I’ve never considered myself a “world traveler,” but lately, people have been referring to me as one. For the majority of the past 3 years, I’ve been living and working in South Korea as an ESL teacher. During this time, I’ve had the opportunity to save money and travel around Asia. It’s been quite an experience. In this blog, I’ll elaborate on this time in my life – explaining what it’s been like working in a foreign country, traveling to amazing places, surprises I’ve had along the way, politics and their historical context, cultural oddities, etc.

My first job in South Korea was at UNESCO Global Peace Village – an English Village in Icheon, about an hour south of Seoul. There are basically 3 types of ESL jobs in Korea – after school academy (AKA hagwon), public school (think EPIK Program), and English Village. EVs are the least sought after option – there are simply fewer of them around, and the teaching style is different – it’s like a camp, so the students come for a week or two at a time, stay in dorms, and learn English in a fun way – lots of activities, fewer books.

South Korea is known for its intense education system, and it correlates to its high suicide rate (SK has had the highest suicide rate in the world for over a decade.) Students often go to multiple academies after school, have a ton of homework, and are pushed very hard to do well on exams. Suicides actually increase around exam time. Here, overbearing parents are referred to as “tiger moms,” Asian mothers who are very involved in their child’s academic life – constantly pushing teachers, principals, and their student to give more, and to do better. There’s an annual college entrance exam that the country takes so seriously that the government grounds planes during the oral portion, halts noisy construction projects so as not to distract the students, and offers emergency police rides to the test site for students who are running late. Needless to say, they take school very seriously in SK. It’s not uncommon for students to start the day at around 7AM, and to not get home until 9 or 10PM.

As a teacher, I don’t want to contribute to that stress. At GPV, we taught interesting classes, such as Peace, Ecology, Culture, and World Heritage in keeping with the UNESCO theme. It’s more fun for everybody to teach things the students are actually interested in learning about.

The main thing with EVs is camp time. Sure, a regular program is like a camp for the kids, but real camp time is twice a year – Summer Camp and Winter Camp – it lasts longer, and that’s what you have to make all new classes for. At GPV, a rather small EV (max 100 students,) we had themed camps, so all of our new classes had to correlate with that theme. This could make it fun, and really tested the teachers’ creativity. I got a lot better with PowerPoint at this time. We decorated the school, created our own games and worksheets, and pilot taught, i.e. showed our finished classes to our fellow teachers and boss to get constructive feedback, in the hopes that they wouldn’t tell us to scrap the whole thing. Camp time is intense, you work more and sleep less, but it’s got a lot of fun extras, and the kids tend to have a great time, which makes it worth it.

• 

• 

• 

When I applied for this particular job, the UNESCO part really stuck out to me, but as I’m sure many people have observed at various jobs, just because an organization claims to promote pure values, those who manage such places do not always follow them. Still, I learned a lot – about curriculum development, how to approach ESL, what to prioritize, and that I could, in fact, ‘make it’ living in a foreign country. Overall, I looked back on the time fondly – I had a pretty sweet, albeit small, apartment in a teacher’s cottage, led large group games which got me out of my comfort zone on the microphone, had quite a few drunken nights in Seoul, and made at least one lifelong friend.

After traveling for 5 months (Laos, Vietnam, India, and back to the U.S.) after my first contract ended, I returned to Korea for a different ESL job. I decided to try out a hagwon, or academy. I hadn’t wanted to do this at first, but a good EV job was difficult to come by – timing or reputation-wise – and I didn’t want to continue imposing on friends and family back in the States. (I was a vagabond, a jobless interloper, and though catching up with loved ones was fun, when you’re not making money, you’re spending it.) So, I had a Skype interview with a nice gentleman from a small hagwon and decided to head back to SK in early-mid February, when the PyeongChang Olympics were happening there.

• 

• 

• 

As soon as I started the job, I knew I’d made a mistake. The school and my apartment were tiny, and resources were scarce. My bosses, a married couple, were very nice and caring, but clearly in way over their heads having taken over the school only a few months earlier. Within 3 weeks, I had a Skype interview with a nearby English Village, one I’d wanted to go to but which couldn’t hire me until April. I agreed that, with the notice I’d need to give as per my contract, that that timeline would now be fine. I felt guilty, but gave my 2-month notice, teetering with the decision until the last minute. The one thing I needed was a letter of release, or else my visa would be cancelled and I wouldn’t be able to return to Korea until it ran out, a year later.

• 

• 

• 

The next two months were awful. I got closer to the students at the hagwon, but my bosses were colder with me. The man who’d interviewed me, a nervous-laughter-as-a-response-to-everything sort of gentleman, tried to bait me, bribe me, tell me I was dishonorable, etc. I explained the situation – what I had to deal with, which, as the boss he should have known but didn’t, and finally, he understood, though it didn’t make the rest of my time much easier. His wife, who’d been pushed aside in her leadership role by her husband due to my decision to jump ship, kept her communication with me civil, but minimal. A ton of work was piled upon me, leading to a lot of unpaid overtime, but I did it all with little outward complaint, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. The bosses were so impressed (or desperate) that they begged me to stay until my last week, even having found me a new apartment (it was actually just as small as the one I’d had, but the layout was different.) I was flattered, but I refused. I’d already signed the EV contract.

My last day was a Friday, two days after my 28^th birthday. I left cards and candy for everyone on staff, but the parting was less than tearful. Two adult students I’d made friends with picked me up and took me to dinner. That night, I packed up my apartment, and the next day my new boss came with an SUV to help me move. I was off to a new situation. Sunday was “training” for about an hour, and Monday I was thrown into the mix, teaching. I could say it was overwhelming, but I taught Dominoes, so the extent of the stress was finding the building I needed to go to on the huge, sprawling campus, and carrying the heavy box filled with dominoes. Since then, I’ve been back to the cushy life of an English Village teacher. My apartment is AMAZING, the classes are fun and generally simple to teach, we have resources, and my boss is reasonable and approachable. There are TONS of foreign teachers, many of whom I’ve made friends with, and I feel immensely blessed. I live close to the town of my former hagwon, but in an even smaller suburb. I like it though; it’s cute – it’s got personality, and I get a nice view of the farms when I walk to get into town – maybe for a coffee, a kimbap, or a beer sitting outside the convenience store on the plastic chairs – so Korea.

• 

• 

• 

• 

•