Year: 2021

My 3 favourite Asia Life-Travel-Food Youtube Channels

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3 Family friendly Youtubers sharing life, food, culture in Thailand, Korea and China Paddy Doyle in Thailand Paddy Doyle in Thailand is a friendly, wholesome, family friendly Youtuber, currently exploring all 77 provinces of Thailand on a little motorbike that he named ‘Dreamy’. Great viewing for anyone who has always wondered: “Why aren’t we seeing more about Thailand outside of the well known tourist hotspots?” Paddy is doing a great service to broadening all of our horizons and the next time we visit we should all take a leaf out of his book and get off the comfortable beaten path because it’s a big country with so much more to offer than the same same places.  From his Channel’s About page: “About Paddy — I LOVE to entertain, educate, and inspire people to get out there and have adventures, so let’s explore the world, eat new and fantastic foods, and let’s just spread some positive vibes as we do so!” ABOVE is one of his recent videos that I missed to watch and I only noticed because I went …

I recommend that no matter what you do in life: Regularly collect feedback. Why? (read on)

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Sharing one of my very best tips that is entirely free but will cost you action taking and courage. The perceived risk is high, the actual risk minuscule. Click on the title or on ‘more’ to read this and take action. If you want to change how you feel in life then here is your opportunity, it’s 100% in your own hands. And there is no email link or trap. Just do it is all there is to this one. Are you ready?

Use my link to sign up to Wise & save on international money transfers (compared to Paypal or your traditional bank)

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One way to support my blog, the work & time that it takes to write, is to use my Link to sign up to Wise. Wise offers hands down THE best international currency conversion when you send money to yourself (or to friends, family, businesses) between countries. Wise also has a borderless bank account with wallets in multiple currencies. This allows you to get paid and/or safely store your money in multiple currencies. When you use my link to sign up and use Wise for your money transfers abroad (you can do this without a bank account with them) I will receive a bonus to my own Wise account. I ONLY recommend Wise because the company has saved me well over $1000 in the last few years. (I periodically send money between the UK and USA and occasionally receive payments for Art work or services from abroad into my Transferwise account.) Here is my WISE sign-up link. This is called an affiliate link, because I get a reward for telling you about Wise. In case …

How do you build good credit as a recent immigrant in the USA? (German edition)

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Question: I have received my green card. Do you have any advice for “building good credit” in the American sense? I have no US bank account, no debt, but also no clue about the best way to start Thank you! BoA Konto aufmachen. Dann Credit card beantragen (habe das in Person gemacht), deposit zahlen (bekommst DU ein Jahr später zurück). Annual fee zahlen. Im 2. Jahr anrufen und dann heben die diese Gebühre auf, dann ist die Kreditkarte kostenlos. Brav pünktlich jeden Monat mindestens den Mindestbetrag zahlen damit es keinen negativen credit rating gibt. Nutze Deinen Kredit aber nie mehr als 30% von dem was Dir zur Verfügung steht. (Kredit: $1000, dann nutze nicht mehr als $300.) Ziel: 2-3 Kreditkarten haben, sie alle nur minimal nutzen und immer brav pünktlich abzahlen. nach dem ersten Jahr mal deinen credit rating nachschlagen. Wenn er gut ist dann für die zweite Kreditkarte beantragen, mit sign-up-bonus. 

Why I decided to teach English for $7 per hour

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Clue: it wasn’t for the money. I have always wanted to get an English teaching certificate and dip my toe further into the field of ESL. As a regular if infrequent German language tutor since the mid- 90’s and an occasional English language instructor during a spell of time when we lived in Padova in Italy I always wondered if I was missing out by not having taken my TEFL certificate. I always question if completing a Celta course wouldn’t improve my opportunities somehow. Well, a certificate, no certificate, can make anyone a perfect person. No matter what theories and practices you learn a good portion of success will be based on personality. But as I mentioned a while ago: I eventually signed up to a TEFL course when I realised that I had spending more hours looking at courses, over a period of 15 years, than it would have taken to complete one. I may be exaggerating but you get the idea: Don’t think about it for too long because you might as well …

Part time Dog sitter in the San Francisco since 2014

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Just an extremely short note from me today. I just realised that I haven’t written anything since returning to San Francisco a month ago. I’ll share my first impressions of 2021 in San Francisco and of our new apartment soon but for now just a little promotional post. : We got 50% of our longterm petsitting clients through Rover. You can communicate with your sitters ahead of time, check references and arrange a meet-and-greet. I think the greater risk is when people hire dog walkers like they order pizza. Price is also an additional point that may determine the quality of service. I tagged Rover because as a sitter I have had predominately positive experiences. For home & pet owners I recommend that you are discerning and ideally not in too much of a rush to hire so that you can meet sitters / walkers in person and consider your options. Have a list of questions ready to ask and a good list of instructions for your pet’s needs. http://sit.rover.com/p2H3j < this is a referral …

I started teaching English online

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It’s not exactly a career move but I have always wanted to get a TEFL qualification and dip my toes in tutoring / teaching English online. It’s NOT a particularly rational bucket list item as the pay is not even nearly a living wage; unless of course you really specialise and throw your WHOLE heart and a lot of time into it. I on the other hand am only dedicating a corner of a heart chamber for now. In my first week being registered on italki I already have 14 lesson bookings! I might maybe add German to my offerings at some point but for now I am just irrationally spending my time getting paid some peanuts to meet people around the world and cheerlead their English language learning efforts. Something tells me that I am a nerd. Luckily I love nerds. For the slow pokes in the back: I am a longterm fan girl of this teaching platform, I am also taking language lessons not just offering them there. https://www.italki.com/i/ref/C6c6ee?hl=en If you are potentially …

I have tried these English teaching platforms. – as a tutor and as a student

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I’ll share my experiences applying as a tutor to teach English online with several companies. Italki, Preply, Verbling, LivXP, Wyzant, Craigslist. Let me know which additional platforms you would like me to explore and review for you. I work for you for free.