Three years ago I was planning on studying abroad in Thailand, so I signed myself up for a semester of Thai classes and read every blog, book and website I could find about the country. Unfortunately life got in the way and I wasn't able to study abroad at the time, but Thailand always lingered in the back of my head.
As college graduation grew closer with each passing day I realized that I still very much wanted to go to Thailand, but studying abroad was no longer an option so I had to settle on the thought that I would at least one day get to vacation in Thailand. However, that realization upset me more than I cared to admit at the time. As much as I love traveling, I've realized that the only way to truly experience a new country and culture is to fully immerse yourself in it; and the best way to do that is to live there. I want to do more than just spend a few weeks in Thailand, sitting on the beaches or wandering the streets of Bangkok. I want to know this country inside and out. I want to learn the Thai language and experience Buddhism up close and personal. So with that in mind, I, along with my girlfriend and travel companion Emily, signed a contract with Teach English:ESL, securing ourselves positions to teach English at a Thai school.
I've tried out a multitude of majors and minors during my four years at Ohio University, but none of those majors included English or Education. I'm not going to lie, when I first started researching teaching English abroad I was not doing so for my love of children or teaching, I was doing it because I knew it would give me a valid reason to live abroad. It was a simple solution to my wishes. However, my senior year I tacked on a Linguistics minor to my schooling, and it was there that I started to fall in love with the concept of teaching English. I learned the psychology behind understanding a language and studied the benefits of having a bilingual mind. I don't have a knack for learning languages, my grammar and spelling could definitely use some work, and the idea of being in charge of an entire classroom of kids is slightly terrifying to me, but I'm still extremely excited for this opportunity. English is a highly regarded language throughout the world and I've been lucky enough to speak it my entire life. Thailand is still considered a developing country and it's citizens don't have the same opportunities that I've been born with, but by helping them learn English I'll be giving them a step up in this world.
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