Job Discussion Forums

booty · Joined: 22 Aug 2004 Posts: 94

Alain de Botton said "you do TEFL when your life has gone wrong." Very negative quote. Do people believe this or is he exaggerating because of the amount of 30 something drifters in the TEFL world? Mad

31 · Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 1797

There are also twenty, forty, fifty and sixty something drifters eking out an existence in TEFL.

denise · Joined: 23 Apr 2003 Posts: 3419 Location: finally home-ish

No, I do not believe that quote. I know quite a few well-adjusted EFL teachers.

People who are lost souls in TEFL would likely be lost souls in other jobs, too. A loser is a loser is a loser.

d

ShaneM · Joined: 03 Feb 2005 Posts: 20 Location: Boulder, CO USA

Perhaps some people try TEFL as a result of feeling like a lost soul, but I'd also argue that many (if not most) people living and working "normal" jobs are lost souls, whether they know it or not.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:53 pm Post subject:

I am a loser.

If you take the values of the culture I grew up in as a guide, that is, considering that I earn less than anyone I graduated with, including those who are drawing disability or unemployment.

But the thing is, I don't believe in those values. I have a fulfilling, interesting job, which does good for others and is constantly a source of learning for me. And I live well. If this is my life going horribly wrong, I wouldn't want it to go "right."

Peace, Love, and Happy teaching

Justin

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

Nice post Justin, tell it like it is.

Enjoy yourself,
s

struelle · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 2372 Location: Shanghai

I thought it was just limited to TEFL, but upon doing my BEd I've run into numerous negative quotes and perceptions of teachers in general.

A common quote is, "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach"

I don't buy into that one bit, and I think that's the whole idea. We go into teaching, or TEFL, because it's a career choice we make, not because of what other people say about it.

Steve

tedkarma · Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 1:48 am Post subject:

TEFL is pretty much like any other career.

Like any career or lifestyle option, and TEFL is pretty much a lifestyle choice - certainly more so than most other careers - the question is are people running AWAY from something or going TO something.

Those running AWAY generally don't last long and tend to have lots of problems. They brought their biggest problem with them: themselves.

Those going TO something often research well and make good decisions and find something quite useful in their lives. A great career.

I came to TEFL TO experience the lifestyle - and earn a couple bucks, and teach, and enjoy. I got all that and much more. Not to say problems don't pop up along the way!

Mchristophermsw · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 228

I am currently a Psychiatric Social Work Clincian. I have had the oppertunity to work with people from 100's of different vocations and you know what? If someone is in the wrong vocation, no matter what job it is, it will suck lemons!

Law Enforcement types are known for being abusive and drinking eccessively, high number of divorce and suicide.

Nurses, I have heard complian of how hard and demanding the work is, as well as k-12 teachers saying the same thing.

Social Workers, Probation Officers-overworked, stressed out and burned out.

Doctors-burned out with astronomical student loan debt, malpractice insurance and being a Puppet for HMO's

Blah, Blah Blah.

These are just examples.
And for me, my job is great-----for someone else because my heart has always been in Education and living overseas. And actually my life went really wrong along time ago and as a result I got a degree in Social Work/Counseling ( Cheaper than therapy LOL! ) and now I dont enjoy it anymore, atleast the Social Work part.

You have be true to yourself at sometime and just make the switch to what works for you. ESL is no different. If it is not your calling and passion then you will too feel like your sucking Lemons.

merlin · Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 5:54 am Post subject:

In 2001 my cousins tried to convince me that I should pay for a 6 week web design course and move to Southern California.
Well, their lives went terribly wrong. One worked for peoplesoft and got cut and the other Just finished his Masters of Science in Some kind of web/multimedia Major just 1 year before the bubble burst so he has a MS and 1 year experience in a field with thousands unemployed. He's 40 and has been trying to hang on to the IT field for the past 3 years.

He is royally screwed. He worked as a waiter for 4 years to get that Masters - on top of being a bussboy while working to get his Bachelors. Something like 10 years of menial jobs all for the chance to be unemployable.

Nah, I don't think I'm too bad off comparitively - despite the fact that I get paid less than a waiter.

What's her name shold have said "If you spent your life getting an education in IT your life is going to go from bad to worse."

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

Thoreau (1817-1862) said something on the order of: Most people lead lives of quiet desperation.

He was writing in the US in the Manifest Destiny era of rampant genocide of native peoples and the invasion of Mexico--and he put his money where his mouth was: he went to jail rather than pay the poll tax that was used to support the Mexican War. That act caused him to write an essay called "Civil Disobedience".

Many on this board would consider Thoreau a loser--he was not interested in money, lived in frugal conditions and advocated a strategy called passive resistance--which was later employed by Gandhi with much success in India.

Thoreau is one of my heroes. I also choose to live frugally, and do not support the invasion of other countries for their land and resources.

That does not mean that I am "eking out a living" in TEFL. however. Since I left the US I find I have more disposable income, and because I have developed myself as an educator, I am not limited to low-roller TEFL jobs. I choose not to work in the US, but in other countries with salary scales that are comparable, I am paid as much as I would be as an educator in the US.

In any profession, not everyone makes it to the level where he/she is in high demand. A lot depends on hard work, and on being in the right place at the right moment (in other words, luck).

There are plenty of lost souls out there--not because they are TEFLers, but because they have neither convictions nor the dedication necessary to develop themselves. The majority of the lost souls I have seen are living, unhappily, in First World countries. And most of them have at least adequate jobs--but even so they are a paycheck away from being homeless because they have followed the party line of consumerism to its lethal conclusion.

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

I came to TEFL after being laid off from a butler position in Bel Aire where I lived on Baron Hilton's former estate working for the 14th richest man in America, before that I worked for Aaron Spelling and Bob Hope. It was the end of a career in hospitality which began as a dishwasher. I loved it.

I arrived in Tokyo in 1989 and began to meet English teachers and decided to have a go. I worked my butt off and took the first vacation of my life, I had saved $10, 000 and blew it all. The next year we did the same thing but travelled to a different continent, and again, and again.

After 10 years of working very hard the hand of fate knocked me on my butt and landed us on the streets in Hollywood, penniless. I picked myself up and returned to Tokyo where I started over, from the bottom.

Now here I am, and loving it!

Teachers are many, kind souls are few.

Mchristophermsw · Joined: 14 Apr 2005 Posts: 228

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

I want to second that and I also want to say that Moonraven rocks.
Seems like a lot of people are always dogging on her,
that ain't right.

donfan · Joined: 31 Aug 2003 Posts: 217

I don't think that TEFL attracts lost souls but I think it definitely has a tendency to develop them. When we go overseas to work we leave behind our home family and friends and go and live in a totally different culture. As much as we love this culture we will never fully integrate into it. There will always be remnants of our native culture in us. Then, whether be after a year or 10 we decide to return to our native culture. When we get home we find that our family and friends have moved on with their lives and we find ourselves on the outer, however unintentional. As much we try to reintegrate into our culture because of our overseas experience we are very different people to when we left and to think that we can just pick up where we left off is naive. We are torn between two cultures, never fully part of one or the other. It has been said that a TEFLer is happiest on a plane between their native and adopted countries, or vice versa. I know that is the case for me.