2mo ago

What didn't you see coming that changed your life?

I was looking for a Nintendo 64 controller on craigslist and found a misplaced ad for teaching English in China.

Completely changed the course of my life, I've been traveling ever since.

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I locked my keys in my car and asked the locksmith if he liked the work. He put in a word for me at his shop and I had a job there 3 months later.
Went from washing dishes to being the hero when people lock their keys in their car while they're out drinking.
- Ha, that's great!
  Lockpicking must be a sight more rewarding and exciting! Congratulations!
  
  Definitely so, with a complete host of its own problems though.
  Turns out, work is work. I like it when work lets me learn new things and meet new people though, and this is definitely the place to be for that!
I was in school for electrical engineering and took a single C course in the second year. Absolutely fell in love with the idea of programming, dropped out of university and switched to a college programming course. Been a programmer for 8 years this may.
- Ah, very cool, congrats!
  Do most programmers focus on one or two languages, whatever is relevant to their job or are you supposed to learn as many as possible?
  What is the driving force behind programmers learning different languages?
  
  Good question! For me the language isn't too important, kinda like with normal languages, it's all about the concepts being conveyed. With programming those concepts are, at a basic level; variables, conditions, lists, loops, objects, and functions. All (decent) languages with have the ability to convey these concepts one way or another, so it's just typically just comes down to syntax when learning a new language.
  Obviously there are some exceptions where old or niche languages don't support something. But typically once you know 'programming' the language doesn't matter too much. For me, I use a few different languages depending on what I'm working on. Front-end web stuff; Javascript. Server side logic; nodejs and groovy. Database; SQL.
  The driving force behind learning new languages (again for me) has been either for work because that's what is in use and I need to modify existing code, or because I've seen the language in use somewhere else and want to try it out.
  Hope some of that answered your question :)
I assume you travelled to China due to that ad. What other places have your travels taken you.
What, also, were the requirements for the job? Were you certified to teach English already, or did they really just need a native speaker?
- I did start teaching in China through that ad without any certifications or experience, which is fairly common.
  A lot of countries, China included, just require a native or fluent English speaker for a teaching job.
  I've been to about 30 countries so far; most of Asia, western Europe, india, morocco, I'm in Panama right now.

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