"An ESL teacher is not a REAL teacher."

The first response I get when I say I'm a teacher is "you're a teacher? What grade?"

I am 27 and just "switched" careers from working at a major bank to working at an adult basic education center teaching English as a Second Language. It has been a dream of mine ever since I first volunteered in college back in 2011.

After college, I volunteered when I had time after work, pursued a certificate and now, I am pursuing my Master's degree. I will be finished this fall 2017.

One thing that absolutely drives me nuts is when people say I'm not a real teacher and people only pursue this field only if they are older or retired. I've read a lot of blogs that say ESL teachers don't take their jobs seriously and do it only to travel.

For the past five years, I've been dying to leave my old job and pursue this path. I finally have it and love what I do, but it's hard to stay positive when 1) people don't respect what I do 2) believe ESL teachers are a joke because we don't teach K12.

Now.. I don't make a lot, but I knew that already. Sometimes it's tough to NOT compare my income with someone who works in finance, business or medicine. It was hard to date someone a while ago because he worked in his field right after college and made a lot of $$$ and I worked at the bank with small income. 😔 I never told him how I felt but I carried it with me at times.

Adult ESL only offers PT gigs and I've had to take on another teaching role as an EL teacher at a K8 immersion school. It works out and I like my schedule. Right now, I'm just worried because in my 30s, I would like to find some stability with income and a full time job. The only way for me to that at the moment is work abroad at an international school or university. My Master's will help me work at community colleges in the US but only offer per credit hour, and I'd have to take on multiple classes as an adjunct instructor to make a living. Doable but maybe after I've gone abroad.

In the past week, I've been thinking a lot about my future. Teaching is wonderful and I finally have my own classroom. My students are great and I have a couple professors whom I idolize because of their tenacity, persistence and confidence. My favorite area is pronunciation and one of my professors helped me find that because I saw the importance of it when I began teaching.

Have you ever felt discouraged? Are you a teacher too? Am I panicking for no reason? Have you ever compared yourself with others?

I am not a teacher and I know nothing about the inner workings of your profession, but it sounds to me like your are among the best and I encourage you to not compare yourself to others. Some people might never view teachers of language, literature, music or art as highly as someone teaching brain surgeons, for example, but your concerted efforts have a much-broader impact upon a much-wider range of people everywhere.

Teach abroad. That's the best way to make money. Earn a doctorate here or abroad too. That will help if you want to transition to teaching at a college or university.

Teaching is a marginalized profession in general in America, but what makes it worse is that it's further marginalized when you don't teach in a "traditional" position. I'm a special education teacher, so I know what it's like to be treated like I'm not an actual teacher.

Where I'm at though is that I can feel the impact I'm making on my students.

I didn't know that's what Special Education teachers felt. Thank you for your insight. I'm just worked up at the fact that I'll never be seen as a real teacher. That will definitely be the case if I go abroad. I speak Thai, have Thai heritage and would like to teach an international school in Thailand next year. Despite my heritage and language fluency, I still may not be taken seriously because I am not a fair-skinned foreigner. I've also thought about how an ESL teacher may come off as hegemonic in a way although I don't try to be at all. It just happens that English is the language of many industries and many companies require English language skills. It's tough and I'm not sure what I can do to shake this feeling of insecurity in my career. 😔😔