For a lot of my adult life, I have flittered about, going from job to job, location to location and never settling down, whether it's my own intentions or otherwise. As I've parroted many times, life for me is about experience; it's about living unconventionally and I certainly don't care for a dead end job and living in perpetual misery as a result. And I'm not going to cave in to societal pressure to procreate with a long term partner in a monogamous relationship and get married (although, perhaps I would for visa purposes). So whether or not I'll continue to flitter about for the rest of my life will remain to be seen. I'm 28 years old and I still want to enjoy myself whilst I'm still young, instead of at a time in life when my health will have deteriorated; when I'm too damn old and it'll be a struggle to wipe my own arse. If people want to settle down and work hard during their youthful years, and want to wait until retirement to truly appreciate life, then each to their own. I don't.
Now I can get off from my soap box and type about something new and exciting - me flittering off to China to teach English. I've read a long time ago that one of the best options to travel is to teach English on the side. Money isn't going to accumulate if one doesn't work for it, and we live in a world where one has to purchase papers to obtain permission to cross over an imaginary line to another country. Oh, to be a bird and be able to migrate without boundaries created by man.
Having done a little stint teaching English in India a few years ago (when I was green and inexperienced), I thought that I may as well give this a shot and so enrolled myself into a 140 hours TEFL course - 120 hours online and 20 hours in a classroom. I took my time with it and finally passed and received my certificate in May. It's a relatively easy course and successfully completing it by no means makes me a qualified and professional teacher, but I've acquired knowledge on the methodology of teaching at least. If only I had the same knowledge on the methodology of teaching as well as grammar, as I do now, back in India. I despair at my past ignorance and failings.
Since passing, I started work at the Sealife Centre as a photography and sales assistant, wanting to put some money (it's a necessary evil after all, isn't it?) aside before I start applying for teaching positions. Heading to Asia is a preference of mine and I initially thought that it would be impossible for me to teach in China due to not having a BA, which many (legit) schools require.
Since then, I've done my homework and I've found out that it isn't actually government law that requires an "alien" to have a university degree, rather, it's a guideline established by State Administration for Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA) who state that, "The foreign educational expert should hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree and more than two years of experience."
Notice the modal verb "should". It's a word commonly used for advice or recommendations (You should get a haircut, Terry. You should settle down, Terry. You should have another drink, Terry. Only one of those advice I'd follow. Guess which one?) and doesn't necessarily mean that one needs to adhere to it. Surely must would have been the modal verb used if it was an actual obligation? Besides, the SAFEA guideline is just that: a guideline. It's the employer's discretion whether or not they enforce it. Basically, guidelines are not laws.
Anyway, a friend who attended the same classroom part of the course as me gave my Facebook contact to a recruiter from an agency that specialises in teaching jobs for TEFL/ESL teachers. She contacted me and wanted to put me in contact with a school called First Leap who would have had me working in one of their schools in China on a business visa. Alarm bells went off in my head and the skeptical in me done some research and found out that would have been completely illegal (hence my research into visas in general), so, nach, I declined.
The recruiter then got an assistant Director of Studies (DOS) from English First in Xi'an to email me after I looked over the job description and said I'd be willing to have an interview. I made sure to ask the DOS about the visa and researched English First too and was reassured that it's a legit school. The interview went well and I was offered a position!
In the time that's past, I have been gradually buying things I feel I need or that'll help. It took a while, but I have also now obtained my visa (speaking of visas: since the referendum resulted in brexit, there has been speculation that we, as UK citizens no longer a part of the EU, will have to pay to visit EU countries. No longer would we be able to hop on the plane spontaneously and have a binge drinking weekend in Ibiza or go to part in Prague, nope, we'd have to apply, pay and wait for approval. And what has people's response been? "Oh well, I don't mind having to pay a score," to paraphrase nonchalant brexit voters has been the gist of it. Ha! Do these brexiters really think that EU embassies will only charge us a score to enter? Us to whom they now show resentment towards? Mate, I had to pay £180 [working visa, mind you] for the privilege to enter China and I don't think UK government have done anything to piss them off in recent years, so I can only despair at the potential extortionate prices EU countries will charge after giving them the proverbial middle finger. Then there's the waiting times. The filling out numerous forms. Visas are a fucking ball ache is what I'm getting at here. Let's hope that it's just post brexit scaremongering. Shit, I'm on my soapbox again, aren't I?).
So now I'm just counting down the days, visiting family, having farewell drinks, learning a bit of Mandarin and getting reaquainted with chopsticks. I'll update this blog once I get to China and settle down over there. Let's hope that things pan out better for me this time and it'll be a good year!
Now I can get off from my soap box and type about something new and exciting - me flittering off to China to teach English. I've read a long time ago that one of the best options to travel is to teach English on the side. Money isn't going to accumulate if one doesn't work for it, and we live in a world where one has to purchase papers to obtain permission to cross over an imaginary line to another country. Oh, to be a bird and be able to migrate without boundaries created by man.
Having done a little stint teaching English in India a few years ago (when I was green and inexperienced), I thought that I may as well give this a shot and so enrolled myself into a 140 hours TEFL course - 120 hours online and 20 hours in a classroom. I took my time with it and finally passed and received my certificate in May. It's a relatively easy course and successfully completing it by no means makes me a qualified and professional teacher, but I've acquired knowledge on the methodology of teaching at least. If only I had the same knowledge on the methodology of teaching as well as grammar, as I do now, back in India. I despair at my past ignorance and failings.
Since passing, I started work at the Sealife Centre as a photography and sales assistant, wanting to put some money (it's a necessary evil after all, isn't it?) aside before I start applying for teaching positions. Heading to Asia is a preference of mine and I initially thought that it would be impossible for me to teach in China due to not having a BA, which many (legit) schools require.
Since then, I've done my homework and I've found out that it isn't actually government law that requires an "alien" to have a university degree, rather, it's a guideline established by State Administration for Foreign Expert Affairs (SAFEA) who state that, "The foreign educational expert should hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree and more than two years of experience."
Notice the modal verb "should". It's a word commonly used for advice or recommendations (You should get a haircut, Terry. You should settle down, Terry. You should have another drink, Terry. Only one of those advice I'd follow. Guess which one?) and doesn't necessarily mean that one needs to adhere to it. Surely must would have been the modal verb used if it was an actual obligation? Besides, the SAFEA guideline is just that: a guideline. It's the employer's discretion whether or not they enforce it. Basically, guidelines are not laws.
Anyway, a friend who attended the same classroom part of the course as me gave my Facebook contact to a recruiter from an agency that specialises in teaching jobs for TEFL/ESL teachers. She contacted me and wanted to put me in contact with a school called First Leap who would have had me working in one of their schools in China on a business visa. Alarm bells went off in my head and the skeptical in me done some research and found out that would have been completely illegal (hence my research into visas in general), so, nach, I declined.
The recruiter then got an assistant Director of Studies (DOS) from English First in Xi'an to email me after I looked over the job description and said I'd be willing to have an interview. I made sure to ask the DOS about the visa and researched English First too and was reassured that it's a legit school. The interview went well and I was offered a position!
In the time that's past, I have been gradually buying things I feel I need or that'll help. It took a while, but I have also now obtained my visa (speaking of visas: since the referendum resulted in brexit, there has been speculation that we, as UK citizens no longer a part of the EU, will have to pay to visit EU countries. No longer would we be able to hop on the plane spontaneously and have a binge drinking weekend in Ibiza or go to part in Prague, nope, we'd have to apply, pay and wait for approval. And what has people's response been? "Oh well, I don't mind having to pay a score," to paraphrase nonchalant brexit voters has been the gist of it. Ha! Do these brexiters really think that EU embassies will only charge us a score to enter? Us to whom they now show resentment towards? Mate, I had to pay £180 [working visa, mind you] for the privilege to enter China and I don't think UK government have done anything to piss them off in recent years, so I can only despair at the potential extortionate prices EU countries will charge after giving them the proverbial middle finger. Then there's the waiting times. The filling out numerous forms. Visas are a fucking ball ache is what I'm getting at here. Let's hope that it's just post brexit scaremongering. Shit, I'm on my soapbox again, aren't I?).
So now I'm just counting down the days, visiting family, having farewell drinks, learning a bit of Mandarin and getting reaquainted with chopsticks. I'll update this blog once I get to China and settle down over there. Let's hope that things pan out better for me this time and it'll be a good year!
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