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Gotoco

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Since 2011, the Gotoco team has been helping students from around the globe to see the world.

Growing out of our experience running summer camps in Yangshuo, South China in 2011, the Gotoco team has built up an extensive network of summer camp partners across China and around the world.

Our team of founders are passionate world travellers. Classmates Danny and Richard met on their Chinese undergrad at Oxford in 2011, but it was once they met Lisha on their year abroad in Beijing in 2012 that they began looking for ways to offer accessible, funded, global TEFL adventures to other likeminded budding world travellers.

Danny, Lisha and Richard founded Gotoco to combine their passions, hobbies, knowledge, and diverse talents to provide Gotoco’ers with unforgettable summers in China. After a great first decade in China, they established a truly global programme in 2021.

Check out our mission for more information.

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Who leads gotoco?

Lisha

Lisha graduated in English Literature from Beijing’s most global university (BLCU). After an internship in import/export of paper pulp, visions of a dreary future made her realise she must do something different with her life! Quickly she signed up to study in the UK, along the way she travelled the world and decided she should spend her life living/promoting career paths that embrace global travel and cultural exchange.

Lisha is grateful for the opportunities learning English provided her, and wants to inspire people around the world to study English to broaden their horizons and interact with people from all over the world.

Lisha oversees Gotoco’s partner relationships with schools and is our goto person for participant support and welfare. Lisha ensures that all of our participants get as much out of their time abroad as possible. In her spare time, Lisha works on literary translation projects and is in training to become a yoga teacher.

Richard

Richard is passionate about social change, environmental and sustainability issues, and education. Founding Gotoco with Danny and Lisha, he aims to encourage global citizenship and cultural awareness, and create more edutravel opportunities for students around the world. He believes common misperceptions across cultures can be diminished through increased exchange, and aims to help students from more diverse backgrounds access fulfilling and quality educational opportunities.

Having studied Chinese and Tibetan at Oxford, Richard has broad knowledge of Chinese culture, history and travel opportunities. He brings his experience of volunteering, travelling and working all over the world to Gotoco and knows how to make sure Gotoco’ers have an unforgettable experience. Richard also previously worked as a research manager for a policy consultancy in Beijing, where he advised multilateral organisations, multinational companies, and delivered speeches at Lloyds of London on China’s global trade strategy and developments on the Korean Peninsular.

Richard is on the board of Insight Outreach, an education social-mobility charity in the UK.

Danny

Danny loves linking people up to help them have adventures. He studied Chinese with Richard at Oxford (BA), and at SOAS (MA). Along the way he did an MBA on the MIT-Tsinghua Beijing programme. Life-long student, he then undertook a fun but abortive attempt at post-grad studies in Hong Kong, while there he setup home on the glorious tropical hippie beach enclave of Lamma Island and tried to run a hostel. Danny enjoys working in education roles and studying, particularly because of the opportunities it gives him to globe trot while meeting fun people the world over. He first taught English on a year contract in 2010 in Spain and has strived to be itinerant since (pandemic notwithstanding).

Danny loves helping people from all walks of life see new perspectives of the world, as cheaply as possible. His major hobby is travel– he has been to 50 countries, hitchhiked around China and hosted over 200 Couchsurfers on his boat in London and house in Beijing’s historic centre. His next dream is to spend a year as a Workaway’er and walk the Camino de Santiago. Danny is on the Council of the Beijing branch of the Royal Asiatic Society.

FUNDED AND FREE

Summer camps and long term TEFL adventures. Join us in China, Thailand, and all around Europe.

Gotoco: the go-to company for funded TEFL programmes abroad

Why Join Us


GO TO SEE THE WORLD!

The world is huge, go see it. Discover some of the world's most ancient civilisations, most captivating cultures and most beautiful geographies!


GO FOR FREE!

Why pay anything! Our summer programmes are funded, with participation, accommodation, meals, TEFL and a holiday at the end all free. Our longer programmes are well paid too!


GO TO TEACH!

Gain valuable experience and a TEFL (Teaching of English as a Foreign Language) teaching certificate


GO TO EXPLORE!

"The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences...there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.”
― Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild


GO TO LEARN!

Discover yourself, learn a language, find out how to cook global cuisine, gain useful CV skills and points, have a go at something new and wonderful.


GO TO MAKE FRIENDS!

Make friends for life with your students, teaching assistants, local people, and your fellow Gotoco-ers!