this post was submitted on 22 Apr 2026
1 points (100.0% liked)

Travel

160 readers
3 users here now

Ask questions, share adventures and information, have fun!


FAQ


"How much does traveling cost?"

Cost of living(rent, utilities, data/wifi, groceries) is $500 USD per month for most countries, up to $1000 for most others.


"Health care and insurance?"

Health care and insurance abroad are both pennies on the US dollar for the highest quality of medical care


"What about visas?"

You usually don't need them; when necessary, visas are almost all entirely online: a fifteen minute e-form and nominal fee offset in your first day by the drastically lower cost of living abroad.


"How do you make money while abroad?"

Any job that nets you $500+ a month works. There are almost 2 billion English students globally right now, so native English speakers have lucked into a guaranteed job on or offline.


"What qualifications do I need as an English teacher?"

Some countries and schools require a TEFL certificate or prefer candidates with an associate's degree depending on the position, but if you want to teach English, all you need is to be a fluent English speaker.



Rules

  1. No misinformation

  2. Be civil

founded 4 months ago
MODERATORS
 

A couple Beijing hostel travelers struggling with the tones here asked me for advice, and this always works: you can learn these tones in about a minute, then memorize vocab, then you can speak Mandarin. There's not much grammar and no gendered vocabulary.

Tones:

Aside from the neutral tone, which means you don't need to place any special emphasis on a syllable, there are the four flat, rising, falling then rising, and falling tones - bad descriptors.

length, intensity, volume are not described.

Most English speakers know what robot(flat), question(rising), unsure(falling and rising) and angry(falling) sound like intuitively, it's how we talk.

ni2hao3 is question, then unsure.

ni2 question, like you're asking a question - "knee?"

hao3 unsure, "yea-a?" first syllable falling, second rising.

bu4yao4 - angry, angry. "boo!yow!"

It takes even less time to learn when you hear the four examples in audio of course, so here's a short podcast episode explaining this method.

no comments (yet)
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
there doesn't seem to be anything here