I was looking for a Nintendo 64 controller on craigslist and found a misplaced ad for teaching English in China.
Completely changed the course of my life, I've been traveling ever since.
this post was submitted on 06 Jun 2025
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bitofarambler
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Q&A for any and all questions you might have about traveling.
FAQ
are there requirements to be an ESL teacher other than being a fluent English speaker?
nope.
some countries and schools require a TEFL certificate or prefer candidates with an associate's degree depending on the position, but if you want to teach English, all you need is to be a fluent English speaker.
how can you afford to travel long-term?
The cost of living in most countries is around $500 USD a month for transportation, rent, utilities and food altogether; teaching English pays $2000 USD a month with zero qualifications or experience.
every month I taught English, I had a few extra months of my cost of living.
I taught English for about 7 years.
as long as you're making more than 500 USD a month remotely in any job, you can travel long-term.
What's the best country?
Depends on what you're looking for.
For backpacking, Japan. For natural history museums, Ireland. For food, China. For cost of living, Cambodia or India.
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That complaining issue may be prevalent in all careers like that. I had a coworker that would get so angry over issues at work that it would affect his personal life.
Things aren't perfect at this shop, but I'm learning skills that will make me useful worldwide. And I try to think about that on the days where I'm beating my head against a while trying to program a car key while the customer asks "you think it's gonna work?" every 10 minutes.
haha, those outsider questions are always so funny to hear.
like no matter what job you do, people always have two or three questions that would never be asked by anyone familiar with the profession even for a day, but every single person who has never been a _______ feels compelled to ask.
That's a really good point about your developing skill set too, locksmith seems to be one of those future-proof jobs, knock on wood.
I hadn't thought about that, but I'm glad you brought it up.