bitofarambler

teaching english in china got me nandarin.

for the other languages it was duolingo mostly, and talking to real people helps a lot. i live abroad, so immersion is right there.

I find learning all the food first really helps me,. I learn a lot about the phonemes nad rhythms of the language and after I’m comfortable with those, it’s just a repetition game for the words and grammar.

My 100% speed trick if you can stand it is watching the same episode of TV or movie once per day for a couple of weeks in that language and paying absolute attention to the show for that span of time each day.

It boosts, speech, listening, and comprehension so crazy much over 2-3 weeks, but of course is boring after a few days.

usually AYCE buffets first, then local supermarkets.

then general wandering around my town or city to see what looks cool, open-air markets, mom and pop restaurants and the like.

Removed by mod

dang that vietnamese chili shrimp i shared in travel from osaka is probably right up there.

i have not had as good pizza in italy as i have had in several countries, but I prefer a strong, thick tomato sauce, which is very light in Italian pizzas that I’ve had, although the Italian fired crust is consistently better.

i prefer indian momos to chinese jianjiao: less oily, more consistently flavorful and healthy.

Where are sandwiches from!?! Because I don’t know if I’ve ever enjoyed a sandwich as much as I enjoyed the Colombian barbecue chicken patacones that use plantains as bread. holy crap that is good and enough food for three days.

The Japanese have perfected the cheese cake, way more decadent without losing any of the flavor.

oh dang though, you know what, a Venezuelan living in Colombia made the best sushi I’ve ever had, and the best salmon belly sashimi I’ve ever had.

Talking to people around the world and people being kind, even after they find out im originally from the US.

despite the terrible things the internet and the news tells us to fear from people, most people in real life are compassionate, understanding, empathetic and like to laugh.

Sure! get any remote job that pays ~$500 USD equivalent per month and live abroad.

You’ll be down to working a couple hours a day maximum and can pursue your interests, hobbies or get to know yourself and figure out what you want to do next.

details over in the travel community. or ask here.

yea, esl teachers often need a work visa depending on the country, but schools generally sponsor your visa if they hire you, so that’s all taken care of by the school staff or they’ll walk you through the process. if a school doesn’t offer to sponsor your visa, they’re not worth the trouble.

it was awwwesome and i got to retire very early, so it’s tough to complain about anything.

Really there were no challenges with the job itself, speaking basic english and playing learning activities with a bunch of respectful, dedicated, cute students for 45 minutes at a time(including a 10-minute break), watching them improve and leaps and bounds evey week, get paid USD $35 per class minimum. Rent/food/everything pennies on the dollar. My most expensive apartment was about three hundred and fifty U.S. dollars right in the middle of Beijing, but the studio I rented the longest was $120 a month. 4 classes and my monthly rent and utilities were paid for.

the only challenges were with other administrators after i ended up co-owning the school that hired me, they were pretty bad at business and it was frustrating to see this extremely successful business that was fun to work at run so poorly.

oh, i was in beijing, so the smog was the other main challenge, but it’s such a comfortable and convenient country to live in, I still ended up staying there very happily almost six years altogether, and have great friends that I still talk to and actually just visited last month.

Wayyy more ups and downs.

there are tons of chinese cities that aren’t smoggy, but Beijing was where I started and that was my journey.

Thailand does have a lot of beet farmers. and beat farmers.

thanks.

1. i was very dissatisfied with the amount of lifetime my job in the US was taking from me with so little in return, so when i came across an ad for English teaching that advertised half my hours double my pay i applied, when i was offered the job right away, i accepted, made a bunch of money for 3 years, had savings and plenty of breathing room, invested most of my savings.

2. with breathing room, i thought about what i wanted next and how much it cost:

i wanted to never work again unless i wanted to, basically retirement. I had traveled a bit and realized that with 200 countries, i could literally choose my cost of living and cost of retirement. i picked Thailand to start my retirement since i had visited before and knew the costs. i needed $250 USD/month to start($100 month for a hostel, $150 for food and beer).

i had nearly that coming in from investments, so i signed up for a conversational English speaking app and doubled my income to about $500 per month by chatting 5 hours a week. i used the extra money for private places, extra food and beer, renting a moped, museums, etc.

i traveled for a year working up to 5 hours a week, received an offer to open my own school in China, went back and saved money for two years until i had plenty of passive income to lived abroad indefinitely(USD 500+/month), and here i sit 8 years later, on the way to jeju south Korea after a month in Mongolia, Japan next week.

advice: make a change sooner rather than later, time is finite.

…sooo basically the FAQ in the travel community, hahaha.

All over. I like learning and exploring, so I move every few months. I’m in Mongolia right now.

Starting out from the US, Medellin is very comfortable, Cusco is great too. If you’re up for Asia, Thailand is amazing.

You can also stay in a single country longer or permanently, I move around because I like to.

That struggle is very real and has been for a long time.

There are lawyers fighting for civil rights and elections happening, plenty going on, but there is also a mass disillusionment about the undeniable disadvantages of living in the US that you’re picking up on.

I started living abroad 15 years ago because of the broken social compact in the US and it is shocking how much worse the US got so quickly since then.

It’s very comfortable living abroad, way cheaper, better food, better medical care, better a bunch of stuff. Head over to Travel or shoot me a message if you’re interested.

Living abroad is very comfortable and means an instant, massive reduction in cost of living. if prices get too crazy or you’re interested in the idea of living abroad, feel free to reach out or head over to Travel.

I used to make big woks of fried rice/quinoa, which stores and reheats well, and golgoppa is delicious, healthy, very cheap and easy to make.

Best legendary, but I’ll hear arguments

Gyarados normal, Suicune legendary, Bulbysaur starter

Ha, it’s an interesting language, and the Duolingo course is actually pretty good, although I’m more interested in the writing system myself.

I lived in China for years and I’m gonna go visit some friends in a couple weeks.

If you’re willing to teach English, living in China is a great way to save money very quickly while enjoying the affordability and convenience mentioned above.

The value of Chinese yuan is directly dictated by the Chinese government, in contrast to the other currencies you mentioned.

A stated raise in value would erode their national manufacturing competitiveness, which is a large percent of Chinese GDP, and hit most people in the country hard, instantly erasing a proportional amount of their savings value, which would threaten Chinese political stability.

1 usd to 6 yuan from 1 usd to 7 yuan means tge 1.5 billion chinese people holding rmb lose almost 10 percent of their purchasing power instantly and directly because of government action.

one of the upsides for the Chinese government is that Chinese people are very dependent on living in China, lending political stability and citizen retention.

This encouraged dependency is effective because it really is incredibly cheap aid convenient to live in china. USD equivalent of $1 meals, $100/month apartments, new 2026 EVs with the highest safety ratings in the world for only $8000, everything delivered to your door the same or the next day for free or nominal shipping costs, cashless society, national affordable healthcare, and many more.

Any declared raise in value of the yuan destabilizes the entire system and citizen dependency that the centralized government appears to be working very hard to establish and maintain.

tldr: Exchange first, bring less cash.

You can bring that much and generally have to declare bringing in any amount of cash over 10,000 euros into the EU.

I’ve been traveling 15 years and find that currency exchange heavily depends on your currency and local facility of exchange, so:

i have no doubt you’ll be able to find a money changer that can exchange rial and dinar, but since they’re not as popular as other dominant currencies at the moment, it is worth checking prices in your area before you go.

If you can find a place that exchanges under 5% nominal exchange rate, there’s a good likelihood that’s a better exchange rate than you’ll find upon arrival in the EU.

Thank you. I’ve never heard of these guys, but will be posting them in the travel community now.

I’m watching the first episode in Japan, it’s a lot of fun.

It isn’t dumb to feel overwhelmed, though many people regret the things they didn’t do.

The “overwhelming” part of travel is usually of our own making, while the valuable part of traveling is simply living in a new world.

Don’t plan any activities, don’t rent a car. Watch movies, sleep all day in your comfortable apartment and then visit the markets or cafes when you’re hungry.

Just by being somewhere new, you’ll be learning and living; I tell everybody who asks me about traveling that travel should be slow and easy and as comfortable as you want, especially in the beginning.

Vietnam is a solid pick: the people are incredibly kind and you get to eat pho every day.