Why I should try to become a language teacher :

– I am fluent in German and French, both are languages that are appearently understaffed in the Australian school system (says a govermental website)

– I am pretentious enough to think that I can teach in both up to senior level, the first being my mother tongue and after living and working over a decade in France.

– Even if it would take some time, even years, getting some sort of certification (graduate?master?) in education should be possible by the means of open university/online programs, which would allow me to already get back to work – ideally already give private tuition – in the meantime.

– While I like being a housewife so far, and probably needed the time off for me as much as for my son and also my new marriage of course, I know that on the long run, I’ll feel intellectually kind of under challanged and bored.

– I really want to earn my own money, even if my husband has the charmingly old-fashioned view that he is the ‘provider’ but as I was my own provider for so many years, I just canNOT spend his money like I would do with mine and it bothers me.

– Taking some odd job would only make sense if I do not spend too much money and time on travel, as I would just not earn very much. Especially, as I would be competing with students on ‘junior salaries’. And I am ‘old’, going on to 40. Teacher jobs are relatively well paid.

– Only a qualified job would pay well enough to really take some of the burden off my husband’s shoulders, and hopefully allow us to consider buying a house again at some point. And still have some money to live, that is. Since we both gave up property ‘in our old lives’, but real estate is shooting to the sky in the region, this perspective is a great plus.

– A teacher’s job would obviously fit nicely into my son’s own school time. The supplementary ‘homework’ does not scare me, given that my husband works at night, so I have the evenings for myself.

– Studying to become a teacher would give me a personal project and goal to work on with a very concrete result at the end and I think that would do me good, at this time of my life.

I have to let these thoughts settle a little but even a few hours later, I still feel quite exited and motivated about my idea. (Hence the blog! I want to document this.. adventure, if it will come to life.) I even kind of wonder, why I did not think earlier about it. I really have to work on my self-esteem, considering that I might be facing groups of unmotivated teenagers who might not exactly share my passion for foreign languages..

Is this a good idea ?
I have to research this a little bit more, collect links and information and maybe make some first contacts. I will talk to my husband about it tomorrow. I’ll try to follow up on this blog.

epiphany.

Driving in the car today, I had this idea…

Couldn’t I just TEACH in Australia ?

With my son starting prep school in January, I was going to going to look for  work to finally financially contribute to our household, after this long, partly unvolontary break from a professional life. And basically, I had no idea what to look for.
I had thought of some simple job, maybe only part-time, because I am through with any career thinking, I want a job that I accommodates to my family life and not the other way around.

I can’t and won’t go back to my old profession, because

a) i don’t have actual diplomas for it but was merely lucky to be at the right place at the right time back in Europe,

b) i have zero connections here and

c) travel and transports are stressful environments. No thanks.

I had considered giving tuition before, when I saw cars with publicity on them, for kids with problems in school etc.. I have done as a student.
Then I realized that the school my son is going to go to offers German as a foreign language program and I thought I should maybe contact them, they might take ‘assistant’ teachers on temporary basis, which might allow me to slip into something more permanent ?

But today I thought that, in reality, I should try to go and push to get a ‘real’ teachers job here in Australia, even if that means I will have to make certificates and pass exams to qualify for either the state or the private school system. I researched it a little on the internet and I got pretty exited, I think I might actually be on to something.