About Me
I am the ever reluctant ESL teacher and a hopeless wanderer – which means that my career choice is more or less determined for me. I fell into the teaching English as a Second language thing rather by accident. An anime junkie in my youth I always dreamed of going to Japan, and I had heard ESL was the way to do it. However upon finishing my first degree I followed the path of many Newfoundlanders who chose the other side of the Atlantic over Alberta. 3 weeks into waitressing in Ireland I realized that Irish boys were dangerous and more importantly you needed a certain sense of balance to be a waitress. Seeing an ad for the Dublin School of English I had a TEFL 4 weeks later and a job at a summer camp for Italian kids in England 2 weeks after that.
The path has hardly been straight. Like many EFL teachers, I have often been torn between the pain of boring text books and the insane hours dictated by your Hagwon, and the sheer bliss of the food and travel. I often left the field, only to return to it when my gypsy soul threatened a mutiny when I locked her into a 9 – 5.
Now I have found the best solution, at least for the short term. I am freelancing in Germany. This means no contract, and despite the many shortfalls that not having a contract brings, it also means that when the industry begins to drive you to the point where you would rather point sharp pencils at your eyeballs and fall upon them rather than carry on, you get to tell your company your not working for 2 weeks to 2 months, no permission needed, and indulge in the life you always wanted of travel and pleasure reading. No other job has offered me that so far, and so as often as I dream about changing the job, who knows when I will.
I have taught in England, the Czech Republic, Japan, Korea and Germany. I have traveled in many more. With no end in sight – but always with the possibility of a career change in the future.
