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seoulteacher
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: Seoul
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 Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 4:29 pm Post subject: Teaching ESL: trading career ambitions for precious time? |
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"As a young man, Beckey earned a master�s degree in business administration and entered the printing industry, but the assignments he accepted, like driving a delivery truck, traded career ambitions for precious time."
And I wonder how many of us are seeking, in teaching ESL, at least partly just that precious time?
'Pushing the Limit
- At 85, More Peaks to Conquer and Adventures to Seek '
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/sports/othersports/16beckey.html?hp |
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xingyiman
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:48 pm Post subject: Re: Teaching ESL: trading career ambitions for precious time |
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| seoulteacher wrote: |
"As a young man, Beckey earned a master�s degree in business administration and entered the printing industry, but the assignments he accepted, like driving a delivery truck, traded career ambitions for precious time."
And I wonder how many of us are seeking, in teaching ESL, at least partly just that precious time?
'Pushing the Limit
- At 85, More Peaks to Conquer and Adventures to Seek '
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/16/sports/othersports/16beckey.html?hp |
Everything we've ever been taught to believe about the traditional definition of "careers" is being re-evaluated in the face of the current global financial crisis. |
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VanIslander
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 5:50 pm Post subject: |
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driving a delivery truck is precious time? teaching ESL is like driving a delivery truck? climbing mountains for half a century is about precious time?
seems all muddled to me or else I miss the point
please clarify |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:23 pm Post subject: |
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| I took a mid career break to teach ESL. Yeah. The time was right in my life and I took it. It worked out quite nicely. I'm having to adjust a bit to having less free time. In Korea I worked 4 hours a day. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 6:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Teaching is my career. |
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Jandar
Joined: 11 Jun 2008
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:27 pm Post subject: |
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| Lost time is something one bcomes more aware of as death approaches. |
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crusher_of_heads
Joined: 23 Feb 2007
Location: kimbop and kimchi for kimberly!!!!
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:46 pm Post subject: |
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| I was sick for a long time until 2002. There's no such thing as Lost Time, but there is the bar "Loss Time" in Mok-dong. |
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GreenlightmeansGO
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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I'm young (very young) and trying to cram in as much as I can. I need to work on time-management. Problem is, I sleep too much (got up at 2 today).
I feel death creeping on...but I will live forever. |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:00 am Post subject: |
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| Jandar wrote: |
| Lost time is something one bcomes more aware of as death approaches. |
Ha. Let's extend that:
Do Korea before you're too old. |
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mzeno
Joined: 12 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Wed Dec 17, 2008 4:29 am Post subject: |
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| Everyday is one day closer to the grave. Life is but death's prisoner. |
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GreenlightmeansGO
Joined: 11 Dec 2006
Location: Daegu
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| Posted: Thu Dec 18, 2008 6:20 pm Post subject: |
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Why is this so morbid?
Let's go out, get stared at on the subway and get ridiculously drunk. Proceeding to throw-up on passing ajoshis is suggested. If you can throw-up and pee in public - at the same time - you're golden.
That's how we can make the most of our time. |
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sojusucks
Joined: 31 May 2008
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| Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 3:17 am Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| I took a mid career break to teach ESL. Yeah. The time was right in my life and I took it. It worked out quite nicely. I'm having to adjust a bit to having less free time. In Korea I worked 4 hours a day. |
I took a beak too but I want to end up teaching at the collegiate level.
Many youngin's such as myself have realized that we will have to hold more jobs than our parents, who found a company and stuck with it until retirement. Why? Because companies want to save money by not paying retirement and by hiring people for a shorter amount of time, they can save some money.
Here's an interesting article about the subject: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB8012/index1.html.
Why is it so easy to find an article about the States but a little harder to find materials about other countries? |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Fri Dec 19, 2008 4:01 am Post subject: |
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| sojusucks wrote: |
| Many youngin's such as myself have realized that we will have to hold more jobs than our parents, who found a company and stuck with it until retirement. Why? Because companies want to save money by not paying retirement and by hiring people for a shorter amount of time, they can save some money. |
Not to mention many of those companies also go out of business. But very true. My dad started at McGill shortly after getting his Phd. He's on the verge of retiring. My mother's husband got into Chrysler right out of high school and retired there.
I graduated from university in 1991. I've been in the real work force for 17 years. I've had (including hagwon teaching) 5 jobs. So I average a bit more than 3 years per job.
Of course if I think about the software world, staying in a job over long can be a bad thing. You need to change up from time to time and acquire more skills. |
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Pa Jan Jo A Hamnida
Joined: 27 Oct 2006
Location: Not Korea
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| Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 10:48 pm Post subject: |
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A good diversion but teaching ESL was never a life time gig for me. Glad I did it but am extremely chuffed that I moved on to bigger and better things.  |
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seoulteacher
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2008 9:27 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
| I took a mid career break to teach ESL. Yeah. The time was right in my life and I took it. It worked out quite nicely. I'm having to adjust a bit to having less free time. In Korea I worked 4 hours a day. |
Yeah, that 'precious time' which the article mentions: ESL teaching can sure have that. I've worked as much as 30 hrs/wk in ESL but, for far longer and more recently, it was a 12 hr/wk uni gig. Ah, it doesn't get much less demanding time-wise than that.
But like 'Mindmetoo', I'm thinking that its time to move on from ESL. And to get back home to Canada - partly because of what I see as the underway and quickly escalating mega economic slowdown, worldwide and, more pertinently, in Korea. I don't want to be in Korea as an ESL teacher (ie. a foreign bottom feeder - tho' pity the 3D workers), by definition a 2nd class resident, when Ssangyong Motors (see other thread on this board, and http://www.voanews.com/english/2008-12-23-voa16.cfm) and other well-paying jobs lay off Korean workers, and ESL teachers find that their multiple sources of income vanish plus they must be let go from their main job. By then there will likely be no job opps back at home.
Unfortunately, ESL teaching in Canada - unless you get one of those coveted but oh-so-rare full time jobs with a uni or community college - does not pay enough.
So I'll be facing a career change most likely - as much as I love ESL teaching and believe that I'm good at it. Adjustments coming up (if & when I successfully make that career change): giving up that known job satisfaction, plus a whole lot less free time.
But, who knows, and life is often like that: I'll probably look back and be really grateful for the good that'll come. Good luck and a merry and a bless'd Christmas to all! |
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