I am on my way to teach English in Thailand!
Until recently, I had a corporate job in the refrigeration industry in South Africa. I was the branch manager of the Midrand (Johannesburg, South Africa) branch of a major wholesaler of refrigeration, air-conditioning and appliance spares in South Africa. I was focusing on making turnovers of $100,000.00 a month, entertaining clients at golf-days and fancy dinners. As a whole our Johannesburg branches collectively aimed to do a turnover of roughly $1.5 million per month. If theses targets were reached, the managers were duly rewarded, and handsomely so. I have a great car, live in a great little house, and spend my weekends partying with friends and enjoying life to the maximum.
So money is good, car is good, house is good, the dogs are the happiest dogs in the world even. But then, slowly but surely, it started to hit me. At what cost is all of this to me? And don't get me wrong, it isn't as if I have Ferrari money or anything. I am just living the life where I think I am a big shot and try to impress everyone around me. But to get to work in the morning involves waking up at 5 a.m and leaving home at 6 a.m to hopefully travel the 35 km distance within 2 hours so that I can open the branch on time. Once there it is the usual systematic and programmed process of switching on computers, doing the cash reconciliation for the precious days sales and then waiting for the first customer to walk in. From here it is a blur of phone calls, more ungrateful and unreasonable customers, endless phone calls and idle chit-chat with my staff. At the end of the day it's back into my car and at least another 2 hours of afternoon traffic. Eventually I arrive home and my wife and I debate about what is for dinner, we normally settle on the easiest option, watch a lame show on Netflix and by 10 a.m we are in bed, only to wake up tomorrow and press the 'repeat' button.
So finally, my wife and I have decided to quit our jobs, get rid of the cars and the house and make our way to Thailand to teach English. It is a complete and utter change from everything we know, even the country itself is literally on the other side of the world. And neither of us have ever been teachers or anything close to that. Instead of each having cars we will be transported by tuk-tuk, instead of a two bedroom house with a garden we will stay in a hotel room of some sort, and our salaries will be roughly 2/3 of what we earn now. But we are going to try and change lives. We no longer have to compete with our neighbors for bragging rights. We can now simply show them that we are free and living a life where we are rewarded by seeing a child that didn't understand the word 'hello' to seeing that same child be fluent in English because of what we taught them. And knowing that they will have that knowledge for the rest of their lives.
Good luck. I hope it works out well. I'm sure you'll have a great adventure in Thailand. I teach English in South Korea, and have often thought about teaching in somewhere like Thailand instead.
I've taught in Thailand for about two years, both as a volunteer in the mountains and as a private school teacher as well. If you're thinking about staying in Bangkok, you'll find opportunities that make well more than you need to be well off in Thailand. That comes with a toll, as the high wages come with a price that I wasn't really okay with. English isn't spoken regularly at all in the grand scheme of things in Thailand. Thai culture gets in the way of learning, because people just throw money at private schools, forcing their cute little kids to learn three different languages and to me, I had the experience to really see the rich kids bully one another. You won't make first world income as you branch out to smaller cities and villages, but I promise you, I think what we are looking for outside this money cog is love for people and compassion to share with the people around us. Small town folk will be happy to spend time and share their lives with you because money was never the most important thing in their lives. I hope you find what you're looking for in Thailand, and that Thai becomes a language you decide to learn too :)
All the best for your new adventure! We get so used to keeping up with the Joneses that we forget to enjoy life, so good for you!!
Hope that your journey into the future and your plans to teach English will bring you lots of lasting rewards. What a noble thing to do.