Teaching English and Empathy- Mathew Haris, ESL Teacher
Teaching english in foreign lands, overcoming homelessness, and some sage advice.
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Of all the people I’ve interviewed so far, Mathew’s story has always stood out. I’m not sure why - perhaps it’s his positive attitude or his story in general - but after a chat about life, his career, and everything in between, I was left with a sense of gratitude and optimism. The kind you get from a self-help book that actually has something to offer.
Currently residing in Morocco, Mathew teaches English as a second language, commonly referred to as ESL. As I’ve come to learn, teaching ESL requires a certain proactiveness and passion to stay committed to the job. It can involve a lot of unpaid work, students can be of wildly different ages and education levels, and depending on the location, teaching conditions may not be great. Nonetheless, the pros outweigh the cons, at least for Mathew.
Before getting into the day and life of an ESL instructor, it’s important to understand the decisions that led him to pursue this career. Born and raised in Canada, his ESL career began far from home, in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Prior to that, he was in the Canadian Military, operating as a reserve while pursuing a bachelor's degree in Economics. At this point, you might be wondering how, or why, does one find himself teaching ESL in a central Asian country?
Economics to ESL
“Fate had plans for me”, says Mathew, starting with the how. “Most of my 20s were plagued with deep financial troubles. I wanted to study economics but couldn’t pay for tuition. I enrolled part-time in the military, while also studying full-time. They agreed to pay a portion of my tuition for a year. I’d often have a second job too. But what I was really banking on was the province of Ontario giving me a student loan, which they didn’t. They took their sweet time to decline it too, and only after classes started did I find that out. At that point, I didn’t have any money. So I ended up homeless, and it took me a long time to financially recover”, he says.
Unfortunately, family support, a luxury we take for granted, was not an option. “I couldn’t rely on my parents. I come from a poor family and didn’t have that support. My parents dropped out of school in grade six and can’t read or write. Part of the problem was my stubbornness. I should have quit and left Toronto earlier. I thought I could power through and win with pure determination. But I struggled for years and never recovered financially. I ended up going back to New Brunswick to work various odd jobs. I was living with friends for a long time trying to heal, both financially and mentally”, explains Mathew, when asked about his family.
He stumbled upon ESL by chance. “My post-undergrad plan was to just get away from it all. I wanted a house in the woods to live out the rest of my days in isolation like a hermit. I was obviously not in a positive headspace. But one day, while shopping with my then-roommate, a clerk at a souvenir shop told me how her nephew got a TEFL certification from Oxford seminars and started teaching around the world. He was in South Korea and was loving it. It just involved a certification and classes. Interested to learn, I decided to raise some money for the course and managed to get a hold of about $1000. I took those classes on weekends and got my TEFL certification. I met with a few Oxford recruiters and ended up speaking to one about job opportunities. Through some networking, I scored a job in Bishkek. I sold some stuff to pay for my flight, but was able to leave Canada”, he explains.
A Day In The Life Of An ESL Teacher
The nature and compensation of an ESL instructor vary greatly depending on the location. Mathew elaborates, “It depends on how well developed the position is and the organization I'm working for. Sometimes, I teach a class with zero preparation and just follow the course materials. Thankfully that was what my first job was like. I was working in Bishkek for a place called the London School of Languages and Cultures. In just a few months, I could walk into class, pick up a book and just teach without ever having seen it before. If you're lucky, your schedule is just teaching. Everything's organized well, and you're dealing with a classroom of students that are all roughly the same level”.
“But I've had jobs where most of my time is spent developing new lessons, which is unpaid work. It can be highly disorganized, the materials aren’t great, and you have to work with what you have. Or you kind of just shrug and teach a bad lesson. Unfortunately, a lot of ESL teachers just do it for the money or the travel. They’re ok with bad lessons as long as they’re getting paid”.
Unfortunately, being an ESL teacher doesn’t shield you from discrimination. From what I’ve learned, schools favour people from predominantly white, English-speaking countries - for visa reasons as well as to attract students. “Unfortunately, a person of colour will have a harder time trying to find work even with the right visa. Your religion can matter too; some jobs will only hire Christians. As a man in his 30s, I know I'm on a timer and I might only have a few more years before I age out of being marketable in regards to teaching children. I'm already trying to learn new skills like coding and excel to expand my skill set.”, explains Mathew as he talks about the negative aspects of the industry. On the positive side of it, he says, “Your bargaining power is huge. I can really demand a lot of stuff I wouldn’t normally be able to in other jobs. My pay is good for the region, and I work short hours too. It’s great for my work-life balance”.
As soon as he left Canada, he could go from the bottom of the local pyramid to closer to the top. “On my first contract there, I was making less than $1,000 a month. But that's like, four times the national average. I was making as much as local lawyers and doctors. That was a huge change in my life. That, and my wife. She’s been a huge source of happiness and stability for me”, he says.
Future Plans
Naturally, I couldn’t help but ask, what next? I was curious to know what his plans were for the future, or if there’ve been any dreams he’s parked on the side. “I’ve had a long time to think about that. Unfortunately, the more that I do, the less I have a grip on it. I used to be more ambitious. Before Morocco, my wife and I talked about opening our own teaching centre”, replies Mathew.
“We’re opening an education centre in Africa soon! I’ve envisioned a new, gamified grading system as well. The grades are basically points you can only spend to pass to the next level. I wanted to expand the usability of grades and make it feel much more rewarding to students who can then try to "game the system" by doing a test so they can skip doing homework or vice versa. This way they can tailor the education to their own learning style. More importantly, I also want students to be able to spend the grades they've earned on discounts to make classes more affordable”, explains Mathew.
As we conclude our chat, he leaves me with one final quote. “If there’s one piece of advice I’d love to share, it would be for everyone to learn active listening skills. Really learn them. Everyone wants to talk but very few people want to listen. You’ll be appreciated and your relationships will get stronger by doing so. There’d be less shouting about free speech and better mental health if we stopped outsourcing basic human decency to therapists and instead learned how to have more meaningful conversations. A lot of us know what it's like to be in a noisy bar where the music is loud, everyone’s yelling, but no one hears a thing. It’s not a good feeling”.
1 of the best advices I listened to and learned early on is to listen, but sometimes this skill comes with age :) when you are young and in your 20s not too many people slow down to listen to other people.