I had been employed as an English teacher at an international language center. For five year, I had been thinking of teaching somewhere else. In fact, I even took a diploma in teaching units to be a professional teacher. I was determined to get my ass out of that building. Then I decided to leave. I have no fix destination. Who cares? I want to be out. I got to fulfill a personal promise.
I enjoyed my free time for a month. Then, friend, however, has offered me a more flexible schedule in a tutorial center. I didn’t think twice. I was antsy go to out. I wasn’t used to staying at home, just surfing the net, just playing with my dog, or worst, watching TV. That sure, sucks! I didn’t get as much as I used to in my paycheck, but I was happy to be somewhere else. No more sick-building syndrome for me~! On my fourth month, I started printing out resumes and cover letters. I gathered the guts to apply to any college in the city. With a friend by my side, sharing the same vision as I do, I was off to hand them over.
I was heading to the café for my lunch when I received a phone call. I was ecstatic. One of the schools called me up for a preliminary interview. Wohooo~! So I did. I was not so confident. I expected so many applicants lining up for a single position. But maybe I was just born lucky. I was alone. After I took the exam, I was told to come back for a teaching demo. I was apprehensive again. This is going to be the first time I will be teaching am Filipino English. I have been teaching for over five years, but that was with international students. The atmosphere of Filipino criticisms has made me quote restless. I was given three days; I tried to cool myself down.
All right, so it took just two weeks. And I was in a perfectly different setting. First day of school. I was ready to conquer the world. Then shock seized me. Students started staring at me. They murmur as a write on the board. They look at each other every time I opened my mouth to speak. What’s wrong with the world? Am I in a different universe? I don’t want to insinuate. I asked them, what’s wrong. Then I got myself a perfectly strange answer. “You speak too American, we can’t catch up”. That made me sad. I used to speak that way to my international students, they totally understood me. How come these students can’t catch up? Okay, so this is the way here. I’m scared of acquiring “buffalo English”. I don’t want students to speak that way; it is just a shame for me to have them speak like that. Never. I will never let it happen.
