Job Discussion Forums

expatben · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 8:11 am Post subject: Running away with ESL

Just wondering, has anyone ever encountered people who are clearly runing away from their home countries using ESL. If so, does it ever work out?

sigmoid · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 1276

I would say as far as I can remember all the people I've met just made a conscious decision to 'see the world'. They weren't running away from anything, but rather were going toward something else. It seems more like 'walking away' from their home country, not as a way of escaping anything but just to have new experiences. So it's more like being attracted to a new place or places instead of being repelled by where you're from.

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

Depends on their personality and on what they are running away from. In a different place (whether foreign or just a different city in the home country), sure, external circumstances will change immediately, but the person will not. Someone looking only for external changes (superficial) might just succeed, but someone hoping to magically become a different person overnight will be in for a surprise.

d

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 3:59 pm Post subject:

Depends on what you mean by "running away from." I knew that a nine to five and a mortgage wasn't going to do it for me. I knew that I wanted to see more of the world than I was ever likely to in any "normal" career. So I tried my hand at several "abnormal" careers, and found that I like teaching, and for my needs, it is stable and well paid.

So, was I running away, or running to something?

Some people seem to wind up in this profession to get away from themselves (Drink problems, relationship problems, social problems) and in my opinion, well, they always bring themselves along, and just have the same problems in a more exotic locale...

Thanks for a thought provoker,
Justin

31 · Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 1797

no 9-5 or mortgage-well TEFL really suits you then because you couldn't afford a mortgage on the pathetic wages and you need to work evenings and weekends to make ends meet.

tedkarma · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 6:41 pm Post subject:

People who are truly "running away" from something - are usually running away from themselves and are doomed to failure - no matter where they go. We do see a few of those in this profession.

But . . . as Sigmoid suggests - most the people I have met are running to something. Though I didn't join the TEFL world until I was 39 I had had a STRONG curiosity about the "world out there" all my life (My mother was an intrepid traveler - working on remote Native American reservations, etc).

I was in the Peace Corps for two years in Africa - and it truly opened my eyes to the fact that there was SO MUCH more to see and know and learn. The PC taught me the skills and patience to succeed in other cultures.

Justin Trullinger · Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2005 9:14 pm Post subject:

tedkarma · Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2005 12:30 am Post subject:

Roger · Joined: 19 Jan 2003 Posts: 9138

They may or may not "run away" from familiar grounds but they can never leave their own personality behind.
In the end the latter will catch up with them and decide whether their decision to go abroad was a mature one.
Unfortunately, it is true that too many don't make mature decisions in such matters.

GambateBingBangBOOM · Joined: 04 Nov 2003 Posts: 2021 Location: Japan

Some people are running away from themselves more than real problems that they have in their home countries. IMO sometimes it works because being overseas changes people and they can begin to see that all their problems in their home country really weren't problems at all and they can let them go. For other people they just bring their problems with them and so then they move on to another country and then another and another trying to find something that can never be there, and that's sad.

Of course some people just move around from country to country because they just like the feeling of being in a place where they don't know the language or much of the culture and so leave when they are familiar with them.

Deconstructor · Joined: 30 Dec 2003 Posts: 775 Location: Montreal

I never ran away from myself. It was the opposite: I was out there to find myself. And I did!

I always knew I wanted to be a teacher, and as soon as I got my first job I was gone... to Korea. I spent the next decade working in 4 continents. I loved every minute of it.

Where am I now? I'm back home in Canada with a pregnant wife and a mortgage. I love it. It doesn't mean that my life is over, only that I have new challenges. I still do what I love and shall continue always.

My wife is a Brazilian. The dream is to buy a small house on the beach in north of Brazil, get some chairs and a few coconut drinks and teach English on the beach. Don't need to make a lot of money: just enough for the essentials and my baby's future.

Waddya guys think?!

moonraven · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 3094

I think a lot of folks are running away from problems in their home countries as well as from themselves. I have had folks try to hit me up for jobs who were running from the police (from not paying child support in the US, but also because they had commmitted felonies), from the tax revenue service, and folks who had kidnapped their child from the home of the custodial parent.

I have seen folks trying to run away from themselves. They were much less successful than the first group.

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

I think we really need to apply some criteria as to what both 'running away' and 'home country' mean.

In Canada and the United States at least (can't speak for European countries), I haven't see much in the way of exit customs. At most you show your passport to an airline employee while you check in, but you aren't formally questioned by actual customs police if you leave the country. If you cross by land borders, you only deal with the border controls of the country you are entering, not exiting.

Contrast that to virtually all the Asian countries, where there are both entry and exit customs. In China, especially, the border police are extremely strict about who leaves the country, and I've seen several documentaries about runaways being caught and repatriated.

Granted, the majority of the runaways are involved in some sort of smuggling operations, be it people or drugs. But more than a few are individuals and families who have grown weary of the hardships of life in a communist state and want to flee the country. Most go to Japan, Taiwan, and Korea. It's also not uncommon for Chinese migrants to board flights to Western countries and later flush their passports down the toilet, thus trying to claim refugee status upon arrival as they have no documents.

My sister dealt with some of these cases while she used to work at Canada Customs & Immigration.

So if you study these kind of cases and then look at TEFLers who are 'running away' from developed democracies, it seems almost laughable in comparison. It isn't really 'running away' at all, if you apply the above criteria of fleeing from a closed country that has strict exit controls.

As well, there are those TEFLers who may decide to live 'abroad', and after a period of time, consider that their 'home', instead of their country of origin. Or they may consider themselves to have two homes. The criteria of 'home' is a lot more difficult to apply obviously, but I'd go with a place where you feel consistently happy, and make positive contributions to humanity in your work.

Steve

Yahnena · Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Posts: 48 Location: China

yes, I've encountered lots.
Here just a few examples:

I myself ran away from an abusive marriage and am quietly waiting for my divorce while living in Asia. It's a good place to be. By North American standards I don't make much money, so this foolish husband of mine will not even dream of hitting me for support. Still, I can live a decent life here.
Another teacher in our school who just recently arrived ran away also. He says that his ex tried to get support for children that are not even his. He also will be in Asia until that storm is over.

So, yes, I know teachers who ran away, including myself, and I found a good place to run to. What's wrong with that ?

expatben · Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 4:38 pm Post subject:

Deconstructor, I like your dream and if you really can live without Hockey Night in Canada go for it Smile

I don't think there is anything wrong with running away from someone or something. There is a difference between running away and leaving a bad sitution for something better. I just thought this topic would be interesting to discussed as whilst in Spain it was a topic of interest to a colleague of mine.