Program Overview:Benefits
- Travel for less. The program is designed to provide plenty of time to experience the Thai culture.
- Do you want to learn Thai or brush up on your language skills? GeoVisions will provide assistance in identifying suitable language lessons. Language classes are optional and at an additional expense.
- Exclusive teaching materials written by GeoVisions that you can download, print out and take with you. Plus your free subscription to the ESL Lounge provides many items to help you with your conversations such as worksheets, flash cards and games.
- Personalized help with lesson plans through our Help Me Teach desk. Having lesson plans is important and the most frequently requested assistance we receive. Some tutors just don't know where to start and need help identifying what to teach according to the ages of the family members. We are here to provide that assistance FREE.
- Tip the advantage to you by enhancing your resume by becoming a member of the Conversation Corps. Job: "Private Language Tutor." References: Global. It just doesn't get any better than that.
- You "meet" your family in advance through email, phone calls or Skype. Each family is interviewed by in-country staff.
- Join our Facebook page and begin the conversation now. Ask lots of questions in advance.
- Join our Online Community and read our volunteer's journals, view their photos and watch their videos. You can even head on over to the Thailand Group on the Community Pages and read about what's happening with our volunteers in Thailand right now!
Duties and Responsibilities
- Share your language with your host family up to 15 hours each week. Your should work out your schedule with your host family in advance or immediately upon arrival. Your primary reason for being there is to provide conversation in your language. The family knows that and they are expecting you to set the teaching schedule in advance and bring materials with you that will help the family learn. This is your responsibility. They are expecting to take the lead from you.
- Using GeoVisions' teaching materials that you download and bring with you, and your free Internet subscription to the online ESL Lounge along with your creativity, provide creative, fun and informative language sessions. If you get stumped and need specific help, our personalized Help Me Teach desk is always there for you to use.
- Keep your room tidy and clean and respect the host family's rules and habits. Sleeping late everyday, spending your days in your room and not being accessible to the family is not respectful. Nor is it respectful to be on the Internet, your iPad or cell phone most of the time.
- Manage your own personal expenses (telephone bills, clothing, entertainment and spending money).
What You Get For Your Program Fee
- Personalized Volunteer Placement through our Partner in Thailand.
- A comfortable, safe place to live in Thailand, including three meals per day when you are with your host family.
- An experienced U.S. based GeoVisions Program Manager who will serve as your coordinator and liaison with our in-country staff in Thailand.
- In-country basic language assistance.
- Professional, locally-based staff to provide orientation, supervision and guidance throughout your stay. In some instances due to location, it may be necessary to receive orientation by telephone or may require you to travel a short distance to the office to receive orientation there if you want it.
- Extensive medical, accident and dental insurance along with emergency evacuation insurance. Our insurance covers you up to $250,000 and carries a $0 deductible and is good for the entire duration of your program.
- Pre-departure materials, orientation information, full access to GeoVisions' Community Pages for in-depth information and access to former and current members of the Conversation Corps.
- A toll-free 24-hour emergency hotline in the U.S. Call collect from Thailand. Our emergency line is manned for true emergencies.
- Our own manual, A Tutor's Guide--Teaching English To Families and Children, which you download and take with you to Thailand.
- Premium online membership at the ESL-Lounge for access to game, flash-cards, worksheets.
- Unlimited access to GeoVisions' exclusive Help Me Teach desk, to assist you with ideas that relate to your situation.
Where Does Your Money Go?
In Thailand, your host family will not receive funds to pay for your room and board. But it costs a lot of money to maintain a program like Conversation Corps where GeoVisions must coordinate the needs and timing of tutors to the needs and timing of host families desiring a live-in tutor. The coordination of knowing when you can go to finding a good family match at the exact time you will be in Thailand is a delicate balancing act that requires a lot of coordination between multiple countries and can take anywhere from a few week to a few months.
- The money you pay for this program partially covers:
- Your insurance package. The insurance was specifically designed for members of the Conversation Corps. We want you to be fully covered for sickness as well as accident, and to the extent that you are not a financial burden on your host family.
- On Call / SearchLight service for you 24/7. This covers lost documents like Passports and airline tickets, where to find a local doctor or other services you may need. This service is used a lot, and much more often than the insurance.
- Liability insurance coverage. If something unpredictable happens, you need to know we're behind you.
- Costs to interview families in Thailand, support for those families, salaries and overheads in Thailand.
- Support costs in Thailand, as well as 24/7 manned phones in the U.S. and the training of those operators.
- Materials such as our teaching ideas manual, which you will download. That also includes other materials, the cost of maintaining our Community Pages and the subscription to the ESL Lounge.
- Support from our Help Me Teach desk, providing you individualized support and ideas when you need them.
- Fees to translate documents to English, when necessary.
- Credit Card processing fees, international wire fees to send your money to Thailand, and legal fees.
- The costs to prepare your extensive packet of materials to send to your host family and salaries for people to do that.
- Marketing costs we pay to GoAbroad, GoOverseas, TransitionsAbroad and elsewhere to find more tutors like you, and to marketing costs in Thailand to let families know about this program.
- Maintenance of this website.
- Costs to set up and maintain a program like this in Thailand.
- Staff training, salaries and overheads. Support to you from enrollment to departure.