The American Dream
It's been a long time since I've posted and many things have changed. About 5 days before I returned to the US my old company's president messaged me out of the blue asking me my plans. I was supposed to go home for a 30 day vacation, but what ended up happening was that she hooked me up with a job with a really nice title and travel benefits domestically. I fought it for a whole but have accepted that this is the path I'm supposed to take for now. What's interesting about this job is it allows me to stay in my field- international education- but I get to do the opposite side of things: bringing students INTO America as opposed to sending Americans OUT of the country. I'm sitting in a conference right now that my company is partners with and they are talking about Chinese students and the "Chinese dream" vs the American dream. This was something I noticed that Koreans didn't have. My students were hopeless and you could tell they didn't have anything to hold onto to push harder for. It was discouraging for both them and myself as an educator. The Chinese have adopted a form of the American dream and as a result of that there has been a drastic increase in students coming to America. I do hope that this kind of dream catches with Koreans, but it is always important to note that this dream directly effects only those people who have families that can support their time abroad. I've read articles that said the American dream is dead and we are capping out on who can really advance if they put in the hard work, but I think I disagree. I believe that we still believe this dream and it still helps motivate us to be better at what we do and it's not just an American dream anymore, but can expand to a more widespread belief.












