teaching EFL in SE Asia – Life, the Universe, and Lani

The Changing Seasons – August

After July, August felt like I had something to prove. I plowed into teaching and writing projects as if all my New Year’s Resolutions depended on only this month. So, naturally, I got sick. It’s okay, I’ll live… (*flings herself on to the bed face down, and starts howling*)

notes from afield humous classroom observations

21/0823/12

✍🏼 Notes from afield: (humorous) classroom observations

If my mental math isn’t failing me, I’ve been teaching for about 12 years, which means I haven’t had the good sense to hook, reel, and catch a ‘sugar daddy’. Nor have I been able to launch my misplaced passion for writing into any lucrative side hustle or ‘cash cow’.

31/0331/03

Let’s go to Khao Yai National Park

Despite my small role as a chaperone, the humidity, heat, and great fear of wild monkeys, I enjoyed our trip to Khao Yai National Park. Khao Yai is a World Heritage Site declared by UNESCO, includes rain and evergreen forests and grassland, and is home to “more than 800 fauna species, including 112 species of…

18/0706/02

Reflecting on 2 years in Cambodia

The things that initially shocked me the most about Siem Reap was the poverty, specifically, fewer infrastructures (i.e. the lack of paved roads, how dirty it was), and how much better Cambodians spoke English.

27/0126/04

I’m Chinese, but I’m not Chinese

On a regular basis, I’m mistaken for being Chinese – as in from the Motherland, China, Chinese. Now, to be fair, I look pretty damn Chinese, but these days it’s getting ridiculous.

17/1123/12

🍛 What’s your favorite food?

What’s your favorite food? Noodle. By far the most common answer to the common practicing English in the classroom question. I’d say fried chicken or fried rice would be the second most common. But let’s go back to noodles. Or nooden as it is pronounced by Thais.

26/0302/02

Teaching in Chiang Mai (early impressions)

Teaching in Thailand is no longer popular as it once was, the efflorescence has withered from too many unsatisfied passerbys. Only like the present, it is hanging on to the past with both arms, but no hands.