Thank you all for the warm welcome. What a great online community of like minded people I’ve come across. Great to meet you all!
Hashi love reading your blogs man. Cassandra thank you and feel free to check out my Flickr on http://www.flickr.com/photos/foxmarvin/

And Yippy, thanks mate, but I gotta say, don’t give up on those goals man. Don’t stop believin, hold on to that feeling… well you know how it goes… Hehe.

Seriously though, if I may go in rant mode back at ya, don’t let one disgruntled relative change your mind. Go out there and spread the word that the native English speaking community comes in all shapes and colours. I lived in China for three years and had an unforgettable, life changing, and invaluable experience. Yes there were some downs with the ups but that’s all part of the tests of life we get given now and then hey. Now I’m here in Japan and having an even more rewarding experience as a language professional. In fact some of my students sought me out coz I was of Asian descent. Go figure… That’s like making discrimination work in your favour right. I’m sure there’s some rap song about that.

Have I copped discrimination because of my Asian heritage living and working in either of these countries? Of course… And a million times more harsh in China than here, and I don’t live in big cosmo city Japan. So many people in China just couldn’t accept that I was “Australian”. I remember being laughed at when I walked into a lecture hall full of Chinese English majors. And it wasn’t because I had my fly undone… I remember checking just to be sure. But I saw passed the prejudice and won their respect and then some. Yeah my white dude and dudette teacher friends got the instant attention from passerbyers, but neither did it mean that they were always treated nicely. As far as employment opportunities being jeopardized coz of the way you look… Yeah of course it’s gonna happen, but that happens anywhere in any industry. You don’t have to go too far too find some bigoted person in authority. Just ask any minority Caucasian, non-Caucasian, of any religion, sexual orientation or what not. People are always gonna find some reason to try and knock you down. Doesn’t mean you gotta up root your dreams and miss out on broadening your language skills.

Damn I’ve gone Tony Robins mode… my bad! I get pretty worked up about it I guess coz I’ve been on the receiving end of this ignorant behaviour. It sucked but it would’ve sucked even more if I through in the towel… And ten times more sucky if I didn’t grab a towel in the first place!

So go pump yourself up, and look forward to whatever choice you’ll soon make… but in the right attitude. And don’t give up! That’s my way of the ninja… Ok time for some Naruto… I mean TextFugu!

またねー！
マービン