02/19/2021
hi everybody hello and good morning or good evening wherever you
are right now i'm in south korea it's 10 a.m friday and so good morning
um yeah i'm back here again today my name is linda from itt
um if you've been here before hi and if this is your first time watching
thanks so much for tuning in and taking the time we really really appreciate it um yeah so if any
if at any time during this live session today you have any questions feel free to drop your comments
in the comment section from whichever platform you're watching from so we are streaming live on facebook and
on youtube at the same time if you can see me if you can hear me just leave a
high into the comment box that would be really highly appreciated so that i know that everything is working well
and um yeah for so the first couple of minutes let's just have a chat and let's wait for a couple of people to
join in um for our topic today
i mean you probably already saw it in the title but today's topic are the best countries for solo women to
teach english abroad so if you're a woman and you're thinking about teaching english abroad but you're
not quite sure you know where you should go in terms of you know safety or any of those issues this
life would be perfect for you um and so yeah also please don't forget to
like and subscribe to itttt on facebook on youtube uh instagram you know twitter wherever
you want uh we'd highly appreciate it we always um share and advertise our live sessions
we go live twice a week me on fridays or thursdays depending on when you're
watching this or where you're watching from and i'm my colleague lisa on tuesdays
and she's a non-native english speaker from russia um and um
so you always get sort of both perspectives that's what i really like about our lives because um
you get like a native speaker's perspective and a non-native speaker's perspective so that's really really cool
um so yeah you don't want to miss these like i said we go live twice a week and also we always turn our live sessions
into podcast episodes this is why i have this fancy mic in front of me um so if you're
um if you're into podcasts or if you just downloaded this episode and you're
listening to my voice thanks so much for downloading um we really appreciate it we actually just hit 1000 podcast
downloads we're so excited about that because um yeah we
never really thought about starting a podcast but then just kind of we just kind of uh you know started and it's become very
successful in just a matter of months so thanks so much for that
um also there is a oh this one there is a special offer
yeah here right here this qr code i never get this right because
it's mirrored it's so strange anyway the qr code there um you can scan it at
any time throughout this live and you get thirty percent off any teflor t cell cores from itt
i also have a discount url for you if you don't want to scan it if you're a mobile you can't scan it or
you know whatever i i'm also going to share that so don't worry you're going to get your 30 off no matter what
um let me see is there anything else uh oh hi
hi gwen thanks so much for tuning in and juliana some familiar faces that's
great i love this community you know like week after week we have
uh new faces but we also have faces or names that i see every week week after week after
week so i love your dedication and your support it means so much thank you so much
hello sejuan combo i hope i pronounced this right samuel thank you so much for tuning in
that's great all right keep me oh you've been looking
for answers sure so any time throughout this life feel free to throw your questions at me
there's also a q a section at the end as always if you've been here before you know the drill
i always prepare sort of like a visual like presentation that goes along with what i'm saying and
but you can still ask your questions at any time and then there's also time at the end after i've finished with my presentation
part uh like a q a session where you can also ask questions so keep them coming i love engaging with
you guys um you know um i always also learn so much from our lives because of you guys
we're engaging we're sharing information i think that's what it's all about especially as as
girls we need to stick together um and we need to help each other out
hi tiana thanks so much for joining again great cool that's so awesome
so yeah um i'm super excited to talk about today's topic um the best countries for solo
women to teach english abroad um you know and also i'm gonna throw some useful tips in there
if you're you know um a solo woman and you wanna uh go abroad to teach
english by yourself um i've done that you know i've lived in
well i was born and raised in germany and then i moved to china that was my first time going
abroad by myself i was i think i was 19. um i went to china i didn't know anybody
there um i just took the leap and then i also moved to california by myself
and then actually back to china a second time also by myself to a different place a new city and then i came to south
korea also sort of by myself but i already knew someone there but um yeah so i hope i'll be able to offer
some insight into you know um not even just teaching abroad
but also just traveling abroad solo um you know if you want to start there
um i think that's also a great way to just kind of start your journey i guess you know
before you take the leap and move you know somewhere new you could um just go on a solo trip so
um that's also very exciting i still i'm married but i love solo travel um it's just so freeing
um you can do what you want you know it's the ultimate for me it's the ultimate like feeling of freedom when you go and
travel solo so um yeah so we're gonna talk about all that let me put my sleeves back
and get ready for this um hi irma good to see you again too i love
that we have like this community of people that i see every week week after week after week
thank you so much we have lilia hi
where are you tuning in from awesome excuse me kriegen
huien is that how you say your name i hope i'm right um hope that i can gain more from your live
stream i'm going to decide to learn tesol very cool very cool yeah that's also one
question i always ask um at the beginning of my lives you know who's doing a tefl course right now
who's already certified who's not you know taking a course yet um
who's thinking about it etc etc so also let me know where you are in your tefl journey so
that then i can better answer your questions hi giuliano uh juliana says i almost
forgot to watch your video today my name is juliano and i believe it's important to bring up this topic pretty important
thank you and also thanks for being here as a man i think you know that's also important that uh
because women's issues are men's issues are human issues right so thanks so much for being here as a
man and also listening to um you know this topic that's very very important so thank you so much for that
that's really awesome okay yeah and maybe
starting off with a question um you know have you traveled
or moved abroad solo before any of you guys watching um or are you completely new
to solo travel solo moving abroad what's your take on it what maybe are
some of your concerns um you know something like that i would be really interested in knowing
more about that so that i can tailor the session to you guys as leads christina
hi what a great topic definitely want to know about this great to see you great to see you
again i remember you watched before too thanks so much for tuning in again
and tiana says i know which one i want to take it's the business course one oh cool
yeah so you want to take the um the business certification business
english great yeah i also have that so that's one of the specializations but
you do need to get the full 120 hour course before that though because the
business one and the teaching english to young learners want those all build upon the standard 120 hour course so those
always go hand in hand but we do have course bundles of course bundles that um
sort of that's include that one so the um master package would be the 120 hour
course plus the business english course plus the young learners course so that would be good for you
okay tiana says i've never been outside the u.s sadly but it created the travel
bug in me yeah awesome that's really really great yeah um definitely you know traveling
abroad is such a great thing and um i highly recommend it to anyone like i
love travel um and it just you know it's so cliche but it like
really uh changes you you know you grow as a person you get a lot of different
perspectives um so i definitely recommend that
all right samuel says i'm aiming at grabbing bachelor's tefl is it available so our courses are
not we offer certification level courses um so we have teflon tesol certificates we also have a
tesol diploma course um online courses in class courses
combined i highly recommend you checking out teflcourse.net there you can see all the different
course formats um and then you can pick and choose you know which one suits you best
alright gwendolyn says yes i've moved around with family before but moved to the us by myself for school
i loved it and i think going somewhere alone is an incredibly enriching experience that i hope everyone can try at least
once i completely agree yes totally cool
yeah moving to a different place is you know an exciting but also daunting adventure
so you need to do a lot of research before you go
katie is it katie i hope i'm saying it right katie hi linda i'm new but i've watched
a couple of your videos i have lived in chile and vanuatu before cool that's a really cool place i don't
even know pronouncing correctly but i've heard about it it's like is it in the caribbean or
it's a tropical place i know that much i that's so cool how did you end up there that's exciting
okay tiana i completely agree and it will help you learn more about yourself yes totally okay cool
so now i know a little bit more about you guys and what your background is and what
you're dealing with so um i'm gonna add my presentation
and then we can start you know getting into the topic but keep your questions coming and your comments coming you know let's have a
discussion i just want this to be casual and you know as useful and helpful to you guys
as possible and i also have my tea here because there's some issues with my throat again
anyway we're dealing with this who else thinks
that this week went by super fast is it just me okay katie says you
pronounced it correctly your name or the place
vanuatu is next to australia okay i went there as a peace corps trainee for two months oh wow that's so
cool very very cool and then samuel says any idea of
traveling to cambodia as an esl teacher so sadly i've not been to cambodia yet
it's very high up on my list but they do have a high demand for esl
teachers um so you know they're looking for teachers esl teachers and i do also think that
they're one of those places that um you know accept teachers without a degree
and also teachers uh who are non-native english speakers but tefl certified so cambodia is a great
place um for esl teaching for sure okay both okay i'm glad cool
okay so let me um add my presentation now i'm gonna be a little bit smaller i hope
you can still see me here over here um yeah so the best countries to teach english
abroad for solo women and it's always kind of hard phrasing it
to not sound like weird but um so basically the best countries to teach
english abroad or to travel to if you're a woman and you're going alone
that's the gist of it oh we have somebody else joining christy hey i'm christy and i've taught english
in china recently i returned to my home country cool where in china did you teach i also
taught in china before that's really cool gwendolyn i volunteered as an esl
teacher in cambodia in high school i think there's a lot of opportunity there and such a beautiful country too
thanks so much for sharing that so samuel maybe you and gwendolyn can connect and um you know find out more about
teaching in cambodia together that'd be cool maybe gwendolyn can share her um contacts if you still have them
that'd be cool all right
so as always i do a brief introduction about myself so um my name is linda dunsmore i'm a travel writer and content
creator under the name linda goes east because i moved to china and then later to south
korea so from i'm originally from germany born and raised in germany but i am half
german and half american so my dad is american my mom is german and um yeah you can find my
personal stuff at lindagose.com i write a lot about also solo travel i travel a lot
around asia a lot solo and um on social media you can find me at
lunago's east um and yeah like i said i'm based in south korea um it's currently my sixth year um
yeah time goes by so fast but yeah six years in south korea and um i'm just waiting to
i mean we all are for the borders to open up again so that i can travel more around asia i just love asia
i don't know what it is it just um i don't know makes me happy being in asia and i just love the different vibrant cultures here
um you know and i want to see more of it so yeah on the other side i am also a
teflon tesol marketing professional at itt uh where we're watching the live from
today international tefl and t-cell training you can find us at teflcourse.net
and on instagram at international tefl training and i've said that before but we're really trying to grow our instagram so
head to instagram and look for international tefl training and please give us a follow um so that
would be really great and yeah itttt is a leading teflon tesol course
provider worldwide for people who want to go abroad to teach english i think that's it and i'm just going to
mention that again you see this um qr code in your upper right hand corner
so at any time during the live depending on what you're where you're watching this from on what device
you can scan this qr code and then you'll be led to the application page of our website
and if you apply through this page through the qr code you get thirty percent off any teflon
tesol course and um i'm also going to share let me just throw that in there right now
i'm going to share the url as well because some people can't scan the code
um so i just pasted the um discount link into the comment
box excuse me so you can copy that and then
it's the same thing you'll be led to the application page and from there you can apply and then get 30 percent off
all right i hope i'll make it until the end of the session but i'll think we'll get there
all right yeah that's that and then again
so the best countries for teaching english abroad as a solo woman basically
so and a couple you guys said some of you have never traveled outside of your country but
um some other people said they already moved abroad to different countries before so maybe you can also share your
experience you know how it was for you and maybe later um also some resources that maybe you used before you moved
abroad so that you can help out those ladies that are still about to move abroad so that'd be really cool i
am also going to be sharing um some you know really great facebook
groups that you should join um if you're a woman and you're planning on moving or traveling
solo um so definitely watch until the end because i think the
groups are really the most helpful thing um there is one group that
basically has it basically has a million members on facebook so wherever you want to move
to there's probably going to be like at least i don't know 100 people already living there
so yeah watch out for that so let's get right into it so the first
thing i just want to say about this whole topic is that even though we say like yeah i'm moving abroad or traveling
so low you are not alone you are never alone especially when it comes to traveling or
if it comes to moving abroad as well actually around 60 of all english teachers are women
english teachers abroad are women so that's obviously a high percentage so
wherever you're moving to and for teaching um there's already
going to be you know a very tight-knit expert community with like-minded people that you can
connect to so even though you know maybe your parents are going to be like oh you know it's dangerous you don't know anybody
there like or you're thinking this to yourself right um you know it's it's uh it's daunting
moving abroad when you don't know anybody but just know that you're not alone it's
probably likely going to be a huge city where you're moving to so there's already going to be people there that you can connect with
um so like i said around 60 of all english teachers abroad are women so you already have a network there and
then there's also typically every large city has like an expat community right or if it's a smaller country like
the country as a whole they have an expat community there's always foreigners there's always people from your country going to be
there as well so um you can connect with them but i think the key is finding out how to find
them and how to connect with them so most of the time um you know if you're working for a school
if it's a bigger school there's also going to be other foreign teachers already there that you can already connect with or um
you know in the vicinity there's always um facebook groups or you know groups on other social media
platforms that where you can reach out to people so i just want to throw that out there um just the first thing i want to say is
like you are not alone okay and then
yeah so basically those are the two groups that i want to mention um the two groups that i think that you
should join on facebook um you know that will help you as a solo female
traveler or solo female teacher so this group right here
oh yeah so this group almost has 80 000 members and i'm also a member here i'm a member of both groups so they're really great
and i actually went live with one of the girls one of the members from this group before
and yeah it's just a very very cool group um solo female travel travelers it's the
first facebook group for women who travel solo and they really offer they do
regular lives as well and they invite guests other girls who travel abroad and share
like their stories so this is a really great group that you should definitely join and also so is girls love travel
it's very similar so this doesn't only focus on solo but it's also a lot of solo stuff and like i said that one
has 1.1 million members so a lot of members so those are on facebook you just type
in girls love travel and then the groups will pop up on facebook and then you can click on the join
button same as solo female travelers you can type that into facebook in the search bar and then it's gonna
pop up and you can join they might ask you like a couple of questions like have you traveled solo before
or like where do you want to go or something like that they might ask you that but um you could definitely join that
so those are just two things i want to mention right of the bat you can you can look it
up and then join um and then ask also ask your questions that's the great thing about those
groups that you can ask questions and then i mean this one group has a million people in
there so a million girls so they can get back to you and i'm sure
there's somebody who has been through the exact same shoes as you so definitely join those
and get as much research as possible before you embark on your
journey and actually they also so that both of them i think have a clubhouse
group as well if you are on clubhouse you can also find them there and i listen in on a
couple of their talks it's very interesting they recently the girls love travel group they recently did a
clubhouse session about um safety travel safety and they had like
six different girls with you know travel experience all over the world one was like in europe one was
backpacking through latin america one was in asia lots of different things and they were
sharing like their safety tips so that was also very interesting and um so i highly recommend that
because um you know you can never get enough information about solo travel and about safety as a
woman traveling alone either
okay all right and so i pulled up some or i looked for some statistics and this
is the safe cities index 2019 this is the most current one um basically the safest cities
for the safest cities in the world and they categorized it they put it into those
four categories so there's digital security health security infrastructure security
and personal security and put the link down here they have a really um big infographic
right here so if you are interested and you want to check that out it has even more information on there
but those are basically the top five cities the safest cities
and i think what's most interesting is definitely the personal security because i i didn't even know what what's
like digital security is so i looked it up so that's basically like hacking cyber like fishing
and things like that so i mean that's definitely a concern but i think my my personal biggest
concern would be like personal security and maybe health security
so um for personal security as you can see the top five cities so those are countries but the
cities are singapore copenhagen hong kong tokyo and wellington
so a lot of asian cities in there even though a lot of people think like asia oh asia is like scary it's not safe um yeah
so actually asian cities are incredibly safe as you can see and the health security
cities are ozaka tokyo seoul amsterdam and stockholm also the top three
are in asia so um yeah don't be don't be scared of traveling
solo to asia um you know it's not as scary as some people might you know make it sound
like um yeah so this is a safe cities index
i'm also yeah juliana said wow i did not
recognize that singapore is the one right so i've personally been
to singapore um and it's incredibly safe yeah
it's very very good it's very clean and also what i really liked about singapore
was like the multicultural vibe so you have really it's a melting
pot you have people from all over asia all over the world too in singapore
and they have very very strict rules actually in laws in terms of like um
like glitter if you're litter like you can get imprisoned i think and they don't have chewing gum at all they don't sell
chewing gum because they don't want people to spit it out and like leave gum everywhere it's like it's a very neat place
in all aspects of the word so yeah singapore right there
okay now i'm gonna look now we're gonna look at different regions and country specific but i just wanted
to throw out there the safe cities index so you can check those official like statistics out
like safecities.economist.com there's also i think different safe
indexes from like unes unicef unesco those kinds of
organizations so you can also look out for that all right so let's get into it let's
look at teaching english in asia as a single woman and so that's personally where i fit in
i've went to asia i went to asia solo by myself and i never really had any
issues i've been to let me see i've been to all of those countries listed here
and i was always fine so the lowest crime rates in the region so the lowest
crime rates in asia are in hong kong in china in singapore in japan and in south korea those
countries have the lowest crime rates in asia and then also other popular
options in asia include thailand vietnam and malaysia so i know gwen
gwendolyn you're from are you you're from malaysia are you taught in malaysia can you maybe talk a little bit or let
us know about that um i've been to malaysia i've been to kuala lumpur and like the surrounding
areas and i always felt very safe um it was a beautiful place very friendly people and
most of the people also speak english very well so that was also really great um i also traveled solo to thailand
before which was great i never had any problems um same with hong kong
china i lived in china for a year and a half i never had any issues of course there's like
so i also want to say and this is a disclaimer like no place obviously is a hundred percent
safe right so um even though those have the lowest crime rates
it doesn't mean they don't have any crime right i just want to throw that out there and make sure we all
are on the same page um there is crime happening everywhere and just as like the same as back home
you always need to be aware of your surroundings obviously you need to travel smart
whether you're a man or a woman or whoever you need to just always pay attention to your surroundings and just act smart
right so um just want to say that um and also it doesn't mean that like
the the other countries like thailand vietnam malaysia that they are not safe or that if you go there
you're gonna get mugged or something that's also not what i'm saying um at the same time also if you go to
you know if you go to singapore something also could happen like obviously no place is 100 safe um but
those those places have the lowest crime rates so those are statistics those are facts okay
that's just what i want to throw out there and um yeah also south korea i mean i've been
living in south korea for almost six years now um i also find it very safe um
especially recently i've seen a lot of tick tocks where they you know it's like three a.m four
am in the morning and people are just going out in their adidas slippers
and going to the convenience store and it's fine you know and people from like europe or um the us they are like mind
boggled about it so all right we have an answer from gwendolyn
great she says yes i'm from malaysia malaysia isn't as safe as say japan and
singapore but i'd say definitely safer than an american fret row
that's awesome yeah so um definitely i agree yeah so thanks for
your input um has anybody else been to asia before
traveled solo there or not even solo if it was with somebody it's fine too and how have you felt there what country
have you been to did you feel safe or did you not feel safe did something happen to you
so i definitely have a story um from china when i lived in china and
um we were out in like a downtown area me and my friend actually and we
were just walking and it was very crowded a lot of people and nothing happened to us but like
there was a couple in front of us um so guy and a girl and she was wearing like a backpack
um and there were like two guys walking behind them and we saw one guy tried to open the
backpack and like pickpocket something out of her backpack we saw like he tried a couple of times
um to get something out of her backpack and so we were like oh my god no we have to tell her so we like went up and we were like hey
this guy is trying to like pickpocket you and he was like no no i did i'm not i'm not
and um they were like oh thanks and then they just left like the guys with the girl with the backpack
and then we were like oh no like now the guys who tried to pickpocket them because we
saw them kind of leaving the area and going back to a group of more people so we're like oh no
now they're grouping up and we were just two girls so we were kind of worried so we just
took like two separate cars two separate taxis and we went back home we were scared at that point
but yeah so that's another thing just be smart you know and um yeah
gwendolyn says my top advice is to ask local women which areas are the most and least safe with every city in the
world there are always places that are better or worse for women it's like linda said us girls have got to stick
together yes that's some great advice i mean like you said every city you know there is a place
where you shouldn't go like even not just as a woman but there's just a place you
shouldn't go right with like crime and things like that so there's some shady areas in every
city definitely agree and you don't want to go there so that's where i think those facebook groups
um come in very handy um you can ask you know hey i'm gonna travel to this and this and this place
what's an area where i should avoid or i know that in bangkok um
or no it was it was hong kong i think i have a friend in hong kong
and i visited hong kong and i asked her like oh what's like a good place to stay at
um and she said oh yeah this area this area this area and i'm like oh what
about i think it's called chunking mansion um i think that's hong kong i mean i might be confused but i said oh what
what about this area i keep seeing like really cheap hostels and hotels in this area like how's this area
and she like she's like no don't go there like that's very dangerous that's why the hostels are so cheap there's a lot of
like pickpocketing and like crime going on in that area so please please don't go there like stay in this area pay a little bit
more but like you're fine so definitely reach out you know to people who are in that place where you
want to go to and get some advice hey vidya video says hey linda
here after a long time japan is a safe place for sure yes i agree japan is very safe and the
locals are also very very polite very friendly and um actually it's part of their
culture to um [Music] like they wouldn't pickpocket anybody or
they wouldn't do anything like up like in the open they have this thing like lose face
so if like they were committing a crime and other people would obviously see them committing a crime
that would be like the worst for them like their reputation would all be gone they would lose face
so that's like the worst thing for a japanese person so that's why they usually don't do anything like that um
they might do like other shady stuff like in the dark but not like in the public mug you or like do anything like
that um yeah and also south korea um that's very fun always here like
a lot of people go to cafes coffee shops like starbucks or like other little coffee shops for like work or
studying so they would bring like all their stuff they would bring their phones they would bring their books they would bring their laptops
and they would be there and work all day and alone
sometimes in a group but mostly alone and i've done that before i went to a coffee place and i just worked on my laptop alone
and then at some point i mean you've got to do what you got to do you have to get up you have to go to the bathroom so then you just get up they leave all
their stuff on the table go to the bathroom and come back and everything's still there
like nobody would touch your stuff in south korea and i think that's true for japan as well
um i don't know about singapore i feel like maybe in singapore too not sure uh but that's what it's like in
south korea like you can leave your stuff you can leave your phone your your laptop on the table in starbucks
go to the bathroom and come back and it'll still be there so that's what makes south korea also
very safe of course there's some other issues um it's not a hundred percent safe um
but yeah i really appreciate that and i really like that about korea plus there's like cameras everywhere so
people also are you know kind of refrain from doing stuff like that
so yeah christy says i felt really safe while i was in china no one harassed me
on the streets but there can can be a lot of other crimes in the esl industry when it comes
to switching schools and getting permits documents on time etc for example
bribery forgery and so on just got to be really cautious with recruiting agents
and some schools yes that's actually a really good point um and it's true especially for china i
think and probably other countries too but i've also experienced that for sure in china with like um
you know faking documents and stuff like that and the school would be like oh no it's fine you're fine you're fine but
then if somebody checks like it's on you you're screwed and you're you get deported
right i mean the school also has to pay a fine but like there's you know a lot of people coming
in and out of china so they could get teachers all the time i guess um so that's how that stuff can happen
um but yeah and also what i want to mention you notice these little stars behind some of the
countries here like hong kong so those are the places just a little bit of tefl info
that have these um teaching programs um available so those are great places um
those are safe places for us to go and they have teaching teacher placement
programs so hong kong has the net scheme and i know a couple of you guys you've
seen the live about those i have a special live about government um government run teacher placement
programs um i did that a couple weeks ago so you can go back and check it out in the playlist i
highly recommend it so hong kong has the net scheme which you can apply to and then get placed into schools in hong kong
so does japan it's called the jet program in japan and south korea also has a program
actually two programs called um epic and the talk program
so just a little bit of extra info for you guys um especially for first
time you know if you don't know anybody in that country it's easiest to just apply to um to the
program and they get placed there you also get a lot of assistance typically from those programs they have
staff who take care of you from the moment that you set foot on like the ground from the airplane they pick you
up um they you know give you an orientation they give you you know a lot of info um so that's also
something a great safe way to transition into a new place
okay are we good with asia um can we move on to the next region or are
there any more questions about asia specifically
let me know i know a lot of you guys are specifically interested in teaching in
an asian country so and yeah as you can see cambodia is not on the list so i don't know what their um crime rate
is um i did not find cambodia on like a safe safe list
um but also i know uh many people who also women who have
traveled to cambodia by themselves solo and they you know nothing happened to them
so like i said it doesn't mean that if a country is not mentioned here you're gonna you're gonna something bad is gonna
happen if you go that's not what that means either so yeah but maybe as a first time you know
if it's your first time traveling solo or first time like going abroad maybe pick one of the countries
with the lowest crime rates first so that you know you can kind of um you know you can get experience
in solo travel and then you can sort of move on to maybe some uh countries that aren't considered less
safe um that's what i would do so yeah okay then i'm moving on
to the middle east so teaching english in the middle east
as a single woman um can be of course a very tricky region for a woman to move to
so it's not everybody everybody's cup of tea for sure i think definitely what i hear
um the best place to go there is definitely like dubai so um i know a lot of um
i've heard of a lot of uh women who are you know who've lived in dubai and they loved it um dubai i have never
been sadly it's high up on my list i really want to go to dubai um who said like dubai is really
great it's this modern like place it's very international so it's actually more than 80 percent of
the people living in dubai are all expats so that's very like a lot
eighty percent of people living in dubai are expats so that's crazy to me i'm really curious
to go one day and check it out so if any one of you has been let me know what you think of dubai
um i think it sounds very intriguing um but yeah so the region can be a
little bit difficult of course for women but the middle east is also the region
with the highest salaries for esl teachers so you kind of you know have to think about it um
you know you could do it for a year um maybe you could you you would feel better you know
knowing that you make a lot of money but you might have to um deal with a lot of different
things like a very different culture regarding women in the area um but yeah if anybody has been has
experience with the region do let me know i would be really really interested
um but yes actually the uae the united arab emirates are among the top 20 countries with the
lowest crime rate in the world so and like i said i actually met this
korean girl here in my city who um she was a flight attendant for
emirates and she lived in dubai and she really liked it and i've heard from a lot of other girls
who live in dubai i think most of them do live in dubai and they really really like it there
um so yeah that could be a good option
i see uh [Music]
gwen cambodia would be safer in numbers you can still go alone but make friends
there okay have you been to cambodia gwendolyn um yeah so
definitely i agree with you there and like i said that's also where those facebook groups come in very very handy
so you can reach out to people on there and make friends and yeah
all right next location we have europe so teaching
english in europe as a single woman the lowest crime rates in the region can
be found in finland in portugal in spain in switzerland and
in iceland so um i've been to spain and to
switzerland and um yeah i mean i felt really safe however with like countries a lot of
european countries pickpocketing is a very big problem especially in touristy areas
um you know like paris rome milan like those areas so pickpocketing is a big
issue i've heard from tons and tons of people that they've you know had their phones stolen their
cameras stolen their wallets stolen things like that yeah so
um juliana asked how about france um yes i think pickpocketing is a problem
in france and um i think overall at the moment they have a lot of
issues with terrorism so that's why i did not include it in there and it's also not included in the lowest
crime rates in the region on the list so yeah but i mean i know so many people
who live in paris and like i said you need to take this obviously as a
as a piece of information and then do with that information what you will right like i said if i don't name a
country it doesn't mean that that's you know that something's gonna happen if you go there i've been to france a
couple of times um and it was fine i never had any issues but um so you know
this is these are the facts that's the crime rate statistics that i'm gonna present to you
so take that plus um information from people who are there who've been there who live
there who are from there and then make your own informed um decision
whether or not you're going there or not so and like i said you are not alone
you are not alone all right gwendolyn says yes i went
during high school a lot of south east asia is like this even if a region is a little less safe
women are safer in numbers yeah for sure i mean you're always safer as a group
as opposed to when you're traveling alone that's for sure okay cool and so
excuse me you see the stars here so i just want to mention um for spain
they have the cultural ambassadors program that's a really good program that i
think targets specifically to um us americans and canadians so you can apply
to that program because it's usually more difficult for us citizens and canadians um so anybody out
without an eu passport basically to get a visa um in europe right it's it tends to be a
little bit more a little bit more difficult so spain has introduced this cultural
ambassadors program that allows people um you know from
canada and the us to be placed into schools in spain so that's a great way
to get into spain and also that's something that i recently learned about portugal
apparently portugal is a new sort of digital nomad wonderland they have this special new
visa for um non-eu citizens it's apparently really easy to get
for people to come to portugal and work there so um if that's something that interests
you check it out you can just google portugal digital nomad visa or something
like that and then something will come up but um that's another good option um very popular at the moment
as i hear from a lot of girls and digital nomads who apparently love
it there it's a great way to set foot into europe for sure all right then yeah
finland i mean all of those nor northern european countries are considered very safe in general but it might be a
little bit more difficult to get a job there they also have very tight restrictions
um so what we always kind of recommend is the czech republic
as a good place to start teaching english in europe because of those visa regulations
in the czech republic they don't have as strict and tight regulations so it's
easier to get a visa there and then once you're based there you can you know travel
to other places hello hello teacher good morning i'm hikmat
from afghanistan oh cool you just missed the um middle eastern part
that would be so cool to know your perspective um should we go back let's ask hekmat
because i'm really curious i was talking about teaching english in the middle east and maybe you can give us some insight
that would be really interesting because i've never really i've been to um egypt that was the only
place in like that area unfortunately and then only i changed planes there
but we were specifically talking about the united arab emirates as being a very safe place it has one of the
lowest crime rates in the world and especially dubai is a popular place
because um eighty percent of the population in dubai are expats so that makes it very interesting
and it's apparently also to be uh regarded a very safe place uh for women
so hekmat what about other countries in the region what would you say
are some safe places for female teachers from abroad to travel to
or to go to to teach english could you give some insight
that would be really awesome i'm gonna wait a couple of minutes there's always a delay between me talking and then you guys hearing it i
think it's about 20 seconds so um yeah but heck mud let us know
i think a lot of us girls are very curious about specifically that region
okay moses i guess afghanistan is asia yeah so i mean the middle east is technically asia right or um well
um because egypt's also on there so egypt is africa but um the middle east
is not so much a geogra like it's not so much a um it's a culturally right the like
it's they share the same similar culture so it's not so much a continent
it's just a region so yes some countries in the middle east are asia
for sure so yeah i see your point but um i just wanted to separate that because
culturally they're very different right asian like east asian southeast asian
culture is very different from middle eastern culture so i separated those
okay i don't know if hekmat is gonna give us an answer maybe he's typing so
let's wait a little bit longer but thanks moses for the input i am i
see what you mean and i agree
okay well um i'm just gonna move on then from here and if hackmat does give us an answer i'm gonna
show it to you guys okay so we talked about europe
what else is left yes latin america teaching english in latin
america as a single woman so lowest crime rates in the region
are in argentina in chile in costa rica and in peru so those are considered um
safe those have the lowest crime rates in the region um yeah and also you notice the little
star at chile um so they also have a teacher placement program which is
called the english open stores program in chile however because of kovit right now um
it's suspended temporarily so i'm thinking that hopefully next year they
will resume that because i think it's the only program in that region of that sort so that would be really a
shame if they wouldn't continue it but um yeah does anybody of you have experience in latin america
i know that hold on uh where is irma irma
do you have some input aren't you in latin america or am i remembering that wrong
or hold on
okay hackman says i come now i'm so sorry about the subject
no you're good you're good we were just thinking because you are from that region so maybe you know something you have some valuable input
for us um but it's okay it's okay
yeah it's all good so if anybody's been to latin america and would like to share a story or some
feedback that would be really great um i know that you know there's definitely a lot of
horror stories unfortunately coming from latin america so i think a lot of people are kind of scared from
oh scared from going there oh irma says i'm from the philippines oh i'm sorry
then i kind of confused that sorry okay
so yeah that's also definitely a place that i would really really love to go to latin america but then also maybe
not solo um i don't know yeah i i don't have much
experience with latin america so if anybody has i would really appreciate some input but um yeah
so the lowest crime rates in the region as said are argentina chile and costa rica and i hear costa rica is really
a great place a lot of people go there a lot of like backpackers and digital nomads as well
um and there is a high demand for english teachers in all of those countries so i think the best way to if you're
interested in teaching english in latin america i would definitely go to
probably chile or costa rica first so chile if you can go through the english open
source program because then you already have a network of people you know people from the
program who will help you or costa rica because it seems to have a very very big
expat community i've also heard from a lot of people that buenos aires is very very um
uh a lot of people visit buenos aires and i think also some people that i know have been there
and they went solo um so that's really cool
and off like peru is my personal favorite i would so love to go to peru um it's
high on my bucket list so i'm really hoping to be able to go soon
and gwendolyn says i would love to go to latin america solo especially costa rica
okay solo great okay do you have any concerns about going there solo um
what are your thoughts [Music] katie katie didn't you say
weren't you in latin america before wait i'm trying to find your comment chile you've lived in chile could you
talk about chile a little bit yeah i've lived in chile for a year as a rotary
international exchange student when i was in high school so how was it being in chile did you feel safe there
were there some issues could you tell us a little bit about that i think that'd be really interesting for
other people including me like i want to go to latin america that's like one of those like that because i've
mostly traveled in like europe um and um asia latin america is just one of
those places that are still like like mystic there's something mystic about them and i really want to go
about those countries okay anyway i hope that katie could share some um of
her some of her insight when she was living in chile about how safe she felt there and if
there were any safety issues or anything like that that'd be really interesting
oh can you post links i'm sorry i ignored that question yeah so um oh hold on
i'm gonna if you google english open source program
chile so then you can see there here their official website and i'm
gonna just post that into the comment section now so you can check that out later but i think yeah it's still suspended at
the moment yeah the website says due to the current global pandemic the volunteer initiative
is suspended until further notice so um but there's also an email address
listed and they have a mailing list so you could contact them if you're
interested in the program and then you know have them add you to the mailing list and then when the program
is available again you'll get an email but it seems like since you're interested in positions in
chile that you enjoyed your time in chile and you want to go back so i guess that's a good sign
okay while we're waiting for an answer from katie um oh those are okay
i want to go over a couple of useful tips um for solo travel and solo moving abroad
so i just want to mention those two groups again that you can find on facebook that's
girls love travel with 1.1 million members and
solo female travelers with almost 80 000 members so those two groups are
really really great um that you can join and if you're traveling abroad or also teaching
um like i said i did a live with one of the girls from the solo female travelers group before
about um teaching abroad so that was really fun and they're super fun girls
and you can post your questions there you can connect with people there they also as you can see here it might
be a little small but they have guides they also do lives
they do watch parties um they um yeah do all kinds of different
things you can also find like you can connect with people who offer you know their you
they offer like a room in their house for example um stuff like that couch surfing things
like that that's where those groups really come in and then um yeah so another great tip
what i would recommend is getting in touch with the embassy in the country you're interested in and
asking questions about safety issues and quality of life so for example if you want to go to
chile you could contact the embassy of chile in your home country
and they usually have a plethora of information available to you so that's another great
resource and speaking of chile we have an answer from katie or a comment
so katie says very safe chile is a very friendly country especially when you make an effort to
learn and speak the language and travel in smaller towns you do have to be aware and cautious of your
surroundings in bigger cities it is more common for robbery in the cities like santiago and concepcion
but it's not any scary or unsafe compared to other big cities yes and i think that's also my point
for doing this live today i think that a lot of people are just a lot of girls women are scared of
making the move making the leap taking the leap you know to travel solo go abroad solo because of all those
horror stories that they hear so um that's just one thing you know
it's not it's typically not any less safe compared to other big cities
um so it's just always you know on the news we see all those horrible reports
always not saying that you know all pla like it's it's it's a wonderland everywhere it's also
not what i'm saying um but we always have to be cautious and aware of our surroundings you know no
matter where we go so don't let that fear hold you back from traveling solo or moving abroad to
different country okay then another tip i have for you are
bloggers so bloggers can provide useful insight into what's it really like living in a
certain country they also usually have a contact me email address or of course
of course um social media that you can ask them stuff at and usually most of them are very
helpful you know and very um you know they love answering your questions so
yeah reach out to bloggers or influencers well or instagrammers or whatever living
in those places and just send them a message and then also my personal tip start
learning the local language before you leave your home country also as katie just mentioned in her comment
about chile um knowing some spanish in chile is really helpful
and that goes for every country you know being able to speak the local language even if it's
just a little bit really goes a long way and also in terms of safety right so if you
are able to say like fire fire or something right in the local language
it would you know it goes a long way it could save your life so um definitely you know buy a little they
have like these small like travel language courses or something so um
those are very helpful and then also um clubhouse
just want to mention that i am on clubhouse if any one of you is on clubhouse that's another great um new platform
to make connections they also have a bunch of different groups um clubs and rooms on there uh
about traveling solo about different countries specifically and if you're actually interested after
this live in about 30 minutes i'm doing a um
a clubhouse talk with some other girls from south korea expert girls in south
korea and we are doing a clubhouse um talk on there if you're interested in
that i'm going to share the link to it if you have clubhouse and you want to listen and join the conversation about
living in south korea you can um you can join if you like so
in just in 30 minutes about 30 minutes that's gonna happen i'm excited about that and
[Music] yes so now q a is open
30 off again scan this link um and i'm just gonna paste
the um coupon link again into the comment section and then you can keep your questions
coming we can do another couple of minutes together and then i'm going to sign off
and then maybe i see or hear you on clubhouse that would be really great check that
out so i just put the join clubhouse the event link into the comment box and also
our 30 off link in the comment box but same as on all my social media you can
find me on clubhouse at linda goes east so feel free to reach out gwendolyn says
thank you for today thank you guys for being here again um
i hope it was um kind of helpful and useful obviously i don't have first-hand
knowledge what it's like to travel or live in all of those places because i'm mostly i mean i'm familiar
with europe the us and asia so i wasn't able to give
a lot of information first-hand insight about you know middle eastern latin america
unfortunately but um i think that you know this this is a community
and we had some great input from people who were in those places i think that's very helpful
and um that's what i really like about our lives you know it's it's a it's a community and we all
share our personal insight especially gwendolyn you shared a lot so thank you for that
katie lots of great input oh irma made a comment about i used to do research
read and watch videos about living in thailand so things like that you know share because like i said in the
beginning you know us women girls we need to stick together um
so yeah oh and juliana said i really want to travel by myself but i studied
abroad with a friendly group in france for about five weeks in 2013. oh cool okay yeah so i mean
i hope that you take the information to heart i think especially the two facebook groups are really gonna be
helpful um you can make some great connections on there um i hope to see you on there i'm also in
those groups and i'm you know like to share my experience and i like to ask other people as well
all right yes so christy asks will the discount be
available after this live my sister can't sign up right now but she's interested in getting started with her
120 hour tefl course awesome i love that your sister is also joining
the tefl fam over here great so yes this uh the discount url will be
available the whole weekend through up until monday so you can sign up whenever you have
time um you can also scan this qr code you can watch the replay
scan the code um make sure you copy if you can't use the qr code copy the
url from the comment section or here i'm going to show it to you guys so you can also take
a screenshot so it's teflcourse.net slash apply slash question mark cu
equals facebook live minus linda okay might be a little complicated but um
you'll find it in the comment section um and you can sign up anywhere up until
monday to get 30 off
mom would say how can i apply with this link i just shared you can apply and you can get
30 off up until monday you can learn tesol and tefl and all
that good stuff okay this link hold on i'm gonna share it again here you can find it in the comment box
if you scroll through you'll find it um on youtube as well
make sure you look into the comment section and you'll find it there
christina says some great tips and very interesting i'm wondering whether to travel solo or with someone and this is
very helpful and encouraging thank you i'm glad thank you so much that means a lot to me
um yeah great so definitely join those facebook
groups if you haven't yet i think those are really great i know i know i keep repeating myself but i think they're really great
okay christy says perfect thank you so much thanks to all of you as well i know
there's a lot of familiar faces i love seeing you every week again again again and a lot of new faces as
well and um yeah so like i said scan the code get 30 off or the uh
30 off url look for the look for it in the comment section and
um yeah i hope to see you guys again thanks so much you can always watch the replay if you missed the beginning of
today's live and i'll see you again next week with another exciting topic hopefully so
yeah thank you so much have a wonderful day night evening morning wherever you
are stay safe and i'll talk to you next time thanks so much bye
