My Future

I know that I will spend this year in Albacete in Spain for the teaching job that I have, but I don't know if I will be in Spain for a second year as well or not. It is a distinct possibility that I will apply for the same program again, in a different location (probably Madrid or Barcelona), and spend a second year in Spain. It would certainly make sense to spend a first year in Spain getting my Spanish up to a good level, then start to learn Portuguese during my second year when I am in a bigger city with (presumably) more Portuguese speakers in order to prepare for a Fulbright scholarship for Brazil.

Then again, maybe I won't want to spend two years in Spain and one year will be enough. Perhaps I will end up applying for the Fulbright scholarship for Brazil during this year (2011-2012 academic year) and be in Brazil the following year (2012-2013 academic year). I can, of course, always re-apply to teach in Spain again as a backup plan. Sarah N tells me that having the language skills of the target country is a big help, so it might up my chances of getting the scholarship considerably if I learn at least some Portuguese before I go to Brazil. I think that this would be easier to do once my Spanish is better, as I would still like to focus on Spanish for a while longer, seeing as I am still far from satisfied with my current ability to use the Spanish language.

What about going back to China? I could (I think) easily get a teaching job just about anywhere in the country, but I am not terribly interested in teaching English in China, so that limits my options a bit. There are NGOs and educational organizations that I am keeping my eye on, so that if an job opening and my ability to take advantage of it happen to coincide I could take advantage of those opportunities. If I could work full-time for a micro-finance or poverty alleviation organization like WoKai, for an educational organization like CET, or for a tourism-focused company, I would love to do any of those. Even if I wasn't living in China but my work was focused on China and making use of my skills and experiences around China, I think that I could be satisfied with that. Working in Brazil, Spain, or the United States in a job that made use of my skill set would be great. There is plenty of Chinese business interests throughout all of Latin America, for instance, so if I could find a way to get involved with that it would be great. I could both make use of my intercultural and multilingual skill set, and I would be happy to improve people's livelihoods or to share and impart knowledge. I could see myself enjoying learning more about and focusing a career on environmental issues in China, Ethnic issues in China, international relations in relation to China (most likely in relation to the United States, although China-Brazil or China-Latin America more generally could be rivetingly interesting). Although at this point I am not really a fan of getting a masters degree or a PhD in any of these areas, I would love to give lectures and power points about any of these issues. If only I could be an assistant professor of Chinese studies with only a bachelors degree. Or if there were secondary schools had such extensive and specific programs as to be able to hire me to teach Chinese history or culture.

Of course, there are other options than merely listing off countries. One career that I have considered in the past (due in great part to the influences of Corinne McKay, Jill Sommer and Benny) is translation. To do this in either of my language pairs (English-Chinese or English-Spanish) I would have to improve my non-English language skills, and lacking any miracle of personal growth this means likely with more schooling. A masters degree is something that I do not think that I would want to do in the United States, merely due to the cost. I could see myself happily pursuing a Masters in translation at a university in Spain, or possibly something similar at a university in China. Studying in the United States is something that would need a lot of other positive factors thrown into the mix in order to overcome the disadvantage of price. I can always apply to work for the State Department again, which I am considering as a possibility a few years down the road. There are ups and downs to working for the Unites States government, but being involved in it certainly provides more opportunity for positive change than twiddling my thumbs from outside of it.

There are some other possibilities that are more distant, such as getting some kind of an advanced degree in China (Chinese language, translation, international relations, or ethnology), getting an advanced degree in the United States (most likely translation, anthropology/ethnology, or international something), applying to the Princeton in Asia program, going back to China to teach English full-time, or applying to the JET program and going to Japan. These are all fairly unlikely, though.

If only I could be a professional language learner like Benny. I have desires of various levels to learn Portuguese, Italian, French, Russian, Ki-Swahili, German, Hindi, Japanese, and Arabic. I doubt all of these will come to pass, but I can recognize that the desire and motivation to learn these languages is present in me. Perhaps I will get to two or three of these in the next decade, but the kind of job or lifestyle that will allow me to travel to the various countries where I would want to use the languages is dubious at best. Getting paid to learn is pretty rare, which leaves me a few other options: I could either continue to be an English teacher for the next 6 years in various countries (a possibility that I am less than thrilled about), find various jobs over the next several years that allow me live in or travel through these places (a possibility), or find a single job that would allow me to visit and/or live in multiple places (a rare a unlikely jackpot).