The following is an excerpt of “New Tools of the Trade” by Kim Fernandez from the intensive language supplement that accompanied the March/April 2013 International Educator.
Nat Namdokmai teaches English and makes movies at home in Thailand, and moved to the United States to study four years ago. He’s enrolled in Japanese courses at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and says technology has played a big part in his study of the language.
“They use technology to teach us to speak and write in Japanese,” he says. “We used PowerPoint and videos on YouTube in some classes. When I got to the upper-level classes and started learning business Japanese, we started using it more to communicate.”
Content, he says, is taught online in some of his classes. “We have to check the website and use it to do our homework,” he says. “We use Quizlet online a lot too. Once a week, we use Google Docs.”
Branching outwards, I began to seek opportunities for their sense of quality rather than convenience. My world expanded and I was no longer limited to my immediate familiar surroundings. For 16 months, I learned to live in South Korea where my primary interactions were with the locals. As a teacher in this new environment, the students were uncertain about me—the foreigner. It was no surprise that in the beginning there were frequent moments of awkwardness and miscommunication. I eventually let go of seeking perfection in all of my interactions.
Tyler Spencer hadn’t traveled much outside of his small Virginia hometown until he turned 18. He first visited South Africa and Mozambique as part of a traditional study abroad course through the University of Virginia. He was an environmental science major and he expected to be drawn to the parks in the area and learn about long-term conservation efforts around them. Once he got there, though, he says the entire course of his life changed.
Josh Kessler, a student at Middlebury College, describes his sustainable education abroad experience, as told to IE. 
