Driven to drink

A popular job with expats seems to be child care since, just like in the US where Mexicans fill the cheap domestic labour market, not knowing the native language puts you at a disadvantage in the market unless you are in IT or another profession that doesn't require it. Such a job was suggested to me but I figure if I don't have one of my own then having 30 of someone else's kids probably wouldn't appeal to me very much. I'm not really sure why child care in particular doesn't seem to demand Finnish fluency from its employees.

This is a table of such child care expats whom we met at a pub one night when we were out with some other expats. The guy with the smile on his face was a New Zealander who borrowed my lighter and was trying to impress the girl across the table by telling her that Bic lighters and pens were invented in his country. I didn't have the heart to tell him that Bic is actually a French invention and that a better pick-up line would be something like, "I come from where the Hobbits live!". The guy on the end was a dead ringer for Mick Jagger and we giggled more than a few times over the likeness. These are the people who watch your kids and who, after a long week of patiently enduring your spawn, have been driven to drink. :)

12 Mar 2004 at 18:17, Helsinki