Transforming a Negative Experience to a Positive one

I remember the famous episode in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the one in which Tom turned the whitewashing of his Aunt Polly’s fence into an exercise in manipulating his friends. As I recall, Tom applied the paint with gusto, pretending to enjoy the job. “Do you call this work?” Tom told his friends. “Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence everyday?” Armed with this new information, his friends discovered the joys of white washing a fence. Before long, Tom’s friend were not only paying him for the privilege, but deriving real pleasure from the task – a win-win outcome if there ever was one. From my perspective, Tom transformed his negative experience to a positive one. So, I thought I could give it a try.

My honeymoon with teaching has finally come to an end. I have been teaching English to Korean students for couple of years now. Each lesson I teach, I make it a point that I would put my heart into it. Every lecture that I would deliver is carefully thought of and that every possible question that my students might ask me is carefully plot down. After a deep slumber, I rouse up one morning and realized that my heart is no longer in teaching. Each day I walk to work like a zombie. The feeling of “uncertainty” spoils every single circumstance that I deal with each day. Few years back, I told my students that I would grow old teaching and might even die while teaching. Suddenly like a thief, my passion and my directions were snatched away from me.

Korea and teaching itself deprive me of several things. One of which is my country _ my comfort zone _ my home. From being discriminated or stereotyped by some racist people around me to not being able to wear my comfortable sneakers and sleepers I used to wear back in the Philippines. I wander around with the absence of belongingness. I feel that I am the odd one out. Coming from a third world country, having a brown skin and being a non-native speaker _ teaching for me in Korea is demoralizing. Loaded with this heavy burden, I felt tired, I get exhausted.

Much Like Tom Sawyer, then, I tried to take an ambiguous experience and arbitrarily make my demoralizing teaching experience to a pleasurable one. Descartes said, Cogito ergo sum – “I think, therefore I am.” Now, from a light slumber, I rouse up and said – “I love teaching.” I think I love teaching, therefore, I love teaching. I realized that not everyone gets a chance to teach English in Korea, not everyone earns five times higher or even more than they used to earn back in the Philippines. I take pride of the fact that Filipino teachers are far better than most of native speakers in educating Korean learners. I remember one co-teacher who happen to be a native speaker, interrupted my class and asked me to explain to him the meaning and function of the word “gerund.” I keenly explained it to him. I realized that it’s not the skin color, mother tongue nor races that count, but the execution, passion and the quality of education that a teacher can impart to students. Armed with these facts, I flipped my teaching style upside down, from a traditional and boring execution of lessons to the exciting and interesting one. With the help of my reliable laptop, my lessons are now more interactive, fun-filled and well-thought of. I made short films related to my lessons, something that my boss and students truly enjoyed. I coached speech and drama which enable my students to master the English language in a practical way. I earn, I got to practice my expertise in communication and regained my self-confidence. It was a win-win outcome, so to speak.

Just like Tom, I did not dwell on the negative perspective of teaching in a foreign country, but rather, transformed it to a pleasurable experience.