Withlocals - Nobody knows the country better than the locals
Sunday, January 26, 2014When I was in Bangkok 3 weeks ago, I was fortunate enough to meet a really friendly local, Alex. Alex was the owner of the massage parlor located below our service apartment and we would causally chat with him every night after we returned from our adventures and he would tell us more about Bangkok.
On one of the days, we wanted to visit the beach and Alex recommended us Pattaya, which was just one and half hours journey from Bangkok. He drew a map out for us to lead us to the bus boarding area and even wrote where we wanted to go in Thai, so we could show it to the locals for directions if we could not find the place. He even encouraged us to give him a call whenever we were in need of a translator so he could lend us a helping hand to communicate with the locals.
I can't be more grateful to Alex for his hospitality.
If you're hoping to find a local in the country you would wish to visit, it's not easy to find a local who is willing to go the extra mile to help you. However, Withlocals enables you to connect with the locals of the country you wish to visit.
They offer three kinds of services, Eat Withlocals, Tours Withlocals, Activities Withlocals.
Eat Withlocals gives you the opportunity to experience the authentic cooking while dining with a local family in their home. Forget street food or eating in a restaurant. If you wish to experience the authentic local dishes, the best way is to eat with the locals, eat what they eat and eat where they eat.
Tours Withlocals offers unique tours by locals who have lived there their entire lives. I would say, nobody knows the country better than the locals. Instead of the usual tourist attractions, how about visiting a more local attraction? Besides, having someone who speaks their language helps a lot.
Activities Withlocals enables you to participate in some of the activities the locals usually do and you may even get to pick up a new skill! You can have a chance at harvesting rice, batik painting, and making your own jewelry. The site has plenty more to offer.
On the other hand, you can register to be a host and it can actually earn you quite a bit. If you enjoy hosting someone and making new friends of another country, why not register to be a host with Withlocals?
I personally think that this is a good concept as it really enables us to connect with one another. It'll make planning your holiday trip so much easier. And besides, you get to have first-hand experiences of another culture and country. You get to understand the culture and country at a totally different level, beyond what normal tourists would. The website is also really easy to navigate and the information can be found at ease. :)
2 comments
Hi Michelle! I have a few questions with regards to Psychology :)
ReplyDeleteQ1. Do you advice me to pursue a degree in psychology, and then go to NIE? And how long do I have to study in NIE before I can teach?
Q2. What can a degree in psychology do?
Q3. Can we choose the halls we want to live in inside NTU?
Q4. What does direct honors in NTU mean, as compared to NUS who does not have direct honors?
Q5. Is Statistics tough?
Q6. What are your plans upon receiving your degree cert?
I look forward to receiving your reply :)
Cheers!
1. I'm not in a good position to give anyone an advice on this because it's not something I've done research in before. But with regards to the second part of your question, it depends on your qualifications at the moment, JC or polytechnic.
Delete2. The answer can be googled. I'm sure there are a lot of websites that can give a more holistic answer to this than me as I'm just a student majoring in Psychology and has not really ventured out. But generally, psychology is very general and you can actually branch into education, social work, personnel training, sales, marketing. Clinical and counselling would require post-graduate education.
3. No, you can't. It's randomized.
4. Undergraduate degrees are differentiated either as pass degrees or as honors degrees. You would have to take an additional one year to get your honors degree as compared to a normal pass degree. Direct honors means that you'll be able to complete your degree with honors no matter how bad you score, whereas in NUS, you would have to score well during your bachelor years to be qualified to go for honors program.
5. I personally enjoy statistics so I'll say no. I would say people have different interests and what you think is easy may not be the same for another. Generally, if you like maths, statistics would be fun. I didn't really score well for psychology modules but I scored a lot better for statistics as compared to my peers. So I'll guess my fellow peers would say it's tough.
6. I'm two years away from graduating so my plan for the future isn't very concrete yet. I'll probably venture into organisation psychology related fields.