(techno music)
- Good morning and happy Pride week from Hanoi, Vietnam.
My name is Sean Stinson.
I'm 35 years old.
I'm from Chicago, Illinois.
And I'm a trans guy.
So today is gonna be a fun day.
I don't work until 5:00 p.m.
So we're gonna go to the gym.
We're gonna take a motorcycle ride around the lake.
We're gonna have some lunch.
Drink some coffee.
But first my favorite thing that
everybody does in these takeovers.
Show the apartment view.
Oh my gosh look at that view.
That's beautiful concrete.
I've lived here about six weeks now
and I still can't believe it's mine.
(honking)
It's actually a pretty nice day here in Hanoi.
It's been storming all night
so it's a little less humid than usual.
So we're walking about 25 minutes to the gym
and I thought I'd share with you
one of my favorite Pride chants.
As we all know Pride started as a riot
not some fun parade.
So queers who are watching feel free to join in with me.
We're here, we're queer.
We've come to say hello.
Alright the fitness village.
This place has everything.
Trees, a pool and classes which I need because
I like a certain level of discipline.
I got a month membership here for about 1,900,000 dong
which is $80 U.S.
We're gonna be saying dong a lot today
so just get ready for that.
So yeah about me.
I moved here six weeks ago from Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In Chiang Mai I was an English teacher at a private school.
I was teaching English online with gogokid
and meeting a lot of great people.
So something inside me just felt like
I needed to keep moving and do something different.
So now I just teach on line with gogokid in Vietnam.
I got a one year multi-entry tourist visa
and so yes I have to leave the country every three months
but I don't have to keep re-applying for visas
throughout the year.
So while I'm in the pump class
I'm gotta put a ask me anything app here.
So ask me what it's like to be trans.
Ask me what it's like to be in Southeast Asia.
What it's like just teaching online.
What it's like not knowing what
you're doing after Hanoi.
(honking)
(motorcycles roaring)
Are you guys feeling that pump?
Alright in a world full of pork and noodles
it's important to get your vegetables
so many times for lunch I'll hit up one of the many
vegan buffets there are around town.
Usually they're 50,000 to 60,000 dong
which is about $2.00 to $2.50 U.S.
So here we are at Le Gray's.
It's my favorite vegan buffet
and you'll see why in a second.
Oh yeah.
Look at all those fresh vegetables.
They've got some pumpkin.
We got some fried tofu balls.
We got some carrots and potato.
We got the cabbage slaw with pineapple.
We got the tofu.
And we got the Chinese brown rice.
Right I though I'd give you a quick tour
of the apartment that I live in.
I rented this apartment off Airbnb.
I pay a monthly rate.
There's a communal kitchen.
And then right upstairs is my room.
All right.
So you have a nice bathroom with an enclosed shower.
For those of you who live in Thailand
you know what I'm talking about.
No water everywhere.
Got a nice little couch to hang out in.
If you know any fan repair people that would be great.
I got my little online teaching desk area.
Isn't that cute?
Some of my online teaching supplies.
That's Max the monkey.
Hi Max.
I have a nice wardrobe.
And a nice Queen size bed.
So yeah, it's pretty nice.
Xin chao.
I live in the Au Co neighborhood
right by the flower market.
It's kind of a major hub
with lots of buses and motorbikes.
You can take a bus to the Old Quarter for 7,000 dong
which is about 40 cents.
It takes about 15 minutes.
No, I don't have a motorbike here
but walking around is pretty easy
once you get your confidence level up a little bit.
I see an opening gotta go.
The best parts about just teaching online
is that I have my mornings completely free.
I don't teach until 4:30 or 5:00 o'clock most nights.
I get to come to the coffee shop and read,
write, plan trips.
So that's what I'm gonna do here.
I'm gonna have some coffee
and answer some of your questions.
Okay so first set of questions about teaching.
I didn't know that I wanted to be a teacher.
I knew that I would work with kids in some capacity.
So when I finally decided to teach English in Asia
I knew that I wanted to work in a school.
That was important to me.
So in Chiang Mai I worked at a private school.
I worked 40 hours a week.
Eventually I was feeling like I wanted to make
a little bit more money.
So a lot of people were talking about teaching online
and I didn't really know if that was something
that I wanted to do.
But I ended up signing up for gogokid
and I'm so glad that I did.
I teach about 22 hours a week online
which is about 150-180 classes per month.
In the online classes I make about
$1,500 - $2,000 U.S. every month.
And that depends on if I take weekends off
to go travel or if I take a week off for
rest or something.
One of the smartest things that I think that I did
was teach online and work at a school
at the same time.
For about six months I had two jobs
and I was able to save all that money
from teaching online while living off
my Thai baht salary.
That gave me the opportunity to have a little bit
more flexibility when I came to Vietnam.
I didn't feel so strapped for cash
or feeling like I needed a job right away.
So teaching online is a great way for me
to sustain myself for the next few months
while I figure out what I want to do next.
And potentially look for another school to work in.
Thanks for all your great questions so far.
The next set of questions is about being trans.
If I always knew?
What it's like to be trans in Asia?
And what it's like to be a trans teacher?
So first, no I didn't always know that I wanted
to be a man.
I was living as like a butch lesbian woman
for 30 years and that was fine.
But I had a lot of anxiety
and a lot of depression a lot of bad habits.
And so I found an Ayahuasca ceremony
and it was during my first Ayahuasca ceremony
where I felt completely reborn
and I felt a level of unconditional love
and freedom and support that I never felt
in my entire life.
And it was shortly after that ceremony
that I started hormone replacement therapy
and started transitioning.
I realize now that transitioning before coming to
teach English in Asia was divine intervention.
The gender roles are pretty strict
and conservative here.
In Thailand in the school that I was teaching at
there was a woman whose gender expression
was more masculine than many of the Thai teachers
and I heard that the Thai teachers said that
she wasn't a good fit for the school and was fired.
So I was very conscious of my gender performance
when I was at the school.
I didn't come out to the Thai teachers or the students
and I only eventually came out
to some of the foreign teachers after
I became friends with them.
Teaching online is a totally different experience.
Being trans and an online teacher
is a complete non-issue for me
which I think this is a good moment to recognize
that I have some sort of passing privilege
and I recognize that not everybody
wants to or can pass.
And while passing isn't a goal of mine
it's certainly come in handy.
People don't really question my sexuality or gender
unless they see me out at the club dancing.
One thing I noticed about being queer in Asia is
because of the language barrier people
are less likely to make comments or question
my gender and sexuality.
So I do what I want, when I want.
I act how I want.
I'm respectful to everyone.
I'm authentic to myself
and leading with an open heart and
being friendly and being true to yourself.
Those are the best things that you can do.
So it's not hard for me to come out.
I choose when I come out and the people
that I want to come out with.
The only thing that I sometimes think about
is if I get in trouble or arrested
and have to go to jail.
I'm gonna have to go to the men's jail.
Oh my God.
I recognize that not everybody wants to or
can pass and while passing isn't a goal of mine
it's certainly come in handy.
People don't really question my sexuality.
(motorcycles roaring)
(honking)
Getting ready to teach about seven classes tonight.
And then afterwards I'll probably go to an open mic.
There are just a couple of other questions
that I wanted to answer real quick.
1. Hanoi is an awesome place to live.
I don't know if I'll be here for much longer.
I want to go to a few other cities
but it's an awesome place to live.
I have so much fun here.
The people are great and it's really affordable.
2. I get my hormones, my testosterone in Thailand.
I don't trust the pharmacies in Vietnam.
I came to Thailand with
six months worth of testerone
and when I was in Thailand I went to a pharmacy
and again really affordable.
I'll show you.
This is testosterone cypionates
and needles for the injections.
And I had no issues bringing them to Vietnam.
Another successful day of teaching online
in Hanoi, Vietnam.
It's been a wonderful day.
So now I'm headed out.
Going to go get something to eat.
Go to an open mic.
And before I sign off
I just wanted to say than you ITA.
Getting my TEFL certificate with you
has been the best decision I've ever made
in my whole life.
So thanks for all you support
and I'll show you one last thing
of the flower market
Alright Sean Stinson here signing off.
(techno music)