ASSIGNMENT 1: INTRODUCTION

[Francesca Mcgraw]

Hi everyone, my name is Francesca and I am from Scotland. I will be moving to Thailand in 2 weeks to begin the Internship in TEFL! I have an interesting educational background, as I completed my undergrad in film and media and years later achieved a masters in Sexual and Reproductive Health. I am very passionate about educational systems and interested in the frameworks that they run upon. I completed TEFL course last year, and taught English at a Summer camp for a few months. I loved it so much and even won teacher of the year! I am very excited to take my learnt teaching skills further afield in Thailand! I chose Thailand as it has always peaked my interest. I want to discover more about the rich culture, history… and food! I expect to face challenges that will maybe show me what “culture shock” means. This could be anything from social rules, weather, or food, etc. In order to overcome these challenges, I must keep an open mind and take things as they come. I must also be kind to myself and allow time to settle into the changes that I will be living in. From this experience, I am looking to gain insight into a different way of life. I want to gain valuable experience in teaching English and learn from other teachers. I am sure I will meet some great people. Best of luck to everyone, and I will meet some of you soon!

[Auttaya Tippett]

Hello! I’m Auttaya (Taya for short), 22, from South Wales. I have recently qualified as a primary school teacher in University of Portsmouth on the south coast of England. I studied Early Childhood Studies as an undergraduate degree there before progressing onto do a PGCE in primary. I have always had a passion for working with children and teaching was my calling from a very young age!

I have always wanted to travel South East Asia, especially Thailand and started considering and planning for my trip around 3 years ago. The diverse and fascinating culture across all of South East Asia has always been intriguing to me. I plan to travel Malaysia, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam over the course of 5 months. After I graduated as a teacher, I started to research the idea of teaching somewhere in South East Asia and potentially moving here to complete my Early Career Teaching induction. However, I knew this would be a huge jump as I have not visited before, this is when I found and loved the idea of the camp councillor program. This would give me a taster into teaching in a new country, during my travels.

Having not been to a different country without friends or family before, I am expecting to feel quite challenged by the idea of being alone for a long period of time. I love to socialise and consider myself to be quite an outgoing person but have introverted tendencies too. Hopefully, by meeting many people from different countries, cultures from all walks of life then I can develop my social skills alongside becoming more comfortable with my own company. As well as developing these skills, I hope to better my professional skills with teaching. The psychology behind children’s behaviour has always been an interest of mine. I am excited to see how this differs in a new country with a new culture, I hope to take a lot away from Thailand and apply it to my teaching at home.

[Alan Surma]

Hi! My name is Alan, I’m 41 years old from USA. I have 20 years experience working in a psychiatric hospital. A few years ago I was introduced to teaching in Thailand while visiting family.
I decided to enroll in this course because it is an opportunity to grow myself and to better understand my favorite niece’s culture.
I expect the biggest challenges will be language and lifestyle. Language will come overtime with practice. Lifestyle, will be hardest when culture shock hits. I will just push and remind myself often to keep going.
I hope that I can grow as a person through shared memories and experience.

[Mark Cacho]

Hi all!

My name’s Mark, I’m 30, born and raised in Toronto, Canada.

I’m a marketing graduate from George Brown College in Toronto, and have completed my TEFL certification on June 2023.
I have decided to move to Thailand because I believe this country is a great start for me in gaining experience for teaching English. Having been to Thailand 2 times prior to my current visit, I had fallen in love with the food, the environment, and the overall way of life. (The warm temperatures are also nice as well).

I hope to gain experience in motivating and guiding the youth to pursue speaking English, which can potentially lead to many more opportunities for them in the future. As a native English speaker, I have taken my knowledge of English for granted and would like to change my perspective and share what I know with those who want to learn it to better themselves.

Travelling has always been a passion of mine, and being able to teach abroad, in Thailand, is definitely going to be an amazing experience for me. I cannot wait for what the future holds, and I cannot wait to meet like-minded individuals as well.

[Mark Cacho]

Hi Alan!

I hope you create great memories, lots of personal growth (which is most definitely going to come), and an amazing experience on your journey!

[Hal]

Hey everyone, Hal here. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY. I currently live in Chaing Mai, going on three years. I have lived and done humanitarian work in Rwanda, Morocco, Israel, throughout SE Asia, Europe, and within Mexico & Canada. I am an educator by trade (theatre education going on 14 years workin within classrooms). I am also heavily involved in camp life, going into my 19th summer working within the camp realm, and currently Program Director of a lovely camp in Maine. Before the pandemic, I was also a practicing actor, director, Playwrite in NYC & Boston approaching 2 decades, but sadly have only done light theatre work (was only in 3 musicals since 2020; lion king, Newsies, and Addams family values- but I use to write, direct, and perform in 6-8 productions annually, so it’s a huge change in my theatre activity and paycheck wise). I hope to return to a more active theatre career this coming Fall. I also give tours in Israel and have been doing that the past 9 years. have a tour coming up in March/April once this program concludes, then another in May; I am very excited to stay in Israel and volunteer with a humanitarian organization after my tours for a couple of weeks. I also volunteer with several humanitarian organizations and practice gratitude I can continue to be of service.

I have decided to teach in Thailand for 2 months because I have lived here going on three years and wanted to give back to this beautiful country. I love the culture, food, people. Very easy way of life out here compared to other countries I have lived.

I don’t expect to face any challenges – I have lived here for 2 1/2 years and have lived in several other countries since I was 22 years old- I feel comfortable moving and adapting to new environments and cultures. Very excited to be in a Thai classroom and see how it differs from the worst countries I have taught or directed theatre in. Any challenges that arise, I expect to lean on my support system (friends and chosen family both in and out of Thailand) and God. I have faith in this journey called life – thunderstorms or sunshine, I embrace it all along my journey and practice gratitude I am still alive to enjoy this beautiful path.

I hope to sharpen my knowledge, experience, and understanding of being an educator, while adding tools to my toolbox embracing the culture differences and see how that affects my teaching style. I hope to learn from others around me, enjoy living near the water, traveling and being adaptable with the moving around to school to school (reminds me of my undergrad days in NY where I was the Travel Director of our theatre club that went school to school and performed theatre of the oppressed theatre pieces to combat bullying in high schools and I organized our travel to and from the schools – sometimes we performed at 4 schools a week – so I am excited to enjoy that travel aspect again).
Looking forward to this next chapter!

With loving kindness,
Pal – Hal

[Grace Pritchard]

Hello friends, 🙂
I’m Grace, I’m 25, and I’m from Colchester in the UK. I’ve been travelling for a couple of years now, and I’m excited to settle down in Thailand for a while! Looking forward to having more of a routine, and making a base with new friends and cultures.

I love Thai food, but I think one of my biggest challenges will be making sure I get good nutrition on a vegetarian diet. However, I’m very open minded and looking forward to trying lots of new foods.

My goal whilst in Thailand is to make a big difference to Thai children’s’ lives and enjoy fulfilling work as a teacher.

[Zachary Smith]

Hello everyone,
My name is Zach Smith. I’m from Kentucky in America. I’m 29 years old, I’ve been working in the restaurant industry for the last 8 years, and I’ve also been playing music professionally for 15 years.
I’ve been traveling throughout Thailand for the last month, and I’m looking forward to the next four weeks in Hua Hin during my TEFL course. I don’t have any teaching experience, so I’m very excited to learn all about the process of working as a teacher, as it will all be very new to me.
I’ve had a passion for traveling since I became a young adult. I’ve had the opportunity in the past to travel all throughout Europe and America. This is my first time traveling to Asia, and so far I’ve really been enjoying learning about the culture, language, food, nature, and the people as a whole.
I expect that this course may be challenging for me because, as previously mentioned, I have no teaching experience, and I haven’t been in a classroom setting in over 10 years. But I believe with the help from my teachers, classmates, and advisors that I will be successful in overcoming any challenges that present themselves and in learning to become a teacher.
Anytime I embark on any major travels, I find that it always broadens my perspective on life and society as whole. Sometimes when I’ve been in the same place for an extended period of time around things I’m far too familiar with, my view seems to narrow and I begin to see everything through the lens placed on me by my current environment. It’s as if I forget that there’s a whole other world out there thats completely different from the one I’m experiencing at the time. Then once I go to a new place and experience new culture, food, music, people, and anything else available, I suddenly feel a spark of excitement and energy. I feel the way that I think about things and interact with things begin to open up and develop more curiosity and appreciation for different ways of living. As a result, I find that my day to day life becomes much more enjoyable, and my physical and mental health drastically improves. This is what I’m hoping to get out of my experience in Thailand.

[Reanna Bavo]

Hello! I am Reanna I have lived in Central New York my whole life. The furthest place I have traveled is Florida as I have never left the country. I am 20 years old and doing this experience all by myself. I have decided to go to Thailand because growing up it had always been a dream of mine to backpack across the country. I have no education background but am very excited to do this and help children learn more about the English language. The only challenge I can think of is the language barrier and struggling to speak in certain areas or not understanding what others are saying. I am prepared for anything as I know God will be by my side. He has brought me thus far and I am express nothing but gratitude for him. Every situation I face I will pray and bring kindness to it all as we all face struggles in life. In this journey I plan to become closer to God and spread my faith to others. I would like to focus on becoming a better Godly woman and understanding the truth in whole. I am so excited to meet you all and looking forward to this. Safe travels to everyone!

[Emma MacDonald]

Hi Everyone!
My Name is Emma and I’m from a small province on the farthest east side of Canada called Newfoundland and Labrador (NL). It is very cold where most of the year and there is not a lot of diversity. These two aspects of NL are largely the reason why I wanted to travel to Thailand. The weather at home is currently an active frost bite warning. It gets dark outside y 4:00PM and during the winter it is honestly very depressing, which couldn’t be more different from the currant weather in Thialand. I love my home, but again, it is so small and I have be itching to experience different cultures for so long now. I recently backpacked Europe and ha=d the most wonderful time meeting so many people who’s cultures differed from my own and, as soon as I got home, I had the need to see more. Thai culture is immensely different from the culture I am used to and I can’t wait to submerse myself in this priceless learning environment. I expect to experience some culture shock for sure and also to get a bit home sick. I am very much a home body with a free spirit, so leaving home definitely takes a lot of courage for me so the lead up to leave is often filled with anxiousness, but once I get to my destination, I try to take every ounce in. From this experience I hope to become a more well rounded individual and more culutred. I believe the views and morals of Thai people is very admirable and I want to grasp those views. I also hope to expand my palette for spice as I can’t wait to try all the yummy Thai Food!

[Andrew Isaacson]

Hello everyone,

My name is Andrew Isaacson. I’m 23 years old and grew up in New York City! I graduated from university in Pennsylvania in May 2022 with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism and political science, with a minor in mass communications. After graduation, I participated in a gap year program, which included volunteering and traveling in Thailand for six weeks. I volunteered at an elephant sanctuary and school in Chiang Mai, and a nature education center in Krabi.

Back in October I traveled to Phnom Penh, Cambodia and volunteered with Cambodia Children’s Fund, an NGO that helps educate school children living in poverty. During that experience I wrote case studies on the various school programs, interviewed local students and teachers for feature articles, and taught students how to write Facebook posts.

Working with locals and teaching students the skills I learned from back in the US is what inspired me to pursue a teaching career. I also was amazed by the Thai culture and the kindness of the locals when I first visited there and felt it was the perfect place to begin my teaching career. Since this is my first teaching experience, it will be challenging developing lesson plans and communicating with students that aren’t native English speakers, but I’m confident the TESOL course will prepare me for what’s to come. Another obstacle is living in a new city and country for at least the next year and getting adjusted to a brand new everyday life. But I’m confident that my previous abroad experiences will set me up for success and help me overcome any barriers I may encounter.

I’m hoping to become a more confident and independent teachers and person throughout my time in Thailand. My goal is to establish roots and a new life for myself in this amazing country and transfer my knowledge over from the states to Southeast Asia. I’m excited to teach Thai schoolchildren how to speak and write in English.

I’m looking forward to embarking on this unique journey in about a month!

[Claudia Zuccarelli]

Hello Everyone!

My name is Claudia, I’m 24 years old, from Connecticut in the United States, and I’m headed to Thailand for the April 1st start date! I consistently find myself with a case of the ‘travel bug’ and my partner and I curing it by taking on different corners of the world, from Turkey to Costa Rica, to Portugal and more, for the past few years. It’s hard to choose a favorite, but the furthest east I’ve been so far is to Georgia, so I’m very keen and curious to experience what the life, culture, music, and food is like even further out in Thailand. I also love art. I spend most of my time making it, or being active in some way which usually takes the form of running. I also adore nature, hiking, and learning. I began my own small business during COVID-19 and sold handmade clothing, ceramics, etc., from my home. Along with this, I’ve mostly worked a lot of odd jobs, like waitressing, personal assisting, working at a cycling gym, barista-ing, and dog-walking. I’ve recently dipped my toes into substituting around my hometown, and I love it! I love people and what they have to say, I believe we all have something to learn from each other, so this kind of environment fuels me.
I’ve decided to move to Thailand for this time and for this kind of experience because of how different it is from other places I’ve been to before. Like I said, I’ve never been to Asia, so I really want kind of throw myself into a new environment that I also find fascinating. I have a couple of friends and a mutual friend who have also embarked on this journey with XploreAsia and everyone has had such amazing feedback, therefore that has helped my decision as well! I also enjoy Thai food, the sun, the ocean, and the culture seems so colorful and kind too!
I hope to get a new understanding of a different part of the world and the people in it. I have my degree in psychology, so I am interested in how other people live, believe, think, and act in our world. I think it’ll be quite beautiful to learn this through helping children and meeting their mentors, as well as locals and other peers. I hope to gain a new appreciation for a culture I’ve never gotten the chance to immerse myself in, and of course, new friends that I hope I’ll keep forever! Can’t wait:)

[Claudia Zuccarelli]

Hey Andrew! Thanks for sharing:)

I love that you worked with locals and schools in Cambodia before, and also had previous experience volunteering around Thailand. It sounds like you really want to make a difference and are curious about how you can do it. I’d love to read some of your case studies and hear about that nature education center in Krabi! I can see how developing certain lessons plans can initially be possibly daunting or challenging, I think I’ll feel the same too, but I also feel that you’ll flourish. I hope it becomes something you look forward to and can keep as a skill for any of your future plans in Southeast Asia.
Excited to meet everyone!

[Andrew Isaacson]

Hi Claudia! Thank you and really nice to meet you 🙂

It’s amazing that you started your own business during COVID-19 and have traveled to so many different parts of the world! Thailand is phenomenal, along with the rest of Southeast Asia. I’m excited that you’ll have the opportunity to learn about the culture and help the children and locals along the way. I’ve certainly developed ‘travel bug’ over the last year and a half as well and is another reason I decided to pursue this gig. Also, I would love to see some of the artwork you’ve created! I’m glad to hear that your friends had such an amazing experience with XploreAsia and that’s making me even more excited! Looking forward to meeting you and everyone else soon!

[Brandon Richardson]

Introduction:

1.My name is Brandon Richardson I am from Austin Texas, and I attended college at Texas State university located in San Marcos. I majored in Advertising with a minor in Fashion Merchandising. In my free time I love to go hiking with my dog Rambo and I am also a well-traveled person with a thirst for more exploration.

2. Not only is Thailand a Beautiful country but the culture and overall atmosphere it offers attracts me. Getting to be a part of cultural exchange through teaching English is another reason I am interested in moving to Thailand.

3. There are going to be some challenges I face when moving to Thailand. Cultural knowledge would have to be my biggest challenge as I am from the United States where our culture has different value and norms

4. I hope to connect with like-minded individuals like me that share the same interest in gaining cultural knowledge and teaching in a foreign country. I think this experience will also broaden my world view and open the door for more opportunities in my life.

[Author]

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