But what if they look to good not to give it a shot?
I was on my way back from Hà Nội in December 2023 and had a boring layover in Doha. I was just about to enjoy my overpriced beer when a gentleman in his late 50s approached me: “Excuse me Miss, I don’t mean to interrupt. But I saw you carrying a helmet and wearing dusty boots. You surely are on your way home from a motorcycle trip!? Just asking because I ride as well!”. I didn’t mind a bit of company at all, so I offered the free seat to him, and we continued to chat for quite a bit about motorcycles, Vietnam, and life. The gentleman, who lives in Vietnam permanently, was on his way home to Italy for family visits. He probably wasn’t aware of what he started when he said out of the blue: “You know Livi, this might be a long shot, but I can hear how much you love Vietnam, and your English is excellent…have you ever thought of going to Vietnam for a longer time, working as an English teacher?” I must’ve looked funny because he started laughing. “Listen”, he went on, “we still have a little time left until our plane departs, how about I put you on a phone with a friend of mine. He moved to Vietnam years ago and surely can give you an idea how it is to work in Vietnam. Me, on 2 hours of sleep and an 18$ beer in, happily agreed. So, for the next thirty minutes I proceeded to talk to another stranger I just “met” about my possible future career in Vietnam. Soon the flight was about to depart, and we exchanged contact data to talk again a few days later. Sadly, this never happened. The gentleman turned out to be a little odd and I had to block shortly after due to sending weird messages in high numbers. Oh well…
Even though the contact didn’t work out, the seed of an idea was planted. I could not shake it off. As soon as the jetlag had faded, I dared to have a closer look on the idea and soon realized: This could actually work out. My work contract would be running out in roughly a year, I had no kids, pets or things that kept me in place and enough time to safe up some more money. So why not? My only doubt was, of course money shortage and if this was another decision I just simply made from boredom? Did I really want to leave the hamster wheel and sell everything that I own to go for an unknown future at 40?
When I moved to my apartment three years ago, I already had a gut feeling this would not be forever. I did not buy much stuff that was new, never did a fancy interior and put function before style. For me, a home does not need to be fancy looking but must give you a safe and warm fuzzy feeling. My first thought of letting someone else live in my rented flat as an intermediate tenant was dismissed pretty fast, since I did not know on how long I wanted to travel. Additionally, I didn’t want something back home, that restricted me from possibly extending my trip. So, I decided to stick to Plan B, selling everything and putting remaining belongings into storage. Tabula Rasa!
I wanted to be as flexible as possible when traveling, so I was looking into options on how to save or earn money along the way if finances might get tight. The Italian gentleman from the airport already suggested me to work as an English teacher, but I had zero teaching education or experience. So, I began looking into requirements for teaching abroad and talked to a few people who are teaching in Asia. I was suggested a company called TEFL, which are self-moderated online courses to gain the basics and methods for teaching English. I chose their 120-hr option, which is a package of five courses (grammar, methodology, video observation, teaching large classes and telephone teaching) and cost roughly 200$. The courses are a mix of videos, lecture, quizzes and assignments and give a great basic introduction of teaching-methods and -content. Within three month I had my TEFL certificate.
Another idea I could not shake off was, that I wanted to be able to communicate better with the Vietnamese people. Most of them speak (a little) English, but in some situations in the past, I had wished to understand and speak more. I knew a few phrases and words, but actually, I had no idea what I was doing. Coming from Rammstein-country which language sounds quite hard, it seemed nearly impossible to me to be able to learn a phonetic language. I tried a few apps, but nothing really stuck. Until a day in May 2024, when I saw a reel of a Vietnamese/Canadian content creator on Instagram, in which she introduced an app, that offered one-to-one language classes for a fair price (italki). You can book three test lessons, to find the most suitable teacher for your needs. In my case, it only took me one. I was super lucky to meet Chris (Nguyên), in his twenties, from Hồ Chí Minh City in my first test lesson and we instantly got along great. From the first moment it felt more like talking to a friend, than a teacher. From June 2024 to January 2025 on, we had been seeing each other virtually twice a week and I could not have enjoyed it more, learning a new language. Chris is highly motivated, patient, funny and one of the warmest and loveliest people I have ever met. For someone like me, who didn’t have the best learning experiences in school, it was very healing to have him as my teacher. Cám ơn em, yêu quá. I hope we will be able to meet in person once I am over.
A few months later and I am sitting in my cancelled apartment with 70 days to go. My last day of work will be close to Christmas. After that, I took all my saved vacation days from 2024 and will not be working until I leave the country. I really did it.
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