Not so much about ESL but this is an observation of having worked and lived for 20 of the last 25 years having left the uk at 17.

How old is your daughter?

How sensible is she? So if she is surrounded by many gap year kids partying like rock stars does she join in?

When my kids eventually travel i think the only point i will make. That they can take or leave, is that many people are lucky that they dont get in to trouble when they travel primarily because they bahave as if they have never left where they are from and are then either lucky nothing happens or shocked at the consequences when it does.

I have been amazed in the middle east and se asia at the stupid shit you see people do.

I thinj if you are reasonably sensible and responsible it can be great but if not. It can go wrong very quickly

I took the ESL course in Bangkok and have a few friends who teach there. I also lived in Thailand for a year.

I would jump at the chance to teach there. The Thai people are very poor at English and there is a big demand. I lived in 5 countries and Thailand is by far my favorite.

No specific info about Thailand but my brother-in-law and his girlfriend do this for a living. His gf typically gets a teaching job, they relocate and then he finds an ESL job. They did their first stint in rural New Zealand, then 3.5 years in China and right now they are finishing year 1 in Japan. None of these jobs are in urban areas. They seem to love it and get to travel in the down time

They were teaching English as a Second Language in NZ? Who were the students?

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Remember - It's important to be comfortable in your own skin... because it turns out society frowns on wearing other people's

Good friend from college and her partner have been expat teachers for 14 years, teaching in Hanoi, Istanbul and now Hong Kong. They love it. They travel (for fun) a lot - I think at last count they had been to ~125 countries so far. No kids, low key attitude, and willingness to accept a certain amount of a culture's differences without too much judgment seems to help a lot.

<<When my kids eventually travel i think the only point i will make. That they can take or leave, is that many people are lucky that they dont get in to trouble when they travel primarily because they bahave as if they have never left where they are from and are then either lucky nothing happens or shocked at the consequences when it does.

I have been amazed in the middle east and se asia at the stupid shit you see people do.

I thinj if you are reasonably sensible and responsible it can be great but if not. It can go wrong very quickly>>

Truth. I spent a year traveling after college, including in SE Asia and there was some seriously bad behavior going on. I was mostly responsible but did some dumb shit myself - in retrospect I way underestimated the risk of buying hash in a couple of places.

Truth. I spent a year traveling after college, including in SE Asia and there was some seriously bad behavior going on. I was mostly responsible but did some dumb shit myself - in retrospect I way underestimated the risk of buying hash in a couple of places.


When I lived in Thailand I did everything to avoid the backpackers who thought they were traveling but really they just went out with other English speaking foreigners and spend their days in English speaking bars. They didn't know or care to learn the first thing about Thailand.


If someone teaches there, they would be making a huge mistaking trying to live like they do here. They have to integrate into the Thai community and hang out with Thai people. It's difficult because of the language barrier but lots of Thai would love to be around English speaking people and it is far more rewarding.


I would say if someone went there to teach ESL and only hung around English speaking people, they might as well stay at home and work.

I agree with your basic premise. When I was traveling though, I was rarely in one place long enough to integrate into a community, and in a few cases (not many, but occasionally) when I would try to go to an 'authentic' local bar or restaurant, I would get expressly told that I wasn't welcome or it was made very clear that I should go elsewhere. I'm sure previous backpackers had done stupid stuff and the locals were out of patience, so not blaming them - it's just that it can be difficult to get deep into the local community and culture if you're just passing through. But I do hear what you're saying...I stayed on Khao San Road in Bangkok a couple times and people who think they're experiencing real Thailand there because they can buy cheap banana pancakes from a street vendor are either stupid or incredibly naive.

As for my friends doing the teaching thing, they definitely integrate into the community, make local friends, and avoid the young partying backpacker crowd, but they do spend a lot of time with other English-speaking expats as well.

My wife's cousin tried it. She lasted about 2 months.

Full disclosure, she's now about 31 and has traveled to 50 countries. She lives very modestly (did all of that off of a grocery store job) and has no problem backpacking, living in hostels, going days without showers, etc.

Thailand was hot as shit and is, at least in the rural parts, a 3rd world country. It was more than she could bear.

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-----------------------------Baron Von Speedypants
-----------------------------RunTraining articles here:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/...runtraining;#1612485

A friend of mine just started teaching English and Health to girls in Laos. Here's her blog...

https://kellyjotravels.com/

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Chris
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“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming "Wow! What a Ride!”
― Hunter S. Thompson,