Job Discussion Forums

[denise]

Looks like I can't fit my whole question into the subject line. Here it is: Does your professional life affect your behavior outside school?

Let me explain with an example. I live in rural, small-town Japan. I'm not the only foreigner here, but there is still only a small handful of us--my colleagues and a couple of JET teachers. The locals all know my school, and if they see one of us walking around, I believe they automatically assume we live/teach up here. A guy I met in a surfing class recognized me from a ceramics class, and I regularly hear things like, "a friend of a friend of a friend of my cousin saw you skating yesterday..." (?!?!?!? Do I like this attention?!?!? Not really, but it just goes with the territory, I suppose.) My point is that since I (and my colleagues) are so easily singled out and recognized, I find myself thinking things like:

(in my car): "Hmmm. That jerk just cut me off. Whatever can I do? I certainly cannot honk my horn, because everyone knows where I live/teach, and I don't want them to think that my school employs a bunch of angry foreigners..." (And given the size of my town, the jerk who cut me off could be some sort of Important Person at my school.)

My point is that I feel like an ambassador for my school, so I always have to be on my best behavior. (tangent: I also made a vow several years ago to do my best to be nice--internal motivation--but knowing how it could reflect on the school gives me external motivation).

Does anyone else feel this way? Or are you less guilt-ridden than me? If you live in a large city, does the anonymity allow you to vent anger, frustration, etc.?

d

[Shonai Ben]

I can relate to what you are saying.I was working in a small city and I never saw any other foreigners for months.I felt that I had to be on my best behavior for the first few months but it got kind of tiring after awhile.I finally just said the hell with it and did my own thing.
Looking back,I think I made the right decision.Why pretend to be someone that I am not?

[Roger]

Yes, I know what the two of you mean. But it's not confined to us TEFLers in foreign teritories. In certain occupations there is what we could call "face recognition". Be a member of the showbiz crowd, a politician or an artist - and every act you commit is being watched and commented upon.
In my case, it works for my benefit as well. The local bus company (private business) gives teachers of a certain school free rides. I do not work in that school, yet the staff all know me by sight (I have been on TV!). I get free rides (and the ticket is fairly expensive!).
Initially, I wanted to pay, but they shoved me away from the ticket booth. Now I have been making trips for free for several years...
Just imagine how silly I will look once they discover their mistake! That's going to bust my school ambassador image!

[Fargi_prc]

I do as I please. If sometimes people don't like it, tough. If it reflects on my school, tough. I won't go out of my way to be a jerk, but when people forget that you are a human being, then the gloves come off. Then again, I live in a backwater Chinese town. Read the China off topic board if you need to know what than means.

Point here is be yourself, if you aren't being treated well, let people know about it and if the school gets angry with you... You're under contract, right?

[Ben Round de Bloc]

Being a teacher for many years in my home country before moving to Mexico, I believe that teachers come under public scrutiny to a greater degree than people in many other lines of work. Being both a teacher and a foreigner can be a double wammy, when one lives in a place where he's easily spotted as a foreigner.

I believe it influences my behavior somewhat, especially when it comes to choosing the places I frequent. Then again, those decisions might be due to my teacher's wages rather than just being a teacher. Also, in a city where tourists are often catered to and foreigners who live here are often mistaken for tourists, it's sometimes easy to take advantage of the situation.

Where I work, referring to both the geographic area and the university, people aren't very open to change (an understatement.) It seems I've become much less outspoken and a lot more mellow at school and away from school since moving here. I think some experiences along these lines at work influenced how I react to things when I'm away from school more than vice versa.

Unlike in my home country/culture (USA,) teachers are highly respected in this culture. In a way, I feel that I should live up to that respect. I've never been the type of person who likes to draw attention to myself in public, and I've become more aware of that since I began living and working in this foreign country, where just being a foreigner and a teacher can draw lots of attention in public. (Example: seeing students in a shopping mall, and they literally drag their parents over to introduce them to their English teacher.)

For me, I think the influences are more subtle than blatant. Also, I'm not sure how much of it is due to being a teacher, how much is due to being a foreigner, and how much is a combination of the two.

[struelle]

[jud]

I live in a town 20 minutes from the town I work in. Both towns are relatively small cities in Northwest Italy.

I'm very happy that I DON'T live in the same town I work in. When you live and work in the center, you're very visible. I wouldn't want to see students at the bar as I enjoy my third aperitivo, or in a shop as I blow some of my small salary on a nice pair of shoes. Not because I'm ashamed, but because I feel it can get in the way of the professional relationship. In the end, they are paying the school, who in turn pays for my services. We may be friendly, but we're not friends.

I also refrain from offensive hand gestures and glares at bad Italian drivers in the town I work in, as giving the finger to your students does not embellish the teacher-student exchange. I'm quite happy to "comment" when someone almost runs me over in the town where I live, however.

[Capergirl]

When I was in Taiwan, I had friends who worked at a school on the next street. Three of them were people I'd known in Korea (two were ex-roommates - pretty cool, huh? ). Anyway, my boss "forbid" me to hang around with these teachers from a rival school. Although I normally submitted to my boss' requests, this was one time I flat out told him "no". He was so angry, he even went to the other school's director and told him to "keep your foreigners away from my foreigners". He (our boss) felt that he was "losing face" by my hanging out with these other foreign teachers and it was a part of my job to not hang out with the competition. In our culture, of course, this concept borders on the ridiculous.

[richard ame]

Hi Folks I'm back

Living and working in a city of about 4 million you would think you are fairly safe to do what you please in your spare time ,however,Izmir is like a village in many ways and you can bet a student or two will spot you at some time when you least expect usually with a parent or two in tow .
Most of the time I enjoy meeting them and on more than one occassion have being grateful of their help like yesterday when I had a bump with the car (again) the lad stayed with me for over 4 hours till we got things sorted and I never even taught him,he was an ex student of my wife apparently he was alerted to our crisis when my other half was letting off steam at the other driver he recognised her voice like the one she used in the classroom ,we had a laugh about it later ,but it shows your private and professioal lives cross over and how they see you in both situations affect how they treat you as a person . At the end of the day you are not only an ambassador of your place of employment but also your country and foreign workers in general you set the standard for those who follow you and try to make that standard of behaviour as high as you can ,it pays dividends in the long run . Thats why backpakers get a bad press they really don't care about the messs they leave behind .

[Alex Shulgin]

I taught in a town of 5,000 people for a year (it was the biggest town for 50 miles in any direction). Everybody knew what I did and where I went. On the plus side people knew about my problems before I told them, e.g. the doctor knew I was sick before I went to him and had the drugs ready and waiting for me.

[Will.]

I found that I could claim my birthright as an Englishman abroad. no, not being phlegmatic but the right to be eccentric. Skip diving, fountain swimming even mumbling to yourself, eating shrimp heads (sorry Sunaru) black bananas, chicken neck and croupion plus several other normally annoying or distasteful habits I have cultivated over the years suddenly became acceptable, or less unacceptable because it was ok to be eccentric.
As Ben said why pretent to be something you are not. Validate what you are but try to fit in where you can.

[SweetOne]

I try to make it a rule, wherever I go, not to be a fat American. I will be coming into the community with the politics of the world and the false images of my country on my shoulder. I will have to modify my behavior a bit, I am sure. I will be a single American female in a Muslim (and hence, male) dominated society. I will, therefore, be not only an ambassador for my school, but for the intelligent life forms still living in the U.S. (present regime, obviously, excluded)

[M@tt]

Students used to spot me in my old town in the states, and there were around 100,000 people there. They usually didn't make a big deal of it but it made me very wary of skateboarding in daylight, since many people find it questionable.

Now i live in mexico in a town of 15,000 where i am probably the only blond. anyone who spends time in the central plaza knows me by sight, and many of my students have brought things up in the middle of class. we might be talking about gerunds and one of them will say "you skateboard at night in the center, don't you! you hang out with the police in the center, don't you? you always sit on that one bench in the park, don't you?" one night during the first week of classes i took my shirt off while skating and 5 seconds later one of my students passed by and shouted "hi teacher!" i felt totally embarrassed and was expecting some sort of public announcement in class the next day, like "i saw him yesterday with his shirt of and he's HAIRY!" as it turned out, she didn't say anything and i decided that life is too short to care about things like that. i was almost comfortable this way until i got invited to a small graduation party by a waitress i had just met. of course i didn't know a single person there and none of them seemed to know me. we went through introductions, people asked a few questions, and that was about it until i decided to leave. as a few of them were walking me home, one says "so you usually sit with that group of people in the park, and you skate in the evenings, right? i see you everywhere. last week i saw you in cordoba and was like 'sh*t, there he is again!' later i went and told my friends that i had seen Coldplay Boy in Cordoba." not only did the people at the party know lots of things about me, but they had a pet name for me. i felt honored AND distrurbed. next year i'll probably move to a neighboring town, if i decide to stay in the area.

[ibasiram]

I don't think it matters because I just keep my personal and private life apart. I'm an English teacher - big deal!! During the week, I work hard, and enjoy myself at weekends. In Poznan, most of my friends never came to the school where I worked, and I don't think you need to change your behaviour to suit your school who your friends probably don't care about anyway.