear, used car bodies, etc.
- I have no disposable income to buy things for myself so I'm not contributing any excess packaging to overflowing landfills
- It's not possible to eat too much on my salary so my impact on the planet's resources is further reduced
- In winter my salary dictates that I keep the heat turned down quite low and I believe this reduces my 'footprint' on non-renewable resources

The experience of working as an EFL teacher in Germany has strengthened my character by forcing me to do things which don't benefit me directly but, rather, benefit humanity as as whole. Had I not had this experience I don't believe I would have voluntarily made the changes in my wasteful existence outlined above.

[Hod]

Mein Gott! Is there no end to the positivity and half-full glass mentality of you lot? Are you all masochists or what? Please please if I ever start a school, come and work for me!!!

[Madmaxola]

I thought longtimeteach was being sarcastic...

[Hod]

If I ever find an American capable of sarcasm, I'll eat my hat and then pay all my back tax to Germany.

[longtimeteach]

Madmax,

Don't let Hod bait you unless you want to go for a bit of spin. He's having you on and we (at least OC and I do) depend upon him for a much needed dose of levity around here.

He well knows that I meant to be tongue-in-cheek about his American-would-be-European thesis.

He'd never in a million years pay all his back tax to Germany, no matter what he tells you. His mother didn't raise any idiots. About eating his hat however...that would depend on how much work he's got lately and if he's got money with which to purchase more palatable comestibles.

[longtimeteach]

[stillnosheep]

[Hod]

[longtimeteach]

[Hod]

Different continents does not a hot relationship forbid, so here's my pic.



Sorry about the topless bit. It's hard work picking up my pay packet hence the wheelbarrow.

[The Overcoat]

I did offer to take over from longtime, but you just ignored me, Hod. Seems like we have an eternal triangle situation here. Hod wants Longtime, but longtime isn't interested in Hod, the Overcoat wants Hod but he has rejected her. Story of my life.

[longtimeteach]

Passing on the offer dear Hodster. You've got a few too many Br�tchen stashed in yer bucket and I wouldn't be able to find yer offer in any case.

All yours OC.

[The Overcoat]

Waddya say, Hod?

Kathrin

[stillnosheep]