What are your professional goals?

[Ginger]

Originally Posted by guihong

In the short term, I'm going to be tutoring ESL adults through a literacy program, but ultimately I'm getting my ESL teaching certification. Not sure how to mesh that with the sciences, but I thougt it would be valuable if/when I choose to teach overseas.

In the (very) long term, I think I've lost my collective marbles. I'm going to take the GRE and go back for my M.S./Ph.D in geology or maybe even something like planetary science

I think that's so cool, Guihong—both parts!

I worked in literacy for about 15 years, and I have so much respect for ESOL teachers.

In NYC, most programs prefer ESOL teachers to have a master's degree in TESOL, but there are also a lot of people with have certificates that are respected, like the Princeton one, and others.

I went to the TESOL conference when it was in New York a few years ago, and was high off the energy! One researcher claimed that most English-language textbooks promote a "feminized" version of English; for example, in which the speaker asks questions to elicit more from the speaker, not to insert his or her own point of view—it's so culturally loaded!!! I love it.

This is an exciting time to go into that field, and with what's happening with immigration politics, it's almost a political statement just to do that kind of work ...

The geology part is interesting too. Would you teach? Or do research? I don't even know what people do with a geology degree. I bet the MTA (transit authority in NYC), hired geologists as consultants when they dig tunnels... someone's gotta understand what this earth is made of!!!!