Follow my incredible journey teaching English abroad, living in China, and traveling the world! Welcome to Don's ESL Adventure!
05/11/2025
Truly one of my favorite videos. My last few final days in China, and we did a Capoeira presentation at a local primary school.
Practicing Capoeira has truly been a blessing in my life!
šš½Capoeira Brasil Shanghai
04/11/2025
So much fun to be on the other side of the world teaching and having fun with the youth!
02/11/2025
I started blogging around 2012-13. It was my first year in China and I started exploring like crazy. Plus, I was having a blast teaching ESL, immersing myself into the culture, meeting and making friends from across the world, eating exotic cuisine, you name it.
I gained a passion for telling people my story through articles and visuals. I loved showcasing my adventures and exposing to the world how life was in places people may not know.
I aimed to inspire, provide insight, point to valuable resourcesā¦ Since moving to the KC area, my passion has remained the same.
Welcome to and !
31/10/2025
Halloween in China as an ESL Teacher! Halloween isnāt celebrated in China, but as an ESL teacher at an English training center, we celebrated Halloween with fun themed activities every year. Plus, us foreigners in big cities like Shanghai would go out and hit themed events at bars and clubs that catered to the international audiences šŖš½
23/10/2025
Check out my 1st apartment when I moved to Shanghai, China! What you think?
16/10/2025
It was 2014 and my 2nd year teaching English in China. I was taking a hip-hop dance class at my gym in Kunshan, and my instructor (the 1st woman I fell in love with in China but thatās another story lol) had asked if I wanted to perform at their annual show, which had multiple acts (staff choreographed dancing, Tai-Chi display, plank competition, etc.).
Tupacās āHow Do You Want Itā was on heavy rotation at the time in my playlist, so why not!?
09/10/2025
I was less than a year into teaching English abroad in China when I lost my wallet in a city called Kunshan.
I withdrew 1,000RMB (About $160) from an ATM, rode my bike home, locked it, reached into my pocket and realized that my wallet was gone. Womp.
A few days later I entered my gym and a front desk attendant explained, to my surprise, that there was a phone call for me.
On the other end of the line was a local journalist. She had been contacted by a factory worker that found my wallet. Because he couldnāt read English, he contacted a news station for assistance in tracking me down.
The journalist recognized my gym membership card, notified the gym, and they had notified me. Whew!
The journalist also requested a meeting between the worker and I the next day and politely asked to bring a news camera to capture the caring side of Kunshan citizens. I happily obliged.
After meeting the worker I thanked him and even offered 200RMB (the 1000RMB was still there), but he refused.
Following the videoās release onto local news, my ESL students and several strangers around Kunshan shared that they had seen me on TV.
Not bad for my 1st 8 months in China!
06/10/2025
Man, Iāve seen some *crowds* in China, and Iāve probably stood in lines so long you couldnāt even imagine.
With a population of more than 1.4 billion, I found myself frustratingly patient or incredibly amazed when it came to the throngs of people moving throughout city streets, tourist attractions, and transport hubs, *especially* during the holidays.
I mean, can you people that some cities have populations bigger than entire countries?? *Cities*.
But like my mom said when she came to visit, itās a beautiful āorganized chaosā, and my camera captured every moment of it.
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08/09/2025
Iāve played MC, or host, for quite a few events over the years teaching English as a second language (ESL) in China.
I helped create scripts for the showsāusually an oral competition, holiday performance, Halloween event, or spelling beeāalong with skits, dances, and even silly audience interaction games.
The biggest difference Iāve seen with parent audiences in the USA Vs China?
šš½ US parents are more engaged in the audience. Chinese parents have fun, but donāt get as animated as US parents at local school shows, at least in the places I had been. In the US, itās not so uncommon to see your child on stage and clap/cheer loudly for them, bring signs, laugh loudly at on stage antics.
I had the time of my laugh teaching English abroad!
šš½ Ask me anything you want to learn about the experience.
ā Connect with my page on social media to discover more facts about China and my incredible adventures teaching English abroad and traveling the world!
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17/07/2025
š Donās ESL Adventure is back! Iām finally getting back around to sharing all of my cool content from nearly 8 years of teaching English as a second language (ESL) abroad, living in China šØš³, and traveling the world!
ā Learn something new.
ā Discover life inside of China.
ā Feel inspired to travel the world.
ā Find out how you can use teaching ESL abroad to truly change your life!
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What Can You Expect From Donās ESL Adventure?
So, you want to travelāyou want to see the world, live in another country, and experience other cultures, and you wouldnāt mind getting paid while doing it.
But where does this kind of life-changing opportunity lie? Well, welcome to the wonderful world of teaching English abroad.
Becoming an English as a second language teacher, or ESL teacher, is the gateway to achieving your dream. Move across the globe, teach English to kids or adults, immerse yourself in a foreign culture, make international friends, and earn a decent paycheck. Sounds like itās exactly what youād like, right?
Unfortunately, most people have never even heard of this ESL world or let alone actually met someone thatāsā taught English overseas. Someone thatās been there, done that, and could act as a guide and provide valuable insight into their own experience.
Thatās where Donās ESL Adventure comes into play. A personal blog created by an experienced ESL teacher of 7+ years in China and South Korea, Donās ESL Adventure provides a resourceful, insightful, comprehensive, entertaining, inspiring, and visually captivating look at the ins-and-outs of not only teaching English abroad, but also the life-changing experiences and opportunities it can bring.
At Donās ESL Adventure, you can expect 3 primary areas of focus: (1) Learn about teaching English abroad, (2) encourage people to explore China, and (3) inspire people to travel.
Learn about teaching English abroad: Uncover any and everything about the world of ESL teaching. Discover what it is, learn about its benefits, find out who can teach, how to teach, what to expect, and unearth useful resources. Best of all, check out how actual teachers have used ESL to travel, party, fall in love, become entrepreneurs, and live out their wildest dreams.
Get an in-depth look at living and working in China as an ESL teacher: Follow Donās journey of 7.5 years as an expat in the Hermit Kingdom. Discover how he got started and survived teaching ESL in China. Check out his numerous travel adventures to popular and off-beaten destinations across China, and unlock everything from top things to do in the region, popular foods, and local wedding traditions, to tales of eye-opening experiences and changes in perspective from living overseas.
Track Donās travel adventures: Explore the world through Donās lens, from international trips made during his stint as an ESL teacher to interesting places heās visited that you may have never even heard of. Leave feeling so inspired that you consider planning your own journey to an awesome destination heās stepped foot in.
But wait, thereās more! Though teaching English abroad may be the principal focus, as Donās ESL Adventure expands, readers will also have the chance to:
Read up on life in the USA and discover popular tourist hotspots in America: Uncover what itās like growing up and living in the USAāie, from what itās like attending a historically Black college to Donās thoughts on what makes America the greatest country in the worldāand find out about great places to travel to across the country, such as Sequoia National Park, the Grand Canyon, and even the White House.
Catch up on entertaining stories, editorials, reviews, and Donās top 10 list: Donās ESL Adventure is also a fun place to get to know Don and his take on a wide range of topics including sports, movies, politics, martial arts, parentingābasically, any and everything is covered. Expect thought-provoking content with a BuzzFeed-esque type of feel.
And there you have itāthe #1 personal blog for teaching English abroad, traveling the world, and changing readerās lives, with tons of room for expansion. Welcome to Donās ESL Adventure!
