work

I don't like to write about my work, because I don't really even like to think about it. Don't get me wrong, I love my job, I love teaching English to Italian university students. It's fun and challenging and I feel I do it well, so it's generally satisfying. It's not the job itself that's the problem. It's all the stuff around the actual teaching that drives me nuts. Well, not literally, and I do want to make that specifically clear, because there are a lot of my colleagues who are actually nuts! We can ponder the age-old question of the chicken and the egg . . . were they already nuts before they got into teaching at the university -- hence the hypothesis would be that EFL university teaching posts attract the mentally unstable . . . or did working in the Italian university system drive them nuts -- hence the hypothesis that the system itself is inherently destabilising? I would propose the idea that many language teachers are, shall we say, "different." Perhaps more sensitive souls? And, in any case, I do think that if a person chooses of their own free will to abandon their own country and immerse themselves in the life and culture of another country, perhaps they didn't feel quite at home when they were "at home" in their native country. Or perhaps I'm just reading too much into it all and really those of us who teach abroad are just looking for a bit of adventure and then somehow get stuck where we are. Most of the foreigners I know here have gotten "stuck" through involvement in a romantic relationship with a local. That's my story, although I will admit to a bit of my other proposals being true for me as well . . .

All that to work up to talking about work (see, I really don't want to do it!). Anyway, there's a chance that I may be teaching in the second year "Intermediazione" course next year. The professor who's going to lead the course has asked me to come with her and I am ready for a change. I've been teaching first year for just about forever, it seems. So, a change would be welcome. However, as much as this professor wants me to come with her (and has asked me to choose my course books, etc.) she can't actually tell me if I will be working with her in the second year or not. Not yet. Because, she is really only a researcher who will be taking on the role of a professor next year - and therefore the responsibilities - but since she isn't actually a real professor, she doesn't have the political clout to say "I want Sara to work with me and that's that!" She can only express a preference and the real professors will decide the bottom line. Well, at least she gets to express a preference. We language teachers are just shuffled around like so many cards at the whim of the great professors!

This is only one minor example of many, many that I could use to illustrate what I don't like about my job. There are many other, far more important issues involved that I really don't have the heart to get into. Not now, anyway. But, just imagine from this little example what it must be like to work for years and years in a place where you have no say, no control over so many aspects of your work, a miserable paycheck, you are ignored, talked down to and treated like a nothing, etc, etc. . . . and then rethink the chicken and egg quandry I mentioned before.