Job Discussion Forums

[nomadder]

Despite many in the *third* world thinking everything is so movie starish wonderful for all of us *first* worlders it must be not so great after all considering the basically crap conditions that many teaching abroad jobs offer with no signs of improvement. Apparently there are enough desperate people to take bad paying, over-working-next to no holiday jobs(holidays being especially needed when away from homeishness).

What is it that drives people? Escaping mindless culture(to one you don't really understand), something "different", the feeling of being the foreign untouchable or something else? Is home really so bad or are there just many escapists out there?

[thehairyhorse]

for me it`s basically cause I have no life back home. No work prospects as I was basically on the piss for all of my 20`s.
I have always liked going abroad and language so Tefl is perfect for me.
Actually, I hate being the foreign untouchable because it annoys the shit out of me being stared at all the time and always being asked the same fucking questions
.- the flip side is good as it's a lot easier striking up conversations with strangers though.
I call what you are saying RRS - Rolls Royce Syndrome - I think a lot of the locals think we all have private pensions and property in our home country and just do Tefl for fun - or we are all 'trustafarians' etc..
I also like 'teaching' the in-bred half wits abroad the superiority of the white man - especially my hero George W. Bush.....

[Guy Courchesne]

Boy, you must have had some bad experiences abroad. Glad I'v ehad otherwise.

From my perspective in TEFL training in Mexico, most people want to come down to Latin America to learn some Spanish or Portuguese, experience the culture, and pad their resume for eventual careers back home. People looking to retire often come down for the lower cost-of-living, better climate, cheaper medication, and the relaxed atmosphere.

That's not to say it's utopia in Latin America. It takes the right attitude, a little time, and a foreknowledge of what to expect to make it a great experience. I'm just over 4 years in Mexico City and wouldn't dream of going back to the 'first-world' (lol)

[juststeven]

Oooooooooh, are you going to get it for that statement! I'm not going to comment, just sit back and watch. This will be better that HBO.

[Sheep-Goats]

Of course, the mystique of a foregin location and/or its women has nothing to do with anyone going over seas. Nor the desire to widen experience. Nor fallout from divorce, bankruptcy, sexual identity shifts, etc. Nothing at all.

Yes, we all go overseas because we actually think we can make more money for less work than we can in our birth nations -- which are generally in the top ten as far as worldwide earning potentials and employment opportunities go.

[Guy Courchesne]

What strange forum I've wandered into. Why, the people here wear frowns instead of smiles, eat bland food, and watch endless reruns of Baywatch. It's like going back from Oz to Kansas.

lol...all in good fun kids.

Why all the negativity?

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

Lots of people go abroad for a varied of different reasons.

Now, I present to you:

The Great Wall of Whiner's Official List of Reasons Why Somone Would Take a Crappy Job Overseas With Little Holidays and/or Pay.

- Just divorced, need a change of scene.

- Actually believes a lot of money can be saved because everything is so cheap

- Wants to learn the language but no money to study it in school

- Find a wife

- Running from the law back home

- Wants to sexually abuse children

- Wants to immerse themselves in a new culture

- Wants to be a "star" and be pampered by the locals

- Visiting their heritage roots

- Wants to convert the masses into their religion

- Hates their own home country

- Too much pressure back home

- Running from child support payments

- Likes the food better

- Wants to maintain expensive smoking and/or drinking/drug habit

- Wants to gain experience teaching

- Likes travelling

- Living the false dream of girls just jumping on your lap and going home with a new one every night (China)

- Living the true dream of girls just jumping on your lap and going home with a new one every night (Thailand)

- Your wife of 5 years cheats on you with a good friend of yours so she pays for you to get a TESOL certificate and makes a deal with you that you won't inform immigration of the pending divorce until after she gets her landed immigant status in return for no spousal support and a lump sum of hush money. Also, she has to pay for your airflight to go teach in Japan.

- Fetish for Asians/Indians/Africans, etc.

- Recieved a great offer, only to get sucked in and find out afterwards things are crappy

- Too young to collect national pension, but too old to get a decent job

- Spouse passed away

- Have a terminal illness so wants to see the world

- Trying to change the world

- Believes that by teaching the world English, the world becomes one step closer to being an English-speaking planet (unite the world through language)

- Always wanted to learn how to use chopsticks

- Always enjoyed the burning sensation of "fire bum" after eating less-than-sanitary tacos

- Wants to get away from meddling parents

- Wants to get away from the taxman

- Wants to get away from all those traffic tickets

- Sick of politics at home

- Enjoys the power of being in control of a group of people

- School girl fetish

- Wants to study music of that culture

- Planning terrorism in the country

- Did something horrible back at home, so hiding out when it is eventually discovered

- Total loser back at home; now a fashionable stud

You can probably guess which one is me.....

[justcolleen]

[The Great Wall of Whiner]

thehairyhorse

[justcolleen]

GWoW, my children (who are, by the way, the coolest people ever to walk the planet; don't argue, it's a done deal) are bi-racial as well. So, because we share that common bond, I'm sure you understand how difficult parenting them can be.

Life is nothing but a series of (what I call) Here We Go moments.

You know, like when you're in the grocery store, standing in the check-out line waiting your turn, and your child refers to you with a parent-type of word, mom or dad. It never fails to become a slow motion moment, when everyone within earshot realizes (*gasp*) that child is yours.

Got a problem with staring? Try that type of stare on for size and you'll know what it's like to be stared at.

Sometimes they don't just stare, though. They open their stupid traps. Once, my children and I were travelling across the country, and stopped in a restaurant to eat. After our meal, my children went to the bathroom to brush their teeth. This a$$hole sitting nearby asked me, oh!, I could not believe this!, if I adopted them.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"Did you adopt them?"

"No, d1ckhead, I slept with a *** man, lots and lots of times. That's how I got them."

I have but one wish for people who say "half-breed" (such as thehairyarse): That their children have children outside of their pure, white race.

Colleen

[Roger]

Nomadder, I won't take that "first-world" bull by its horns because I don't believe you meant it seriously!
The "first world" is where all the third world natives want to be but can't; the "third world" is where we can afford to go because in the first world we do make enough money. I did, anyway. I didn't come here to get a job, but when I was offered one I took it.

The "first world" is cleaner, safer, viewed from here it almost looks like Paradise; the Third world is where we were so many decades or centuries before.

I live in a first-world environment inside a Third-World country; come to China, Zambia or Mauritius, Indonesia or the Philippines, and you will always find well-developed islands surrounded by squalor and poverty.

In the rich West I had a good life but, like others, I felt a trifle bored. Life was simply too safe and unhappeninhg. With bored people around you life is boring too.

In Third-World China, I am contributing towards the country's progress to it becoming a superpower. In justen years, I have gone through the developmental stages of a society transforming itself from an agrarian one to an urban one.
Now, people here are often as bored and boring afor a pittance in a Third-World country; in fact, they abhor visiting the more backward parts of their own country, and they heartily despise their luckless poorer cousins.

[nomadder]

Colleen etc. I'm sure it was sarcasm. Even in Canada most of the next generation will be half Asian or otherwise-esp. in TO. Nothing outstanding about it.

Guy-and Mex pays alot? First I heard of it. Great vacation pay? Most people I met were fighting to get the right amount on their pay cheque. Health care? Spose if you pay enough. Found out that most ot the great food of the world is available right here at home(minus the immodium).

Ps
For truly friendly people you need to go further south.

[nomadder]

Roger-why should they be so snobby?
And why are 1st world countries ironically so boring? For one the social life seems to get lost it seems and then come too many rules and.....

[juststeven]

Oops, I didn't proof read well enough. I meant to say/write that the comments on your post would be better THAN watching HBO. You know, I have two beautiful daughters from a Mexican women. They both have Master's degrees and are fluent in English and Spanish. I am an old man and I've taught for over twenty years. Your attitude is full of hate and unhappiness. Get a life that will make you feel good about yourself, because I know there's love inside you somewhere. Stop critisizing and help those "in-bred" children of God .

[distiller]

I find the original statement quite odd. If those are the situations you find yourself in then the first person you need ask that question to is yourself.

Personally, I like my job, have reasonable hours, make a ton of cash, have good holidays, understand the local language and culture and am located relatively close to lots of interesting places to travel. Not to mention my wife and dog who are both great as well. My question to you is: What's not to like?

I didn�t always have the cash or wife but always bothered to learn the local language and culture and would never allow myself to be taken advantage of by an employer. Of course, part of being taken advantage of is not seeing it coming but if you accept crap hours and wages knowingly then you can hardly say you were sucker punched.

I've found that most people running away from home aren't that happy in their new locale as the real source of their problems is not a location but something in them and until they deal with it they will be unhappy wherever they are.

As for First World countries being boring again I�d say that if you are bored by Paris, London, New York, etc, or the countryside in first world countries then you�ll be bored in Third World countries as well.