I have been in Korea almost a week now, and it’s about time I blog for the folks back home. As an English teacher (in the making), I’m trained to teach students to always keep in mind their purpose and audience when writing. Well, my purposes—closely linked to intended audiences—are to keep a record of my time here for myself, to demystify what I’m up to for those I’ve left behind, and to help any prospective English teachers in Korea get a feel for what they could be in for. If I’m in the mood, I reserve the right to get a little personal, pedagogical, or philosophical as well.
So, since this is my first post and I’ve already been here 6 full days, let me catch you up to speed. From what I can tell, there are several avenues by which you can find yourself teaching English in Korea, with two of the more common being teaching in a public school (with EPIK, GEPIK, or SMOE) and teaching at a hagwon (a private, for-profit English institution). If you get a job in a public school, your circumstances are relatively predictable and standardized across the board. The hagwons, which many students attend in the afternoon in addition to their public schooling, can be legitimate and good situations too, but it’s a crap-shoot. So says my research.
Personally, I am teaching at a GEPIK elementary school in Maseok, part of the Namyangju area of the Gyeounggi province (don’t hold me to correct spelling of anything Korean). I’m about 40 minutes outside of Seoul, but civilization is basically continuous (mountains aside) from central Seoul to where I am, so it’s hard to tell where Seoul starts and where it stops. Props to Dan Henrickson and the crew at www.teacheslkorea.com for guiding me through to process of getting a job in Korea (once I had my paperwork in order, it took shockingly little time—about 4 weeks total—before I was hired and boarding the plane to cross the Pacific), and for hooking me up with my specific job. So far, I have felt nothing but pampered and spoiled by the school staff (after 4 days here, the only food I had eaten that I had paid for was a bowl of cereal…and the milk was given to me) and students, and I’m not cynical enough about Koreans yet to believe that it’s because they hope to gain anything by me. Anything other than my English, that is, which nobody in America ever gave a hoot about.
Well, lingering jetlag requires that I wrap this up, so I will get into more about my arrival and first few days in Korea at a later date. Until then, remember me when you wear shoes inside your house and when you jab at a piece of steak with your fork. Things certainly are different over here.
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