Foreign Teacher Lands in Rural America: ‘I Was Surprised’ | VOA Connect

[Music] that one is my bank right across the street is the grocery store this is the theater where we watch the movies and then there's the pharmacy and the only cafe that we have in town I was surprised because I didn't expect America because in the Philippines we think of America's we just think of New York or California and we didn't really expect that there are rural areas too in America [Music] I'm Charmaine Teodoro and I grew up in Manila here I teach seven through 12 math and that is the core subjects pre-algebra algebra and geometry and algebra two this is her second year with us my name is Sean eNOS and I'm the principal superintendent of the julesberg School District which is located in julesberg Colorado [Music] [Applause] [Music] didn't really think about it until I got in that place where I knew that I was totally out of options for hiring I teach from the United States two years ago had a longtime math teacher that resigned and moved away from the area that had been with our district for about the last 12 years and so we ran that campaign for about three to four months trying to recruit and get applicants to fill that position I ended up getting one application from someone in the United States wasn't able to recruit the one application that had so I knew that I needed to look for other avenues and options and that's when I contacted a recruiting company which works with j-1 visas for teachers out of the Philippines did five interviews using video conferencing and Charmy and ended up being one of the five that we felt like was the best fit for our situation what we're looking for her to teach and work in a small school district first I couldn't believe it and I was thinking it could be a scam up until I my flight coming here I saw I'm still not believing it until mrs. Ennis and she's a Dean of Students she's the one who fetched me at the airport that was the time that I said okay this is real because they are actually here first they thought that I'm also a student because they said I look young and I'm short I'm just a fellow student like a foreign exchange student and they are huge I was telling my friends about the height of the students I'm teaching and they all get shocked I've had some challenges during my first year I had some students not all of them like some of them will just ask you and so see how far they can go with what they were doing so I would say it's really different behavior wise because in developing you don't have to do anything they see you in uniform as a teacher they respect you here I think you have to prove yourself before they respect you I think she connected with the kids really well and she's a very good mathematics teacher and I've noticed and I and of course nice good grades are always a nice thing but and just her confidence and math and that she's able to come home and do it by herself thanks a bunch for we're being here for teaching everything you've done for our kids so you're finishing your second year with our district and so did the second year go a little better than the first year do you feel more confident and at home very smooth here last year had some classroom management issues with some of the kids and this year it's very different we want to see okay and do you know what that process looks like to be able to extend that visa no I will probably do some research about it we'd love to have you back you've done a great job thank you thank you very much thank you all right have a good day we're in a area here where all the school around us or small districts of two 300 kids and I talked to other superintendents and principals and in the state of Colorado even in our neighboring states and hiring and recruiting teachers is a big task and a difficult task to acquire those folks to come to a smaller school and community to teach and live I think I'm comfortable living here now so I am planning to stay for as long as I could she says she's sorry the challenges are it's difficult to find friends of my age with the same interests bye-bye but again I'm just lucky that I am I have a host family with me has been helping me I had a stipulation with mrs. eNOS did I ever tell you this that you know if it wasn't working out you know by Christmas time you know we were gonna change the situation and I think she asked me around Christmastime and I go oh no there's no problem she's part of the family mom had fixed a meal I'd fix a meal Charmaine did fix a meal that you know we just kind of rotate around I usually eat rice because I can still get that here finding the ingredients is also difficult there are some vegetables that I can easily find so I can cook some of the food that I want the food food cuz well when you eat it makes you feel at home because you can only eat that I mean that the taste of the food will feel like home the only times that you would probably feel loneliest is during your birthday and Christmas [Music]

Channel: Voice of America

Views: 4,743,773

Keywords: Filipina, Filiphines, teacher, rural america, foreign teacher, teach in America, Filipino in America, VOA, Voice of America

Id: FSmtbSYE8pg

Length: 7min 41sec (461 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 24 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

This makes me think of all the poor foreign exchange students who thought they were going to see Hollywood and the Statue of Liberty but ended up in my school system in the middle of nowhere.

[u/sandwichesss]

Interesting to see the lives expats live in the US.

[u/braves01]

Props to her. I think getting stuck in rural America would be hard for someone who grew up in a city as big as Manila. Hell, even going from the suburbs to rural America would be tough

[u/UrielVentris4th]

Have you met our kids? We really need to quadruple what we pay the ppl baby sitting them 30 at a time. If we expect them to teach those monsters anything useful

[u/thepopulargirl]

Omg this reminded me about my first summer here. I cried the whole summer, not because of cultural shock, I was used to moving countries by then, but the shock of a small American town. They are freaking boring, and we live like 40 min away from Boston.

Coming from Europe we were big on clubbing, we were going to Boston every weekend, and the only good music was in one gay club, the rest were just top 40 and hip hop clubs.

The towns have just this old mom and pops dinners that weren’t updated since the ‘50s and were plain awful. I lost weight the first year because I couldn’t make myself eat in those places.

The life is boring for teenagers here, compared to Europe. I always felt sorry for them. I was always joking that Americans have a problem with teenagers having kids because they are so bored they don’t have anything else to do.

But as a person in my 30s right now, I came to love this small towns:)) go figure

[u/jazzb54]

There are parts of the US where the culture shock would be less, but it sounds like she found a place the desperately needed her.

[u/StopStalkingMeFam]

Are most people from the Philippines fluent in English? She speaks better than some natives I know…

[u/frozensummit]

She needs a host family? Is her pay not high enough to get an apartment?

[u/vulcan_on_earth]

UPDATE

https://www.linkedin.com/in/charmaine-teodoro

Senior Research Analyst

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Aug 2020 - Present 1 yr 4 mos

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

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