Here is my plan: Starting in September, I will be teaching kindergarten in a small, English-speaking private school. In this blog, I plan to write about all of my experiences, both in the classroom and outside of it. I don't yet know what I will be doing when I am not teaching (and not writing), but I hope to find interesting experiences, get to know interesting people, and, of course—and this should go without saying!— develop profound, wide-ranging insight to share with you all. I hope you will follow my adventures on this blog. I also hope that you will let me know your thoughts, via e-mail (learningtwiceblog [at] gmail.com) or in the comments section.
I decided to call this blog "Learning Twice," because I believe that this idea, broadly conceived, applies to three primary aspects of my future life abroad: as a teacher, as a writer, and as a person living in a culture that will be—at least at first—quite foreign.
Or, in the words of three authors more articulate than I:
"To teach is to learn twice." – Joseph Joubert, Pensées, 1842
"I have to write to discover what I am doing... I don't know so well what I think until I see what I say." –Flannery O'Connor, letter to a literary agent, 1942
"To my mind, the greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted." –Bill Bryson, introduction to The Best American Travel Writing, 2000
I hope to "learn twice," as it were, by gaining a deeper understanding of subject matter by teaching; by deepening my experiences (and my understanding of them) by writing; and by navigating in a foreign culture what is supposedly familiar in my own.
I am excited to share these journeys with you, and I very much hope to hear from you along the way.
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