harder, faster, bigger stronger - work it

I guess the topic for tonight's blog post will be work. So as to fit in with what Pippa, Tiff and Gabby talked about on their respective blogs (please go and check them out if you'd like, fantastic writers and even more fantastic and wonderful people).

This will be a semi happy post, I guess? Might change in the process but we'll see.

As I wrote in my previous post, I had a pretty bad experience working for a super black Japanese company. And then I worked for my current company. But there was other stuff in between or before that.

Some of the students I talk to always seem surprised about how much I have already experienced in what they consider a relatively short period of time but as Pippa mentioned, changing jobs in Japan is something uncommon. Internships and trainee ships, job experiences and the like have only been introduced fairly recently and have not taken off quite yet.

It's different in Germany or generally most of the northern European countries, I believe.

Compulsory education in Germany is until Year 9, so the end of Junior High School basically. So you learn in Year 8 and 9 how to write a resume and a CV and how to do a job interview and you learn about different kinds of jobs. You learn about which jobs you can do without a high school diploma or university degree. You learn about the option of apprenticeships and practical learning. And you get to do an internship and a few job experience days.

Few of you might know this but when I was younger, my dream was actually to become a voice actress. I had been involved in singing children's songs (discovered at a school festival by a producer) and things were looking good but then I got pneumonia and yeah there went that dream. I still enjoy acting and doing weird voices, though, much to the amusement of my kids' and sometimes also adult students lol

Next, I became interested in journalism. The sister of my friend/boyfriend at that time was a freelance journalist and she helped me to get an internship at our local TV and radio station. The internship was super interesting and I learned a lot but I also kind of noticed that maybe this wasn't the right thing for me. Which was the whole point of the internship, to see whether it suited you or not.

Then, Germany encourages kids to experience jobs that had been 'traditionally held by the opposite gender' in order to have more diversity etc. So guess what, I did a job experience thing at the fire brigade. Again, learned a lot of useful stuff (though a lot of the first aid and medical stuff I learned from my mum before) and it was an interesting day but yeah I knew that becoming a first responder was not for me (fire fighters, medics, police...).

I tried to get interested in engineering or more technical jobs (because my dad would have been overjoyed if at least one of his kids followed in his footsteps...) but... HAHAHA MATH. lol

My uni internship was at an international student exchange organization in Japan. Again, learning experience but somehow not quite what I had been looking for. Within that internship I got to visit a few other Japanese companies, though as part of the internship program, so that was kind of cool and I learned a lot of things from those trips, too. Getting a glimpse behind the scenes of some of the big names was pretty cool (e.g. getting a tour of Kansai Airport and its cargo area).

The next venture was into tourism and while I would have loved to work in it... that got smashed when the job with the black black company of terribleness happened.

And then, finally, I went into teaching. I also did a brief stint as a project manager for a translation office and apparently did a good job (they offered me a full time contract but by that time I had noticed hat I really liked teaching so I accepted the full time teaching position in Japan instead).

I often, really often, get the question as to why I became an English teacher with my qualification (I have a Bachelor's Degree in Business Economics and a Master's Degree in Strategic Marketing, missing cum laude by a few points because I had to repeat one Math exam... surprise surprise).

But it is actually thanks to having that degree and thanks to having so much experience that I was able to became the teacher I am today. It all started with me becoming a teacher in Germany. I had put up on my profile that I specialized in 'Business English'. Something that, to be honest, does not exist per se. The English is the same as the one everyone else uses or knows. However, it is the understanding of business situations that makes this a different teaching area than regular English.

99% of the teachers in the database I was in did not feel confident enough to teach "Business English". So here I was with my "ESP" qualification from training (English for Special Purposes - no, I did not suddenly develop super powers or anything sad)... and I got quite a few requests through the agency.

Students then and now valued me for my understanding of the situations they were in on top of the language skills I had. Like, I know what it feels like to walk into a boardroom and give a presentation in front of the top brass of the company. I know what it feels like to train new employees or be trained as a new employee. I know what it's like to have meetings with representatives from different countries. I know what kind of 'business etiquette' there is.

I know what it's like to study a foreign language.

I only realized those things while I was already a teacher, while I had already gained experience teaching for however many months. It wasn't until a student told me straight out:

"I really feel like you understand."

That meant a lot to me and it really opened my eyes. And that one student did not stay the only one.

Reading some of the letters I received over the years, I see this kind of 'understanding' reflected in quite a few of them and it becomes my drive, my motivation and my strength to keep going.

There are 2 letters I look at a lot. One of them has one line, that will always, always stay with me.

"I will miss you because you were more than just my teacher. You are my friend."

The student who wrote that was a high school student at that time and she'd been with me since she was still in Jr High and then for all of her high school and now she's in university (aah they grow up so fast).

The other letter says:

"Thank you for teaching me."

Some of my co-workers commented, "should't it say 'English' at the end?" but I got the message loud and clear. The student in question did not just come to study English. They always said how they enjoyed learning about 'many different things' and really, they weren't the best student English wise or anything but they said that my classes were more than just 'English'. My classes also had something else.

Seriously, when I am having a shitty day and am ready to just give up on myself and my job and life, I look at those two letters on my wall (along with all the other letters that now cover my entire door) and the words give me strength. The words tell me that I did something right and that I should keep going.

I wouldn't be here anymore if it weren't for my students.

Everyone always thanks me for being there for them, for helping them and supporting them but really, it should be me saying thank you.

Thank you.