Does Your Online Profile Send This Weird Message?
This you? Please take it down.
Recently graduated from college, broke, and paying off student loans, I got a second job to make ends meet.
Two nights a week, I'd report to the elementary school down the street to teach English as a Second Language.
I was a naive twenty-something facing adults from other countries whose ticket to work was functional fluency in English. On my first night, I was nervous.
Surrounded by the smell of paste and chalk dust, my nerves made me do something I'd never done before.
I kept making the "OK" symbol with my hand to encourage the students in a non-verbal way. "Good job!" I'd add.
After making the "OK" sign a few times, I noticed one group in the back of the classroom would giggle each time I made it. "Good job!"
In our teacher's lounge later that night, a more seasoned ESL teacher explained the giggling. In some countries, that hand gesture means something insulting and a little vulgar.
The pain panel.
Talking with professionals about their careers for over ten years, I’ve observed a subtle phenomenon many miss, even though it's in plain sight.
