In the 1950s and 60s Americans became fascinated by the freedom of cross county travel inspired by Jack Kerouac books like On the Road and Dharma Bums. But today many Americans feel that these are bygone days. This is absolutely untrue. There is a new generation of Dharma Bums who just don’t travel the U.S. but the entire world.
They are people who teach English as a Second Language or ESL teachers if you will. They land jobs at home and abroad working for a summer, a few months or even a year or two before moving on to the next country carrying little more than a couple of changes of clothes, a laptop and a smart phone.
There is a great demand for ESL teachers and jobs are plentiful even in this poor economy. To these traveling educators the world is their oyster, different cultures their nourishment. They rarely put down roots and they are of all ages, races, creeds, national origins, sexual orientation and education levels. They are like rolling stones carrying the English language to the far corners of the globe.
So pooh to conservatives who call free spirits nothing more than “beatniks and malcontents.” Your artificial borders and walls are falling and a seamless world is rising up on the foundation of language.