AI-generated transcript:
Do you ever feel trapped?
I ask that because I'm not sure that I ever felt that.
Well, maybe.
I certainly felt trapped in a job, and that's one reason why I became a self-employed
English teacher in Japan, but you may find yourself thinking you're a little bit stuck, or you get into a bit of a rut.
Maybe that's middle age, I don't know.
But especially if you are a foreigner living in Japan, applying your trade as an English teacher, you can sometimes feel a bit trapped or a bit stuck.
You maybe think your career is
You know, all you can do is teach English if your Japanese sucks, like mine.
Certainly all I can do is teach English to make money.
I mean, I could do other things, but I don't think I get paid for it.
So you could get that feeling of being trapped.
I'm going to give you three suggestions for how to get out of that.
The first two are expensive, potentially expensive.
The last one is free, but most difficult.
Number one,
Learn some new skills.
If you think, oh, I'm getting stuck doing the same old, same old, well, get some more skills.
Practice your Japanese.
That gets you through the job interview, if that's what you want to do.
Although, as a self-employed person, I wouldn't recommend that course.
But learn some new skills if you want to be a coder or something like that.
Do that.
That's what a lot of people do.
That's up to you.
So you can turn the feeling of being trapped, that negative energy, into something positive because that motivates you to change.
So number one, learn a new skill.
Number two, maybe it's just one of those things.
Have you considered getting a hobby?
My hobby, as you can see, is a bit of art.
So when I'm feeling a bit...
restricted or whatever, I do my oil painting.
As you can see, I'm not very good, but I'm so-so.
That's one I worked on a couple of days ago.
And it keeps me sane.
I do that, spend an afternoon painting, go on location, find something to paint, go out there and paint it, or take a photograph of it, come back and paint.
And usually the action of doing that reinvigorates me.
So it's one reason why I want to protect my weekends so religiously, so that from a work point of view, it means I'm ready and raring to go on Monday morning.
Not exactly raring to go, but I'm ready because I've done my thing.
I don't have to tell you about the value of hobbies, do I?
So, learn new skills, hobbies.
The third one is just change your opinion, change your view.
This came home to me during the coronavirus, and a lot of people moaning, ah, we're stuck in Japan, we can't go back, because if we go back to England or wherever, they won't let us back in.
Yeah, I mean, given the fact that there was a global pandemic going on at the time,
I don't really blame the authorities or whatever for that.
But yes, it was a feeling of being trapped.
But then you look at it from the other side of the coin.
Is that the expression?
People in England were like, I want to go to Japan, and I can't.
We're trapped in our home country.
And my point is, we are all trapped.
If you want to look at it that way, I'm trapped in this 4.5-matte room.
talking to you on this computer.
Yeah, I'm trapped, or maybe I'm lucky to do this.
There was a blog post by Sendai Ben over at Retire Japan who mentions, you know, reframe how you think of things as not as I have to do something, but I get to do something.
So don't say I have to teach little kids English
So I get to teach little kids English.
Yeah, okay, it's a stretch sometimes.
Sometimes you're like, oh, I don't want to do this.
But if you reframe it that way, you realize, yeah, actually it is a privilege.
And, you know, it's only 40 minutes and then they're gone.
And before you know it, I've been doing this particular gig for getting close to 17 years.
17 years!
So those little kids are now, you know, 20-year-olds.
And they can speak English because of me.
So how do you look at it?
Oh, I'm forced to do this.
I have to do this.
Or I get to shape the next generation.
If you think like that, then nothing's really a trap.
I mean, ultimately, we're all trapped in our bodies, and we're trapped into an 80-year existence, but hopefully longer, maybe shorter.
So, yeah, okay, we are trapped.
So what are you going to do about it?
Put some paintings on the wall, enjoy the view, and...
Try to make the best of it.
I guess this sounds very stoic and defeatist.
I don't mean it to be.
I just mean it to be there's a healthier way to look at things and you can enjoy it.
I remind myself of these things when I'm facing a difficult class.
Oh, I've got the stroppy kids to deal with.
Oh, this rather dull older person.
reframe it, you get to do this I used to hate having to do the head, shoulders, knees and toes I used to think fondly of my newspaper days but then when I really thought about it would I rather spend five minutes doing head, shoulders, knees and toes and going home, collecting the money or would I rather be in an hour long meeting being chewed out by the editor for some typo or something that he didn't like no, I don't want to do that, I don't want to go back there
So, yeah, feeling trapped, yeah, it is a trap.
But you can make it bearable and actually enjoyable.
That's my point.
I hope that resonates with you.
If you are interested, by the way, in any of my beautiful artwork, I have another sub-stack.
It's called Art by Patrick Sherriff, blah, blah, blah.
Originally I called it Patrick Sheriff Art, but I realised the Earl said if you read it, you could read it as Patrick Sheriff Fart, which may be apt, arty farty, but no, it's not.
It's art by patricksheriff.substack.com.
If you're interested, go have a look there.
See more of my amateur works.
I put price tags on everything, but I'm not expecting anybody to buy it.
Not yet.
But that's a hobby that may become something more in the future when I get a bit better.
Yeah, but it opens up possibilities so I don't feel trapped.
Even if the reality is we're all trapped.
Okay, I'm waffling now.
I will finish.
Please have a lovely weekend and find a way to make life better.
enjoyable, meaningful.
If you're self-employed, it's up to you.
And unfortunately, you can't blame anybody else.
Welcome to the club.
Okay, see you next week.
Yeah.
Have a good one.
49. Do you feel trapped teaching English in Japan?