Assignment 1: Introduction

Hello Everyone! 🙂 My name is Will and I am more than excited to embark on this adventure and for all of you to be apart of it too!
I love challenges, exercise and the great outdoors!
But above all I enjoy throwing myself into unknown territory and this experience is just that, I can’t wait!! That was one of my main ambitions to dedicating myself to this experience and another one is working with kids, to give them a broad perspective about how big this world really is by sharing my culture with them and I’m sure we’ll be learning so much from them too! And another reason is THAILAND 🇹🇭🌴🍜 I am dying to see the secrets of this land from half the world away of my home!

I believe a big challenge I will face is adaptation, not only to the new cultures and ways of life over in Thailand, but building up knowledge and experience of working in a classroom and with people who have language differences to mine and vice versa.

I hope to embark on a fresh new start to understanding more of the world and to another chapter in my life! 🙂

I hope you all enjoy your experiences and see some of y’all soon! 😀

Hi! My name is Tien, i’m 18 and I live in a small town in Ontario Canada, I graduated from high school this year with no plan, but the one thing I would tell anyone who had asked me what my plans were after high school I would say I want to travel the world. This opportunity came up and its one of my biggest dreams and goals. My biggest struggles I believe will be to meet new people and adapt to the culture but none the less I am determined to accomplish both of these. I visited Thailand about 10 years ago and it was one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited, i’m super excited most to meet the kids and help teach them my language. I am also very excited to make new memories and potentially travel the world after, I’m super excited to meet everyone and grow my knowledge and grow as a person along the way, I wish everyone the best of luck on their own journeys!

Hi Everyone,
My name is Danika, I’m 27 and I was born and raised in Perth, Western Australia.

I am travelling to Thailand as I have always been a very outgoing and nurturing person, I love to meet new people! I have had a very successful career and love what I do but find there is a lack of areas to let the people person side of myself shine. I hope this experience will be able to enrich that side of myself whilst also providing an opportunity to experience new things and see new parts of the world.

I expect there to be challenges with not only language barrier but confronting realities seeing how those less fortunate than myself live.

It’s my aim to bring some positivity to these situations and to gain more gratitude for the life I have.

I’m Ciara Michelle Izquierdo Espinoza, a first-generation Latina and recent honors graduate from the University of South Carolina, passionate about physical therapy, advocacy for minorities, and cultural exploration. I’ve chosen to travel to Thailand to immerse myself in its rich culture, holistic approach to wellness, and unique way of life, which I believe will enhance my personal growth and professional aspirations. While I anticipate challenges like language barriers, cultural adjustments, and homesickness, I plan to overcome them by learning basic Thai, embracing new traditions with an open mind, and staying connected to loved ones while forming new friendships. Through this experience, I aim to gain a broader perspective and valuable insights that will enrich my ability to serve diverse communities in my future career.

Hello everyone!
My name is Martha, and I am a 22-year-old Vietnamese American who has lived in Georgia, USA, my entire life. I graduated in December from Georgia State University with a BIS in Biomedical Science and Enterprise. Over the years, I’ve gained valuable experience working with children as a nanny and swim instructor and big sister. I have always had a strong passion for learning new things and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone. Teaching for six months in Thailand is a perfect opportunity for me as it will allow me to gain unique perspectives that I can carry into my future career.

I expect there will be many challenges along the way, such as navigating a foreign language and adjusting to a new environment. However, I plan to face these challenges with an open mind while I practice my patience. I’ve been to Asia once, about nine years ago, when I visited my family in Vietnam. I’m really excited to explore Thailand, I’ve always had a deep appreciation for Asian culture, and I can’t wait to see what Thailand has to offer! Throughout this journey, I hope to meet incredible people. Most importantly, I want to inspire others, humbly sharing my experiences and learning from those I meet along the way. I want to grow as a person and have a good time doing it!

Hello Everyone. My name is Scott Beatty. I am a 48-year-old man from Washington state, USA (not to be confused with Washington, D.C., the Capitol of the United States). I am a bit of a late bloomer, as the expression goes, regarding my educational background. I started university back in 1995, but had to put my educational aspirations on hold, but never gave up on earning my degree. I officially graduated with my bachelor’s degree in history from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, USA in 2015. I then went on to earn my master’s degree in history from Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, USA in 2019. During all of that time, I worked in several jobs, including being a portfolio manager for a financial services company and as the IT Manager for a small non-profit. I later taught a little bit as both an adjunct professor at a small community college and as a middle-school social studies teacher while working as an independent historical consultant running my own business. Somewhere in all of that, I also was the Executive Director of two small museums that operated as cultural resource centers.

Have you ever had a moment where you connected so hard with an object that it made history and all of the events and places of the world real? I was visiting George Washington’s historical home in Mount Vernon, Virginia and saw the key to the Bastille hanging in Washington’s foyer. Seeing that key, suddenly made the world and all the history that I ever studied real in a way that I can only describe as religious. It was one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had in my entire life to know that my place in the world was small, but I am connected to everyone who has ever lived everywhere in the world. With all of that in mind, I have always had a strong pull to Asia, both spiritually, historically, and physically and I have always wanted to go there. Thailand has always been on my radar because of its location and the opportunities to immerse myself in Thai history, and culture. That and because Thailand has always struck me as being accepting of foreigners who genuinely want to become a part of their society. Also, for all of my background, I do have limited teaching experience and I wanted to develop that in a country that is not American-centric and can be forgiving. From what I have come to understand of Thailand, it hits the sweet spot of allowing me to live my dream in an environment that will both nurture and challenge me to grow.

As far as challenges, I don’t know what I don’t know, so my expectation of all the challenges that I will experience is to be flexible, learn to laugh, and smile my way through them. With that being said, I suspect some of my challenges will include learning the language, and learning how the cultural differences between myself and all of my colleagues affect our approach to education. On a more trivial (but not trivial level), I suspect figuring out transportation is going to be something that will be a challenge because America is not geared towards any real form of public transit so my experience with that is going to be limited. I also suspect communication with family and friends back in the United States could have its challenges as well.

I hope to gain a lot of things from this experience. First, I hope to gain a global perspective on the state of the world through living and teaching abroad. As the expression goes, if you want to learn something, then teach it. I think Thailand has a lot to offer me, and I hope I have a lot that I can also offer Thailand. I hope to make lifelong friends from around the world and to become a better educator and communicator.

Hi! My name is Georgie, I’m 23 and I am from England. I studied English at the University of Nottingham for three years, and have been working as a sales stylist for the past two years. I have decided to take part in the program because I want to combine two important curiosities of my life: teaching and travelling. I have never left Europe before, and am itching to experience and immerse myself in an entirely new culture and way of life. The prospect of being able to fulfil this personal desire, yet also pursue a new career path is the perfect combination. I am both excited for my own experience, but also for the chance to enrich education for others and assist them in their learning. To be a part of something mutually beneficial and positive is very exciting indeed.
The main challenges I expect to face will largely be learning and navigating using a new language. I am only fluent in English, and sometimes find communicating in second languages a daunting challenge. However, I am more than up for this challenge, and hope to overcome it with practice, confidence and commitment. I hope to open myself up more to the unknown and the new – you never learn anything inside your comfort zone! I hope to learn more about Thailand, about culture, about life and about myself.