Homesteader or Cowboy?

[joe]

The two worlds of China ESL: the Commercial and the Institutional.

The two kinds of people who populate them: the cowboys and the homesteaders.

Who are you?


What a cowboy says: "Show me the money!"
What a homesteader says: "I love my kids and the friends I've made!"

What a homesteader buys: furniture; cooking utensils; lots of dvds
What a cowboy buys: imported beer; cheap suits; lots of dvds

What a cowboy thinks they're doing: teaching English from zero to communicative, and nothing else.
What a homesteader thinks they're doing: ?

You don't have to be married to be a homesteader; although your spouse would expect it, getting married doesn't make you a homesteader. Coming to China with your spouse probably does make you a homesteader.


And if you aren't in China yet, who do you expect to be when you get here?

[joe]

I used to think I was a homesteader. Now I think I'm a cowboy.

[nolefan]

I guess i'm a bit of a homestead cowboy since i fit in both descriptions. I like cooking and buying home stuff but i do indulge in imported red wines and liquors. I like my friends and wife but still have to take money seriously...

[joe]

Homestead Cowboy. George Campbell at his finest. "Riding up to the house in a star-spangled Isuzu."

Are you making a life or doing a job?

[nolefan]

sometimes, it feels more like Geroges Orwell than Campbell but that's when i decide to open a can of campbell's chicken soup.

Again, both apply... i'm building a life and doing my jobs is part of that.

[Raoul Duke]

I'm kinda with Nolefan...I'm a bit in both camps. A homesteader who drinks imported Mexican tequila on the rare occasions he can afford it. I think these days I'm much more heavily in the homesteader camp. Being married may not make you a homesteader, but having a kid definitely pushes you into that direction.

[Lotus Eater]

Maybe it is a 'transition' process. Those who come planning to stay for an extended period of time come as homesteaders, those who come just for the fun of it, as a break between studies etc, make come across as cowboys. Maybe then after you have been here for an extended period of time, the cowboy phase arrives because of frustration?? Maybe you become more of a homesteader??

Haven't reached the latter (cowboy) stage yet.

I have bought some (but not much) furniture - most of my dongxi is paintings and special things from my travels. But these can be seen as 'nesting' type acquisitions. They make my home more homelike! I do buy tailored clothes - because it is the easiest way to get anything to fit. I occasionally buy imported wine - and will gladly drink anyone elses. But I also buy Chinese DRY reds plus the beer.

I see myself more as a homsteader in attitude but a restless one - I would be happy to potter about in the wilder parts of China rather than just stay in the one area as well. So while I do love the friends that I have made I also know that if I move on, I will make more friends as well. The students I have fun with and think are great - but I won't go so far as to say I love them! I can't love people enmasse.

[joe]

Having lived in China for a long time does not make you a homesteader, and having been in China for a short time does not make you a cowboy.

Having lived in one place for more than a year does not make you a homesteader, but it goes a long way, and having travelled around doesn't make you a cowboy, unless you travelled around for work.

Buying cheap suits doesn't make you a cowboy unless you bought them for work. Drinking imported booze makes you a homesteader if you shopped around for a good price, and a cowboy if you got it in a bar.

Where you live if your circle of friends has sometimes included more foreigners than Chinese, then you might be a cowboy. If you've had groups of people in your house and you were the only foreigner, then you might be a homesteader.

Are you learning Chinese? Why?


The trouble with this poll is at first everyone thinks they're a cowboy.

[Crippler]

Until I came to China I was a cowboy. Never stayed anywhere long enough for my clothes to dry. Home was where I hung my hat for the night. Now I am entering my third contract with the same school and will only move on if they can no longer hire me. Guess this old cowboy has found a home! We need a John Wayne icon.

[Lotus Eater]

Are you learning Chinese? Why?

Easy answer:

• So I can talk to the people I meet
  
• so I can gain an deeper understanding of the culture
  
• so I can make myself understood in restaurants, shops, bars etc.
  
• So I can read the signs, newspapers, notices on the boards around the university
  
• so that I don't frustrate my Chinese friends when they can't express themselves in English.
  

Principle answer:
I am in CHINA - if I don't try to learn the language what am I doing here? We very clearly expect people coming to Oz to learn English - when the shoe is on the other foot it behooves me to do what I expect others to do.

The trouble with this poll is at first everyone thinks they're a cowboy.

Are you sure? The connotations for cowboy weren't good for me, even before a I read the definitions. Cowboys in Oz aren't seen as good guys - they are shysters. I didn;t want to be one - so the definition was Ok. But homesteader also feels too permanent, I'm not into permanancy - so we maybe need another category. Is nomad OK?

Nomads move when it is necessary to move, stay when it is necessary to stay. Nomads take essentials with them, leave behind the inessentials. Nomads live /work within their environment accepting it as it is without trying to control or change it's essence. Nomads realise that life has seasons and changes - they work with these seasons and changes.

I'm happy with nomad!

[con's fly is open]

Homesteader, I suppose. Mind you, even homesteaders flock to their racial immigrant ghettoes now and then.

[Ruth]

Before I read the descriptions I chose homesteader. I read the descriptions and don't totally agree with them. But I still chose homesteader. I've put down roots here - as many roots as I've put down anywhere else I've lived (see Lei Shan's post. I married a nomad.)

It's not about the money, but money helps. Do I love my students? Impossible. I have little chance to get to know them on a personal level. Even the feelings I have for my private students I wouldn't define as love. Guilty on the purchasing of stuff to make my home more liveable, though.

[Raoul Duke]

Actually, the 'Cowboy' category never entered my mind until I read the part abou the imported beer. I figured the tequila was close enough.

I refuse to teach kids here, so maybe that helped. I do love some of my adult students. Especially the hot ones.
This seems to reveal at least a streak of Cowboy left...

[nolefan]

as far as learning Chinese goes, I'm with Lotus on this one.

I feel that whenever i'm in someone else's coutry, I should try to abide by that country's rules, customs, traditions and language. Learning the language just helps understanding bits and parts of this culture and the people. So much of their personality lies in the way they choose to express themselves.
The overall argument of any foreigner being judged by they hosts applies. I remember bartending back in USania and hearing my manager complain about certain foreign customers' language skills in terms of " You guys are in the godarn us, why can't u speak English?". I can picture the same person sitting in a Chinese restaurant saying the same thing...

[Non-Dave]

At home I am one of those people who loudly suggested that the recent arrivals (or in the case of Melbourne - everyone) learn to speak English. Bad English I don't mind, it shows they are trying - but if you want to live in an English-speaking country - speak ENGLISH!!!

Now I'm here I feel very much as Lotus and Nolefan do. I'm the guest here - I need to learn their language. I get angry and frustrated at my assistant for not understanding simple sentences or because I cannot order something in a restaurant, but I'm upset with myself because I don't speak their language - not because they don't speak mine!

Neither Homesteader or Cowboy works for me. How about Gunfighter? One of those rough, tough "Shoot em all let God sort em out!" types who wanders the country helping out the poor farmers and taking on impossible odds...

[Dr. Gonzo]

Five years, two schools, one family.
That makes me a homesteader.

[Mr Nobody]

Who am I? I am nobody.

I am just like this guy, you know?

Two valued aristotlean thinking isn't my bag. I am more multiordinal null-A type, if you know what I mean.

[Hamish]

daoding said:

I am more mumulti ordinalull-A type, if you know what I mean.

Damn!

You and I must have gone to the same school (Albeit at different times.)!

How long did you pursue training in general semantics (null-A)?

As you know, but Raoul doesn't, general semantics is an intellectual movement started by Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950) integrating then new findings in neuroscience, psychology, and physics into a philosophy of living. An important part of the movement’s epistemology was multiordinal or non-Aristotelian (“null-A”) logic.

I LOVES that poo!

Gimmi skin there bro!

[Raoul Duke]

I knew that. I have several years' worth of the full sets both the Topps and Fleer trading cards for General Semanticians.

So there.

[con's fly is open]

I wanna be the piano player in the whorehouse. Or the undertaker. Or hell, both.

[nolefan]

connell said:

I wanna be the piano player in the whorehouse. Or the undertaker. Or hell, both.

play it again, sam!

I'd like to be the entertainer in that song by billy joel or the bartender according to James Taylor... i can see myself in those nicely painted scenes, almost a fly on the wall, part of the environment but still anonymous

[gengrant]

I'm from Texas! don't let the kilt fool y'all. 'nuff said!

but i'm also with nolefan:

I like my friend's wife

[nolefan]

now you're gonna get me in trouble ..... I never said nothing about my friend's wife.......

[Dr. Gonzo]

OK, dumbass that I am, I felt I was missing something here. So I found:

simplified form, the "essence" of Korzybski's work was the claim that human beings are limited in what they know by (1) the structure of their nervous systems, and (2) the structure of their languages. Human beings cannot experience the world directly, but only through their "abstractions" (nonverbal impressions or "gleanings" derived from the nervous system, and verbal indicators expressed and derived from language). Sometimes our perceptions and our languages actually mislead us as to the "facts" with which we must deal. Our understanding of what is going on sometimes lacks similarity of structure with what is actually going on. He stressed training in awareness of abstracting, using techniques that he had derived from his study of mathematics and science. He called this awareness, this goal of his system, "consciousness of abstracting." His system included modifying the way we approach the world, e.g., with an attitude of "I don't know; let's see," to better discover or reflect its realities as shown by modern science. One of these techniques involved becoming inwardly and outwardly quiet, an experience that he called, "silence on the objective levels."

OK, that clarified things somewhat. But the picture really came into focus with

:One day, Korzybski was giving a lecture to a group of students, and he suddenly interrupted the lesson in order to retrieve a packet of biscuits, wrapped in white paper, from his briefcase. He muttered that he just had to eat something, and he asked the students on the seats in the front row, if they would also like a biscuit. A few students took a biscuit. "Nice biscuit, don't you think", said Korzybski, while he took a second one. The students were chewing vigorously. Then he tore the white paper from the biscuits, in order to reveal the original packaging. On it was a big picture of a dog's head and the words "Dog Cookies". The students looked at the package, and were shocked. Two of them wanted to throw up, put their hands in front of their mouths, and ran out of the lecture hall to the toilet. "You see, ladies and gentlemen", Korzybski remarked, "I have just demonstrated that people don't just eat food, but also words, and that the taste of the former is often outdone by the taste of the latter." Apparently his prank aimed to illustrate how human suffering originates from the confusion or conflation of linguistic representations of reality and reality itself. (Source: R. Diekstra, Haarlemmer Dagblad, 1993, cited by L. Derks & J. Hollander, Essenties van NLP (Utrecht: Servire, 1996), p. 58).

Feeding students dog food.
Now that is cool.

[Mr Nobody]

Be careful not to take his teachings too far, though.

He said in his magnum opus "science and sanity" that by the time this is published (1930 or so) it will be out of date. the idea is that the world changes and progresses and so should the person, but usually they don't. Change is the key, and how to deal with this was a major part of his thesis.

But, when interviewed in about 1990, one of his successors was quoted "Korzybski is so brilliant, we don't have to change anything."

Nicely shooting himself in the foot. He meant to be a guide, not a figurehead.


Mindless copying and adulation of the source is nothing. As Korzybski himself noted, integration of the knowledge is the key, not the knowledge itself.

I teach like this at the college. They already know more english than they can use. No use teaching more. They need to integrate what they already know.

(This aspect is only one relatively minor part of his thesis, but a key one in my opinion. The more important of the major points is the general semantics, the meaning of meaning. Sort of a linguistic and philosophical 'relativity'.)