My future career path

Having grown up in a developing country like Cambodia, I cannot always choose any type of career like people here in America. In our country, there are certain needs for some types of skills and specialists that would help develop the country such as doctors, teachers, bankers, economists, engineers…, etc. Career in astronomy, for example, is out of the spot. Thus, my choice of future career is somehow shaped by social demand as well. Nevertheless, I love what I am doing in college; that is getting a degree in Teaching English, but my career choice extend beyond more that as an English teacher.

Few forces have driven me to my present major—TESOL. In Cambodia, especially in the city, it is important to learn English. Not that because it is part of the school curriculum but because the language would help in any future career one is pursuing. Understanding this, my mother always pushed me to learn the language since middle school, when I was quite a lazy student back then. However, my interest in the language started to form up when I was finally able to read books and listen to music in English. I would say my curiosity in learning about western cultures through books and music also partly inspired me to love English. I was fortunate enough to secure a scholarship at college that was well-known for its English teaching. That college was full of great professors whose English were fluent. Having them as my instructors, I aspired to be like them one day. It was not until then that I decided that I wanted to be an English professor so as to inspire others to love the language as I do.

Love as I may, Teaching English is not the type of work I want to do for the rest of my professional career. There is more I want to contribute to my country other than teaching English. Indeed, I love to work with rural poor communities in my country. I am aspired to help lift them out of poverty. That is why I also hope to work in the field of community development. It may sound unlikely that a student in Teaching English as a Foreign Languages like me would choose a career path in development. However, I believe that a community developer definitely needs the skills which, to some extent, relate to teaching because development’s worker needs to conduct training, research, evaluation…, etc. Plus, by working in the field of development, I hope to promote awareness of the importance of education as a powerful weapon in fighting against poverty in rural villages, where a large proportion of school-aged children do not have access to primary or secondary education.

Nonetheless, I know that I need more specialties other than English Education to make my career pursuit realistic. Hence, I plan to pursue in graduate school in a field of international development. It might be hard for an English major student to change her study course to development. But I am building my background in this field right now. I am now in an exchange program in the United States to learn more about American community; I am taking course in International Studies in addition to the ones in English major; in the upcoming spring semester, I am going to take class in communication as I believe it would help me when I directly work with the community.

People who have heard me talking about my professional plan might have thought that it is unrealistic because I am doing two things at a time—teaching English and working in community development. In fact, it is common in my country to do this especially when one of your works is teaching English. Once I complete my graduate study in development, I will work for an organization, hopefully the United Nation Development Program, in helping rebuilding Cambodia. I want to initiate program that benefit the poor, that help them rebuilding their lives. Additionally, I would also work as a part-time English professor like my instructors who have inspired me.