Showing posts with label ESL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ESL. Show all posts

Back from the dead

Wow!  I...um...it's been a while since I last wrote here!  My sister asked over a week ago if I was still blogging and suggested I take it up again.  So here I am.

So much has happened since August.  I guess a quick overview is as good a place to start as any.  

1.  I started school.  In a previous post I mentioned wanting to teach ESL and so I am pursuing that, although in a slightly different way than I anticipated.  I've decided to get a BA in English.  My school of choice is Thompson Rivers University because of their distance program that allows me to study from the comfort of my own home...very much like my education has been up until this point.  I have just finished my first English course and am studying for the final exam which is on the 14th.  In the mean time I am also studying Spanish (because I have always wanted to learn it, and because I would like to travel throughout Central and South America) and will soon find some kind of math course to fulfill the math/science requirements.

2.  Home has moved.  In February I moved back in with my parents instead of living with my grandma.  It was time for a change of scenery.  I really like my new community, although we are planning to move yet AGAIN to another one due to my dad's job.  While I think I may miss it here, I always enjoy getting to know new places, so I think I'll like this next move.

3.  I HAVE TWO NEW BROTHERS!!!  I think I like this change the best.  Until November or December of last year, I was the oldest in my family and had always wished for an older brother.  My parents provided MANY brothers and sisters for me....but they were always younger.  Sometimes you just have to take matters into your own hands.  So I adopted one...and a few days later was adopted by another.  They're the best, and now I can't imagine life without Nicky and David.  =)  

I guess that's a good summary of the last 8 months...at least, as far as the big events go.  I'll try and be back soon and post more frequently.

Until later.

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The next six weeks...

I'm being really stretched right now! Today is my first real day as a councillor for an ESL youth program, and I'm exhausted! Up at 7:30 to get people in to breakfast around 8, temporarily loosing 2 students, orientation, finding the 2 students (changed rooms without telling any councillors, slept in, and did not respond to our door knocking or yelling “HELLO! ANYONE IN THERE?”), ESL placement tests, lunch, campus tour (2 hours of walking!!!!), meeting 2 new students, dinner, ice breaker games, announcements for tomorrow's schedule, new batch of Taiwanese students to meet at 10pm tonight, give them an orientation and get them settled in...
The stretching part is being a leader when I have no idea what I'm doing! But it's all going relatively well, and I'm sure by the end of the week I'll have got the hang of it and the next 5 weeks won't be so hard. It's good though. Last night I laid in bed and all I could really do was thank God for what He's teaching me through this and how He's stretching me and helping me to grow into the best version of myself.

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The shots you take

I always seem to find myself in a pickle...wanting to try new things, take risks, live an adventure...and being too scared to take the plunge.  In fact, I'm kind of facing that right now.

Last month I finally took a TESL course to become a certified ESL teacher.  It's something I've talked about doing for about 7 years, but wasn't quite sure if it was what I really wanted or if I'd be good at it.  Thanks to the encouragement of my family and a few friends I decided to just go for it.  And I'm glad I did.  But now I have to find a job...which can be a little trickier.  Apparently a lot of schools around the world only like to hire certified ESL teachers who have some kind of university degree...and I don't have one.  But that doesn't rule out some of the private schools, nor does it eliminate the opportunity for private students.  And that last one is the option I think I like best.

So now, here is where the risks show up: I'm thinking about teaching English in another country.  I have a few friends in Korea, some of whom are already ESL teachers and think I should go teach there.  Korea is supposedly a very good place to work and live.  I've heard great things about it, and I'd love to go...but really only because I have friends there.  Otherwise, I'm not naturally attracted to Asia.  And it's the same thing with Taiwan.  I have a friend who is going back there next month, and she thinks I should come and teach there.  She and her sister have contacts and she thinks I wouldn't have a hard time finding a job there at all.  Besides, she was teaching me Mandarin while she was here and thinks I should take the opportunity to immerse myself in the culture and the language and become fluent.

The other place I've started thinking about is Mexico.  I have the opportunity to go down there in August...which is actually a very attractive idea.  I never really wanted to go to Mexico because that's where EVERYONE seems to go.  But Central and South America have always fascinated me, and I really badly want to become fluent in Spanish.  I took it for a year and a half, and can still remember a lot of what I learned, but I've never really had the opportunity to practice it.  One of the draw-backs to this idea is that while you can make decent money in Korea and Taiwan by teaching English, you really can't in Mexico.  However, I guess it's not that bad as the cost of living is quite low.  And it would be a good starting place to exploring the rest of the continent.

So, these are some options.  But do I have the guts to pursue any of them?  Like Wayne Gretsky says, "Statistically 100 percent of the shots you don't take don't go in." 

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Three

If I could change 3 things about my life right now, they would be...

  1. I would be an ESL teacher and would be making a decent living from that.  Let's hope this one will actually happen even though I don't have a university degree.  There must be some ways of doing this WITHOUT the degree.  After all, a degree doesn't say I can teach English.  It says I spent years of my life with my nose in a book, writing tests and papers, and racking up a huge debt that will take me years to pay off
  2. I would be traveling...maybe even teaching ESL while I did it.  I want to see new countries, experience different cultures, and get to know the people in their natural environment.
  3. I would write more...which I guess is where this blog comes in.  It's hopefully a reason to start writing again...because, well, I just miss it.  I've recently become very bad at expressing myself clearly.
This short list was rather hard to come up with!  Everything I could think of seemed to be things I would change about MYSELF, not my life...I guess because who or what I am affects what happens in my life.

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About Me

I was born and I will die. I eat, breath, sleep, talk, and periodically raise my voice. For a little variation I read, watch movies, and walk on the beach. I am a Christian, a Canadian, and a homeschool graduate. When it rains I stare at the windshield wipers and get mad when the wipers move a little too fast for the stream of water that is desperately trying to get away. When it's sunny I walk down to the beach and think about amnesiacs washing up on the shore. When it snows I stay inside with a book and curl up in a blanket. I like CSI Las Vegas, Criminal Minds, and Firefly. I like dark chocolate and dandelions and daisies and wild roses. And RED.

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