The first entry of my notebook. Hello world. I'm Max, 23-year-old guy from Thailand. I just signed up for italki today for a few reasons. I've repeatedly heard about italki from All Ears English, a podcast I subscribe. At first I thought italki was only for a paid class because the speakers were running some ads like if you register now, you get free coins to buy the first hour with a native language teacher. I totally ignored it because I think ti's not necessarily to be a paid lesson. Later, I felt like I haven't talked to anyone in English for so long time. Of course, not everyone in my town speaks English. You will barely find an English-speaking person here. Then I googled 'languge partner' and I found italki. At first, I was amazed because I thought it was meant for taking a paid class. Now I'm so glad that I've found a community for language learners to practice speaking any language. That was the story of how I got here. Now I'm telling about the story why I got here. I need to take you back a few years, when I was in college. I was a student at Chiang Mai University, the best regional university in Thailand. I majored in English with concentration in Linguistics. At that time, I was exposed to English everyday and in every level of difficulty, ranging from conversational to a complicated lecture given by an English-speaking professor. I used a lot of English at that time because apart from class, I have a few American friends that were doing an exchange semester at my faculty. As time passes, I graduated in March this year and I came back home, with absolutely no one to talk with in English at all! Therefore, I'm here to look for people to talk with me in English. It's all for my today's story. I'll try to write often. I promise. And thanks in advance for those who come to correct my English. And if it happens that you want to learn Thai too, I'm more than glad to pay you back with Thai lesson :)