December Blog Carnival

This month, I'm hosting the Reach To Teach Teach Abroad Blog Carnival, a monthly series that focuses on providing helpful tips and advice to ESL teachers around the globe.

The topic this month is "What are the most endearing/hilarious English mistakes your students have made?"

Check out the responses from teachers from different parts of the world!  If you’d like to contribute to next month’s Blog Carnival, please get in touch with Dean at dean@reachtoteachrecruiting.com, and he’ll let you know how you can start participating!

Rebecca Thering:
Crack a Smile with Some ESL Student Drawings
What do turkeys, families, a death note, and Real Madrid all have in common? They all appear in my carnival post this month! So stop on over and enjoy some photos of drawings and projects made by my elementary Korean students. You might even crack a smile! 
About Rebecca:  I’m a Wisconsin native who has recently finished a year teaching English at a rural elementary school in South Korea. My Spanish skills weren't quite as useful there as they were when I lived and taught in Madrid, which is where my Spanish nickname Rebe (Ray-bay) stuck. I have an itch to travel, learn, teach, and read—and to make the world a better place!


Dean Barnes:
Grammar and Spelling Mistakes
I was asked this month to write about the common grammar mistakes of my students, however I haven’t been a teacher for some time so I thought I would flip the mirror around on us adults. Below is a photo essay covering some funny and common spelling mistakes that adults have made. If we as adults cant get it right, then how do we expect our students to?
About Dean:  My name is Dean, I have been traveling for around 4 years now with a small stint back in my home country. I’m from the UK and I began my teaching career on the island of Bali. I then made the move to Taiwan where I currently reside. Here I have the joy to fulfill my passion for writing by providing ESL/travel related articles to the Reach To Teach website.


Holly Beddome:
Pint-Sized Sources of Joy and Humour
Kids all around the world can be mighty cute. Throw in an adorable accent and full-time interaction with 'em and you're sure to witness priceless moments and stories you'll want to remember for a lifetime. Teaching ESL is by no means a picnic of a job, but falling in love with such hilarious, strange, cute, unpredictable and happy humans certainly helps make the struggle worthwhile. This post is sure to make you smile.
About Holly: Holly was bitten by the travel bug in her early teens and has long since rejected the idea of spending her entire life in Canada! She loves to read good books, flail about on the dance floor, and form new friendships, and documents cityscapes and the natural world around her through the lens of a camera. Having volunteered in Honduras, backpacked around Southeast Asia and studied in Australia in the past, she now calls Seoul home for the next year. Her plans: eat ALL of the kimchi, hike ALL of the mountains, form incredible memories and friendships, and hopefully have a positive impact on her students’ lives!

Wow, You're So Brave: A Guide to Packing Your Bags and Moving Abroad

Today’s article is written for the Reach To Teach Teach Abroad Blog Carnival, a monthly series that focuses on providing helpful tips and advice to ESL teachers around the globe.  The host for this month is Maggie Attoe; here you can find other similar articles. I'll be posting a new ESL-related article on my blog on the 5th of every month. Check back for more articles, and if you'd like to contribute to next month's Blog Carnival, please contact Dean at dean@reachtoteachrecruiting.com, and he will let you know how you can start participating! 

Ever since I decided to leave my teaching job at home and move overseas to teach English, before I even knew quite what I was doing myself, people have been asking me questions, seeking my advice, picking my brain for bits of information on this crazy commitment.  Of course I’m happy to share what I know, and if you know me at all, you understand how much it means to me to feel like I’m imparting wisdom on others.  Drawing great pleasure from acting as if I know everything is one of the main reasons I went into teaching.

Recently, one of my friend’s coworker’s daughters (think it through) sent me an email filled with questions about my experiences teaching abroad.  Her questions are similar to the wonders and worries I had before embarking on my own big move.  I’ll do my best here to answer her questions, along with a few other tidbits of golden insight.

• What made you choose Vietnam? 

I get this one all the time.  Same when I lived in Taiwan.  Even the locals ask me, “Why did you choose to live here?”  Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer to this one.  “It just sounded cool,” doesn’t seem like a sensible reason to move to the other side of the globe, but it’s the most honest answer I can come up with.  I didn’t know anyone in Taiwan or Vietnam before showing up at the airport.  I guess deep down I chose Taiwan because it was more “off the beaten path” than China, Japan, or South Korea.  Maybe I thought it would make my experience more interesting.  Doesn’t really matter in the end though because Taiwan is amazing and you should definitely move there.  And as for Vietnam, I knew I wanted to live here after hearing other people tell me about their travel experiences in the country.  I’ve been living here for nearly a year, and you should definitely move here, too.

• Have you been in charge of your own lesson plans, or were you originally assigned more of a teaching assistant role? What age group are you working with?

Questions about the day-to-day job are common.  I had them before moving as well.  However, since I’d already been a teacher for four years, I was less nervous about this aspect than someone fresh out of college or who has never taught before might be.  I can only really speak about my own teaching jobs, but of course there are many paths you can follow teaching overseas.  

I worked for Shane English School in Taiwan, a company I was placed with through the recruiting agency Reach To Teach. As the first and only English teacher at my little school in Wugu, I was able to run things the way I wanted.  I was responsible for all my own lesson plans and developing materials and resources.  I had a teaching assistant in most lessons, who corrected the homework and worked with the students after class to ensure they understood the grammatical points in the lesson.  Because it was a language school, I worked with a wide range of students, from age 5 or 6 to adult.

Here in Vietnam, I teach at British International School, which is a well-respected primary school.  Again I am responsible for lesson plans and developing classroom materials.  We work with several teaching assistants as well.  The primary school is for children from age 3-12, and there is a secondary school for older students as well.  I teach kids aged 4-6 this year. 

• What are the differences in teaching in public and private schools?

I haven’t taught in public schools overseas, so I’ll be drawing from my friends’ experiences here.  At the private schools I have taught in, schools where the parents pay a hefty tuition for their children to attend, I have noticed that money matters.  At times, it can feel as though the school is a business first, and a school second.  However, I think if you as the teacher keep the children and learning as a priority, that is what makes the difference.  There is nothing you can really do about major corporate policies, but there is always something you can do to help students learn.

I have some friends who teach at public schools here in Vietnam, and their experience at work each day is quite different than mine.  While I typically work with small groups of students to focus specifically on their English language needs, the teachers in the public schools stand in front of classes of up to 40 or more students with only a blackboard and a piece of chalk.  Just like teaching in public schools in America, there is little you can do about changing the system, and reaching each child in a group that large is not easy.  But again, teaching is what you make of it, and knowing that you’ve done your best to help your students attain their goals is what matters.

My advice would be to find out as much as you can about the schools you are considering.  Ask for contact information for current and/or former teachers to get the real scoop.  There are good and bad schools in any situation.  

• Did you get your TESOL certificate before going overseas? Was it necessary with the program you went with and did it feel like a big help?

Because I was a teacher at home, I already had a teaching certificate and a Masters in Teaching.  When I went to Taiwan, I did not go for any additional certifications.  However, most schools in Taiwan require at least a Bachelor’s Degree and a TESOL/TEFL certification.  

When I came to Vietnam, I went through the CELTA course, which is well-recognized in many countries worldwide.  I did not necessarily need the CELTA to get a job here because I already had a teaching license, but I did find the course useful.  Teaching English as a second language does require a specific set of skills.  Of course, a good teacher can learn to teach most anything, but the CELTA course provided me with a solid batch of skills to plan strong language lessons.  Plus I learned a load of nerdy things about grammar.

     

• Were accommodations more or less what you thought they would be? Any advice on big city versus small town? 

This question I feel I can answer fully, as I’ve lived in both a small town and a big city.  In Taiwan, I lived a small suburb of Taipei called Wugu, where I was pretty much the only foreigner.  My rent was ridiculously cheap (less than $200 per month including utilities) in my shared apartment with two amazing Taiwanese girls.  My apartment was lovely compared to many of my friends who lived in tiny musty rooms in Taipei.  Life was sweet there in Wugu, but I did spend a lot of time by myself.  This was a good growing experience for me, learning to be with just me.  However, I did get lonely and felt like I had to live it up every weekend when I went in to the city to see my other foreign friends.  I wouldn’t trade my time in Wugu for anything, but I would think very carefully before moving to such an isolated location.  I feel silly even describing Wugu as “isolated” because I was constantly surrounded by hundreds of thousands of people, but that’s the best description I can give.

Here in Vietnam, I live smack-dab in the center of Ho Chi Minh City, and I share a house with five other foreigners.  Rent is still cheap (about $300 including utilities), and we have a lot of space.  I have no lack of native-English-speaker interaction, due to my living situation as much as my working environment.  Teaching at the British school, where everything is conducted in English, means I have very little opportunity to tune out and hide inside a foreign-language bubble.  This leads nicely into the final question.

• Do you feel like it's possible to pick up some of the native language even if you don't know much going into it?

The short answer is ‘yes’.  HOWEVER, I may have chosen the two most difficult languages for an English speaker to learn.  Before I moved to Taiwan, I started to learn Mandarin Chinese online, like a good little student.  As soon as I arrived in Taiwan, I stopped that immediately.  The accent and character system were different from the way the online lessons were being taught.  Lucky for me, I lived and worked in ‘isolated’ Wugu, full of wonderfully friendly people who couldn’t speak a lick of English but wanted to talk to me anyways.  Interacting daily with my Noodle Lady, the workers at 7-11, and the little old man outside the camera shop forced me to learn and use Chinese at least at a basic survival level.  I also took some free lessons through the Shane company, and my Taiwanese friends and coworkers were always willing to teach me useful words and phrases.  By the time I left Taiwan, after 15 months, I was able to get by in necessary situations like restaurants, shops, train stations, etc.

When I moved to Vietnam, I thought, “Oh super! They use the Roman alphabet over there!  Learning Vietnamese will be waaaaay easier than Mandarin.”

Wrong.

Vietnamese is the worst.  That Roman alphabet is just a false promise.  The letters don’t make the same sounds, and there are more tones than Chinese!  However, because I live in Saigon, learning the language isn’t really necessary.  This is a blessing and a curse.  The good thing is, I can almost always be guaranteed that someone nearby will speak English and be able to translate and help me get anything I need.  The bad thing is, I’m not learning the language!  I want to be able to chat with my Coconut Lady, the vendors at the street food stands, and the workers at the post office.  I have a private tutor now, but honestly I don’t have (or use) many opportunities to practice Vietnamese.  That must sound like a load of bull, seeing as I LIVE IN VIETNAM.  But really.  I work with foreigners.  I live with foreigners.  People in shops speak English.  And most of all, when I try to speak Vietnamese, it’s really bad and no one understands me.

• My extra two cents.

If you’re thinking of teaching abroad, do it.  You will not regret it.  When my date to move overseas started approaching fast, I began to second-guess myself.  I kept worrying about all the little details that I hadn’t figured out yet.  There were so many uncertainties and unknown factors.  I’m not the type of person who particularly gets a kick out of that sort of thing.  I like a plan.  

The thing that got me through those worries and kept me from unpacking my bags and canceling my flight was reminding myself that I was not the first person to embark on this kind of adventure.  Many people younger and dumber than me had up and moved abroad, survived to tell about it, and even enjoyed it!  If you’re questioning your decision, just remember, you can always buy a plane ticket back home.

But believe me, you won’t.

It's the Little Things...

Today’s article is written for the Reach To Teach Teach Abroad Blog Carnival, a monthly series that focuses on providing helpful tips and advice to ESL teachers around the globe. I'll be posting a new ESL related article on my blog on the 5th of every month. Check back for more articles, and if you'd like to contribute to next month's Blog Carnival, please contact Dean at dean@reachtoteachrecruiting.com, and he will let you know how you can start participating!  For more tales of proud classroom moments from around the world, check out the other links for December's Blog Carnival.

It’s difficult to choose one moment in my time teaching abroad that I could label as my “best” or “proudest”.  When you’re in a career like teaching, there are so many highs (mixed with a healthy dose of lows), sometimes they become the norm, and you forget to be grateful for them.  But reflecting on those moments can be a real boost to your morale, giving you a jolt of energy and feeling of accomplishment.  

In the spirit of reflection, I’m going to share a few of my fondest memories, simple as they may seem.  I truly can’t choose just one!

Two years ago, when I was teaching in Taiwan, I had a sweet little class of three six-year-old girls.  They started with me in August in the very lowest level class, learning to say “hello” and recite the alphabet.  But by winter, we were reading simple books and chatting up a storm every week.  It’s amazing what young brains taught in a small group can absorb!

Reenacting the barber shop scene in "Kipper's Haircut"

I had a student in Taiwan that changed his name three times in the course of a year.  His name started out as Dan, but since there were two other boys in the class who had chosen the name Daniel, he decided he wanted to be different.  (Side note: the name Daniel is very popular in Taiwan because it’s Hello Kitty’s boyfriend’s name!)  Dan was not one for subtlety, so he chose to rename himself as Milk.  Yes, Milk.  Now, I loved this ‘name’ and did not question his decision.  It fit him quite well.  But his mother did not like this dairy moniker, so it was back to the drawing board.  After some deliberation, he came back to class rebranded as Mario.  I couldn’t help but sing the theme song every time I called his name for register.  

Check out his artwork.  Hahahaha!
Full credit :)

So many of the students here at British International School Vietnam come to class everyday with a great attitude and an excitement for learning.  It’s refreshing, really, to not battle constantly with behavioral issues (although I deal with a fair amount of this too) and to actually focus on teaching and learning.  This allows for breakthrough moments for the students.  I had a six-year-old girl earlier this year read a sentence independently during class.  She was so proud of herself because this was the first sentence she had ever read on her own!  She read the sentence, “The chick is in the egg,” and immediately broke into a huge smile and shouted out, “I read! I read by myself!”  A truly heartwarming moment that I had to capture on film.

Proud moment; first-time reader!

Here in Vietnam, I’m teaching the youngest students I’ve ever had in my class.  My four-year-olds are particularly cute, and they make me smile everyday when they insist on calling me “Ms. Samantha Cinderella Princess.”  I mean.... come on.  Too much cute.  Since I’ve never taught kids this young, I’m still learning the best practices and what appropriate goals are for this age.  Every once in a while, I come up with something that turns out fairly well, like this gem:

With these little cherubs surrounding me on a daily basis, it’s no wonder I can’t choose just ONE best moment!

Master Becomes Student

Today’s article is written for the Reach To Teach Teach Abroad Blog Carnival, a monthly series that focuses on providing helpful tips and advice to ESL teachers around the globe. I'll be posting a new ESL related article on my blog on the 4th of every month. Check back for more articles, and if you'd like to contribute to next month's Blog Carnival, please get in touch with Dean at dean@reachtoteachrecruiting.com, and he'll let you know how you can start participating!  To read other blogs from overseas teachers, click the link!

As an ESL teacher, sometimes it’s easy to forget how challenging the process of learning a new language can be.  I often find myself focusing so much on writing lesson plans, preparing materials, attending meetings, and doing paperwork, that I start to lose sight of what’s most important: the individual needs of the students!  Sure, we’re all trained to understand the range of learning styles and how to deliver lessons to reach type of learner.  But sometimes all the best practices get lost in translation, pun intended.

What'd you say??
(BIS Vietnam)

But all the challenges and frustrations of language learning are shocked back into my system any time the tables are turned and I become the student.  

My turn in the desk
(Shane Taiwan)

As a high school and college student, I studied German and Spanish, and I felt fairly confident using the languages in class or out in the real world.  However, living in Taiwan and studying Mandarin Chinese, I quickly realized how very different learning the most-spoken language in the world was going to be.  Initials, finals, tones, Simplified, Traditional, pinyin? Forget it.

Sometimes I want to cover my eyes, too!
(Shane Taiwan)

But the desire to communicate with the local people drove me to keep trying, and sitting in class trying to listen to and speak the language truly opened my eyes to the struggles my students were likely facing in my English classes.  If I was having difficulty understanding and pronouncing the sounds in Chinese, they were probably toiling to do the same in English.

Too much work!
(Shane Taiwan)

Must.... learn.... English....
(BIS Vietnam)

Before I moved to Vietnam, I thought “Great! Vietnamese will be much easier than Chinese!  At least they use an alphabet I recognize.”  Ohhhhhh, how wrong I was.  Vietnamese is no easier to learn than Chinese.  It has more tones, a bunch of extra vowels, and a pronunciation pattern that I find beyond mind-boggling.

Forget tests. Let's just play games!
(ILA Vietnam)

When I’m in class as a student, it brings to mind how it feels to be on the other side of the desk.  I’m reminded that as a teacher, I need to provide my students with more than just vocabulary and grammar lessons.  Students want to learn, but they also want to have fun and feel safe.  And THAT is what teaching is supposed to be all about!

I had my fair share of fun with this class!
(Shane Taiwan)

Motorbike Diaries

Today’s article is written for the Reach To Teach Teach Abroad Blog Carnival, a monthly series that focuses on providing helpful tips and advice to ESL teachers around the globe. I'll be posting a new ESL related article on my blog on the 5th of every month. Check back for more articles, and if you'd like to contribute to next month's Blog Carnival, please get in touch with me, and I'll let you know how you can start participating!  Check out the rest of this month's entries about memorable experiences abroad by clicking here!

The police officer stepped away from the shoulder and into the lane in front of me, about 50 yards down the road.  I laid off the gas as he started waving his baton, motioning for me to pull over.  As I got closer, I saw two other cops sitting on their motorcycles behind a tree.

Crap. What now? 

I was wearing a helmet.  I wasn’t speeding.  The road was basically empty, except for a few other motorist, including my housemate Nick, who I now noticed was also being signaled over to the side of the road.

No traffic!!

I couldn’t imagine what offense I had committed to warrant being pulled over by the police.  I was on on good motorbike behavior.  Nothing like what normally passes for driving on the busy streets of Saigon.

On any given day, my commute across town to and from work offers up a plethora of death traps along the road.  Ho Chi Minh City is congested with motorbike traffic, and everyone seems to have their own idea of what appropriate big-city driving entails.  

Motorbikes weave in and out between cars, taxis, buses, and other motorbikes.  Buses blow exhaust in your face as they barrel across three lanes of traffic, blaring their horn in warning.  Taxis turn left from the right lane and right from the left.  Little old ladies cross the street in the middle of the block during rush hour.  Street food carts set up shop in the gutter, sticking out in the lane and causing jams as hungry patrons pull up to order.

But I wasn’t driving in Saigon.  I was out for a country drive in Can Gio, nearly an hour away from the hustle of the city.  The road was wide and open.  No real traffic to speak of.

Why is he pulling me over?  What am I doing wrong?

Blue sky, country road

As I slowed to a stop in front the police officer, a million thoughts were running through my head.

Is he going to write me a ticket?  Does he just want a bribe?  Crap, I don’t have very much money with me.  Maybe that’s a good thing.  Or maybe he’ll cart me off to the police station until I pay up.  

Oh my god.  

I’m going to be locked up abroad!

I parked my bike, turned off the ignition, and sat staring at the cop.  Nick pulled up next to me, and the policeman walked over to us.  He motioned for us to get off the bikes and walk towards the other cops, lounging in the shade on their police motorbikes.

Nick and I exchanged puzzled and worried looks as the police officer spoke rapid Vietnamese at us, pointing at his clipboard and miming that he wanted to see our documents.  This was a problem, as neither of us had a valid driver’s license for Vietnam.  

But surely, SURELY, this is no big offense.  There are ways around every deadline and regulation in this country.  I mean, which rules are ACTUALLY enforced??

Certainly not traffic rules.

Beyond all the turning left from the right lane and right from the left, there are numerous traffic violations I witness on an almost constant basis, every time I drive my bike.  Riders with no helmets.  Motorbikes up on the sidewalk.  Families of five, plus a dog or maybe a refrigerator, all on one bike.  No blinkers.  No checking your blind spot.  No side mirrors with which to check your blind spot.  Motorbikes driving down the highway with peach trees bungeed to the back.  Wrong way down a one-way street.  

And don’t even get me started on the roundabouts. 

If these horrible and terribly dangerous practices are commonplace, naturally my lack of one silly little document is small potatoes.  

Right??

My trusty Honda Wave

“Uhhhh, what should we do?” I asked Nick, my heart rate quickening at a terrifying rate.

“I don’t know.  I don’t have a license.  I don’t even have an ID on me.  Just.... Just play dumb.”  Good plan.

The brown-clothed police officer again demanded to see our documents, this time turning to look at his less-interested colleagues, one of whom was now recording this exchange on his camcorder.  All I had was my Wisconsin driver’s license and an International Driver’s License from the AAA office back home, which claimed to be valid in Vietnam, although it was not translated into Vietnamese.

I handed over what I had, hoping they would suffice.  The officer took them and walked away towards the other cops.

A few tense, silent moments later, he returned, clipboard in hand.

“Blah blah blah blah blah??” he commanded in Vietnamese.

“Uhhhh.....” we both shrugged our shoulders and smiled.

“Do you speak Vietnamese?” the police officer sputtered out in a thick accent.

“No” was our simple reply.

The cop turned to look again at the other officers for assistance.  They both stared blankly back.  Finally, one officer, who couldn’t be bothered to move from the shade of the tree, cocked his head, shrugged his shoulders, and looked away.

Defeated, the traffic cop turned back to us, thrust my papers back towards me, and waved us off without another glance.

That’s it.  We’re free.  We’re not going to Vietnamese jungle prison.  We’re not even emptying our bank accounts in an offering of peace.

“What just happened?” I whispered to Nick as we put our helmets back on and walked to our bikes.

“Don’t ask questions.  Just drive away before they figure out how to ask for money in English!” he responded as he hurriedly started his engine and lifted the kickstand.  

As we accelerated away over the bridge, leaving the police crew behind us, I felt a little like a criminal who’d gotten away with something sneaky.

I pulled up in the lane beside Nick and shouted over the revving engines, “Thank god for the language barrier!”

Free as a bird

How Living Abroad Can Make You A Better Person

Today’s post is written for the Reach To Teach Teach Abroad Blog Carnival, a monthly series that focuses on providing helpful tips and advice to ESL teachers around the globe. I'll be posting a new ESL-related article on my blog on the 10th of every month. Check back for more articles, and if you'd like to contribute to next month's Blog Carnival, please get in touch with me, and I'll let you know how you can start participating! To read other blogs from this month's Carnival, click here!

Living abroad definitely wasn’t on my radar.  I was more than content living in America, teaching at a fabulous public school in Milwaukee, being surrounded by English speakers, eating real cheese and Mexican food, and driving my car.  But then a hefty round of education budget cuts caused me to lose my job.  I was devastated; I would not have left that job by choice -- like I said, it was a fabulous school.  

But the silver lining was that it gave me a big push to take the opportunity to do something completely new.  Within a few months of being told I was SOL about trying to keep my beloved job, I had packed my entire apartment into my stepmom’s basement, bought an incredibly expensive one-way plane ticket to a tiny island in the Far East, and said “see you later” to my friends and family.

It’s now been two years since I moved abroad.  I lived for over a year in Taiwan, and now here I am living in Vietnam.  Looking back at the time I’ve spent living in foreign lands, I wouldn’t trade my experiences for anything.  I know I’ve changed and grown as a person, even if just in small ways.  How could you move across the globe and not change?

I would encourage anyone to consider taking the opportunity to live abroad.  It’s a great lifestyle, getting to travel the world, experience different cultures, eat exotic foods, and learn new languages.  But beyond all the fun, it can also make you a better person.

Friend Request

Even if you move abroad with a friend or partner, you’re going to have to make new friends.  Not having a group of buddies to call up and hang out with is an unsettling feeling, but a highly motivating one as well.  Making the effort to be friendly and striking up conversations with people you’ve never met are necessary for building a friend base.  

Luckily, most of the people you meet abroad are like-minded, open people who know exactly what you’re going through being in a new country.  And you’ll make life-long connections with people from across the globe.  No matter what, you’ll always share a very unique experience.  And just think -- if you can make all these new friends because you had to do it, you can make new friends any time you like, just because you want to!

Liquid Courage

When I starting telling people about my upcoming big move, above all others, the most common response I got was some variation of, “Wow! You’re so brave!”

There’s a reason that less than 40% of Americans are passport holders, and even fewer actually use them beyond Mexican beach resorts and Caribbean cruises: it’s a big, scary world out there.  Living squarely inside your comfort zone is just fine, but you won’t grow.  Facing challenges and jumping headlong towards new experiences are the best ways to see what you’re really made of.  And maybe you’ll discover something incredible about yourself.  Or perhaps you’ll recognize an area in your life you want to change, improve, or develop.

If you never felt like a brave person before living abroad, take the new label and wear it proudly like a badge of honor.  If you can step off a plane in a distant country knowing little to nothing about the culture, local language, job you’ll have, apartment where you’ll live, or even how you’ll hail a cab from the airport to the hotel -- all after enduring 24 hours of transoceanic travel -- if you can do this, you can do ANYTHING!

Bloom Where You’re Planted

Like I said before, I was crushed when I found out I was losing my job teaching in Milwaukee Public Schools.  But I discovered something about two months into my teaching gig in Taiwan: I love teaching.  Period.  

It was a big realization for me that my happiness depended far less on my location than I previously thought.  I found that all the things that made me a happy little clam in my life in the US were available on the other side of the world, just in foreign packaging.  My friends were new, but just as amazing and loyal.  My job title changed, but still provided me with purpose and fulfillment.  My family was different, but now I had a home away from home.

I think this has been my biggest area of growth in my time living abroad: accepting that my plans may not always come to fruition, and that’s okay.  I kind of hate all those inspirational quotes about “letting go” and “enjoying the journey” but I must admit, there’s some truth there.  It’s been a hard lesson for me, as I’m a bit of a control freak.  But it’s also somewhat freeing, not being able to control everything.  It takes away some of the pressure to have a plan at all times.  Plus, plans gone astray -- that’s the whole reason I’m living abroad anyway!