Re: PM’s French Re-entry into the Matrix - Phase 1: 500 Hours Extensive Reading

Continue or start your personal language log here, including logs for challenge participants
User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:07 am

smallwhite wrote:
PeterMollenburg wrote:What I don't appreciate is your succinct seemingly arrogant comments that largely appear devoid of compassion.


Indeed it didn't occur to me that I should show compassion. I was trying to put in personal experience, points of views and advice, and I thought that was appropriate.

My first message was originally a bit longer, but then I realised that there was really just 1 message I wanted to convey - don't change jobs. Because changing jobs won't make you happier, because your problem is not with your job, because the problems you state are just secondary, because of reasons I can't really grasp and elaborate on. I'm not you so I can't tell exactly where your problem is. I just feel, and want to tell you, that your problem is not your job.

The rest of what I later wrote boils down to 比上不足比下有餘 (lacking when compared to those above, and comfortable compared to those below) (ie. there are people better, there are people worse) and 你睇人好人睇你好 (when you look at other people, you feel that they are better; when other people look at you, they feel you are better).

> You've done it all so I can too. I don't think you realise how you're coming off in your words.

Indeed I don't see what's wrong with saying "I can and so can you". It suggests that I think you are either equal to or more able than I am.


You are indeed a different individual smallwhite. What I really like in your response is you keep your composure despite my strong critical reply at times.

You are dead on with humans comparing to other humans, but as long as the enticement of a better life exists i am more than likely to want it (better does not necessarily mean more material wealth), and one would hope if it didnt exist i'd search anyway, provided there remained room for improvement. Can i find contentment is the ultimate question. The thing is i largely see a lot of the mess humanity and nature are in is the result of going along with the status quo- there are better ways- better for the earth and human beings as a whole as well as individuals.

I don't want to settle in a job i see as providing solutions to problems that are not designed to get to the source of the health issues and certainly not with preventative natural medecine.

I believe people are born equal but personalities and experiences change that 'original template' which means some people wind up being much more equipped than others at carrying out a given task.

I'm well aware of happiness being a state of mind/being and i'm not the kind of person to say "I will be happy when..." But if changing my career or location or both aids in fullfilling some large personal goals then I don't see the problem.

Now given your lead I will ask, in your opinion what do you think my problem is?
1 x

User avatar
language2015
Yellow Belt
Posts: 91
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:08 am
Languages: English (N) French (A0) Spanish (A0)
x 106

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby language2015 » Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:05 am

I didn't know nursing had the highest burn-out rates. In my first job, I worked 9am to 11pm on average. My record clock-out time was 5:07am. Hours in the office, that is. Work continues at home. In my last job, 9am to 7pm in the office, at home until 1am. 6 days a week. Sundays are whole days of work at home.

^^^

Working for wall street?

eh, if you were making six figures after paying taxes or near 90k I'm not that impressed. At the end of the day it is easier to work yourself to death when you are getting paid properly for it.

Now if you were working those type of hours and made 30k after taxes...
1 x
Why did I decide to become a polyglot when I knew I am a super lazy student?!?

Anki or Die

: 700 / 10000 Mine 10,000+ Spanish Sentences
: 700 / 10000 Mine 10,000+ French Sentences
: 80 / 10000 Anki All Of It

User avatar
smallwhite
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2386
Joined: Mon Jul 06, 2015 6:55 am
Location: Hong Kong
Languages: Native: Cantonese;
Good: English, French, Spanish, Italian;
Mediocre: Mandarin, German, Swedish, Dutch.
.
x 4876

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby smallwhite » Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:37 am

language2015 wrote:Working for wall street?

eh, if you were making six figures after paying taxes or near 90k I'm not that impressed. At the end of the day it is easier to work yourself to death when you are getting paid properly for it.

Now if you were working those type of hours and made 30k after taxes...


Why the conspiracy theory? You think I was hiding important information and distorting things in order to, what, trick OP into believing that he's a fortunate person with a decent job??

That first job, about half of 30k. That last job, well, I'm an accountant and that was a local family business so you imagine the salary yourself.
0 x
Dialang or it didn't happen.

Xmmm
Blue Belt
Posts: 821
Joined: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:19 am
Languages: ru it tr
x 2221

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby Xmmm » Thu Nov 12, 2015 3:44 pm

I don't know if moving to France will really make you happier or not, but you think it will and it sounds like your dream so I would say go for it.

Regarding nursing though, I want to share some ancient wisdom that I learned only recently:

"Work isn't supposed to be fun. That's why it's called 'work'."

I think if you can internalize that truth, you can stop suffering the mental anguish of what should you do for a living and focus on getting to France ... which I think has a much higher chance of improving your happiness level than job switching does.
2 x

Ещё раз сунешь голову туда — окажешься внутри. Поняла, Фемида? -- аигел

User avatar
iguanamon
Black Belt - 2nd Dan
Posts: 2354
Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 11:14 am
Location: Virgin Islands
Languages: Speaks: English (Native); Spanish (C2); Portuguese (C2); Haitian Creole (C1); Ladino/Djudeo-espanyol (C1); Lesser Antilles French Creole (B2)
Studies: Catalan
Language Log: viewtopic.php?t=797
x 14196

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby iguanamon » Thu Nov 12, 2015 5:50 pm

PM, this isn't the first time you've expressed these feelings on the forum.

PM wrote:Ultimately i want i want i want, but that doesn't fit, nor does that, nor does that... so here's my wish list Santa:

I live in an Earthship with my family in France. We speak French all day long in society with some English at home. I teach languages (English is no longer necessary as I can manage a decent income now), I provide health advice in a gîte-styled retreat. Oh and to top it off, the world comes to it senses, people do away with mobile phones, stop allowing their rights be taken away from them, put an end to central bank debt driven economies and a new paradigm for natural preventative health and living in harmony with nature builds and replaces the old greed driven corporate led system.

Is that too much to ask?

In a word, yes, it is too much to ask. The world is too big. However, it is not too much to make happen for yourself. I believe we have to be the change we want to see in the world. You can't change the world but you can change how you relate to it. If you become what you want to see and people see that within you, then it may attract folks who want that in their life too. To change the "greed driven corporate led system" necessitates a group of people who reject it and show the world a better alternative way of living and organizing a society.

For yourself, you may want to consider thinking laterally instead of in a linear direction, i.e.; nurse -> doctor, homeopath, naturopath, health practitioner, etc. There are other paths to consider laterally- health educator, health facilitator, home healthcare nursing business managed by PM, nurse training in francophone Africa, freelance health consultant, health blogger, etc.

People seem to be happiest when they have more control over their lives, including their work lives. While not doctors, nurses have a more direct, personal relationship with patients and healthcare and that experience is valuable. There are segues that can be followed. As has been suggested, setting up your own business is a possibility. In today's busy world, I can see a business where you use your healthcare experience for helping people to manage their nutrition, health, exercise- kind of like a personal health consultant. Whether or not you could make a living doing that remains to be seen. Leo Babauta of zenhabits made the transition through blogging, writing and a minimalist lifestyle. I am self-employed and my worst day working for myself was better than my best day working for someone else.

So, to sum up, if you want the kind of world you are asking for, make it happen within yourself first. Be that change. The rest will follow.
I'll leave you with a Haitian proverb "Chita pa bay"- "sitting around does no good". Bon chans, PM!
3 x

User avatar
James29
Blue Belt
Posts: 758
Joined: Mon Jul 20, 2015 11:51 am
Languages: English (Native)
Spanish (C1-ish)
French (Beginner)
Portuguese (Thinking about it)
x 1741

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby James29 » Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:01 pm

sfuqua wrote: I have only been happy when I am growing or improving myself in some way.


This is exactly true. I was struck very much reading sfuqua's post at how amazingly different his career path has been when compared to mine. My life/career has been almost exactly the opposite, but, yet, he and I have come to the exact same theory about happiness.

One thing that has always helped me is the irrefutable fact that I (myself) am the only person that can make me feel sad, discouraged, depressed, disappointed, etc. Nobody else has the power to get into my head and make me feel a certain way. I can feel however I want. Your own brain controls how you feel. I have had some incredibly stressful jobs and life experiences and being able to fully appreciate this fact has made a gigantic difference in my life.

Regarding a business, I agree with smallwhite that it may be something to consider. I'd recommend taking a broader perspective. You already own/run a business whether your like it or not. You have simply chosen to sell one thing... yourself as a human resource. You contract out your abilities as a nurse for a given price. You have just chosen to look at it as a job. I had a "job" for most of my career and was fine with what I did. I was happy and satisfied. I am now a "business owner" doing basically the same thing and am very much happier. It was scary making the change, but it was really not as hard as many people would have you believe. You seem quite smart and hardworking and I am sure you would do fine running your own business. In fact, you may be down on your "job" for this very reason.

I don't know you and you don't know me, but I can tell you that I personally look at the healthcare/pharmaceutical industry much differently than you. My son had a fatal disease. When he was diagnosed I believed he would die because, based on my knowledge, it was a fact that he would die with his condition. I did not know that there had been numerous recent medical advances and medications. The treatments were extraordinarily expensive. The treatments were researched and discovered by the healthcare companies so they could make a good profit selling them for a high price. My son is fine now. If he was born 10 years earlier he would be dead now. If healthcare companies could not pursue profits he would be dead now. I agree that the healthcare system we have is screwed up, but there is much good that comes out of it.

I have not read much of your log, but will likely do some more over the coming months as I am trying to learn French. Good luck with things.
3 x

User avatar
sctroyenne
Orange Belt
Posts: 204
Joined: Tue Jul 21, 2015 4:06 am
Location: Montreal, QC (moved from the SF Bay Area living my dream!)
Languages: French (C2), Irish (beg-intermediate), Spanish (intermediate but mostly passive)
Language Log: viewtopic.php?f=15&t=767
x 757
Contact:

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby sctroyenne » Thu Nov 12, 2015 6:58 pm

PeterMollenburg wrote:I did look into the Teachers Assistant program that Sctroyenne spoke of but i am too old. But there are likely other options so I'll check it out again.


Another potential option to throw out there: there's a similar program but at the university level: becoming a lecteur d'anglais or maître de langue (more information here and here). If you're thinking of going back to school to change your focus completely you could do a program in France (which would give you the potential to do this program or more unofficial positions teaching/tutoring English in professional schools) or another European university. The one issue to look at, though, would be if you would be able to bring your family and if your wife would have the right to work with you on a student visa.

As far as getting a certificate and using that to teach in France - I don't think it's very possible. The regular school system has very particular requirements and you have to pass a concours (and I may be mistaken but I think foreigners can't participate in the public school concours, only the private school one). With a certificate you could maybe get hired by one of the private English schools (like Wall Street English) but I've always heard that they're pretty exploitative. Most people doing the teaching English gigs have tended to go to Eastern Europe (notoriously Prague) but I think a lot of that has dried up and is more a working holiday option for people to kind of break even while living abroad rather than a real way to make money.

I haven't heard good things regarding morale of nurses in France - apparently hospitals in addition to academia are all implementing more business-inspired operating models, looking to increase efficiency and maximize cost effectiveness.

I was just thinking your "easy" way in would probably be through the UK and I saw that you're thinking of that option. I heard just recently of a proposal to open immigration borders between the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada (and maybe one other?) - a sort of Schengen area for like-minded Commonwealth countries. But I have no idea if that's just still fantasy.
2 x

User avatar
language2015
Yellow Belt
Posts: 91
Joined: Sun Oct 11, 2015 4:08 am
Languages: English (N) French (A0) Spanish (A0)
x 106

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby language2015 » Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:47 pm

@ the healthcare debate

Rather than type my ramble of thoughts on the healthcare system, I'll post well written articles on the subject.

washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-pharmaceutical-companies-are-spending-far-more-on-marketing-than-research/

fiercepharma.com/story/new-numbers-back-meme-pharma-does-spend-more-marketing-rd/2014-11-06

dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/do-drug-companies-make-drugs-or-money/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

nytimes.com/2014/05/20/opinion/a-cancer-treatment-in-your-medicine-cabinet.html?_r=0
0 x
Why did I decide to become a polyglot when I knew I am a super lazy student?!?

Anki or Die

: 700 / 10000 Mine 10,000+ Spanish Sentences
: 700 / 10000 Mine 10,000+ French Sentences
: 80 / 10000 Anki All Of It

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:29 pm

language2015 wrote:@ the healthcare debate

Rather than type my ramble of thoughts on the healthcare system, I'll post well written articles on the subject.

washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/02/11/big-pharmaceutical-companies-are-spending-far-more-on-marketing-than-research/

fiercepharma.com/story/new-numbers-back-meme-pharma-does-spend-more-marketing-rd/2014-11-06

dealbook.nytimes.com/2014/06/02/do-drug-companies-make-drugs-or-money/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0

nytimes.com/2014/05/20/opinion/a-cancer-treatment-in-your-medicine-cabinet.html?_r=0


language2015,

I appreciate your entry into my thread here, but I don't think opening the 'debate' or 'discussion' is really pertinent to my situation. For me (and maybe you and others) I've decided that health care is dominated by pharmaceutical control. Whether that is overwhelmingly true, debateable or untrue doesn't matter really. I have my position after LOADS of reading, "reasearch" and so on. For me it is what it is- corrupted and twisted. Discussing it here is senseless for the reason that since I have come to this conclusion I don't have much desire to work in this profession. Therefore the issue is, what else can I do, what should I do, what can I do... not what is going on with pharmaceutical companies so much as I've already reached my conclusion (which I can research more away from this thread). Yes I did bring it into this discussion, but illustrating why I don't like nursing so much, meant I wanted to drag it into the conversation. Anyway in no way am I annoyed by your provision of links on the subject. I think people NEED to really talk about this, I just don't think this is the place for that kind of debate. What I'm trying to figure out is what should I do in my career and movements overseas (with respect to my family) and how should I go about it. All opinions are welcome of course. Ultimately it's something I need to figure out, but without some brainstorming from others I might not think of certain directions I could take. And even more ultimately sometimes you can plan life till the cows come home and the plans won't work- maybe the gods/planets/fate/chance/whatever has something else in stall. Still it's certainly worth exploring as opposed to doing nothing.

Thanks for sharing all the same.

PM
1 x

User avatar
PeterMollenburg
Black Belt - 3rd Dan
Posts: 3229
Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2015 11:54 am
Location: Australia
Languages: English (N), French (B2-certified), Dutch (High A2?), Spanish (~A1), German (long-forgotten 99%), Norwegian (false starts in 2020 & 2021)
Language Log: https://forum.language-learners.org/vie ... 15&t=18080
x 8029

Re: PM's TAC 2015 crazy? French course mission

Postby PeterMollenburg » Thu Nov 12, 2015 10:34 pm

Xmmm wrote:I don't know if moving to France will really make you happier or not, but you think it will and it sounds like your dream so I would say go for it.

Regarding nursing though, I want to share some ancient wisdom that I learned only recently:

"Work isn't supposed to be fun. That's why it's called 'work'."

I think if you can internalize that truth, you can stop suffering the mental anguish of what should you do for a living and focus on getting to France ... which I think has a much higher chance of improving your happiness level than job switching does.


There's been some really good sharing of thoughts here. Considerate and insightful from each person's perspective. Thank you Xmmm for your food for thought. You might be in fact very correct indeed :)
1 x


Return to “Language logs”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 2 guests