KWANSEI GAKUIN UNIVERSITY

Good news this afternoon! Checked in on my email account www.illinoisaluni.org (which I use for my job hunts) and found an email from KGU (near Kobe, Japan) offering me the post of Instructor of English as a Foreign Language in their university's Language Center.

Backstory: I interviewed with their two recruiters at the TESOL Convention in Denver the end of March and was very unsure of the impression I made. They seemed a bit disorganized and started out the interview talking about salary, benefits, etc. instead of the usual "If you were an animal, which one would you choose to be?" kind of interview fluff. Not clear on the concept, I supposed. They asked about my publications (none) and my work in linguistics (none - my Linguistics MS from Georgetown was primarily English-oriented for ESL). So, I left it feeling a bit vague about my prospects.

In the month after, I was soon contacted and said that I had indeed made a very good impression (maybe I appeared less disorganized than their recruiters?) and could I please send on (a) a photocopy of my full dissertation, (b) 150-word abstracts of each of my nine conference presentations (dating back to 1994!), (c) an 800-word essay on my teaching philosophy, (d) letters of reference, (d) copies of my diplomas, and (e) copies of my published articles in learned publications.

I immediately felt underqualified. How can I send them articles I never wrote? Didn't they see they weren't there in the CV they read before the interview? So, I gingerly wrote back a polite email saying that, yes, I'd be happy to send everything I had, but was the "published articles" item required or was it just on the normal list in case the applicant had them? Fortunately, they said all they'd need in that case was the copy of my dissertation.

After about 2 1/2 weeks of gathering and sending everything snail mail by the end of April, they said they'd let me know. And they did, May 7th. They're waiting now for my letter of acceptance.

I'm holding off for a few days, however, to see if the UAE job (Higher Colleges of Technology) makes an offer as well. I interviewed with two of their EFL heads via video conference here in Phoenix late one night, April 29, after which they promised to get back to me one way or the other in "7-10 days". So this Sunday is the 10th day.

LEANING?

I've been heavily leaning toward the Japanese position because (a) the salary is better, (b) the university is a real institution of higher learning, whereas, HCT is a bit like a technical or community college, (c) Japanese students are higher standard and harder working than most Arabian Gulf students, which would be a refreshing change, and (d) I've never worked in Japan and haven't traveled there since I was 11 in 1968!

However, if HCT offers me a job in Abu Dhabi (the capital, my first choice) or Dubai (the "Las Vegas of the Gulf", less desirable to my personality), I'd be strongly tempted to take that since I have all my Arabic training behind me and have really qualified myself uniquely for that part of the world. Japan would be like starting from scratch language-wise.

However, if HCT offers me one of their third-tier backwoods towns such as Ras Al-Khaima, or Al-Ain, I'll definitely go with Japan. I've paid my dues teaching in the Saudi Navy in Dammam in '88 across the road from a chemical fertilizer plant, living in enforced roommate hell with the Saudi Aramco training center in Jeddah in '95, and most recently at AECP in Phoenix, where I have lost half a year of sleep trying to keep up with the sweatshop schedule they have for us. The last thing I want now is to hunker down in some dusty Arabian backwater in the final third of my career in some college-paid third-rate apartment across from a noisy mosque with ugly furniture and a noisy AC with the closest cultural events 2 hours drive to the coast. Not with a PhD and 20 years experience.

It's time to put down roots, and I need to find a place I can make a real career. By the end of next week after classes end May 15 I should be able to tell everyone for sure where I'm headed this September.

Keep checking!

REFI UPDATE #2

I am now the proud owner of a NEW MORTGAGE LOAN with SunTrust Bank (out of Atlanta) with a 5.125% rate instead of my old 6.95% mortgage with Washington Mutual. After lots of running around this past week, sweat, and worry it wouldn't close on time, everything is now complete. (Nothing ever seems to come easily or without last-minute complication in my life.)