I sent this e-mail to my wonderful employer, EffectiveUI, today. I have greatly enjoyed my employment there, but new beginnings call!
It is with excitement and anticipation mixed with sadness that I write to you to announce that I am leaving my job at EffectiveUI to move my family to China! I am going to start working part time January 24th until at least May. We are planning to move to China in July, and we have a lot of work to pack up and sell our house before then, as well as visiting all of our friends and relatives that we won’t see very often any more.
I have greatly enjoyed every team that I’ve worked with at EffectiveUI. If there is anything I can do for you personally or for the company, please don’t hesitate to ask. I am constantly impressed with the integrity, skill, talent, humor and downright awesomeness.
What, China? Really? Permanently?
Yes, China, really. Yes, permanently in the sense that we are selling our house and planning to stay for many years. I will be taking about two years off of active employment to attend a focused Chinese language school so that I can competently communicate. After I reach a strong level in my Chinese language I’ll restart my career. It’s possible that I’ll return to software and even to EffectiveUI at that point. I love this company and the people here and would be excited to start a China branch some day!
Why would you do this?
We (being my wife and I) have been considering moving to China since we were first married. We have a great love for the Chinese and other Asian cultures. We have a lot of friends from China, Japan and South Korea here in Muncie (Yes. In Muncie. Mostly because of Ball State University). We believe this is a great opportunity for our family to grow and to aid in the reconciliation and strengthening relationship between our two countries.
We believe this is a unique opportunity and a good time for our family to make this huge adjustment. Our sons are five, three and (almost) two. They will each face some difficulties adjusting but should all become natively fluent in Chinese. They will also benefit from growing up among two cultures, with increased sensitivity to cultural influences and global awareness, as third culture kids.