Finding my true calling

He has finally found it. After sifting through numerous jobs(waiter, Starbucks barrista, call centre operator, data entry, civil service) he has finally found his dream job. This was what he was meant to do. Teaching English.

Its not really that surprising. You see, its in the blood really. His grandfather was a teacher, so is his father and so is his mother. The apple most certainly doesnt fall far from the tree.

Its a relatively easy job, little preparations and nothing to take home to work on, just show up, and teach whatever is provided to you. The pay is pretty decent to. Higher than what he would have got at any other of his previous jobs. Plus it has a pretty cool job designation: English Lecturer(the part-time part was dropped cause it sorta cramped the style a bit).

Teaching basic English isnt difficult, but he gets all kinds of people in his class from Nepalese monks to middle-aged housewives to 9 year old children to disgruntled MUET candidates determined to prove a point after a Band 4 result. Communication is difficult at times, but the Mandarin he knows comes in handy in these situations. Although trying to explain what a rhetorical question is can be quite tricky.

" Its a question, but its not REALLY a question."

Of course having such a diverse array of students can contribute to some interesting situations. Like a 9 year old asking him if sex was necessary to get babies. Or a 19 year old Chinese female student telling him he's too good looking to be single, asking him to go ice-skating with her and giving him good natured advice like taking his shirt off when he said the class was too hot. Do not fraternise with students, do not fraternise with students and do not fraternise with students. Do not fraternise with students, do not fraternise with students and do not fraternise with students. Dont.

It may be awkward and sometimes even creepy, but still, how do you not fall in love with a job like this?

But of course, that still doesnt change the fact that he's either going to end up being a civil engineer or a marine engineer. Its not really that surprising either. Its in his blood you see. He's Indian after all.