From California to Vilnius: Wife’s Lithuanian roots changed Irish teacher’s family life

Neil McCarthy has lived in many countries throughout his life. He left Ireland driven by a desire to see the world, and later taught in Australia, Finland, Austria, Germany, and the United States. In California, he raised two children and taught English and literature, but it was his wife’s Lithuanian roots that brought the family to Lithuania.

His wife Jeanette Brox is an American actress, but her father was born in Lithuania and emigrated to the United States after World War II. Neil’s wife and children have Lithuanian citizenship, so the family decided to try life in Vilnius. Today, Neil is an English and literature teacher at Erudito Licėjus. In his lessons, he encourages students to read, create, and trust their own thoughts, and when talking about artificial intelligence, he reminds them that the most important thing is not to lose the ability to think independently.

– Let’s start from the beginning. Where are you from?

– I am from the southern part of Ireland, near the Atlantic Ocean. Later I studied in Galway, in the western part of the country. That is where I felt the desire to travel. Galway is a very international city, where people from different countries of the world constantly meet. While interacting with them, I started thinking that I would like to see the world myself.

After graduating with a degree in English Literature from the National University of Ireland, Galway, I qualified as an English language teacher in 2002. At first it was a way to travel and experience different cultures. Later I realised that I actually enjoyed teaching.

– How many countries have you visited?

– I have lived or spent extended periods of time in Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Australia, Fiji, South Korea, Hong Kong, China, Mongolia, Siberia, Finland, and many European countries. Sometimes I spent three months, sometimes a year or two. Most of the time I worked as an English teacher.

Of all the places I’ve lived, Vienna is the most memorable. I spent about twelve years in total in Austria. It was there that I met my wife, who had come from the United States at the time.

– How did teaching work with children come into your life?

– I started teaching adults. I taught English in companies, helping people learn to communicate in a professional environment. However, my real interest in teaching children came when I became a father myself.

My wife and I lived in California for a while. She is an actress and has worked in television, film, and series, so we lived to Hollywood. However, when we found out we were expecting a child, we decided to return to Austria. We lived in a small apartment in Los Angeles and the environment was not very comfortable for raising a family.

We spent eight years in Austria raising two children. When they started school, I started thinking more about education. I wanted to understand how children learn and how I could contribute to that. During that time, I also completed a Masters in Education and Leadership at the University of Limerick.

In 2023, we returned to California, where I began teaching sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.

– How did you end up in Vilnius from California?

“I worked in a private school in California, and my children attended a public school. I saw that this system was not the best fit for them. They often felt more like statistical units than individual students.”

At that time, I was looking for international schools where I could work. I found a platform where schools from different countries around the world post job offers. There I saw that Erudito Licėjus was looking for a teacher.

However, it is important that Lithuania appeared in our family life not only because of a job offer. My wife has Lithuanian roots. Her father left Lithuania in the middle of the last century, so my wife was able to obtain Lithuanian citizenship. Later, our children also acquired Lithuanian citizenship.

At the time, we joked that everyone in our family had Lithuanian passports except me. So when we saw that Vilnius was looking for an English language and literature teacher, we thought: why not give it a try? We came to Lithuania more out of curiosity than with a clear long-term plan.

– Did you know much about Lithuania before then?

– Actually, almost nothing. I knew that Vilnius is the capital of Lithuania, that basketball is popular here and that people like cold borscht. I had also heard about Lithuania from Lithuanians living in Ireland. Since 2004. there have been a lot of them in Ireland, so I had encountered Lithuanian culture before. However, I knew basically nothing about the country. Lithuania was a new experience for our family.

– What were your first days in Vilnius like?

– It wasn’t as big a culture shock as I might have expected. I lived in Vienna for many years before that, as well as in Finland and Germany, so I feel very comfortable in Europe.

However, Vilnius turned out to be smaller than I imagined. I remember walking around the old town and looking for a place to live. I saw on the map that it would take me about twelve minutes to get to a certain place, but in reality I reached it in less than two minutes. The city turned out to be very compact.

The old town is beautiful, and the people pleasantly surprised us. In many European countries, you can ask for help and get a short answer that no one can help. In Lithuania, people may not always smile, but they usually try to help. I really appreciate that.

– Have you had a chance to taste Lithuanian food?

– Yes, I tasted cold borscht, cepelinai, fried bread with garlic. I also tried to order cottage cheese in Lithuanian. Apparently, my pronunciation was so poor that the woman working at the cafe looked at me as if I had offered to sacrifice a cow.

But I really like the food. Now I just need to learn how to pronounce some of the names of the dishes correctly.

– How to encourage children to read if they find books boring?

– I would suggest starting with short stories. Today, it is often difficult for children to read a long novel right away, so you should not start with it. First, it is worth finding out what genre the child likes.

You can offer a few different stories: science fiction, horror, adventure or fantasy. Then observe what interests the child. It’s like food: if you put an apple, a tomato and a piece of fried bacon in front of a child, he will probably show you what he chooses. It’s the same with books.

If a child likes a short story by Ray Bradbury, they may want to read Fahrenheit 451 or another longer work later. A short story can be the first step towards a novel.

You can also combine reading with movies. After reading a short story, you can watch its film adaptation and discuss the differences between the text and the film.

– Is reading books still necessary in the age of artificial intelligence?

– Without a doubt. Artificial intelligence can provide information, recommendations, or help find an answer, but it cannot think for a person. When we read a book, we have to follow the story ourselves, imagine the characters, understand their motivations, and form our own opinions.

Artificial intelligence can be used to search for information or ideas, but it should not replace human thinking.

When a student reads a book, I want to hear their opinion, not what an artificial intelligence has written about it. I care about what the individual young person thinks.

– Your wife is an actress. Was it difficult for her to say goodbye to Hollywood and move to Lithuania?

– The profession of an actor is very difficult and rewarding. You can spend ten or twelve hours on set, repeat the same scene many times, maintain the same emotions and facial expressions. It requires a lot of physical and emotional strength.

My wife has been a professional actress for over thirty years, so it’s natural that she misses the set, the excitement, and the adrenaline.

But the film industry is changing. Hollywood is no longer the only place where big movies and TV shows are made. Thanks to streaming platforms, filming is taking place in different countries. Many American productions are no longer filmed in Los Angeles, but in other cities in the United States and Europe. So hopefully she will get some opportunities in Lithuania.

Film crews are working in Ireland, Hungary, Croatia, Lithuania. So I hope that in the future there will be opportunities here too. Maybe Lithuania will become not only a place for our family to live, but also a country of new professional opportunities.