Yeah, I guess in Taiwan I was a weirdo waiguoren, here I’m just a weirdo…
Exactly!! Bienvenido a mi mundo.
housecat,
Have you now finished your MA and are looking for a job? If so, why are you applying in small towns? It seems like you would have an easier time living in a larger, more cosmopolitan city. Austin, Houston, and Atlanta spring to mind if you’d like to stay in the South. I’ve lived in the first two and visited the third, and all have large foreign communities and plenty of culture. I’ve never been to Little Rock, but just from perusing Wikipedia, it has an art center featuring works from Van Gogh and Rembrant, a mountain arboretum, a theatre, orchestra, ballet, music hall, and center for performing arts. I don’t know about the foreign population, but surely it would have more culture than an itsy-bitsy small town? If you’re willing to live in other parts of the US, you could try San Francisco, Portland, Seattle in the Northwest. All have huge Asian populations and I imagine most people there know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.
Also, if you’re going to stay in the South, try to show a little old-fashioned Bible Belt prudery and stop using indecent avatars. Management may get the wrong idea about this place.
One last thing…and I don’t mean to be unkind, but if you’re going to teach Guoyu, at least spell its English name correctly. It’s Mandarin, without the e.
[quote=“Gao Bohan”]housecat,
Have you now finished your MA and are looking for a job? If so, why are you applying in small towns? It seems like you would have an easier time living in a larger, more cosmopolitan city. Austin, Houston, and Atlanta spring to mind if you’d like to stay in the South. I’ve lived in the first two and visited the third, and all have large foreign communities and plenty of culture. I’ve never been to Little Rock, but just from perusing Wikipedia, it has an art center featuring works from Van Gogh and Rembrant, a mountain arboretum, a theatre, orchestra, ballet, music hall, and center for performing arts. I don’t know about the foreign population, but surely it would have more culture than an itsy-bitsy small town? If you’re willing to live in other parts of the US, you could try San Francisco, Portland, Seattle in the Northwest. All have huge Asian populations and I imagine most people there know the difference between Taiwan and Thailand.
Also, if you’re going to stay in the South, try to show a little old-fashioned Bible Belt prudery and stop using indecent avatars. Management may get the wrong idea about this place.
One last thing…and I don’t mean to be unkind, but if you’re going to teach Guoyu, at least spell its English name correctly. It’s Mandarin, without the e.[/quote]
Thanks for the post, Goa! I know, I can’t spell worth a damn. Ie comuplsivelye sticke Ese one thee endse ofe everyfreakingthinge. Amoung other spelling problems. Really, sometimes I can’t stand mysefl.
Other than the E issue, I’m looking for this job because I’m NOT done yet. I have to do an internship beginning in January. I’m done in May. I’d love to be employed and thus not have to teach for free for a semester in someone else’s class and strave because, how in the world would I ever work nights and teach days and be a mom? So, that’s what this job search is about. After graduation, I had planned to be some place, almost any place, else. However, if I’m hired at this school and work there for three years, I may be able to get most of my student loans paid off. So I may be living in this tiny spot for a while and living for the summers off vacations.
*Update!! It’s official! I think too much and and they were impressed! I haven’t been officially offered a job yet, but I have been contacted just for a quick message of further encouragement and, “please don’t accept a job some place else,” kinda thing. I’m feeling a little better 'bout things!
Woohoo! Jia some more of that you, girl! Well done.
謝謝, Domo Arigato, Muchas Grasias, and a hearty thank you!!
You know, I was loading the dishwasher today, thinking about what you said in your first reply to my OP. I was thinking that if they offer me a job, I’ll have to admit that I was so dumb that I didn’t even know I was smart!
Congrats!
Lesson 1: The cultural significance of thinking too much. 
HG
[quote=“Huang Guang Chen”]Congrats!
Lesson 1: The cultural significance of thinking too much.
HG[/quote]
:bravo:
Lesson 2: Om: How to stop being a perfectionist and just be.
Congratulations, baby.
I’m glad my call helped.
Took me damn near forever to figure the time difference.
Don’t get too excited: it might be something like us writing to Sarah Palin and saying please don’t try to be VP of anywhere else!
Arkansas job interview conversation tips:
“So, I see from this here resume that…yew left the USA for a few years.”
(uncomfortable silence)
“That’s right. After 9-11, I thought to myself ‘What can I do to honor their brave sacrifice?’ And then it hit me. I vowed to…” [choose one]
(a) “…serve as apostle to the heathen, who know not Christ.”
(b) “…understand our enemy–how he thinks.”
© “…flee the flesh-pots of Asia in search of a more suitable help-meet.”
(d) “…hone my kung-fu skills through the Brotherhood of Shadows, an international criminal empire. But imagine my surprise when I discovered that our supreme leader, who always hides his face under a mask, was none other than Osama bin Ladin himself! Anyway, after dueling with swords and mental telepathy (as is our custom), I finally managed to escape, and that’s why I have those big gaps in my resume. What’s that–marijuana? Don’t mind if I do, but let’s get this interview over with first, if you don’t mind.”
Don’t get too excited: it might be something like us writing to Sarah Palin and saying please don’t try to be VP of anywhere else!
[/quote]
Oh! Dog, that’s the funniest thing in the world!! But, yep, I am not ready to fly the mission accomplished banner just yet, y’all–But thanks everyone! Y’all’s a good crew.
Update:
Well, they were impressed, but I was also right that it was a little strange. I didn’t get hired after all. For the English position, they hired someone who could start before January–fair enough. But they actually had a Spanish teacher already. Apparently, he was asking for more moeny or something, and there is a shortage of Spanish teachers in AR at the moment. He thought he could leverage because they’d never find anyone else. They used my resume against him. Sigh… . Oh well. I can take a semester or two off, I guess. There are still some posibilities here that I haven’t exhausted, but what if I had the chance to escape, just for a while . . . hmm. So maybe I’ll look at getting away for a while and then looking for an AR position to do the internship in August.
Oh–sorry Gao! 