Since things are changing pretty fast these days, I thought
I’d update you on what’s happening on my end. Hopefully it’ll fetch some replies
so I can know what’s up where y’all are, too! (Y’all?! Well, I AM back in
Texas, so I thought it fitting. J)
My life and job in China were promising, but things went
belly up in just about every way I can think of. The first year was pretty good
work-wise. I was grouped with a bunch of English people, plus an Irishman and a
Scot, and basically had to learn English all over. I was amused at their
vocabulary, intonation, accents, and obscure (to me) cultural references.
I learned a lot from them and about myself that year. I
developed as a teacher, a member of management, and as a citizen of the world. My
roommate and I (friends in America) fell out, so home-life was stressful, but
work was alright.
This is my absolute favorite class, whom I taught for all
four semesters in China. I’ve given them my contact information so we can keep
in touch. I’ll continue to edit, proofread, or make suggestions on anything
they send me in English so we can improve their odds of standing out above the
competition in China. I’d really love to see them all succeed.
Sadly and predictably, the honeymoon phase at work ended and
was replaced by deceit, backstabbing, insane ‘cost-cutting’, and other brands
of human indecency. During the second year, I stepped down from my leadership
role in protest and distanced myself from everything about the job but my
precious students. Unfortunately, I did realize that I could never be truly
happy working for or with anyone like the people I was working for and that the
world of teaching English is absolutely teeming with them. As it turned out, it
was an excellent decision from which both my students and I benefited greatly
because my focus was just on them and lessons.
For about six months I was near depression because of my
love for teaching and my kaput desire to do it. I barely hung out with anyone, overate
and gained weight, and stayed home as much as I could because I was sure my
little dog wouldn’t break my heart the way my job had. My sister came to visit
me during this time and we traveled some in China during an 8-week long break
between semesters while I thought about the next step.
Finally, I decided to make a huge career change: quitting
teaching. Though I love being in the classroom and am actually pretty good at
it, my deep need for a just, honest, integrity-filled workplace is just too
impossible in the teaching world and I see myself being entirely miserable if I
pursued it any further. Instead, I decided to develop one of my favorite parts
of teaching, which is pronunciation. I’ve researched what other jobs I can do
teaching/correcting pronunciation and have found accent reduction and
modification interesting and doable. This will mean helping non-native English
speakers reduce their accents, including pronunciation, intonation, cadence and
even gestures! (Ok, that exclamation mark might not have been necessary but
that kind of stuff really does excite me.)
Most of you know, then, that I applied to and was accepted
to a postgraduate program in Barcelona where I’ll earn a master’s degree in
applied and theoretical linguistics. With that, I hope to burst into the world
of accent modification and help people sound less foreign, ghetto, regional
(like southern, New Yorker, Bostonian, Texan…) or whatever they want to change
about their accents.
I’m home in the USA for about 7 weeks right now, the longest
I’ve been home since 2008. I’m hoping to actually rest and recover from China
this summer before Spain does whatever it’s gonna do to me. So far, I haven’t
really experienced reentry shock (a phenomenon that happens when people live
abroad for a while then return to their home countries), possibly because I
didn’t really fall in love with China the way I thought I would (and the way I
did with Hungary). I was happy to leave China, mostly to get away from my work
situation, but living in China wasn’t really my cup of tea either.
I miss a few things about Chinese life – wide, safe bike
lanes on every road, recycling opportunities everywhere, cheap/counterfeit
things like electronics, perfumes, bags, cheap rent, shower sprayers in
addition to stationary shower heads, awesome engineering feats of people
balancing a TON of stuff on a moped or bicycle, the fact that people there
don’t have know-it-all attitudes, all my 750 students, and a handful of dear
friends I met there.
Right now I’m staying at Liz and Scott’s (my sister and
brother-in-law) with our three dogs. It’s a full house, but a good time. We’ve
taken a trip to Illinois to visit almost everyone in our extended family, we’ve
done some light recreation, and we’ve eaten nearly everything under the
American sun. I’m hoping for a trip to Florida to see my immediate family,
depending on whether the government drags their feet with my documents,
background check, visa, etc. but I think I’ll get to go. If you’d like updates
from me (very sparingly, I promise), let me know. Call me, text, or
email!
Many blessings and greetings to all the people who are
helping make me who I am across the world. Feel free to share this letter with
anyone who knows me whom you think would like to know what I’m up to. (Sorry
for the American slang, foreigners… but I’m home after all! J)
Christie
