“EVERYTHING IS POSSIBLE WHILE YOU'RE ALIVE”

This past week has been pretty crazy, but in a good way.  I waited a month without hearing back from any English School, to find this week four offer me positions. After a lot of jumping back and forth between options, teaching methods, trainings, introductions, payment discussions, hours, and even considering opening my own private lessons, I finally have a decision I can report. I am officially an Adult and Teen English Teacher for a British School here in Indaiatuba, ICB  (Instituto Cultural Britanico).

It was the owner of this school who made the decision easy for me. Meeting Karen for the first time was refreshing. She is Brazilian, but having spent the last 10 years living in England she is pretty close to European in my book.  You really wouldn’t ever know she was Brazilian unless she told you.  She dresses British, looks British (pretty with thick long blonde hair), and although I am no expert as to the correct pronunciation of a British accent, I certainly can’t hear any difference. Her husband lived in England for 10 years as well, and their adorable 5 year old daughter Bella (which embarrassingly reminds me of Twilight) was actually born there. 

Although England and the US of course have different cultures, when comparing them to that of Brazil, they feel quite similar.  So for now, Karen is the closest I’m going to have to an American friend. And I’ll take it. 

She is exactly the kind of person I like to be friends with.  She is motivated, responsible but adventurous, outgoing, hard working, friendly, honest, chatty, business oriented, optimistic, and just generally excited about life.  We are similar in a lot of ways and we liked each other immediately.  We mutually agree that fate (or something similar) brought us together.

Perhaps more importantly, Karen manages time in the same way Americans do.  The day I met her she offered me the job on the spot and told me she would call the next morning, and when she called the next afternoon she apologized for not having called in the morning.  I cannot stress how much trust this simple action provides.  With the other schools, they kept changing my hours and even my salary.  They were so unreliable that I couldn’t feel secure with any ‘final’ decision we came to.  But it's different with Karen.  She is also actively and persistently pursuing achieving my work visa.  She hired a lawyer and as of two nights ago I have given her all the documents for us to get started.  Working for her is opening a lot of doors for me here, and really makes me feel more at home. 

The school also just has a much better presentation than the others.  It's clean and spacious and the walls are covered floor to ceiling in larger than life photos of England and English bands like Cold Play and The Beatles.  Not to mention that the woman working at the counter greeting your entrance is really friendly.  When I first met her it was impossible not to notice her beauty, absolutely perfect skin, hair, eyebrows and a great smile. 

Thiara Palmieri

I was later informed that the pretty counter girl (Karen’s partner) used to be a very famous actress here in Brazil, Thiara Palmieri.  At first I thought maybe they were exaggerating, but later that night, I told Jaqueline and Karebbe (Daniel's brother in law) about the school and the name of the supposed famous actress. They knew her instantly.  Apparently she was on this huge soap opera here in Brazil (soap operas in Brazil are far more famous than the soap operas in the US).  Karebbe showed me a clip from one of her shows, and a bunch of photos of her the web.  She was ligitametly famous, I mean like her wedding is on the news, she was intervewed while pregnant for a tv show, everyone knows her whole life story kind of famous. It’s weird how every country is at least familiar the US celebrities but we really don’t know anything about those in other countries.  Since I'm not familiar with her fame she still doesn't really feel famous to me, which is nice because it makes it easier for us to be friends.

I actually find fame a bizarre concept in general.  I mean the media portrays them in such as way we forget they are people.  We follow their actions and judge their decisions as if we actually know anything about it, and of course as if whatever is portrayed is even the real story.  We see photos of Britney spears shaving her head and Lindsey Lohan passed out in some car plasterd across the cover of every magazine in the grocery line, and we think oh “what a screwed up girl, oh god she’s really gone crazy!”.  But I feel differently.  I mean the truth is I don’t know them either so it’s very likely they are actually screwed up and crazy, but jeez I mean, they are living under a microscope!  Imagine if every embarrassing moment you've experienced, every bad outfit choice, everytime you fell in public, every time someone dumped you or cheated on you, ever time you drank too much at a party and did something stupid, and then have all the world replaying those videos, photos and breakups over and over constantly drilling you about the details.  To be honest, I'd probably shave my head and drink till I pass out in a car as well. But maybe that’s just me.

Speaking of how bizarre fame is, being a Califonian native gives me a similar celebrity status.  Its very uncomfortable actually.  Everyone treats me like a celebrity, and that since I am a real American I obviously represent the entire country of the US and that I must know everything about it.  They ask me all kinds of questions, about life there, how people dress, brands of clothes, how much a computer costs, about TV shows I have never heard of,  even about a specific donut or coffee shop in Manhattan.  I  have to constantly remind them that I’m from California and that the US is really big and although I have visited NYC I really can’t provide any information as to some coffee shop downtown they saw in a movie.   I tell them that even within California, from North to South things are really different, and I can see their eyes widen in awe.  

The way people idolize the American culture and English is really bizarre to me, and even seems kind of unhealthy.   They are so super embarrassed to talk to me, actually shaking and stuttering from insecurity.  And everyone apologizes constantly for not saying the right thing, or that their English isn’t perfect. I get frustrated, because it’s so silly that they feel the need to apologize for this.  I am in their country and I barely speak their language, so if anyone should be apologizing it should be me.  Them feeling bad just makes me feel bad, I try to make them feel more comfortable but nothing so far seems to help.


Part of the problem is that speaking English here isn’t just about the language, it’s a status symbol.  If you speak English, it means first off that you had enough money to pay for private lessons, and then means you will also get a better job, therefore speaking English for a Brazilian is synonomous with money and a high social class.  It’s a bit humorous actually since my students actually have so much more money than me, yet because I’m a native English speaker I hold a higher status than them.  It doesn’t feel right, that the language I have done absolutely no work to learn earns me an undeserving superior role in society.  But I suppose thats the case for many high socialites in the US as well.

Brazilian Currency: 'Reais'.
Pronounced: he-eyes.

When Daniel and I were at the bank this week, once the bank teller had heard us speaking English and noticed I was American, he instantly changed his tone of voice.  He started calling Daniel ‘sir’ and being overly helpful asking if there was anything else he could assist with and giving more than enough information and details about the account.  Daniel said this isn't normal behavior for ordinary customers, and that he assumed Daniel and I have a lot of money.  Again, if you know Daniel and my financial situation than this should be rather humorous to you as well.  

Karen said its even more than just a status.  She said there are students at the school that pay a lot of money for lessons and then only come for half of them.  She said that telling people you are taking english classes is a “posh” kind of thing to do withitn itself.  So people want to enroll to say they are learning, even if they aren’t really. 

With all that said, it is pretty clear to me that combining Karen, a fluent English speaker with much knowledge and life in England (most English teachers here have never even been abroad), combined with Thiara an ex-celebrity, combined with me, a Californian Native, makes for a pretty unbeatable team.  The school just opened a couple months ago, and after the first week of free trial we have 100% enrollment.  The school has a lot of potential, and the really exciting part is that since I’m the first teacher to be hired, I get to have a say in how things happen. 

I taught all last week, and I'm loving it.  The school teaches with the Callan method, where you only speak English in the classroom, never translate anything into Portuguese (which is obviously perfect for me). Its very little grammar oriented, just the basics to be familiar with the structure. But essentially I just get to have conversations about whatever I want in the class, joke and laugh and talk about politics or religion as long as I just include the few vocabulary words in the lesson, and correct them when the speak.  This is basically what I do all day anyway, with Daniel when we have conversations I still teach him new words and correct him, so I'm getting paid to just chat with people my age and older.  

My favorite class so far in with students in their 30’s and 40’s.  They are the most focused and motivated to learn.  They aren’t embarrassed or nervous to talk to me.  They don’t have any problems tyring to speak, they want to be called on to answer questions because they want to learn.  Many of the teens are so intimidated by me they told their parents they would rather learn English from a Brazilian, and one girl complained because she felt I didn’t compliment her on her accent as much as the others.  Just to give you an idea of how sensitive they can be about this. But the adults, no, I can tell they know they are getting more than their money’s worth and feel really fortunate to have a native teacher.

Side of an abandoned
building in Sao Paulo. 

All of this is of course is really great, but I have kept the best information for last.  Karen has asked me to start my own art school within the English school!  When Karen asked me about this, she honestly didn’t know if I would even be interested.  I looked at her with overwhelming excitement and said that OF COURSE I was interested, and I would have choosen teaching art over teaching English, but didn’t really think it was possible to do it here. Then she looked at me with sincere utter suprise and said, “OHHH Seren!? Everything is possible while you are alive!”. And she is absolutely right!!

I’m so so excited about the art. Apparently she pays for her daughter to take lessons, and said after she saw my website she realized how much she had been wasting her money, and at the very least wanted to pay me to teach her daughter.  Then Thiara said she felt the same way about her son.  Now, including their children, we have a class of six for me to start teaching in the next week or two.

We sat down to talk about figures, and I will receive 50% of all the profit which considering Karen and Thiara have to split the other 50%, I’m feeling very good about it.  And I know it’s kind of tacky to be talking about money but 50% of the profit, even after converting to US dollars is more than 4 times the amount I made per hour in the US.  So it’s a lot of money.  For now it’s only four hours a month, but if the art class is successful, Karen wants to add on more.

I’m kind of nervous actually, nervous excited.  I get to deveop everything, I get to completely plan and run my own lessons, choose my materials, my subject matter, my everything.  For right now I will just be teaching ages 3-5, but if all goes well, there will be older kids and maybe teens and adults later on.  I will be teaching in English and I get my own room that she said I can go crazy with and even let them paint on the walls!  Its exciting but a lot of pressure but I'm definitely qualified to do this and I know I can make it work.