David

Travel information

I am currently

Activities i am interested in:

I am currently visiting Thailand and will be here until the end of August.

Description

Welcome to my second WorkAway profile! Long story short, it made more sense for me to get a new WorkAway profile than attempt to recover/reactivate my older one, but I'm still the same person some of you may have become familiar with.

For those of you who haven't met me, I am from Canada and have been teaching internationally on a consistent basis since 2015. Prior to that, I got some teaching and mentoring experience in my home country before taking on my first overseas ESL role in South Korea.

I like helping people learn and develop skills and self-reliance, knowledge, and am also interested in growing my circle of friends. When traveling, I want to meet hosts and fellow volunteers to enjoy the sort of memorable experiences that can only occur when enjoying the company of others. In this life, it truly helps to have a network of people who've got your back and can be turned to for companionship, information, support, and encouragement!

I strive to be a life-long learner, and my profession is that of an international teacher. I have a lot of experience teaching others English grammar, literature, persuasive writing, vocabulary, pronunciation, and training them for exams like IELTS, TOEFL, and TOEIC. I can read and write Thai script, and developing my familiarity with the Thai language is one of my hobbies.

My favorite pastime is swimming, as it not only exercises the entire body but brings me peace of mind. I'm also interested in computer technology - specifically, getting better at Linux, and coding/programming. I can already diagnose and fix many computer problems. Sometimes I can do wonders with smartphones - like the time I un-bricked an Android smartphone with zero help from the manufacturer.

Other intersts of mine include personal fitness, trying out foreign food, and engaging in projects that support the natural environment and its creatures.

I practice sitting meditation - sometimes guided, sometimes not. I have spent a lot of time visiting Buddhist temples and interacting with locals in Thailand, and have gone on a meditative retreat at Ba Vang Pagoda - a Buddhist monestary in northern Vietnam. That retreat introduced me to walking meditation, which was certainly a unique experience for me!

I can cook moderatly sophisticated meals. I like to do a lot of stir fry cooking, and take pride in making meals that are traditional, made with natural ingredients, and healthy. I work in China, where pork is a staple of most local dishes. Because I try to avoid eating pork, I usually cook for myself or eat like a vegetarian if I can find a restaurant in China that has such dishes. I do, however, eat things that vegetarians and vegans wouldn't - e.g. chicken, eggs, beef, seafood, etc.

I have lived with cats; I enjoy playing with them, and don't mind feeding or cleaning up after them. I currently volunteer for a veterinarian in China, taking care of both dogs and cats.

Here is a list of WorkAway-style volunteer experiences I've had prior to creating the profile you are currently reading:

- I helped local people practice their English speaking and listening skills and provided coaching in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam and Bangkok, Thailand. I returned to continue helping at the project in Bangkok on several subsequent visits to that place.

- I treated, prepared meals for, fed, cleaned up after, and interacted with dogs at an animal shelted on Penang Island, Malaysia.

- I worked at a hotel resort on Langkawi Island, Malaysia. My duties included reception (greeting and registering guests) and transporting luggage/baggage from the front desk to rooms. I was also responsible for preparing, serving, and clearning up meals for breakfast.

- I acted as the caretaker of my friend's airbnb home for over half a year. I was responsible for welcoming guests and helping them locate the property, housekeeping duties, giving advice related to tourism, and helping them order and pay for things online. If guests were too sick to go out, I shopped for food and delivered it to their rooms.

- I taught English at a training center in Lamphun, a rural area outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand. Most of my classes were with kindergarten students. I was also responsible for looking after my host's home and pets (2 cats and 1 dog) while she was away on vacation.

- I volunteered at an organic, free-range goat farm 19 kilometers away from Ulu Tiram - a town in Johor, Malaysia. Most of my work involved site maintenance, cleaning, and tending to the goats. Some baby goats unfortunately became orphaned, so they required special attention and support - not unlike a human baby. I loved the animals, the farming community, the environment, and the work that I was doing.

- I did cleaning and gardening at a private home in Ipoh City, Malaysia. I also provided some tech support/consultation for the master of that home.

- I did gardening, construction, and site maintenance at an eco resort in Kubang Kerian - a rural town near Kota Bharu, Malaysia. I really enjoyed my time there and developed a strong relationship with the family managing the resort.

- I accepted an invitation to tutor a Thai family's young son online. Once I returned to Thailand, the family invited me to stay at their house in Songkhla province. While there, I did some gardening as well as in-person tutoring.

- I volunteered at an English school in Nonthaburi, Thailand. My main duty was coaching students as they completed their workbooks. I also engaged with them through interviews, interactive lessons, and by giving them detailed feedback on the academic writing they produced.

Interests

Yoga / Wellness

Writing

Vegetarian or vegan

Technology

Self development

Sailing / Boating

Pets

Outdoor activities

Nature

Mountain

Languages

Hiking

Fitness

Farming

Cycling

Culture

Cooking & food

Books

Blogging

Beach

Art & design

Architecture

Animals

Adventure sports

Languages

Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Lao: Intermediate
Thai: Intermediate
Spanish: Beginner
French: Beginner

More details about my language interests
I have lots of experience teaching others about the English language. I also proofread papers students had written and offered them coaching on points related to grammar, verb conjugation, using synonyms to avoid sounding repetitive, getting collocations or figures of speech to sound more natural, how to sound more formal or be more persuasive, etc. Students have praised the way I speak, as I have a very neutral accent, carefully annunciate my words, and don't have a habit of mumbling or speaking too quickly for my audience. One of my best students went to grad school in Australia and assured me that the pace and clarity of my speech was infinitely better than what she encountered there - even from her own professors. I am very found of the Thai language and am somewhere around the upper-basic or lower intermediate level as far as my vocabulary and comprehension is concerned. I can read and write Thai script. Because Thai and Laos are quite similar in terms of culture, I can speak with people from Laos as well as I can with Thai people, and can read most of the characters used in the Lao writing system. Acquiring these skills has given me a sense of just how difficult it can be to learn European languages like English - owing to how few vowel characters they have, not to mention the non-phonetic nature of their alphabets. I studied Spanish on my own some number of years ago. I experienced minimal difficulty learning Spanish grammar and vocabulary, and could probably outpace the rate at which I learn Thai.

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Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn

Some knowledge of:  

Eco Projects

Art Projects

Being an elderly companion

Gardening

DIY and building projects

Life at a Farmstay

Creating/ Cooking family meals

Helping around the house

Hospitality/Tourism

Babysitting and creative play

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Able to teach about:  

Languages

Teaching

Animal Care

General Maintenance

Helping with Computers/ Internet

House & pet sitting

More details about your skills

I am a native English speaker who has nearly completed a PGCE and is finishing a academic term of teaching American and British Literature to first year and senior high school students in China. When I went to university, my initial major was English Literature.

Once I realized how subjective the grading of Literature was in university, I shifted my focus to more objective subjects like Economics, getting an honors degree in the Social Sciences. As someone who who teaches Literature, I strive to be fair in the way I grade my students - rewarding them for things like effort, persuasiveness, and clarity - not whether I personally agree with whatever point they're making. To achieve that, I assess my pupils according to objective standards - like the English Language Arts curriculum standards from the American Common Core system or the Basic Education Core Curriculum of Thailand.

My education is not valued in my home country, where the majority of well paying jobs tend to be in resource extraction or the skilled trades. I worked at a call center for two years, giving tech support to end users. That - and all of the other white collar jobs I pursued in Canada - never presented any clear paths to getting promoted, so I tried to become an electrician - a skilled trade for which there is reportedly a shortage of domestic laborers.

I completed a construction training program and then relocated across the country to build a portfolio of working with my hands in Alberta, which had a booming economy at the time. Eventually I realized that the vast majority of employers don't want to take on any green (brand new) apprentices. They'd rather import temporary foreign workers who already gained some experience in their respective countries than train aspiring Canadians from scratch - thus perpetuating the shortage Canadians qualified to work in the skilled trades. In any case, I had gained two years of experience performing an assortment of physical jobs - from unloading trucks to doing general construction labor.

My backup plan had been to get into the military. I scored well enough to do any trade I wanted, and I was in great physical shape. Despite being an excellent candidate and applying for a position that was highly in demand (marine engineer), the Canadian military didn't proceed with my application for reasons I have no control over. I've moved on.

I taught ESL at private academies in South Korea and China. I was in the right place at the right time, leading to me getting a job at a public high school. I've mainly been teaching at Chinese high schools since then, where I've done IELTS and TOEFL training, created and taught a career awareness course from scratch, and have taught Literature while striving to grade students on objective criteria - things like demonstrating reading comprehension, being able to explain the use of literary devices, comparing and contrasting events and characters, etc.

Age

44

What else ...

I used to play video games a lot when I was a child living in Canada. That probably had a lot to do with Canadian society being so car-centric, making it hard for people to go anywhere if they're young and/or don't have access to a vehicle. I rarely play video games anymore, but the ones I prefer are generally those with retro-style gameplay.

As far board games and such are concerned, Scrabble and Jeopardy are some of my favorites. I also had a blast with a vocabulary building card game called Dobble, which could help one become familiar with terms from any language.

I like to ride bicycles for exercise and to explore natural places. I had an amazing time cycling around rural areas in southern Thailand.

Some more information

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  Smoker

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  Driver's licence

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  Allergies

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  Special dietary requirements
  This is not a requirement, but a preference: I prefer to avoid eating pork.