To Leave or Not to Leave, That is the Question . . . .
Posted by Andrew | Filed under Commentary
The anniversary of my birth brings back memories of people and places, some now long gone, memories perhaps which I do not really wish to remember (and am glad that they only swing around once a year) or those which I do, and which become harder to cling to as I become older . . . memories which hurt because they are joyful and sad at the same time . . . and it reminds me that decisions have to be made, some perhaps quite difficult, about what to do for the unknown future . . .
As we get older, we find ourselves having to make transitions between the places where we were and the places we will be (although, unfortunately, not necessarily the places we want to be).
In my previous incarnation, I worked as a analytical chemist, despite the fact that I felt something of a fraud, having graduated in biochemistry and genetics. Because of the perceived disparity between desire and reality – biosciences interested me then, not chemistry – eventually the strain became too much, and I left the job, I left the country and went somewhere else, somewhere, at least, where I could have some kind of existence beyond being a pointlessly specialised (and frequently unemployed) scientist.
How we react to the situation in which we find ourselves is, I think, a matter of personality. There are (and probably always have been) plenty of people whose only real desire is to find a job which is not too taxing and does not pay too badly, and then stick to it for as long as they can. A century ago, or even as recently as fifty years ago, it was possible to do this. There always seemed to be plenty of jobs for those who sought security and were not too choosy about the thing itself, as long as the pay was regular. And the economic situation a hundred years ago was stable enough to allow a lifetime of work with a single employer, like the old English railway companies.
However, the last forty years in the UK have seen many changes: increased competition between businesses, mass unemployment, and radical changes in the types of employment which may be available. Manufacturing seems to have been allowed to decline horrendously and in its place is a pool of casualised and usually non-permanent jobs, many of them in some form of financial or informational management role. Engineering jobs seem to be plentiful, but are more often than not carried out in other countries, even though they may actually be "based" in the UK. This kind of "internationalised" work may be fine for those who can get started in it and become established, but those who choose to stay at home and try to find work locally may find themselves seriously disadvantaged.
Some of us also have a quite different temperament. I am a very choosy person; I think I have never had a job which might be described as "suitable" for myself. In fairness to myself, however, I would have to point out that many of the roles I have been asked to assume have been ones in which I have been "shunted sideways" into situations where my combination of acquired abilities and experience represented "transferable skills" rather than being purposely trained for those precise roles, and as you can imagine, I have found this deeply dissatisfying.
Also – as you might no doubt expect – over the years I have discussed this matter with a lot of people. Sometimes, this has proven difficult because the partners in the discussions have been much younger than myself – which seems to be some bizarre kind of occupational feature – but older muckers tend to agree with me that eventually, even a job which feels fairly comfortable at the beginning starts to become irritating, and as time passes, the irritations become greater in number until, eventually, they accumulate to an unbearable point, and it's time to move. I would have to say that for me, some jobs have proven to be pure irritation from the very beginning.
One consequence of all of this is that there comes a point when individuals have to essentially "re-invent" themselves. I had always been interested in science, and especially life science, from an early age – with a heady televisual mix of science fiction shows (see previous blogs) and frequent forays into the natural world like The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau, The World About Us, Survival (from Anglia TV in the UK) and various offerings from Mr. D. Attenborough, Esq., it was hard not to be entranced, although more latterly much of this seems to have merged into a calculus of indoctrination for a particular ecological viewpoint . . . but a "soft science" like this tends to have many adherents – too many, in fact, to all be gainfully employed as they would like to be – and so, in an attempt to get a salary, I would unwillingly allow myself to be siphoned off into other fields. And I would be the first to admit that as my experience grew, the salaries became more generous, but in certain respects, I felt that such tasks were both beyond me and really not interesting enough to justify the level of dedication that is required to motivate a person there by dint of his transferables, rather than because of being deliberately trained for that role.
I should add, however, that many of these roles have been unique: in some cases, I have actually been in an interview shortlist of one – although this has not necessarily made me feel any sense of elation, either due to the field in question being chemical rather than biological, or because later I discovered that even though I was the only applicant considered worthy of an interview, the job itself failed to materialise!
So this is what brought me to East Asia. And yet again, the result is disillusionment. After over seven years in South Korea (and a prior ten months spent in various parts of northern Taiwan), I have found that my motivation is simply not matched by the quality of the job. The experience I have seems desirable, but the sad fact of the matter is – firstly – that the English teaching world is surprisingly "agist" – but there are – secondly – other problems, as a friend here put it recently:
I have a buddy here, who after first coming to Korea in 1997 is now leaving. The problem for him is promotion, or lack of, and his school treat him the same as the next 22 year old off the plane with a drinking problem. The school never asks his advise [sic] on anything.
The foreigners are not taken seriously, despite the fact that they are actually native speakers of the target language. However, it has to be said that part of the trouble is that the system here requires only a minimal qualification of a first Degree. While I am certain that such a person can do the job adequately to start with in the right circumstances (as the role seems to be of smaller magnitude than one would expect in one's own country), in practice the authorities here do not apply any specific training as a form of quality control. The contracts here are uniformly for one year, so unless you are in the kind of situation that I was in back at the hagwon, where I was liked by the Boss and he was happy for me to stay as long as I wanted, you are constantly in the position of wondering where you will be in a year's time, and again, this is an unsettling and demotivating influence. How can anyone reasonably lay down any long-term plans in a situation like that?
Even if you are like myself and never miss a day through either indolence or illness, you are treated the same. You are hired – you are told – because of your experience, and then your opinions are ignored even when you are asked for your advice. And as my friend there has already adumbrated, there is virtually no prospect of promotion for most foreigners who come here to teach English. There may be pay rises based upon your experience, but that's as far as it goes. Stay here and you will always be in the same position – at least, perhaps, unless you get married . . . or set up your own business. Then you don't need promotion!!!
Expectations of behaviour should be discussed extensively and regularly to avoid social problems, but this rarely happens. I suppose that, in a way, there is little point in worrying about such things too much, as there really are plenty of young foreigners who come here to teach with the intention of only staying here for their initial contract year, enjoying the place whilst not behaving too badly, who then depart. But the whole situation is short-termist, and quality suffers because of the perceived need for more English-speaking foreigners, many of whom demonstrate with alarming frequency that they cannot write, spell or do grammar properly. What kind of English can the students learn from these people?
How to react to this situation is difficult to assess. If you can be like myself – just turned 48 in an agist market and with years of experience here – and be treated continually as if you had only just stepped off a plane at the age of 22 – you can become demotivated due to demonstrable lack of respect. But the question then becomes: "Well, I already had one or two career changes, so WTF can I possibly do next???"
And that's the big question for me, right now . . .
Tags: career, career choice, choice, elementary, English, foreigner, hagwon, Korea, lifestyle, living, public school, school, South Korea, teacher, teachin
