Latest / Babes, how did you get here / From London Legacy to Reverse Migration: A Teacher Comes Home to Jamaica

Transcript

From London Legacy to Reverse Migration: A Teacher Comes Home to Jamaica · Babes, how did you get here

• 0:00
  Welcome to A Life Elsewhere.
• 0:02
  I am April Jackson and I speak with people who have chosen a different path and built a new life in an unexpected place.
• 0:08
  I'm speaking with Marcus Burke, an online educator who traded in the unhappiness of the UK for soul satisfying peace in Jamaica.
• 0:17
  As a passionate teacher with a global classroom, Marcus found a way to blend tech, culture, and community while living on island time.
• 0:25
  He is proving that you don't need to stay where you started in order to have an impact.
• 0:30
  This conversation is about moving with intention, redefining success, and embracing the rhythm of life elsewhere.
• 0:40
  We're dropping new episodes every single week.
• 0:42
  So make sure you subscribe.
• 0:43
  You don't want to miss this, babes.
• 0:45
  And leave a comment and tell me, what do you want to hear out of my next conversation?
• 0:49
  Your support really helps this community grow.
• 0:52
  And if you know someone who's quietly been thinking, should they take that next big leap?
• 0:56
  Babes, send them the podcast.
• 0:58
  So you now live in Kingston, Jamaica.
• 1:02
  I do.
• 1:02
  But you moved here from London.
• 1:05
  And I just want to take it right back to when you decided that you were going to make that move.
• 1:09
  Was that a particular thing that happened to you?
• 1:11
  Was it something that you planned over time?
• 1:14
  Um, that, well, that's a good question with two answers.
• 1:19
  I think that when I was a young, when I was a child, when I was growing up, I always had this idea that I wanted to live outside of England.
• 1:25
  I didn't want to just be situated in one place.
• 1:28
  And Jamaica being my hereditary home, a place that I spent a lot of time in, and my love for Jamaica, I always just knew I wanted to live in Jamaica.
• 1:37
  Now, what that looked like as a young person, I didn't actually know.
• 1:41
  Fast forward now many many years later.
• 1:43
  I'm a teacher living my life.
• 1:45
  I'm adulting doing what you should be doing and these things And then just recognizing that those things that I put into place With the idea that I would one day return to Jamaica maybe as a retiree or whatever the case may be Suddenly started to realize this is not really working for me one but mostly because I wasn't happy not happy with I
• 2:05
  with what I thought would make me happy, i.e.
• 2:08
  money, a good job, a nice little house, social life.
• 2:11
  So you got the house, you got the job, you had the social life in London, but it still wasn't enough.
• 2:18
  It still wasn't enough, no.
• 2:20
  You painted it very well, so I'm a teacher.
• 2:23
  So I did the traditional roots, traditional education, university, then went straight into the teaching curator, which I love.
• 2:30
  I love being a teacher.
• 2:31
  I'm a lover of education and young people, et cetera.
• 2:35
  But that love and that passion for children and my career and all of what came with that, you know, the economics.
• 2:43
  being able to purchase a place and social life and traveling and doing all of those things, it was very clear that I wasn't happy.
• 2:51
  There was something very, very, very, very solidly missing.
• 2:55
  Now, I didn't know what it was that was missing, but what I knew I wasn't happy.
• 2:59
  And I knew that being unhappy required me to change something, right?
• 3:03
  And one of those things was, let me try and live somewhere else.
• 3:07
  So actually, before I came to Jamaica,
• 3:10
  post-Covid, I decided with all of that, let me go and relocate.
• 3:15
  I found a job in The Gambia.
• 3:16
  Before we continue, make sure that you join our community by clicking the link below.
• 3:21
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• 3:28
  I really cannot wait for you to help me shape where this podcast goes.
• 3:32
  The first thing that comes to my mind is time difference.
• 3:35
  And how does that work for you?
• 3:37
  So are your students, where are they?
• 3:39
  Where are they usually based?
• 3:40
  So all of my students currently are in the UK.
• 3:44
  So what that means for the time differences is that, what that means for the time differences is that because my sessions run on the weekends and I have a home school academy for home schoolers and that would run in the daytime in the UK.
• 3:58
  But given it's,
• 4:00
  Mr. Burke's classroom, the timetable is timetabled by me, right?
• 4:04
  So my first lesson of the day would start 12 p.m. in the UK, which is 6 a.m. here in Jamaica.
• 4:11
  So 6 a.m. is early, but it's not.
• 4:14
  It's not too bad.
• 4:15
  It's not too early.
• 4:16
  And what that just quite simply means is I'm six hours behind.
• 4:19
  So what that means in translation is I start early, but finish very early.
• 4:24
  Okay.
• 4:24
  You know, we're sitting here right now and I did a full day full of work, finished work, got affitry, got sovereign, come back, change and here I am now and it's still daylight outside.
• 4:35
  Sure.
• 4:36
  That would not have been feasible in the UK.
• 4:37
  Right.
• 4:38
  So what I have found actually...
• 4:40
  just springing boarding onto that something i've discovered being here is that because i like that my i respond quite well working in the morning that the time difference works better for me here than it does in the uk because when i go back to the uk i find that starting so later in the day i'm not so productive in the morning and these things so it works very good for me the time difference it does and what do you teach
• 5:04
  So I'm an English teacher.
• 5:05
  I'm an English teacher.
• 5:07
  That's my primary subject, but I also teach sociology as well, but English.
• 5:10
  And how do you go about finding your students?
• 5:13
  So social media, word of mouth, I have a website.
• 5:19
  So all of those things collated together and then I'm able to find students.
• 5:23
  So I've got after school students, one-to-ones, and then have a weekend academy as well.
• 5:27
  And in fact, I just recently have decided with
• 5:31
  so with my move to jamaica one of the things that has come out with me with regard to just who i am and my identity is me kind of stepping into the identity of being a black british sorry a british jamaican or a jamaican british person but really owning that title right so i imagine that that could potentially be a challenge for a 14 year old
• 5:52
  Absolutely.
• 5:53
  And that was exactly what I said to my friend.
• 5:59
  I said that there will be challenges because of exactly what you're speaking of.
• 6:04
  And that doesn't mean that she cannot adapt to it.
• 6:07
  And it might also mean as well, because you see the things that you're speaking of, I actually believe those things are good things.
• 6:12
  the uniformity yes the um i do believe in individual expression but i think uniformity is incredibly important do i think sometimes it might go a bit over the line in jamaica with some stories that you might see yes but generally speaking the uniformity the the the the standard of what they insist from the children and then the academic rigor of the rigorous nature of the academic um discourse here is very very much up there but
• 6:39
  If you are coming from a system where that isn't the same and you are a teenager and you're already working out all of those emotions and just life and all of these things, it can be quite something.
• 6:51
  And you're coming in now with an English accent, with the English way and the English style into a Jamaican high school with...
• 6:59
  Yeah.
• 6:59
  My main, the, the, the, to give you an honest answer, what I also said to her as well was the academic concern was that what you spoke of was coming here and then being put down and my concern about what that would do to her own self-worth and her own self-esteem.
• 7:17
  And again, that doesn't mean that being challenged and stretched doesn't benefit, won't benefit a young person because it probably could.
• 7:25
  And I hope it does.
• 7:27
  because that would be very much a good thing absolutely but the consideration of if it doesn't work out like that and then are there mechanisms in the school to be able to deal with her pastorally if those are the things if she feels a sense of isolation loneliness unworthiness perhaps are those mechanisms there men or do you think that teachers are valued more in Jamaica or the UK as a profession respected
• 7:57
  Hmm.
• 7:58
  I think that's a good question.
• 8:00
  I think
• 8:05
  My outside perception feels like Jamaicans respect teaching a bit that is regarded because in England there is when I went to university, there was this ideal in the professional world that teaching is those that cannot teach.
• 8:19
  Okay.
• 8:20
  So if you do it, so those that cannot be actor, them turn a drama teacher.
• 8:24
  Those that cannot be a writer turn English teacher.
• 8:28
  Those that cannot be an engineer turn maths teacher.
• 8:31
  So those that can't teach.
• 8:33
  And it has that feeling in the professional world.
• 8:35
  Yeah.
• 8:36
  And it has that feel in the professional world.
• 8:38
  Right.
• 8:38
  So when you go to university, oh, he's teaching, you know, he tried to do that, but he never wore a cult.
• 8:44
  And that's that.
• 8:45
  For me, it's always been a childhood passion.
• 8:47
  And that's what that is.
• 8:48
  I think Jamaica might be slightly different.
• 8:50
  I think that there might be a higher regard.
• 8:51
  I think that, I think that, but I don't know if I can say that with total certainty.
• 8:55
  Sure.
• 8:56
  But I, because I don't know totally whether or not in all of the schools, the children respect the teaching staff in a way that,
• 9:03
  I've seen in one particular school that would reflect a level of high respect for teachers.
• 9:08
  I don't know.
• 9:09
  Teachers, if y'all watch this, they say a teacher in Jamaica, what's your thoughts?
• 9:13
  So when you decided to move, what were the main things that, did you have anything that you were particularly worried about?
• 9:19
  The main things that you had to kind of organize before you arrived?
• 9:24
  No, I think that my journey coming back to Jamaica is very much tied up in, you know, when I moved to Korea, I had never been there before.
• 9:32
  When I moved to Gambit, I had never been there before.
• 9:34
  Jamaica is something very different.
• 9:37
  Jamaica is a place that I've frequented, I've spent significant lengths of time in.
• 9:41
  You still have family here?
• 9:43
  Oh, God, yes.
• 9:44
  Oh, God, yes.
• 9:45
  And a large slew.
• 9:46
  My closest connected family to me is in Jamaica.
• 9:51
  So, again, that's also a part of a major reason why I wanted to be closer to my family as well and the ones that I was closer to and with.
• 10:00
  and then i'm a part of the jamaican diaspora in london in a space that is very populated by jamaicans so it's it's a space that i was i've i've come i came in informed um but i questioned whether or not adult marcus who is not
• 10:20
  vacationing for an extended period of time would be the same as adult Marcos just here just working and living my life you know paying bills and just existing and just doing nothing sometimes because it's life right now every day says so I'm a guam party I guana this I guana whatever no just living life and I won't didn't know if I
• 10:42
  if I could do that.
• 10:43
  So my first, when I first came, I spent, I believe it was six months working that out.
• 10:50
  And that was my thing was that, can I exist?
• 10:52
  Can I realise myself here in a contentment doing a whole lot of nothing if that's B?
• 10:59
  And I discovered I could.
• 11:01
  Okay.
• 11:02
  And I believed I could, but I just needed to know that.
• 11:06
  And I did because I guess,
• 11:08
  Because I am aware of some of the things that can be challenging or a bit difficult in Jamaica.
• 11:13
  Like?
• 11:16
  Very small things.
• 11:17
  So you're thinking just about...
• 11:21
  Small things just in terms of day-to-day life.
• 11:23
  Did you have all your friends and, like, your community before you got here?
• 11:27
  Oh, yes.
• 11:28
  You mean friendship groups or whatever?
• 11:30
  Yes.
• 11:30
  But even that is what we think about immigration over the years.
• 11:33
  Enough people leave the island and these things as well.
• 11:36
  That was actually something that I was slightly worried about, actually, before I was coming to Jamaica, was the fact that so many of my friends have left.
• 11:43
  Okay.
• 11:44
  And I've gone overseas and Canada and all kinds of things.
• 11:47
  And that obviously is going to have an impact on my social life and other things here and other things.
• 11:53
  But it hasn't.
• 11:55
  It's not been a problem.
• 11:56
  So it was just a concern.
• 11:57
  But it really wasn't.
• 11:58
  You were worried for no reason.
• 11:58
  It was a worry for no reason.
• 12:00
  I think that... And then there is... One thing that I want to be more intentional about while being in Jamaica is meeting other expats.
• 12:07
  Meeting other people that are...
• 12:10
  on this journey a similar journey returned back after whatever or i'm very interested in meeting um and just expanding my network like that but jamaica is a place where it's not that hard to meet friends i don't think i mean love for talk as you can see so it's of no problem
• 12:31
  I think that sometimes people, they're quite lazy with their perception.
• 12:35
  Absolutely.
• 12:36
  And because they may have come here and stayed at a hotel and not left the confines of that hotel, they have then used that singular experience to then say that, oh, well, there's nothing else to do.
• 12:45
  But why is it that Jamaica and places like Jamaica must always be victim to that?
• 12:51
  Why is it that people feel so okay to make those kinds of lack of...
• 12:57
  I'm lacking of information.
• 12:59
  I don't have the information.
• 13:00
  I know that my only experience consists of me being in the Hilton in Rose Hall.
• 13:04
  But I can speak to the experience of Jamaica with confidence to a Jamaican.
• 13:09
  Yeah.
• 13:09
  And I wonder to what extent why is it that Jamaica is victim to that?
• 13:14
  Why is it that Jamaicans or Jamaica is is it's just OK for you to bam blast such a statement?
• 13:21
  I want somebody, a colleague of mine, why do you want to go there?
• 13:24
  I mean,
• 13:25
  I could never dream of saying that to somebody else about their country of life or their country of origin.
• 13:31
  That would be a wild thing to do.
• 13:33
  But I feel like some people have this feeling of this permission to just say these wild statements about Jamaica without any kind of backative.
• 13:42
  Stop it.
• 13:44
  And it's the truth.
• 13:46
  Oh, if my life was a postcard, it would start with, OK, so my tattoo on my arm.
• 13:51
  That's tiny tattoo that I have here.
• 13:53
  It starts with a paper plane.
• 13:56
  And then it's a line that gets darker and it turns into a plane.
• 13:59
  So it's symbolic of the idea as the paper plane and coming up and manufacturing and sculpting my vision and my dreams.
• 14:07
  And then that transpiring into the reality.
• 14:10
  So plane and traveling the world.
• 14:13
  That postcard would be me sat on a beach in tranquility, a phased into me.
• 14:21
  at a carnivalesque party, enjoying myself with people, drinks and everybody.
• 14:27
  So the fusion of me would be tranquility, bacchanal, and passa passa.
• 14:33
  That is one thing we never talked about this episode, wasn't it?
• 14:36
  Passa passa.
• 14:37
  But that's fine.
• 14:38
  That is good.
• 14:39
  Amazing.
• 14:39
  Thank you very much.
• 14:41
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 14:42
  Miss Jamaica.