Temporary job contracts. Jetting off to foreign countries to escape the dreaded “settling down”. To use a popular Millennial phrase: Why are we like this?!
Very recently, a fellow TEFL graduate said something to me that I haven’t been able to shake:
Us TEFL graduates have such a fear of settling, but we don’t realise it until much later on.
Obviously, I should say here that this is a blanket judgement on her part, and doesn’t necessarily apply to all EFL teachers. However, being relatively early on in my career and considerably less experienced than her, that comment did leave me feeling a little conflicted about my career choice.
Why EFL?
I chose EFL as an alternative to mainstream English teaching, mostly attracted by, what appears to be, a more flexible lifestyle. You qualify, you fly to Europe and teach for six months, then head to another country and teach there. Wash, rinse, repeat – ideal right?
Suddenly, the rose-tinted-ness of EFL teaching began to wear off, and I began to ask the question: Am I scared of settling?
TEFL was never a plan of mine. I fell into the industry, primarily as an alternative to mainstream English teaching – me in a secondary school? No, thank you. But the more I learned about TEFL, the more excited I became. I realised that I had finally found a career that might satisfy my perpetually itchy feet.
So what?
Having spent the last month doing temporary TEFL work in a summer school, I think I can say that the idea of “settling” is something created by society to scare us. Get a degree by 21, job by 22, house by 25, family by 30. Right?
In opposition to what my friend said, maybe it isn’t a fear of settling that plagues EFL teachers, but the self-awareness that “settling” is a social construct. Why does travelling have to be limited to your teens and early twenties? What is it about the fear of temporary job contracts? Why is having job-related itchy feet a bad thing?
The bottom line is, TEFL isn’t for everyone, and neither is the traditional idea of “settling”. Whatever route you decide to take, remember that each person’s route is different. There is no “one size fits all” for that postgraduate grey area, it is entirely down to the individual.