25 October 2007

I first thought that being an online English instructor is a piece of cake since all you have to do is speak in English. Correct your student’s wrong grammars, pronunciations and dictions.

I was not mistaken: D

I applied hoping that I’d get my English skills honed up in preparation for the forthcoming IELTS examination. I could help young Koreans with their English lessons, a little bit of their Math and Science subjects too; so an Online Tutor.

My shift starts at 2pm and ends 11 in the evening. I get 10 minute breaks but literally not applicable since we are required to log in to the system 5 minutes before the class starts. When we say class, my company has this virtual screen classroom where we could teach young Koreans across the world by clicking on colorful icons and underlining everything while chatting non-stop about the lesson. It was fun. It is fun.

Now I’m back to the basics. Learning my had, have, and has; my on, in, and at placements; the correct pronunciations of all words. And speaking very slowly and clearly; our trainer actually said I have a good junior voice. Perfect kindergarten teacher voice; I appear to be a very caring teacher, which is very suitable since I am teaching young Korean (not so young, too) kids :)

This is an amazing experience. Working with a young pool of dedicated English teachers, I, myself is learning through the process. Both in English, and with Life :)



24 October 2007

catch22

There’s Always a Catch



Catch 22. I never got around to finding out what is the meaning of that phrase. Until now.

It’s supposedly trying to escape in an inescapable situation. It’s not really applicable in my case but nonetheless, I felt more like that being in the current situation that I am in right now.

I am sort of stuck in the middle; in between; I am floating.

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I found this site online that details the meaning of each phrases, and I’ve got a few here of my favorites.

Be Afraid, be very afraid
Be Still, My Beating Heart
Between the devil and the deep blue sea
Break a leg
Talk to the hand

And many more… now I’ve stumbled upon secret love letters, let’s see what’s in there.



Book of phrases

03 October 2007

Nine years ago, I was a wide-eyed freshman enrolled in the best university in the Philippines. There was a mantra in my head inculcated by numerous leaflets and assemblies that pushes for additional compensation and budget for the university, "There are only two universities in the country, UP and others." Believing in this, I thought that after graduation, the best years of my life would come. I would be hired on the spot; I would be chosen over other applicants; companies will come looking for me; I could choose the job that I want- since I am from UP.
However, things didn’t turn out the way I expected. Like any other fresh graduates, I went for countless job interviews and job hunting. The call center was not yet that established and it has some sort of reputation, and I was too proud to work in a call center, because I am from UP. I applied for the senior positions, and therefore I was declined not knowing any better. I was jobless for six months, until I was finally accepted to be an Account Executive for a Marketing and Research Company. I was quite happy, earning my own money, finally landing a job, and finally working. This job entails me to get clients to hire the company’s services, so in order to do that I was on the phone almost the whole time. Sending out fliers, fax, and emails and distributing brochures- I was doing this for 6 months and didn’t even get one client to hire the company. Therefore my sales and marketing strategy and ability came in question. And before they could give me the axe I took it upon myself to resign. Nobody could fire me, I am from UP.
So, I went job hunting again. This time the lull of the call center industry became so attractive and the compensation was so alluring that I was sucked in. I became an agent selling refurbished computer parts to companies in the United States of America. I was quite doing well, sold a couple of chips, got my commissions and I was having fun with the night life. Nonetheless, my future as a call center agent looked dim, since I believed that I am better than just making calls every night. So I took my cousin’s offer, she referred me to a government company that she was having a business deal with. Hiring me was part of the deal. By this time, I already lost my belief system that I could get any job that I want. Being a secretary was not my dream job. I was floating. And I couldn’t hear anything. Except for one very suitable and timely suggestion; why don’t I take up nursing?
So I did. For three years I took up nursing and passed the local boards three months after graduation. I was hoping that maybe this time I could actually get the job that I want since I am a board passer with a grade higher than average, and what other jobs are there for a nurse than to work in a hospital? My license was released four months after the boards. In that time, I had no choice but to wait since nobody would hire me without a license. Then I got my license, so I immediately applied to all the big hospitals private and government alike. But it seems that nobody is hiring nurses nowadays, private hospitals require new nurses to undergo training for not less than 2 months without compensation and with a training fee, before considering them for a job in their institution. Government hospitals are better since they have a pre-determined timeframe for applicants. It’s just that there are no openings at this time of the year since the nurses bound for abroad are, not yet resigning because of the visa retrogression and stoppage of hiring nurses in the UK. Therefore, we, the new nurses have to wait for an opening, which is just excruciating. I’ve been waiting for a job interview for over a year now and still I haven’t been scheduled for one.
Now my issue is; people have been saying that there is a nursing shortage in the country. But there are over 39,000 who just passed the nursing board exam last June. How about the 20,000 board passers last December? How about the other 35,000 passers before that? This surge of nursing graduates is creating a pool of unemployed since no company abroad would hire nurses without at least 1 year hospital experience. How can we get that experience then if nobody is willing to hire us? What they are suggesting then is to finish all the international tests like NCLEX and IELTS so that we would be hired easily. But when the hospital you are applying to came to know that you are a NCLEX passer, they will not hire you because they know that you would only stay there for a year or less. And because of the practice of previous nurses that goes AWOL, some hospitals have created a policy that prevents you from getting your certificate of employment if your contract was not completed.
Therefore, what else is there to do?

Lost

There was once a young girl who wanted to become a doctor. Because she thought that it would make her parents proud of her, and that she could earn lots and lots of money, by being a doctor. The prestige that comes with the white uniform, and the respect that they get from all the townspeople -- she thought she could have it too, once she becomes one.
Then she grew up, added four or five years to her age. Got a little understanding of the world; how it works and what’s really important -- at that time. So she wanted to become a lawyer. How their signatures can cost a whooping five thousand pesos, and how they can get people off from things that they did, or were accused of doing. They save lives, families, and they are very wise.


Then she had some experience with public talking and competition in grade school. She was awed by the information thrown at her, and her teachers expectations that she wanted to become a journalist. Full of ideas, general information and…

She grew up, then she wanted to become an actress, a supermodel, a PMA Officer, then she met someone then she wanted to become a doctor again, then a journalist again, then she got a course in the Arts. Which made her heart very happy because that’s what she really wanted to do, but since it’s not a land of gold, she forego that dream and thought that she could take up law. But then was not given a chance or she didn’t really try her hardest. Then she needed money, her family said--- go take up nursing and we’ll support you. Go abroad and support us afterwards. Give it all back. Everything that we spent on you, every cent.

The thing is, this girl’s lost. She doesn’t know what she wants and she’s lost herself in the process of finding out. How could she not know what she wants when the people around her knows what she wants better than her?

And she’s crying… hopelessness emitted from the stale odor of this old apartment she’s been imprisoned in for how many months now. She wanted to go out but something of divine intervention is preventing her to do so. She’s already lost but the worst thing is she’s lost with a plague stuck on her face.

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