I want to make money this year (and learn the guitar)
April 24, 2009 3:09 PM Subscribe
I want to spend a year or so making money and practicing guitar...separately that is. How should I do it?
I want to make some money to save for travel. I also want to learn the guitar (already in the process) I don't have much holding me down at the moment. I am currently in New York City but would (and I imagine would have to) move anywhere. I have a BA in Video and Media Arts.
Since I really enjoy travel (I just got back from a month in Asia) I thought of teaching English abroad but as someone with no teaching experience and minimal foreign language skills, can I get a job that will be worth it considering I don't think I want to be a teacher later in life?
I don't think the Peace corps is right for me because 27 months is too long and I don't think I'd like all the bureaucratic government stuff you have to do. While I like the idea of volunteer type things, I really need to be making money right now. The idea of a fire lookout is exciting but I don't think I am qualified for that.
Basically, I'm willing to go anywhere, do most anything, and I can live pretty cheaply. I just want to have a little time to practice guitar and and have a chunk of change in my pocket at the end so I can travel.
So what should I do?
I want to make some money to save for travel. I also want to learn the guitar (already in the process) I don't have much holding me down at the moment. I am currently in New York City but would (and I imagine would have to) move anywhere. I have a BA in Video and Media Arts.
Since I really enjoy travel (I just got back from a month in Asia) I thought of teaching English abroad but as someone with no teaching experience and minimal foreign language skills, can I get a job that will be worth it considering I don't think I want to be a teacher later in life?
I don't think the Peace corps is right for me because 27 months is too long and I don't think I'd like all the bureaucratic government stuff you have to do. While I like the idea of volunteer type things, I really need to be making money right now. The idea of a fire lookout is exciting but I don't think I am qualified for that.
Basically, I'm willing to go anywhere, do most anything, and I can live pretty cheaply. I just want to have a little time to practice guitar and and have a chunk of change in my pocket at the end so I can travel.
So what should I do?
I'm currently abroad in Munich and I definitely know of some people who are living in Germany and teaching English. I heard the pay wasn't too shabby. Doesn't help much on the guitar end except you should have time to yourself.
I don't know about how to go about it personally, but it's doable.
posted by JauntyFedora at 6:05 PM on April 24, 2009
I don't know about how to go about it personally, but it's doable.
posted by JauntyFedora at 6:05 PM on April 24, 2009
Sounds like you have 2 goals: (1) making $$ to travel; (2) learning guitar. The ideas you have (teaching ESL or Peace Corps) will get in the way of those goals as both of those experiences will be such a drastic change that they will take a lot of your time (they would be great adventures to experience in their own right).
My suggestion is to focus on your goals: if you truly want to make $$ AND learn an instrument fluently, you don't need to drastically change your life, you could do it right now. I think it's a matter of discipline. You can rapidly improve musically with an hour or two of practice a day while saving money by not wasting time. I fear that you'll set yourself up for failure by trying to do so many ambitious things at once.
posted by sfkiddo at 9:21 PM on April 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
My suggestion is to focus on your goals: if you truly want to make $$ AND learn an instrument fluently, you don't need to drastically change your life, you could do it right now. I think it's a matter of discipline. You can rapidly improve musically with an hour or two of practice a day while saving money by not wasting time. I fear that you'll set yourself up for failure by trying to do so many ambitious things at once.
posted by sfkiddo at 9:21 PM on April 24, 2009 [1 favorite]
How good are you at guitar? I made some decent bank in Rome back in '05 as a street musician and hostellier. MeMail me if this interests you and I'll talk more.
posted by The White Hat at 9:42 PM on April 24, 2009
posted by The White Hat at 9:42 PM on April 24, 2009
Response by poster: yeah, I've really just started at the guitar, so I'm not at busking levels yet. I know I don't need to change my life to learn the guitar and whatever I end up doing this next year, I am going to practice the guitar. I just thought that if I was teaching ESL or something, I might have more motivation. Mayb not. Anyway, ignore the guitar, I guess. Just what the hell should I do with my life?
posted by saul wright at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2009
posted by saul wright at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2009
If that's your question, then here's what you do:
Pick someplace that seems interesting to you and has high demand for ESL teachers. Brush up on that country's language through whatever means you can (Classes if you can, if not, livemocha.com is a nice immersion study tool for vocab & sentence structure). This should give you a decent baseline through which to get around and to be an effective ESL teacher.
Plan ahead and find something in advance, perhaps by networking through an English-language site in the locality you wish to travel to.
Do you want to go to something more developed or more 3rd-world? Either is possible but you really need to figure out what you want.
posted by JauntyFedora at 4:41 PM on April 26, 2009
Pick someplace that seems interesting to you and has high demand for ESL teachers. Brush up on that country's language through whatever means you can (Classes if you can, if not, livemocha.com is a nice immersion study tool for vocab & sentence structure). This should give you a decent baseline through which to get around and to be an effective ESL teacher.
Plan ahead and find something in advance, perhaps by networking through an English-language site in the locality you wish to travel to.
Do you want to go to something more developed or more 3rd-world? Either is possible but you really need to figure out what you want.
posted by JauntyFedora at 4:41 PM on April 26, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by bigmusic at 3:15 PM on April 24, 2009