I've taken a long and winding road to end up in school studying to become a teacher.
I graduated from college way back in 1979. I entered the Peace Corps and worked in the agriculture extension program in Ecuador for a couple years. Then, I worked with International Voluntary Services in Bolivia. I went from working with the Otavalan Indians of the high Andes in Ecuador to the llanos of Eastern Bolivia, with a wild-west type mixture of ethnicities and lifestyles. Quite an experience!
A couple years later, I became a mother and home-schooled my son K-12. Somewhere in there I tried a year of law school, but it was too much money and time when I had so little of both. So, back to full-time Mom and homeschooling parent.
I really loved homeschooling, but it sure left a hole after 18 years outside the working world! When my son graduated, I filled the time waiting tables and trying to learn Mandarin Chinese.
Last year, I signed up to teach English in Baoji, China for a month. I was really only trying to improve my Chinese abilities, but the experience opened my eyes to another possibility. The classroom dynamic was so interesting and challenging that for the first time I considered teaching as a career.
So, here I am, back in the trenches of academia working on the MAT. . .
Where is Baoji? We taught English at a university in Nanchang which is a village of some six million about a 9-hour train drive west of Shanghai. We revisited some students this past month as well as professors from China who had done an exchange at Western. We never learned much Chinese because everyone wanted to practice their English, which is of course the reason we were there. 在讲
ReplyDeleteOh, I homeschool my daughter! It's great to hear that you homeschooled K-12. We've only done K-3 so far, but we love it! What's your son up to now? Is he exploring the world like you did? ;->
ReplyDeleteI remember your verbal introduction during our orientation. I've got my Mandarin Rosetta Stone at home, but haven't begun learning from it yet. Knowing that we improve our marketability by learning another language (besides English), I'm trying to decide if I should learn Mandarin from scratch, or refresh my 6 years of Spanish (grades 6-12) which is rusty now.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all of your comments. Here's my best shot at answering your questions. . .
ReplyDeleteBaoji is about 1 hour (fast) train ride west of Xian. I think it has about 300,000 people - a small city for China, but big enough. I loved the experience. I know what you mean about always being on call for practicing English. I was lucky to live in an apartment with some people who didn't speak English so I got to try out my Mandarin there and as I navigated from Beijing to Baoji and back. I am green with envy reading about your recent visit to China! :)
Homeschool - I loved homeschooling too. It got more difficult as my son got older. I live in a rural area and most non-religious homeschoolers ended up sending their kids to school and we were kind of on our own for the high school years. He ended up taking a couple classes at the high school just for the social contact.
Right now, my son is working for a polling company, working on music and writing on the side. He tried college for a year, but didn't like it much. He may have been unprepared for the structure after 12 years of "interest-led learning". It has been a bit hard for me to let him find his way since I am so academically-oriented. At this moment, he is looking into applying for college to study psychology. Now it is ME who isn't quite sure he is suited for academia LOL. But I am very proud of his independent and responsible decision-making. I'm also a bit envious of where you are in homeschooling. Enjoy!
Mr. Wellen:
I'm not sure what I would advise in choosing a language. If it's just marketability you're looking at, I'd probably go with Spanish. As you know, Mandarin is pretty tough. I've been studying on my own for over five years and am still only at an intermediate level. That can get discouraging if you don't love it. Fortunately, I have a great passion for it, but I'm not sure most people would want to plow on without least some affinity for the language and culture.