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- Hey guys, this is Steven Stansfield,
I'm 26 years old, from the United States,
I'm currently teaching english in Thailand,
and I moved overseas from Wilmington, North Carolina
after completing my University.
I got two degrees in college, finance, Spanish,
neither of which I'm using right now
thanks to the wonderful economic collapse in our country.
All of that was just some motivation
to get certified to teach english.
I didn't know that I always wanted to
move overseas and teach english but,
at the time, I was working my butt off,
about 50, 60 hours a week managing restaurants.
Later I moved into the airline industry
where I was a supervisor.
During this whole time I had this awesome friend
who was teaching english in Thailand,
and we would email back and forth,
and she was telling me all these exciting things
that she was doing.
She was telling me about what it's like to live overseas
and all of this was huge motivation for me to
jump the gun and start getting my TEFL certification.
But what really attracted me to
international TEFL academy was they had this
amazing way you could get certified
through an online course.
That was what really got my attention.
Because I was working so much,
I needed a way that I could get certified,
get TEFL certified, and also make it to my job every day.
I gave international TEFL academy a call,
and spoke to this guy named Ian,
and Ian was really awesome.
He answered all of my questions, all my concerns,
and after that conversation,
I think I jumped the gun and signed up immediately.
The course lasted about three months,
it was entirely online with a 20 hour practicum at the end.
The practicum was the best part.
I went to a local community college,
and I got to work one on one with TEFL teachers there,
and their non-native english speakers.
So that was some hands on practice before I
decided to pack my entire life up and move overseas.
I interviewed with a company over Skype,
and they set me up with a contract at a school in Thailand.
Once I moved overseas,
I taught in Southern Thailand for a year,
and after I finished my teaching contract,
I wanted to move up north where I live now.
I would fly on the weekends,
like 30 dollars for a plane ticket to fly to the north,
and I interviewed with a school that hired me immediately,
and it was super easy.
So now I live in Northern Thailand,
and this wonderful place called Chiang Mai,
and there are so many things to do.
We have wonderful coffee shops,
there's waterfalls near by,
you can ride elephants,
you can go bungee jumping,
there's so many things.
My most memorable teaching experience
I would have to say was during my first year in the south,
just really getting to know
each and every one of my students as an individual,
and watch all of them as a whole progress,
and by the end of the semester having them all
be so comfortable with talking to me
about their college plans.
My most memorable travel experience would have to be
after that year, after my graduating seniors left
I had about a four to five week vacation period,
and I got to go to Indonesia and live my dream.
I got to lay out on the beach and relax.
Afterwards, I went down to the southern Bukit peninsula
and I actually lived my dream of surfing and volleying,
which was just the most remarkable thing I've ever done,
as well as terrifying at the same time, so a great mixture.
Then after that I went up north to Ubud,
where I saw about 100 shades of green on the rice fields,
as well as dining out on the rice fields,
which I don't think I'll ever forget.
If you have no experience,
Thailand is the perfect country to
move over here, move over seas,
and land your first job.
They are very quick to hire people
that don't have much teaching experience.
It's a great country to get started
to test the waters and see if you enjoy teaching,
if this is something that you wanna do,
as well as build up some experience
before moving on to another country.
Being an educator has really motivated me to
continue my own education,
so that's very much part of my lifestyle now.
For anyone who's interested in teaching english,
my only advice to you is that you should do it.
I can think of 1000 reasons why you should do it,
I can not think of one reason why you should not do it.
So if you're looking for reasons not to do it,
go ahead, give international TEFL academy a call.
Talk to them, they will answer all of your questions,
and I promise you, by the time you are on that airplane,
and you step off, all of your concerns will disappear.
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