Not a story that I share very often, mainly due to the length and I guess some complexity. This is the story of How I started teaching English in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam…
I have always been interested in travel, ever since I funded my post-high school trip to Tokyo, Japan. There was always an interest in Japanese culture as I was an avid anime fan. But I didn’t realise that shortly after my trip to Tokyo, I was going to meet someone and change my life forever.
We met online, can you believe it?
So there I was, sitting in my dad’s lounge room with my stepbrother, watching whatever on TV and talking s*** as always. I opened up the website OMEGLE (similar to chat roulette) and started chatting to some randoms online.
I never used the video chat for obvious reasons (I don’t like seeing random dicks)…
After about 5 or 10 minutes I started chatting with a young girl in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. I didn’t believe she was who she said she was, but I enjoyed the intellectual conversation.
Anyway, after a few minutes, we both agreed to start chatting on KIK so we didn’t lose connection. We ended up on Skype later that night and I didn’t even realise that we had been talking for 8 hours straight! My brother had gone to bed and I didn’t even notice…
She was smart and beautiful!
So obviously by this stage, it is easy to say that I was getting along with this girl, she was smart and cheeky… I love it! Oh, and did I mention that she was absolutely STUNNING! I’d share a photo but.. you know privacy!
My first trip to Vietnam
I’m going to skip a good 1 year of long distance relationship because that is a story for another day! So, fast forward to February 2015, I am on my way to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
I have been studying Vietnamese like no tomorrow (little did I know, I suck at it!), mainly because I wanted to impress her dad. Seems fair, he wants to be able to speak to the white dude travelling overseas to meet his teenage daughter…
The first time we met
I arrived at Tan Son Nhat International airport in Ho Chi Minh City and after going through the… Interesting and long visa process, I finally got my bags and left the airport.
When I walked out of the airport doors and I was greeted with a wave of hot air which had a very strange smell, not terrible just strange.
So, I was in Vietnam, walking around the busy pick-up area of the airport searching relentlessly for this girl. After a good 20 minutes navigating the crowds I saw her. She was slightly taller than most Vietnamese girls (I only know this now, I had no idea before).
As soon as she saw me she smiled and ran up to me with her head down and hugged me tight, of course I hugged back! I also saw that her sister and cousin were there to greet me, neither of them spoke any English and my attempts to introduce myself in Vietnamese were met with confusion…
She is the only one who can speak English
She could speak English quite well which was amazing! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been able to communicate with anyone! Forever translating what I said and what her family members said, I felt bad for not being able to speak with her parents, which was not from a lack of trying but simply a lack of experience I guess.
At first it was a little awkward as we had never met in person and we were both incredibly shy. After a few minutes we were talking like normal and had our first kiss! It was amazing and I think was the start to something, I mean you don’t often meet someone you fall for mentally and then also physically…
Deciding to move to Vietnam
My first trip to Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam was only 2 weeks long because of the Tet holiday (Vietnamese New Year holidays). Leaving was extremely hard but the fact that I had already booked my next flight back made it easier.
After my second trip, I was certain that I wanted to move to Vietnam so I could be with her. I had no other taught in my mind, I was going to find a way. Never had I thought of being an English teacher…
Finding the Australian Government Accredited TESOL course
I spent hours and hours searching the internet for ways to make money in Vietnam. It was looking pretty grim as the TESOL course options didn’t really offer any certainty and didn’t accept younger applicants with no degree.
So, here I am, 18 years old and no degree. How can I teach English in Vietnam if I don’t have a degree?! Well after finding this course, run by an Australian guy I had some hope. Many emails were exchanged before I was confident that this was a legitimate school and the ‘Free Accommodation’ and ‘Guaranteed job’ were real!
The best part was… You only have to be 18 years or older and have completed year 12! That’s me, I can do it! I can be an English Teacher, wait… I’m going to be an English Teacher?!