Profile of the Month: Fırat Açıkgöz, M.A.

Profile of the Month: Fırat AÇIKGÖZ

Fırat Açıkgöz is a translator and an ELT instructor. He worked for Hacettepe Universiy and TOBB University of Economics and Technology as a R.A and EFL instructor, respectively. He completed his B.A in Interpretation and Translation Department at Hacettepe University in 2003. He completed his M.A entitled "Teaching English As A Foreign Language To The Visually Impaired Young Learners In Turkey" at the department of ELT at Hacettepe University. His research interests include ELT research, translation, special education, material development, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis. He is currently teaching Turkish as a foreign language to American tertiary learners at
Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA. Contact: erciyesfirat@yahoo.com


Being an Instructor: From TOBB to Mercyhust College by Fırat Açıkgöz

“Shame on me for choosing this career with my eyes tight closed” could have been my mere words if I still would not hold my desire siding me to see through the sparkling eyes of my students wide open along with some peppy moments throughout my five-year career. Having goofed around for some years at college without any plans to get a real job, I finally figured out that the harsh reality awaits you out there without any commercials popping up off your life screen. Four years of theoretical and ostensibly practical training in translation followed by a master’s degree in EFL, one may comfortably think that I have a say in both fields of study. However, the others may well be backing the idea that the would-be translator or an instructor should have a minor field; in other words, signing up courses broadly from sociology, philosophy, or psychology back in the time of his student career. Speaking for myself, I was neither aware nor made alert of what was going to come out of chances I would have encountered then: a research assistant for a three-year time period, an instructor at a private university for one and the half year, and where I am now teaching Turkish at Mercyhurst College…

The aftermath story is told in a private institution and hard to chronicle as quite a many hardships are supposed to set up barriers before you. Here my fellow colleagues, I am not inclined to tell you the story of humongous accomplishments but rather make a sub with a desirable side dish. The ingredients are simple and abundant: wanna-be instructors, spicy and volatile admins, crusty relations, and most preferably; a pinch of greed…

Let me begin with the upper and lower buns of this perfectly glazed (!) sub. The technology is handy and the conveniences are limitless to make use in your classes. The colleagues are mostly friendly and every single of them are granted a notebook computer with pre-installed Outlook e-mail software. Instructors start working at 9:00 in the morning and leave the building at 18.30 at dusk. Till now, you hold a strong belief that you can do your best with all the stuff mentioned so far. There pops out some mandated conferences on the recent economic developments of an exotic country called Uganda where your pure existence does not make much of a difference but it means so much to volatile individuals. You heard of stage fear, right? What say about the fear of survival in your working place? How can you be efficiently productive if the only intrinsic motivation they enjoy is “fear”? What if you signed a contract lacking to include your code of liabilities? The answer is you are liable to come whenever you are needed, whether it be on Sunday morning off the wagon.

Literally speaking, you might forcibly be mutated into a librarian whose sole purpose is to figure out which books are due or extended by then. Above all, your superiors may encourage you to engage in team-work, yet your unique (!) contributions would make no use at all. Ask me why as they know how to smile. At times you should be good enough to put up with coincidences since you may also be asked to give janitors a hand with moving chairs in a class before exams. When you are good to zip up your mouth, you are the chosen one. So to speak, there were times one could freak out in my stead and I expectedly did so.

As for the ingredients, you need to grab it all with two hands and care. Otherwise, volatile ones that freaked you out back then will eat you alive this time. Who is in charge of what? Can you specifically define that ‘what’? To cut it brief, you need to be equipped with a what-the-heck-is-what apparatus to be able to better grasp the intentions of the others and get the hang of this chaotic system of curriculum development, for instance, which may incidentally be subject to change at any minute. It is not the individuals but the rule maker otherwise known as control freaks. I so rarely but wholeheartedly quote Mark Twain’s following lines: “Give me the data and I can make up the statistics to support it”. It means much to me. But you had better think of it as standing all alone.

My fellow friends of sincerity turned into my friends of misery over time. I witnessed what should have been gone through. Mark my words now: Agree upon your liabilities before you get a real job.

Fırat Açıkgöz,
20.02.2008