I'm here, I've made it: I am half way through my contract in South Korea.
When I arrived in Korea in October I was:
When I arrived in Korea in October I was:
- Broke and saddled with credit card debt
- Pretty desperate to get out of America and begin traveling again long-term
- Exited to start teaching again
- Interested in learning Korean
- Ready to get my shit together!
Now, six months later, I am:
- Not broke, but still paying off debt because of LASEK (No regrets!)
- Ready to move on to the next thing after Korea
- Pretty over teaching in a hagwon (private school)
- With ten Korean words in my vocabulary because so many people speak English here
- At 13% Shit Togetherness, by my best scientific estimates
About that:
☞Some advice: I really, truly would not risk coming here with credit card debt unless you absolutely can at least make the minimum payments for a few months. Most teachers get paid monthly and you'll have a lot of 'set up' costs to cover your first month. This could be anything from paying for your health screening and food to furnishing your apartment and going out to meet new people. I actually had to pay for the previous teacher's utility bill because I arrived at a weird time in the month but, at least, the next teacher will pay mine. (Yeah, bullshit, I know.)
I will say, if you look on Craigslist and Facebook groups, you can usually find cheap or free things to get for your new apartment. I was lucky enough to just buy everything in my apartment off of the teacher I replaced, saving me from a lot of hassle.
I will say, if you look on Craigslist and Facebook groups, you can usually find cheap or free things to get for your new apartment. I was lucky enough to just buy everything in my apartment off of the teacher I replaced, saving me from a lot of hassle.
☞Korea is a very comfortable place to live and it's easy to see why people end up staying here year after year. I originally came over with the idea that I was only going to stay for a year, but I'm looking into staying on this side of the world for a bit longer. Hopefully in another country, but if a job opportunity came up in Korea, I would have to sit down and seriously consider it.
☞However... I have very little desire to teach kindergarten and preschool again! I like my students and the job isn't particularly difficult, but my god is it exhausting. Think of the drunkest person you've ever seen. I mean falling out of chairs, slurring their words, sobbing in the corner--that kind of drunk. Then think of ten miniature copies of that person in a room. That is the best way I can describe teaching preschool. They are adorable and easily entertained but I go home bone-tired.
Also, as I previously mentioned, hagwons are typically businesses first and schools second. Most hagwons are franchises that use the same materials and lesson plans. For some reason, the franchise--or at least the branch--I work at does not have an actual rubric for the English teachers. We were only just given teachers' manuals for the (randomly selected?) textbooks we teach out of. There was never an outline, core, or rubric for teaching distributed at the beginning of the semester. The 'rubric' is, "Go, teach English. And make sure the kids are happy." There's homework (in kindergarten, I remind you), yet no tests. Although, I suppose the 'test' at the end of the year is the final performance were students have to sing and dance amidst laser lights and a professional MC, then read an English speech that has been meticulously picked apart by the director.
Teaching in some of these hagwons is like buckshot; you do many things and hope something will stick. I have no idea how 'real teaching' in the 'real world' works as I've not done it, but the hagwon set up does not align with what I learned in college about education. Granted, I knew from secondhand stories that this was what I could expect at a hagwon, and I figured I had the fortitude to deal with it for a year. I can make it another six months, but the teacher in me is going to be burnt out by the time September rolls around.
Whadd're you gonna do.
☞I am embarrassed to say this, but I just don't have a passion for the Korean language. Added to the fact that every time I try to speak it, the other person responds in English, my motivation has been quite low. I can read and write the alphabet no problem--after learning two Japanese alphabets, Korean letters make so much sense--and I can actually understand about 15% of what is being said. Korean has a similar grammar structure to Japanese and uses a few similar words as both Japanese and Chinese. I actually need to remind myself to stop answering the students in English when they speak in Korean, though, this is a really bad habit I have. A few classes are under the impression that I'm fluent in Korean and my co-workers have had to tell students many times that I am, in all actuality, a dumb foreigner.
Sorry, Korean. It's not you, it's me.
☞Ha-HA! I lied. I don't have my shit together at all.
I like Korea, but this was only ever meant to be the beginning of an adventure.
☞However... I have very little desire to teach kindergarten and preschool again! I like my students and the job isn't particularly difficult, but my god is it exhausting. Think of the drunkest person you've ever seen. I mean falling out of chairs, slurring their words, sobbing in the corner--that kind of drunk. Then think of ten miniature copies of that person in a room. That is the best way I can describe teaching preschool. They are adorable and easily entertained but I go home bone-tired.
Also, as I previously mentioned, hagwons are typically businesses first and schools second. Most hagwons are franchises that use the same materials and lesson plans. For some reason, the franchise--or at least the branch--I work at does not have an actual rubric for the English teachers. We were only just given teachers' manuals for the (randomly selected?) textbooks we teach out of. There was never an outline, core, or rubric for teaching distributed at the beginning of the semester. The 'rubric' is, "Go, teach English. And make sure the kids are happy." There's homework (in kindergarten, I remind you), yet no tests. Although, I suppose the 'test' at the end of the year is the final performance were students have to sing and dance amidst laser lights and a professional MC, then read an English speech that has been meticulously picked apart by the director.
Teaching in some of these hagwons is like buckshot; you do many things and hope something will stick. I have no idea how 'real teaching' in the 'real world' works as I've not done it, but the hagwon set up does not align with what I learned in college about education. Granted, I knew from secondhand stories that this was what I could expect at a hagwon, and I figured I had the fortitude to deal with it for a year. I can make it another six months, but the teacher in me is going to be burnt out by the time September rolls around.
Whadd're you gonna do.
☞I am embarrassed to say this, but I just don't have a passion for the Korean language. Added to the fact that every time I try to speak it, the other person responds in English, my motivation has been quite low. I can read and write the alphabet no problem--after learning two Japanese alphabets, Korean letters make so much sense--and I can actually understand about 15% of what is being said. Korean has a similar grammar structure to Japanese and uses a few similar words as both Japanese and Chinese. I actually need to remind myself to stop answering the students in English when they speak in Korean, though, this is a really bad habit I have. A few classes are under the impression that I'm fluent in Korean and my co-workers have had to tell students many times that I am, in all actuality, a dumb foreigner.
Sorry, Korean. It's not you, it's me.
☞Ha-HA! I lied. I don't have my shit together at all.
I like Korea, but this was only ever meant to be the beginning of an adventure.
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