At the beginning of this month I started teaching online conversational English on a site named Cambly. The nervousness you can obviously see on my introduction video. I wasn’t quite sure how difficult this was going to be. But sticking to my mantra of staying real and being me’, I didn’t really care if I was liked or not. I just put myself out there for students to consider using as their tutor.
I have been reading this quote every morning in the month of July. ” God spare me from the desire for love, approval or appreciation.” Love is what you are already. Love doesn’t seek anything, it is already complete. Not sure which book I copied this out of, but I stumbled across it in my journal and felt I needed to deeply consider this.
This tutoring job has turned out to be the most fun I have EVER had at work. I meet the most interesting people and have deep conversations with the screen as our barrier of trust. I wanted to blog about it because it has been a lifesaver to me financially and personally. I thoroughly enjoy getting up every day and meeting my students! (well except last weekend when Carla woke my ass up with a phone call only for me to discover I was 15 minutes late to a reservation) Imagine the beauty of just waking up, pulling your hair back, throwing on a decent top- no bra necessary, not brushing your teeth, and not needing to pull off you pj bottoms and working for a couple hours.
I have to tell you about some of my favorite students! Now grant it, I have heard about dick picks (although I have not yet had the pleasure) and I do get my fair share of Saudi children just playing around with the free trial at 3 am their time, but for the most part I have met the most interesting, intelligent, future bound internationals.
I have a couple from Taiwan, who speak to me for a half an hour every night. I never know if I am going to get the wife or the husband on the calls. I think it depends on which one of them is putting the kids to bed that night. I’ve talked to them about their hunt for a new home, their children’s sleeping habits, the difficulties of raising children while both parents are working full time and grandparents are not nearby. I love this couple. They both are so very thoughtful when they speak and we laugh a lot! They are both in IT and work for the same company. Many of the students who have spouses or boyfriends meet at work. Makes you wonder who’s a couple at your job eh? 555 (remember that means lol in thai)
Another student was an Indian 31 year old guy who has passed all of his aviation classes and is now being sponsored by Luftansa Airlines to get his flight time in Arizona. He wanted to make sure he was able to have a fluent conversation with a native speaking American. The excitement and nervousness of his next step in life was contagious. I of course told him about Sedona and how expensive flying time can be. He was excited to hear that she was already flying as he has not yet been up”. He was smart to get sponsored as a flying cadet with an airline. I put Sedona, Arizona on his bucket list to visit.
Likewise yesterday I met a 20 year old Brazilian student who is an only child and is taking a job at a ski resort in Seattle this winter. No, she has never skied before or seen snow! She learned all of her English by watching Netflix. It will be her first time away from home and she is wanting her independence. She did not understand the word customs’ and I worry that she has gotten most of her words and understanding of the USA from Gray’s Anatomy 🙂
My Turkish 31 year old bio chemist is by far the most entertaining. He cracks himself up when I attempt to correct his pronunciation of words. A lot of times I make him type the words so I know what the heck he is trying to say. We talk for an hour every night. His wife is due in October with their first child and he will be moving to Ann Arbor, Michigan to work in their labs early next year. He has been to the Cleveland Clinic and many conventions around the world where he is the presenter. We discussed the effects of estrogen and calcium in regards to menopause 🙂 He wanted to review an article on online dating. Then we also reviewed a historical article on the discovery of vitamins. Did you know vitamin D is not really a vitamin, its a hormone 🙂 Then he was worried that I may get bored. So he linked me to an article that I need to read to discuss tonight on textiles. He was so happy when he took a Canadian man out to lunch today and was able to use some of his new words he learned.
Can you see why I love this? I speak every other day with a PE teacher in Taiwan who just recently moved apartments and is working on her English skills to get into a University in the USA to obtain her PHD. We discussed how other’s expectations effect us and how we sometimes judge people on appearances. (she hates sloppy people)
My sweet Vietnamese student has studied in Russia and is now working in the IT department back home. She claims she has no friends and is overworked and cannot find time to have fun. I eventually got out of her that she has a boyfriend. For homework I asked her write about him using descriptive words to read back to me the next day. She said he was big and fat, along with many other kind adjectives that she glowed about when reading. ADORABLE. My time when speaking with her goes so quickly I hate it.
My Ukranian student said she looked at over 40 tutor videos before selecting me. I went back and looked at my video and I crack myself up. I’m such a goof. I think she picked me because she is also interested in design. She is sweet, kind and shy. (all of which I am not, so I have no trouble correcting her English) She argues with me sometimes on words and I question my vocabulary. I mean, we all know the Findlay school systems were not the greatest in that department. Feel like you may know that already from my repetitive simplistic writing in my posts.
Two of my new students I am looking forward to: One is from Korea and is a 35 year old doctor whose parents are failing and he has had to put aside his dreams and own desires to care for them. The second new student is writing a presentation on natural disaster warnings that go out to the public. She picked me because she said we are opposites and would not get bored learning from each other!
I have learned so much from the people I have talked to. So far I have met a total of 205 students. Can you imagine in one month talking casually to people from UAE, Saudia Arabia, Brazil, Taiwan, China, Vietnam, Ukraine, Japan, India, Morocco (these boys are never serious) Jordon and Egypt. Is this not right up my happy alley? People from around the world and I get paid just to chat with them!!! I have an entire notebook filled with notes I take when in conversations with them. I’ve learned so much about the middle east and the power women are finally feeling there with new their ability to drive.
One young 12 year old girl from Saudia Arabia had 60 minutes on her time and I thought, Oh No, how am I going to keep her busy chatting for that long?! We had a blast! She tried to show me her new purse she purchased and when I told her the camera on her side was off, she was pissed. I told her it was okay, most Saudi women do not show themselves on video still and she immediately turned hers on! She showed me her nail polish collection and I taught her words like glitter and iridescent. She told me she wanted to cut her hair and dye it sky blue. I was cracking up wondering if her parents knew what a rebel they had on their hands. Most Saudi families have a minimum of 5 kids. I learned this quickly.
The difference between those large families vs the Chinese single child is eye opening. The single Chinese children are under such pressure to be the best and be the star! Their parents have worked them hard and expect nothing less than perfection. They are not rebellious and take life very seriously. I asked an 11 year old Chinese student of mine (who always wears black, so I taught him wild cat names and asked which one he was- he knew he was the panther) if he had all the money in the world and did not have to ever work, what would he do? He answered probably start up his own electronic company. I asked about travelling, seeing concerts, etc but this escaped him. His summers are spent continually learning online for self improvement. My challenge is always to get a smile out of him.
Possibly this is way too much writing about people you don’t know, and maybe don’t care about. But it is the most fascinating thing to me. I can’t stop talking about them and their stories. There should be books written about all the lives I have learned about and how just for 1/2 an hour I get the honor of speaking with them, being taught by them about their culture, and sometimes even get to see the joy and pain in their hearts.
Don’t worry, I plan to visit a beach this weekend and am hitting the spa (gift from Justin) Friday. But I wanted to share what this month has been like teaching. A true blessing with a hint of income.
Tonya Takes Thailand 