 Hi everyone, Linda here from ITTT back this week with another live session and this week's topic I'm very excited about it's we're going to cover 15 travel hacks for TEFL teachers. Traveling and exploring new countries is one of the main reasons a lot of people decide to go abroad to teach English and you know whether it's about exploring your new host country, your new home country, where you're teaching or then also other countries during your experience abroad during your stay abroad. So yeah these are 15 hacks that work either way so either for your trip to your new host country or then while you're traveling there and in other countries around that host country. I love traveling I've been to around 35 maybe over 35 different countries I've been living in Asia for the past 10 years and traveled around Asia extensively but also Europe I was born and raised in Europe the US and places there mainly so yeah these are also some hacks that I like to kind of use but I've also researched you know current travel hack trends and things like that so that's what we're going to talk about as always don't forget to like and subscribe so you never miss any of our upcoming live sessions in the future this is a weekly thing right if you're watching this for the first time you might not know but we do this actually every week this place this time most of the time and also want to mention that we do have a 30 percent discount code off of any TEFL or TSOL course from ITTT so if you're not yet TEFL or TSOL certified now's a great place a great time and a great place also to start so you get 30% off and off of any of the courses we have a wide variety of different courses you can check them out on the website but yeah you get this discount code so what you can do is you can scan this QR code or I also have a link for you that I'm going to share in the comment section so we're live on Facebook and on YouTube at the same time right now so wherever you're watching from you will see this code in the comment section so it looks something like this or actually exactly like this it ends with fb live minus Linda then you know it's the right code and this code will get you a 30 discount off of your TEFL course and as you might know a TEFL or a TSOL certificate sort of is the first step towards your adventure of teaching English abroad so something that a lot of countries actually require for English teachers so it's a necessary certification for many countries if you don't have that you don't qualify for a job there you don't qualify for the visa etc there's other places where it's not a requirement but many employers then still prefer hiring people who have this certification because it just shows that either you know you know you know you know what you're doing right you are a certified teacher you're not new to all of this and you're serious about it so that's that and also let me know guys where are you watching from right now where are you at right now what time is it there how are you doing today let me know just leave a comment and then we can jump right in um yeah so maybe first real quick about me if you're watching this for the first time you're new to this and I'm just gonna make myself a little bit smaller so we can see the slide but my name is Linda I am doing many different things which is one of the one of the reasons why I love teaching English so much because it allows you to do you know many different things so I'm a travel writer because I live abroad I travel a lot so that allows me to write about my experiences I'm also a content creator I love sharing my experiences on social media as well um I'm also a language teacher so I teach English and I also teach German um abroad online in class you know all the different venues and you can find my website at lindagosese.com so if you're particularly interested in Asia going to Asia for teaching Korea China all of those places this is a great place to start lindagosese.com and also at lindagosese on instagram very active over there and all social media platforms actually at lindagosese but mainly Instagram I'm very active over there um like I said I'm originally from Germany and the US my mom is German my dad's American but now I'm based in South Korea and I've been based here for eight and a half years so a long time already time really flies before that I also spend some time in China working also teaching so all of these things so that's a little bit about me also I'm still waiting for you guys to let me know where you're watching from today so leave a comment let me know where you are what time it is and just how you're doing how's everybody doing just want to check in with everyone then about it ttt real quick why we're here so I found out about ittt actually because I was interested in teaching English abroad so I googled as you do you know tefal tesol all sorts of things and I found ittt I liked what I saw like what I read about it I liked the reviews and I was like yeah let me try and get the certificate so ittt stands for international tefal and tesol training you can find us at tefalcourse.net and yeah after I took the course I stayed in touch with ittt and somehow ended up working for them then and that's already already been probably 10 years around 10 years as well 9 10 10 years something like that so also a long time that I'm already with ittt as well and ittt provides high quality teacher training programs globally all ittt courses are accredited by reputable institutions and they also meet British council criteria for example ittt is also an institutional member of ia tefal and has an advisory board of experts so that's one of the ia tefal is a pretty reputable renowned tefal accreditation body and graduates can earn credit-bearing certificates and they're transferable to universities worldwide as well so check us out tefalcourse.net if you haven't yet I know many of you watching are already tefal or ittt graduates so yeah appreciate you and yeah that is that let's see still waiting for you guys to let me know where you're watching from but I'm just gonna keep that up so let me know where you're watching from right now what time is it there and how are you doing let me know in the comments I'm always curious about that and then yeah back to the today's topic so like I said 15 travel hacks for tefal teachers a very exciting topic especially for me because I love traveling and like I said in the beginning I think traveling and exploring new countries and cultures is one of the biggest reasons a lot of people decide to go and teach English abroad right you want to live in a different country you want to experience a different culture that's very exciting and important to a lot of people and the main reason why a lot of people pursue this career and so these 15 travel hacks are specifically targeted at tefal teachers so it includes basically your trip to your new host country where you're going to teach but also then your travels during your stay there so either in your new host country travel hacks you can use there or when you you know go outside the border as you explore nearby and other destinations so you can use this for everything basically these hacks and yeah some of them if you're an experienced traveler some of these hacks might seem a little redundant maybe just keep in mind that a lot of people you know haven't traveled as much maybe so keep an open mind and we're all in different stages of our journey of our tefal experience so a lot of people have not been abroad yet or moved abroad yet so these things might be new to people who are new to traveling and moving abroad some of you might know these hacks already are using these hacks so that's great and if you at any time have any any comments any feedback to any of these hacks or you want to you know bring in your own experience or just add some other hacks that you personally use please feel free and share that in the comments i'm always curious always want to know um always want to know more hacks right hacks are great they help all of us they benefit we all benefit from these hacks so please share and let me know where you're watching from right now still waiting for that in the comments let me know guys just leave a high in the comments too if you don't want to share where you're watching from that's fine just let me know you're here i can see people are watching but i i don't know who right so if you want to say hi i'd appreciate that in the comments thank you and then uh yeah we can maybe jump right in into our first hack of today let me take a sip of my coffee and then we can jump right in also if you're listening to this as a podcast episode thank you so much for the download and if you didn't know we always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes so you can search for the Teflon t-cell podcast by itt on whatever podcast platform you use and you'll find us and you can take us with you on the go if you're interested in just audio only um so anyway hello Pedro hi how are you doing awesome all right perfect all right let's jump right in with our first travel hack a very important one as well a lot of people kind of forget to do that that's why i put it first um i actually just started doing this a couple years ago um especially during COVID and things like that it's very useful so um should i yeah i just keep it like this for now okay so hack number one make copies of important documents okay very important digital copies and also physical copies so photocopy your passport your driver's license and other essential documents and have them with you when you travel very important what happens if you lose your passport if you don't you know if somebody uh steals your bag or something or you just lose it um you have a copy and so not only having a physical copy but also create digital copies of essential documents again like your passport your visa your boarding pass employment offers your contract all of these things during COVID we had these um vaccination things the vaccination papers so have copies of that physical copies photocopies but also digital copies so that if you lose the physical ones as well or you know if you travel a lot of times maybe if you go to a country with where it's rainy season and it rains like crazy and all of your stuff is soaking wet and your papers they just get soaked you can't use them anymore then you have digital copies so that's very important and store these copies in a cloud um or share them also with someone that you trust family member a friend to excuse me to ensure you have backups in case of loss what I also do I always keep a digital copy in my dropbox in the cloud but also on my phone just on my phone as a photo file so you also have that so that's very important yes Pedro says doing great thanks you I'm doing great as well thank you so much Pedro and Pedro also says file every document that belief is important that you believe is important exactly yes so just have copies of your documents and you know for a lot of people is like I'm not going to need that why do I have to print this out everything's fine but what if what if it's not fine you know it's it's fine until it's not and you don't want to be in a situation where you don't have any of your documents and it's just very bad if you have a copy you can easily go if you lose your passport you have a copy of your passport a physical copy a digital copy you can easily go to your nearest embassy and get it get a temporary passport so you can travel back home all these things are just a lot easier when you have copies so just keep that in mind half number one make copies of important documents like I said I didn't do this in the past I just started doing this a couple of years ago and yeah it's important to keep your stuff together all right so that was hack number one so I hope you you all are going to do that as well physical copies and also digital copies that's very important let's look at hack number two so a lot of people if you haven't traveled much yet you might not know this but you need to be aware of the 100 milliliters rule for liquids right so what does that mean there's a rule for carrying liquids on flights and this is typically for your carry-on so not your checked luggage your checked suitcase can have liquids with over 100 milliliters but your carry-on you can only have like these little ones that are no more than 100 milliliters and typically they need to be in a clear see-through ziploc bag bag or thing at the airport so it depends on the airport I've been at airports where even at one airport I was recently where they were like you don't have to take it out they have such advanced scanners that they don't really you don't have to take it out anymore it's fine other airports they are not maybe that advanced they don't have this new technology you have to take it out so it depends on the airport just be aware of that the worst thing that could happen is that you bring something that's too big you know your whatever it is your liquids any any skincare or also water right and then you just have to leave it there you have to throw it away they take it you can't bring it with you and if if it's something that's really expensive because skincare is expensive and you have like a toner or whatever it is it's over 100 milliliters you have to give it to them if to throw it away so just be aware of that another thing if you can't put it in your in your checked luggage or you don't have a checked luggage you only travel with a carry-on what you can do is using click and collect services at airports for items like perfumes or also medications to avoid confiscation and a click and collect service is basically a service that allows you to buy this stuff like duty-free online and then you pick it up at the airport and it'll it'll come in like a duty-free bag and these items can be over 100 milliliters and then it's fine so if there's something like that if you want to buy just be aware of that you can just order it and then pick it up at the airport but it's just one thing a lot of people might not think about the 100 milliliter thing because we've seen this all right we're at airports and there's people in front of us at the security check and all of them have to throw away their waters or you know they get angry because they have to throw away an expensive skincare item and things like that so just be aware of that beforehand 100 milliliters for liquids in your carry-on and it needs to be in a clear little ziploc bag that was hack number two all right moving on to number three something also a lot of people don't think about right bring a travel adapter and bring the right travel adapter so what does that mean different countries in here's a small little image of all the different types of power plugs and things but different countries have different outlets power outlets they use different plugs and things right so for example here in korea they use this type which is what this is too small i can't see that but is it type uh e maybe so these ones whereas in the us they look very different right so if you bring something from the us to korea for example it wouldn't fit because in korea use this so research before you go what kind of power outlet what type of plugs they use in this country and then buy a travel adapter they also sell travel adapters that literally have every single option oh i should have put mine out i have one and you can press different buttons and then the different plugs come out depending on what you need there's one for uk there's this one there's a us one whatever it is they have these the most common types and then you can use it so always carry the right adapters for for your electronic devices just to make sure you have access to your power points especially if you're a taffle teacher on the move so that's very important to you you have access to your stuff right your laptop if you're working as a teacher you need your laptop right um you don't know how many times i've spoken to people who moved to a new country and they didn't think about this and then they're like oh i can't charge my laptop because the plugs are different the power plugs i need to get a new charger takes a couple of days until you get it or you find one and it's just a whole mess and it can't be avoided you just get a adapter and it's fine or you just research and then get the right kind and maybe if you're lucky they use the same one as in your country and then you don't have to worry about it at all but most of the time just make sure you research that because this is also a detail a lot of people might forget and then adding on to that so especially when you're traveling you're in a hotel room or you're in a studio apartment you're in a small place this would be hack oh hack number four and there are not many outlets always pack a power strip so especially if you need a lot of electronic devices so this is hack number four pack a power strip okay so carry a compact power strip with multiple outlets because some you might only have one adapter okay so you can use your adapter with the power strip or you get a power strip there and then you can use the different outlets but a power strip is just very convenient you can charge multiple devices simultaneously using just one single power adapter and it makes it very convenient to keep your electronics powered up especially in locations with limited power outlets so a lot of hotel rooms as you might know or even your apartment your teacher apartment might not have that many outlets especially a hotel room think about it I always most of the time when I'm in a hotel room there's just never enough outlets so it's really really difficult to charge everything you kind of have to manage what you know what's higher priority to charge when you have your camera you have your phone you have your laptop you have your all the other things your batteries I have a drone as well so I have to charge that it's it's a lot so having a power strip with you is just very convenient also when you travel especially as if you travel longer term for example as a digital nomad and you also work from there you teach online from this place having a power strip can just make a big difference so that's my hack number four pack a power strip then we have hack number five so this is the wi-fi section and there's two hacks that kind of tie into that so one is portable wi-fi so you might not know this but there's actually um they're also called sometimes pocket wi-fi but you can invest in a portable wi-fi device or mobile data plans to stay connected especially if you're a digital nomad or a frequent traveler just be cautious of roaming charges and location based conditions so what you can do you can either buy your own and use that for whenever you travel so basically what it is yeah it's a portable wi-fi device so and it sometimes works for multiple phones or multiple devices as well so you have your pocket wi-fi and you can connect a multiple devices to it so you can connect your phone to it you can connect your laptop to it whatever you need to research though how many devices you can connect to one device one portable wi-fi thing sometimes only one is allowed depends on the brand what a lot of airports or countries are doing you can actually pick up and rent a portable wi-fi device as well this is what i've done in the past as well before so you can already kind of reserve your portable wi-fi device in advance and then when you arrive at your destination airport you can pick it up there will be like what are usually it's like telecom or whatever their you know the national telecom brand is they would have like little booths at the airport and you can pick it up from there or if you didn't have a reservation you can just i guess if they have availability you can get it from there as well directly after you arrive and then there's typically different plans so like a three-day plan a seven-day plan two-week plan a whole month plan different pricing and then you have this portable wi-fi device and sometimes again more than one device can use it so if you travel with a friend or a partner you could use it together and just be connected that way that is hack number five i've used that before very convenient also just you need to make sure that you need to charge this portable wi-fi device as well so make sure you keep an eye on the battery life of the device as well if it runs out of battery you don't have any internet so that's also one thing that's why it's good to have a power strip so you can charge all of your devices again see how it's all connected if you don't want to get a portable device because again it's it's it's a device right it's about the size maybe as um like this depends maybe like this size so it's another thing that you have to have in your bag all the time in your backpack maybe heavy um so maybe it's not for everybody right if you don't if you don't travel with a lot of stuff you don't want it it's too bulky you can opt for a sim card right you can get a sim card nowadays again at at airports when you travel you see travel sim cards they will have this as an option again for different days three days seven days ten days a month whatever um you can get a sim card just put it in your phone super easy but this is also something i would recommend doing obviously when you move to your new country your new host country as a tefl teacher get a local sim card right um you don't want to use your sim card from back home it's too expensive um and a lot of times actually especially in korea um having a korean phone number you will need your korean phone number for a lot of things to register a bank account um to do many things and all ties in kind of with your phone number so having a local phone number is often necessary and you need to get a local sim card so get a local sim card in your host country and then maybe when you travel and you prefer a wi-fi portable wi-fi device do that um or also get a travel sim card in a different country when you travel but yeah instead of relying on expensive international roaming definitely get a local sim card and this will just give you affordable access to data and calls allowing you to stay connected without incurring hefty charges so and usually um what my place of work did when i first arrived in korea they will help you get it so they will go together to the local whatever phone sim card shop and set this up for you you know someone from your school when you move abroad they will help you with things like that they will also help you with setting up a bank account typically you're not like thrown in cold water there's usually someone there and help you pager says sim card is more convenient yeah you know it depends if you're like traveling with a friend and you want to save costs or split the costs maybe a portable wi-fi device is a better idea it just depends or if you bring another device like a laptop and you want that to have access to the internet as well um yeah some people prefer the portable wi-fi device other people prefer a sim card they do the same thing so definitely just depends up personal preference all right then we're jumping into hack number seven download offline maps so this might be something you haven't even considered before if you have good on you um i actually haven't tried this i tried it before um something i haven't thought about before when i traveled but i was in a situation where i should have done this and then i think the next day or as soon as i got to my hotel i was like oh i need to download these offline maps um so basically what this means is just download offline maps or take screenshots of essential maps in case you don't have access to a reliable internet connection and this can be crucial for navigating a new country right take screenshots you never know the internet connection in different countries varies even when you have a portable wi-fi device or you have a sim card sometimes you just don't have a connection you know the the wi-fi the internet in different countries is maybe not what you're used to from back home and you might have no signal so then what do you do if you're out and about you're traveling you're navigating where you need to go you're screwed if you don't have offline maps so a lot of i think on google maps they do it as well so typically um map apps will allow you to download maps for like whole cities offline so that means you don't have to be connected to the internet to use the maps and to navigate um so you can do that in advance you need to do this though while you are connected to the internet so make sure you kind of check it out when you're still in your hotel room where you have internet or still back home in your in your country and you download these offline maps so that whenever you are in a situation you don't have internet and you need to use your map that you have it download it offline and also this kind of ties into with the maps research which map services or which map apps um are available in the country you are visiting because some countries don't have google maps they use other services um especially in asian countries where i travel a lot um a lot of times google maps just doesn't work this is the case for example in china they use their own maps in korea also google maps works but not really well so research that beforehand and make sure you get the right map and navigation app a lot of cities will also have public transportation apps for example in Seoul there is a Seoul subway map which can be super useful so you can type in you know where you need to go what station it will show you exactly what subway line to take where to transfer etc etc so a lot of cities and countries do that so research beforehand what kind of navigation apps map apps you will need before you go so you have it ready download it on your phone and you know it's working you know it's the right one and download offline maps as well if that makes sense all right let me take or drink some more coffee here and moving on to hack number eight let's have a look oh this is about finding cheap and last-minute flights so this hack is more for when you're already in your new country for traveling abroad most of the time in many many countries actually your employer the school they will pay for your flight from your country to there a lot of times depending on where you want to teach some countries don't so you have to you know pay for your own flight but a lot of countries will pay the flight for their teachers so you don't have to worry about that really because you don't pay for it but this is more for like you're you're in your new country you're ready to explore maybe a school vacation is coming up or some public holidays and you want to go somewhere and explore right so always use flight comparison websites like Skyscanner or Kayak or Google flights to quickly find great last-minute deals right and one important hack as well or with that is to just stay flexible with your travel dates if you can of course if there's set public holidays or set vacation times you can't really be flexible but if you're flexible you know if you want to go this weekend next weekend the weekend after it's also flexible so stay flexible with your travel dates and also the times and then you can get even lower fares on these flights also a mistake a lot of people are making for example if you live in Korea you would search for Incheon Airport the biggest airport in Korea lots of flights lots of connections but sometimes if you explore smaller nearby airports you actually can save you could actually save a little bit of money a little bit more money so there's different there's actually a couple of airports like in Korea for example that are smaller that also fly to really good destinations and you can check that out and save and just be open to spontaneous adventures and set fare alerts for your preferred destinations that's also a really good idea I use use to use sky scanner a lot and they have fare alerts so you could put in like I want to go to wherever Cambodia for a week give me an alert when the price is the lowest for the flight and then if we send you an email as soon as the price decreased another hack also with finding cheap flights is to use the incognito mode on your browser so it doesn't track your IP address it doesn't track who you are on the internet basically or you can also use a VPN to change your IP address because what happens is the more you look up flights let's say you look up flights every day you look up flights okay with your laptop with your computer that flight website the flight comparison website will recognize you and will know oh you already looked at this flight before you looked at this flight before and it'll show you higher prices basically because it knows you're interested and you want to go there so it shows you higher prices until you book it but if you switch to incognito mode or a VPN to disguise your IP address they don't know who you are they don't know you've searched this before and they typically show you a lower price so that's kind of what a lot of people are saying and how it usually works so keep that in mind and maybe next time use your incognito mode or a VPN if you have one just to get the best deal for your flight and maybe another thing with flights I know this from Korea there's public holidays I know this is the case also in Japan and in China where they have these big public holidays right where everybody travels well sometimes that also means that you have to pay the highest prices for the flights for the trains and all of that and you have to be very quick with make your reservations so if you live in a place like this where they have these huge public holidays where like the whole country is on the move literally maybe avoid these days to travel and just stay in your town in your city and explore there just typically then there would be less people around as well a lot of people are doing that in Seoul when a lot of when it's the holidays and people who work in Seoul actually go out of Seoul and go to their hometowns a lot of people will then a lot of expats who live in Seoul kind of enjoy that a lot more because Seoul is a lot less crowded and they can enjoy the attractions more when it's less crowded when all of these locals are kind of out of the city so that's another thing to keep in mind if you can be flexible but of course as a teacher if you have your set hours and your contract and your set holidays school holidays and things like that you might not be that flexible but if you're a freelance teacher an online teacher you can schedule that that way perhaps so that's just another thing to keep in mind good okay so then we're moving into hack number nine which is mitigate jet lag so how can you mitigate jet lag there's actually a couple of things you can do because jet lag is annoying especially when you travel very far and then depending on which direction you go east or west or north or south whatever well north or south actually doesn't really matter much right but however wherever you're going however long the flight is you might lose a whole day or two right due to jet lag you're just tired you need to sleep etc etc which you know isn't too bad but there's a few things you can do to just make it better so that you don't lose that many days so a great way to do this to mitigate jet lag is to gradually shift your schedule already before the trip to ease the jet lag effects um i actually have not tried this to be honest because i think it's really difficult to do we all have our schedule right but if you can try and just gradually maybe a week before your trip try and gradually already switch your sleeping habits maybe to adjust to the new time that might help a little bit um what a lot of people are also saying helps is using light therapy classes you can sync with the new time zone so i've actually seen this i have not used this myself i really want to but there's people wearing these light therapy glasses on the airplane they're like blue light or something like that you can google this you can see them there you get a pair and apparently they are they work apparently so i i think that's really great i would love to try this but of course uh they're not that cheap i think um so if you don't want to buy that and if you don't have time to gradually switch your schedule what you can do that also helps a lot is drinking lots of water during your trip before your trip just getting hydrated will really really help i always notice this when i travel when i'm on an airplane the air is so dry my whole face my whole skin just dries out um and so if you drink a lot of water that will also help with jet lag you should skip caffeine and alcohol just to prevent dehydration because caffeine and alcohol they dehydrate you and also give you sleep disruption now for a lot of people they like having a glass of wine or two on the plane and then they can sleep well um i don't think that works for me but it might work for you and then if all else fails you can always consider melatonin uh with professional guidance to regulate your sleep so these are like sleeping aids sleeping pills i've also done that before on an airplane you just pop a pill and then you can sleep really really well as well normally i actually sleep really well on an airplane i can always sleep but there's people who just can not sleep on airplanes um so if you're one of those people follow these steps then maybe it's worth investing in one of these glasses or it's worth you know gradually shifting your schedule beforehand if you really can't sleep and it just destroys you after and you're really dead for like a week then you might just need to do a little bit more preparing beforehand to mitigate the jet lag so you can enjoy your trip all right perfect i think that's it for hack number nine and then we're moving on to hack number 10 which is don't change currency at the airport um a lot of people do this right especially first time travelers i think um you just go to the airport when you arrive there you exchange or in your local airport you exchange the currency for the other currency just avoid doing that i know there's these currency exchange books everywhere and it's like why why not use them why not that's why they're there for but they usually just have really really hefty extra fees and unfavorable exchange rates they're just too expensive so instead what you can do is you can either from your home country get a travel debit card that offers favorable exchange rates i used to have one like that that was really good um or what i typically do because nowadays um you know in this global world it typically works everywhere i have my local debit card that i can then use at atms when i travel and just get money out that way um and the exchange rate is a lot better when you use that card you just go to the ATM and get the money straight out in local currency Pedro said this is the last night learned in my last trip it was really bad oh what happened tell us what happened with the currency exchange Pedro i'm sorry to hear that tell us what happened and then what do what what will you do differently now let us know so i always do that or um bring a credit card and just try and pay as much as you can with your credit card and have a little bit of cash but i always use my debit card at local atms you just make sure you call your bank or you visit your bank before your trip and tell them that you're going to this in this country and if you can use the card at a local ATM so my debit card has a master card sign on it and that means that it works apparently but yeah make sure that your debit card has this function can do that and then also another hack for um when you're teaching abroad when you're living abroad and you want to let's say you want to send money back home or somebody from home wants to send you money um typically bank transfers from like for example US bank to a Korean bank is very expensive right so there's a lot of services nowadays like wise or also paypal but i think nowadays wise is even better where you can send money online uh in seconds and the fees are very very small very favorable so a lot of people are doing that use services like wise or paypal to kind of send money back home or from home to you to your new country that's a very easy way um i've been using wise now for a while i really really enjoy it i've used paypal before um i like wise a lot more now than paypal so it's super easy you can set up a virtual online account in different countries in different currencies for example you have a virtual US bank account or a virtual german bank account or a virtual Korean bank account and so it's very easy to transfer money there um very minimal fees so i recommend doing that because the worst thing you know you know your heart earned money and you don't want to lose a lot of it by paying these ridiculous exchange rates and fees right we all work hard for our money so it's important that we keep most of it okay then moving on to hack number 11 which is bringing a first aid kit also something a lot of people don't think about number one a first aid kit for when you move abroad to your new country and also when you travel so let's talk about that in a second but Pedro says with the currency exchange so I did some currency exchange and the rate was unfavorable what I do now is that I go to the local bank to get exchanged prior to my trip that's another good tip yeah you can do that too you can go to your local bank instead of at the airport you'll also get a better rate there that's true well I'm glad you learned your lesson Pedro I'm sorry you had to learn it the hard way though okay so back to our first aid kit so always have sort of a first aid travel kit when you're traveling and it should include like basic supplies like bandages antiseptics medications like pain relievers right um or something for diarrhea it's always very important depending on what part of the world you travel to right um personal care items wet wipes sunscreen sunscreen actually can be very expensive in different countries I've noticed so I always bring my own as well emergency contacts also in first aid manual how to do things and then just personalized items so if you need an epi pen for example also make sure for when you traveling no when you're traveling or when you're moving abroad for us girls that you have your birth control you can go to your doctor and tell him hey I'm moving there and there for a year and they can give you a bigger stash of your birth control so you can have it or also things like contact lenses um that you have that with you that's very important make sure you arrange that before yeah it's just always better to be prepared for unexpected medical situations and it can save you the trouble of trying to obtain supplies in a foreign place with potential language barriers and sometimes depending on the country you know the the medicine might just not be the same standard as you're used to back home or you know I'm just used to this the painkillers and things that I use from back home I don't really trust anything that I don't know so it's just better to have like your own stash for things like bandages of course like you can just go to a local pharmacy and get bandages I don't think that that's a problem right for these basic things um antiseptics as well so maybe the basic things you can get anywhere but if you really are in an emergency you want to have all of that stuff already with you that just saves you time um because then you have to find a pharmacy and maybe it's clothes and whatnot and yeah language barrier etc so yeah bring a first aid kit and stock up on those important things yeah if you have allergies birth control contact lenses epi pens all of those things make sure you have a stash of those before you move abroad because then when you are abroad you have time to kind of find out how to get refills and you don't need them right away you still have some time so yeah pack number 11 bring a first aid kit all right pack number 12 and this kind of depends on everyone everyone's different but it's preventing travel boredom okay so if you're somebody who's just sitting on the airplane kind of playing with their fingers or whatever playing with their thumbs and don't know what to do and time just won't go by make sure you prepare beforehand so you have something to keep yourself occupied with a lot of people like to make the most of their travel downtime by staying productive and engaged so you could review and deepen your understanding of teaching materials right from your Tefl course you could review that when you move abroad to teach just kind of get back into it you can always prepare for upcoming lessons making your classroom time more effective another thing you can listen to Tefl podcasts for professional development while you travel as well or what I also really like to do is learning some essential local phrases and expressions you can do that as well on the plane or whatever you can watch movies of course but sometimes that gets boring real quick as well so if you really want to stay productive and engaged you can just follow these things review your Tefl course material listen to a podcast like the ITTT podcast we do have a podcast I mentioned this earlier but we always turn our live sessions into podcast episodes yeah red pursuit says watch movies on the phone or laptop yes yeah so some airplanes they actually have a really bad entertainment section they have really bad movies in them so if you have a favorite movie a favorite show or something you want to make sure you download it onto your phone beforehand onto your laptop beforehand or if you want to play a game or something like that make sure you have that on your phone make sure it works offline as well so that you're enough bored while you travel basically but again this is personal preference however you want to keep yourself entertained different ways to do that then we have hack number 13 also very important and also a lot of people don't think about this but it is getting the right travel insurance so some countries they provide insurance during your stay as an EFL teacher but this does not include other travel destinations right so when you move abroad to let's say you move abroad to Korea you move abroad to Japan wherever you typically get local health insurance as part of your teaching contract right of your work but it doesn't cover other places if you leave Korea or if you leave Japan that doesn't count as travel insurance so in this case you want to invest in comprehensive travel insurance that covers medical emergencies trip cancellations and also lost or stolen belongings it's just as a TEFL teacher having that reliable insurance can offer a piece of mind and also financial protection and I never really thought about travel insurance before but I was younger but it's something I now always get when I travel because you never know what happens you never know what especially I feel like we always say this nowadays but in today's state of the world you never know what happens and then you need travel insurance you need to you know get transported back home god forbid or something like that just you never know what happens something gets stolen you know I once traveled with somebody on the train in China and their laptop was stolen you know things like that and if you ensure that you can get your money back or part of the money back so always do that always make sure you get travel insurance and if you have to go to a hospital back home you keep or in your travel destination keep the receipts of everything have them issued if possible in English and then you can provide that to the insurance and you can get the money back later so that's also very important always keep receipts of these important things especially think like medical you know hospital visits things like that you can then claim that at your insurance later so yeah hack number 13 always get travel insurance very important birth it because it's your health it's your body make sure you have it hack number 14 language learning apps so it's always useful to learn a little bit of the language of the country that you're moving to or also traveling to especially just saying please thank you can just go such a long way and luckily in today's day and age there's so many easy ways to learn a little language and just by downloading a language learning app specific to your destination's language you can easily just learn some basic words and phrases that will really make a difference and you know get you closer to the locals and connect with the culture and things like that like I said even basic phrases they can really go a long way in connecting with the locals and just navigating day-to-day life in foreign countries if you want to do even more learning you can take online lessons before your trip I did that at the beginning of the year for a trip to Japan I took a couple of Japanese lessons with a teacher one-on-one online and it was really great I was able to use these phrases when I was in Japan I was able to read some Japanese I was so proud of myself and it's just a whole different feeling when you travel because you actually understand a little bit of the country of the culture it's great I love it and especially when you venture outside of bigger cities where people might not speak English that well when you can order food when you can buy something in the local language it's just so helpful for you but also you know just nice to connect with the locals and it's just a whole different way of traveling when you're able to speak that language even if it's just a little bit it just helps it goes such a long way so I really recommend it right now I'm still learning Japanese with Duolingo for example that's a very popular language learning app all free as well they have a premium plan of course but they have a free plan it's really good where you actually really learn something so pick it up it's super useful I recommend it it's a lot of fun as well and then finally the last hack hack number 15 travel as light as possible so something I need to kind of get better at but whenever possible travel with just a carry-on to avoid checked baggage fees and reduce the risk of losing your luggage of course if your checked bag is already included in your ticket price there's no problem there's no harm in doing that right but most of the time if you use different airlines you have to pay for every single bag every single thing you you bring on to the plane it's more expensive so if you just travel as light as possible just to carry on is usually cheaper it also saves you time at the airport since you don't have to wait at the baggage claim you can just go out and just always pack efficiently and try and mix and match clothing items to create various outfits during your trip we've all seen this maybe on Pinterest on tiktok all these different things you can combine these clothing items to create different outfits I'm also not very good at it to be honest so I need to get better at traveling as light as possible sometimes it's really hard but sometimes you just have to and yeah also keep in mind that you know if you're traveling to a place and you're staying there for a long time you can buy new things there and you can always wash your clothes right even I did a backpacking trip through Thailand once for three to four weeks and I think halfway through the trip you know we just went to a local laundromat and washed our stuff so you can always do that um and wash your stuff and get you know clean clothes again that's always an option and especially me I travel a lot alone and then having too many bags is a problem it can get very heavy if you're just one person so that's also a reason why you should travel as light as possible or you invest in one of these really good backpacking backpacks that's another thing you can always travel by backpack that can be another hack and useful for traveling as light as possible so these are my hacks just something to keep in mind I hope maybe you learned something new along the way but here's just a quick recap of all the things we mentioned all the things we talked about so we talked about making copies physical actual copies and digital copies of important documents very important your passport your visa all of that make copies of it store it on the cloud but also have actual copies of it with you when you travel then be aware of the 100 milliliter rule for liquids if there's anything that's over 100 milliliters in your hand luggage you have to give it up you have to throw it away bring the right travel adapters just research what power outlets what power plugs they use in the country that you're visiting it might be different than your country so you just want to be prepared um and then also pack a power strip so you can charge multiple devices a lot of hotel rooms they come just with one or two power plugs not enough to charge all of your camera your laptop your phone your drone whatever you have I have a lot of stuff so I definitely need to do that get portable wi-fi or a local sim card when you travel so you are connected don't use the data from your home country typically that's very expensive right get portable wi-fi or a local sim card in the other country so it's cheaper download offline maps so you can navigate even if you don't have any internet there's an emergency you can still use your maps offline find cheap and less minute flights with the tips that I gave you and also mitigate jet lag when you can if you know that you're having a hard time with jet lag if you know that you can't really sleep on an airplane you might follow these steps right it will help you don't change currency at the airport the fees are too high the exchange rate is crazy so either do it at your local bank as Pedro suggested or just get money from the ATM there make sure your card can do that your card works use a credit card just don't exchange money at the airport bring a first aid kit make sure you have all of your necessary medications if you have any allergies birth control contact lenses things like that you have your stash with you prevent travel boredom so make sure you have your entertainment for when you travel get the right travel insurance very important get travel insurance and then make sure there's so many different kinds of travel insurance there's one that just works for you maybe it covers your phone it covers your expensive camera things like that um learn use language learning apps I always really recommend that like I said knowing just please and thank you and hello and goodbye can make a big difference for your trip and lastly travel as light as possible when you can to avoid any additional fees and also for yourself if you're traveling alone and you have like a bunch of bags it's very difficult sometimes to get from one place to another so these are my 15 travel hacks for Tefal teachers traveling Tefal teachers I hope you enjoyed them I hope you learned something new today and then just some information how you can find out how you can reach um ITTT oh and there's a spelling mistake in general of course that just one end here general information um you can always email us at courses at tesal-tefal.com and again our website is tefalcourse.net and this is how you can reach us on social media but whenever you have any questions about Tefal TESOL our courses reach out we're more than happy to speak with you courses at tesol-tefal.com and then I'll be able to answer some questions that you might have about today's topic or about anything else related to Tefal or TESOL if you have any now is a great time to ask um and again you have this 30 percent off discount code so you can scan this QR code or you can use the link I'm just gonna share the link again with you let's see I think I shared the wrong link earlier but it also has the discount code on it oh no we still want to see the slide okay so let's see this is the correct link the apply link all right I'm gonna share that again with you guys 30 percent off here we go this is the link looks like this ends with fb live minus linda this will get you a 30 discount off of any Tefal or TESOL course it so you can get started with your English teaching career um and yeah if you have any questions I'll still be on for a couple more minutes to answer them so let me know don't be shy type away in the comments and I'll just finish my coffee and does anybody have any trips coming up and planned maybe you can use some of these travel hacks let me know in the comments where you going what's your next upcoming trip curious let me know and then just as always like and subscribe stay tuned for next week's live session if you have any uh topic suggestions and ideas let me know we've uh I'm always looking for new you know ideas what to talk about so let me know if there's something you want me to really talk about next week um teaching related Tefal TESOL related let me know and I will do that but yeah I hope you enjoyed today's session I did it was fun makes me want to go on a trip now really makes me want to travel maybe I need to check out some flights after this and book a trip also if you're watching this later or as a replay you can always leave your comments below and then we'll get back to it later as well okay Pedro says I enjoyed your suggestion about travel hacks I'm traveling to Peru and Ecuador in December I am so jealous Pedro Peru has been on my list for ever since I was a teenager I don't know I've always been fascinated by Peru really want to go to Peru um so I'm really jealous I really want to go to is December a good time to go to Peru need to search so I really really really want to go to Peru as well all right uh Ray says is online teaching getting oversaturated just curious and your opinion um that's a great question I would say no I know it's getting super popular and big but it's also because so many new platforms are also popping up and the more you know the more platforms are popping up of course the demand because the demand is also growing especially since covid and everybody did you know took lessons from home and things like that um there's really a huge boom and it's continuing until now there's a huge boom and so more and more online platforms are popping up because the demand is also high and then they also need more teachers so I don't think it's getting oversaturated um there's still opportunities maybe like the big really big platform sometimes you see that when you apply for you know at at one of the big platforms that they don't hire any teachers who speak a certain language at the moment because they have enough that can happen but I don't think it's getting oversaturated we're not there yet I think the demand is still very very high um that's why a lot of online teachers are still working and getting hired so I don't think it's getting oversaturated right now it's still very popular a good um field to get into I would say okay Pedro says yes so Peru is or December is a good time to go there interesting maybe one day one day I'll go to Peru great well I hope you have a wonderful time there Pedro you need to tell me all about it in December after December amazing all right well thank you so much for the questions if there's no more coming through I am gonna sign off now um I really enjoyed today's session I hope you did too maybe you learned something new today or you know it was just interesting to watch um please tune in again next week if you have any suggestions let me know and until then just stay happy stay healthy and I'm excited to see you again next week I really hope I do and thank you again so much and have a wonderful weekend and then I'm gonna say goodbye thank you all bye