Essay

Teacher or student?

By Samantha Loong

音声ダウンロード

We spend most of our lives either sleeping or working. With this in mind, it makes sense that everyone should invest in the most comfortable bed they can afford, and be in a job that makes them happy. It's important to have at least one of these things right. A good night's sleep means you can function better at your job. And a good job means it's not such a chore to get out of your bed in the morning.

Of course, there's no such thing as the perfect job. Every occupation comes with its stresses. I recently got my students to rank a list of occupations in order of how stressful they thought the jobs were. Those that involved an element of danger, like police work and firefighting, came in at the top. But there was heated debate as to which occupations were the least stressful. A few students had put "student" at the bottom of their lists. "But you have to study all the time!" cried some other classmates, who had put "student" in their top five. "But," came the counter-argument from one person, "All you have to do is study."

Interestingly, the students that thought being a student was the least stressful thing a person could do had also experienced being a teacher themselves. These same students are also a joy to teach in class; they're here to learn. On most of my students' lists, at least being a teacher ranked a little higher on the stress scale than being a student.

Sure, as a teacher, you might not have any immediate threat to your life like a police officer. Nor could you accidentally kill someone like a doctor. But you do still have an impact on your students' lives. And this can be a stressful thing. Good teachers want to bring out the best in their students and encourage them to use whatever skill they're trying to teach. Good teachers are also good students — they themselves like to learn.

It's this aspect of being a teacher that makes me enjoy what I do. While discussing the idea of wealth with a student from Vietnam a while ago, I said that being a teacher means I'll never make millions. "But it would be nice to be rich so that I could visit my friends around the world whenever I wanted," I added. He asked me if I had many friends around the world and I said yes. He considered what I'd said carefully before telling me: "Then, you are already rich."

His words resonated with me and I was deeply moved by his observation. Who was the student now? Every day, people are motivated by different reasons to get out of their beds and go to work. For me, it's moments like the one I had with that Vietnamese student that make getting out of bed — even a comfortable one — that much easier.

先生か生徒か

完璧な仕事などないけれど、どうせ働くなら自分が楽しめる仕事に就きたいもの。英語の教師である筆者の場合は、自分の生徒たちから思わぬことを学ばせてもらった瞬間に、仕事の喜びを感じるという。

The Japan Times ST: July 19, 2013