Hagwon 411

So what am I doing here in Korea? I'm working at an independent hagwon (private school) in Bundang we lovingly call HR. Is it the best school? No. Is it a good school? I think so! The kids are really awesome and most of them are really smart. I'm teaching elementary and middle school age children which I am SO happy about. I wouldn't do well with preschoolers, no matter how cute they can look in pictures...or from afar. I can handle them in small doses, not year-long-sentences.

I have 12 classes during the week: 6 on MWF, 5 on TR. I have a LOT of prep work and a LOT of marking but I really do enjoy it. Sure in 6 months I won't think grading journals will be the greatest thing ever but it makes me laugh and gives me something to do in the evenings.

I have settled into school and am no longer the newest teacher! Another teacher was hired 2 weeks after I was and I am feeling pretty solid. The Korean teachers like me, my boss likes me (so they say), and the ESL teachers I work with are awesome. I'm the youngest ESL teacher not only at my school, but of anyone I have met here and have affectionately been nicknamed Aegi (Egi, Eggy, is how it is said), which is "baby" in Korean. The Korean teachers named me and many more have adopted it. I really, really lucked out with such a good staff.

I'm a little spoiled right now because my middle school classes are canceled for this and next week due to finals (I only have 4 classes +subbing 1= 5 MWF, 3 TR). It's really intense for them! I also have two long weekends coming up because of Christmas and New Years at the end of the month! January is when intensives start---a wholeeeee lot of work and not much extra pay to say for it. I'll stay happy and positive like always, though!

I'll explain the Intensives season to those of you that don't quite understand my meaning. Students have 2 full months off from school during the year--one in summer and one in winter; appropriately labeled their summer and winter vacations. Now, in America when kids are out of school they go on vacation with parents, lounge around watching way too much TV/ playing video games, or my personal favorite, head out to summer camp! In Korea that's not the case. Parents view this vacation from school as a prime time to milk their children of every ounce of strength, sending them to all sorts of hagwons (private schools like the one I work at, subjects vary) from morning 'til night. They work until their fingers fall off or their brains explode: whichever comes first.

This in turn is when ESL teachers (like me) at English hagwons (like my school) have their schedules changed drastically, working morning until night as well. Seeing as my school is considered a very hard school we will *hopefully* get slammed with a ton of students. On an average day I have quite a bit of prep work and marking to do for my classes. During intensives it quadruples in size which seems quite overwhelming. It is easy to get burnt out during this process, the weather is cold and gross, you work 10+ hours a day AND have several hours of marking to do each night after you're done teaching....and it goes on for a month.

In a training session I had about winter intensives, I was told to "make their papers bleed red" meaning mark them up--cover them in red ink! It's what the parents want so it's what we will provide! Veteran teachers have told me the winter intensives are worse than the ones in August. I hope to be a positive, smiley force to be reckoned with!

I will take pictures of some of the kids in my classes soon--I keep forgetting to bring my camera with me. I have one class with only 4 boys (only 2 showed up today...wow!) and other classes that range to up to 15 students (which can be a bit of a handful)! I am lucky to have had prior experience working with kids. It has come into play and I feel confident doing my job which is important.

I teach a variety of subjects, too! This is exciting for me because it changes things up, I'm not doing the same lesson over and over. I'm teaching science in one class, world history in another, have 3 novel studies classes, a few iBT classes (middle schoolers preparing for the iBT test), speaking, and reading classes. To my (and my mom's) excitement I started teaching Mr. Popper's Penguins to one of my favorite classes this week. It was one of my favorite books when I was young. This should be a fun month. :)

And now for some fun photo ops I had while grading!

An answer on a test. I shouldn't laugh but it was before I knew the students. The students have improved (I think so, at least) since I took over the class.

A drawing a student did of me in her workbook! LOVE!

I wish my best friend looked like a "cutey rabbit"! :)

Randoms galore

Hello world!

I will try to start theme-entry writing so that organization (and for your viewing pleasure) will be a bit better.

BUT for now, I have a conglomeration of pictures without much theme so I'm going to just give you a mixture of the past few weeks in Korea...some random shots I've taken.

A few silly flowers forgot it was fall...now all the flowers are gone but that's okay, it's winter time!

I wanted to get a picture of the little dog in his clothes and booties--he had been wandering around in circles bored. I whistled at him and he perked up, saw I was a waiguk (foreigner) and trotted right over to me. Such personality! He had no interest in my Korean friend I was with, too funny.

I had duk buki (duck-buck-ee) for the first time this past weekend! Yum. It's a rice patty boiled in this sweet and spicy red sauce. Monica my Korean coworker and I shared a dish. I found a star! There was a heart later on that she ate, too. :)

My "Miguk Chusok" (American Thanksgiving) as I described to the Hof owner, held with fellow ESL teachers. LeAnn and I made hand-turkey cutouts and colored them as namecards for the event. It was fun to celebrate...but I ended up not eating anything there through a miscommunication...and ended up going home and making a grilled soycheese sammich. It was really fun though and the hand-turkeys were a hit!

Patrick says my door looks like something out of a 1980's Bond flick. I agree. ^.^

First snow in Korea (taken safely from inside my apartment)!

The comforter suits my personality SO WELL, don't you think? Haha. The other side is worse--it's covered in huge pink 8-year-old-ballerina-stage flowers.

Look Mom, good eats! I'm staying healthy! I still need to buy sesame seeds, though.

Mmm, tasty.

The thermostat I luckily don't have to use much! I only turn it on to heat up my bathroom/water for a shower. My apartment is always warm because it's an old building and when other people turn on their heat, it heats my apartment, too! The heating is done by flowing hot water through pipes under the floor.

In a little yellow villa

Ahoy!

Yes, I am officially alive and well in Korea. (!)

It took me awhile to get settled in--truth be told I'm still working on it. However, I did have internet installed in my apartment yesterday (finally!) so I can communicate with the outside world on a regular basis now.

I live in a more remote location than I had previously thought I would. I'm okay with it right now but may look into trying to move. LeAnn moved really close to the subway but has to pay an extra $200 a month for her apartment and I'm....not going to do something that expensive. I'll have a talk with my boss Harry here pretty soon to find out my options. So where do I live? Bundang yes, but I'm in a villa instead of an officitel (like I was told I would be in).

My little yellow villa on a mountain

My little garden...it's gone now though. Snow tends to do that

Out my window!

My mountain across the street

HR where I work! (Honors Review English School)

Work at HR is good--more work than the average bear but the kids are awesome and I like the staff. I have grown quite close with some staff members, closest probably to Miki and Monica, two Korean teachers at the school. Several of us went hiking my first weekend (after my recovery stage) and bonded.

Aww, aren't we so cute!
Left to right: Miki, ME!, Heather, Vikki, Monica, LeAnn
(I work with everyone in the picture aside from Vikki)

I have to go get ready for school but will update more later...it's hard to believe I've been here for almost a month but am doing well so don't worry!

Bundang

Oh noes!

Delays and more delays but it really is just life telling me I need to settle down, get well again (yep, still sick with tonsillitis a month later), and make sure I have everything ready before I move to Bundang. Everything happens for a reason, right?! I will be leaving at the very end of October but seeing as I just heard a horror story from a fellow ESL teacher in SK who rushed into a contract with a not-so-great school...I'm just fine knowing my school is a good one, even if I was still here for an extra 2 months!

I googled Bundang and pulled up a few photos to put on here for your viewing pleasure (and so you won't freak out about where I'll be residing):

Bundang: ooh, ahh!

Bundang was designed to be a residential city so there are a lot of parks for me to explore! XD

I will be living in one of these big honkin' buildings

Bundang at night

Bundang during the day

See, nothing to worry about!
1.5-2 weeks in counting--excitedness ensues!

Affliction and thought.

I have an affliction; some sort of tonsillitis/earbodyneckache. I've been bed/couch-ridden for the past 5 days, aside from two heavily medicated stints at work Thursday and Friday and have had to be content with sucking down freeze pops and noodles (while watching far to many romantic comedies from the 90's). It has given me far too much time to think and a zap on energy so that I can get just about...yeah, nothing done in preparation for Korea or even the upcoming week. I'm sure I will find this all quite humorous at some point once I am able to be off ibuprofen and swallow properly. :)

Moving out of the country is both an exciting and expensive (ad)venture. I mailed a $65 letter yesterday to Korea, what the..?! Thanks FedEx!

Other than that, it's much like last time I prepared for Korea; I had no real set emotional path or feelings, rather I just lived my life daily and kept an open mind. I'm much the same, open and not entirely sure if I understand that I'm really leaving the country for a year+ in 2.5 weeks.

So after I am better I will go on my last shopping safari for shoes, boots, sheets, the "perfect jean" (that I so abhor shopping for), a year's supply of cold meds and ibuprofen, misc spices, a large piece of luggage, and anything else I'm going to need for...well, the next year.

I love this part, the part where life just seems so basic and normal and boring...so boring that you seemingly don't know what to do with yourself.

"What foods will I miss? I should eat them before I go" you say...but you're not entirely sure what you'll miss because you don't miss it yet.

I just need to remember to pack some things that will remind me of home (thanks mom!). Those are quite important.

Girl that has an icyhot patch on her back and if this body ache is what you get when you're old, definitely has decided not to get to that stage. Period.

Crossing t's and Dotting i's

Obviously it can be seen that I had to push back my deadline a bit, but I just was not feeling comfortable with the schools that were set forth before me. The GnB school wouldn't give me direct answers, gave me email addresses of Korean teachers but not English teachers, wouldn't change things in the contract AT ALL (warning flags!), and finally that recruiter stopped contacting me. I found and lost a seemingly amazing school with TOPIA not once, but twice...was jerked around by not one, not two, but three recruiters (that have since all fallen off the map), and had grown increasingly frustrated with the entire job search. Mom had even started talking about the option of starting my masters work in the spring...

Then I was contacted by a different recruiter out of the blue. I didn't put much stock in it, but figured I would at least stay optimistic and look at what they had to offer. To make a long story short, patience is a virtue that definitely tested me this summer but in the end, it turns out they found the best school for me.

So!

I signed a contract yesterday!

I will be in Bundang, South Korea. Bundang is a satellite city of Seoul and apparently a nice, clean, residential city. I'm going to be at HR English school teaching writing, reading, and conversational English. :)

I will be flying over on October 16th so that gives me roughly 3 weeks to get everything done! I'm excited that things are finally getting started for my big move.

Girl who is happy she finally has a school!

Ready to pack my bags...

...but I'm not sure where I'm headed yet!

To catch this blog up to speed, I have been talking with 3 different recruiters, as well as searching on my own since April, for a school in South Korea that I feel comfortable with. 2 of the 3 recruiters just weren't following through for a while, so around 2.5 weeks ago I started talking with Don from Best Teachers International and he has been really speedy and helpful, seeing as I want to be over there this time next month. He has found a school that I have practically fallen in love with in Ansan, South Korea. However, the contract is a bit open ended and I don't want to be taken advantage of while over there, especially seeing as I have slightly naive tendencies.

I just have to remember to stay calm and centered, wait for the email addresses of current teachers at the school (DnB chain school) so that I can find out the actual conditions of the school, what the work day is like, being paid on time, etc. If I get back positive information from them I probably will go ahead with this school because it seems like a great deal, if everything they've said (though not all of it is in the contract...hmm...) is true.

No journey abroad is going to be "perfect"...just "perfect for me!" :)

Girl getting tired of waiting...but won't just settle...

The mumbo jumbo of getting my ducks in a row.

After blundering my way through the originally-meticulous plans for my move to SK, I find myself around 6 weeks away from the plunge and...still don't have a job. I am talking with both recruiters currently; however, due to a blooming social life (and a few dead-end dates with a few not-so-tasteful-males *cough*), the phone/email tag I play with my recruiters, not to mention the semi-full time job I already am employed with...I haven't been entirely on the ball about doing much job searching on my own. Leaving my life in the hands of recruiters that flat out aren't measuring up to the performance level I was expecting just makes me cringe a little in displeasure at my own overly-trusting persona.

I'm trying to get back into job hunting again though (see, I'm even staying home tonight instead of getting rowdy with friends out on the town!) and will hopefully make some headway here pretty soon.

Essentially RtoT has been shoving me in the direction of EPIK (which I'm sure is a good program, but that's exactly what has me hesitant--it's another program I would be applying for--not an actual school), and my guy Brandon from IPR...told me a few weeks ago I would be hearing from him in a week (and I did not hear so much as an exhale in my direction since). I shot him an email a few days ago and missed a call the next evening, so will have to call him back hmm...maybe tonight.

I'm just tired of getting jerked around and re-explaining myself a dozen times about where I want to be and my expectations of the school. All in all, I know this is going to be a great experience for me (but my heartstrings are getting little tugs). Now that it's really coming down to the time where I set out on my journey and everyone here...forgets about me. Ha! I really hope not, but to a certain extent this is sadly (and assuredly) true.

Eternally the optimist though, right? Now that I do look at the clock, I COULD call Brandon back right now, exciting! Okay, off to try and make some progress. :)

Girl who just wants to hop across the water (and to stop attracting/falling for assholes).

The beginning

After a year and change back on the mainland, I'm finally finishing up my undergrad and looking back across the water at South Korea.

I studied abroad there in the Fall of 2006 and fell in love with the country. That 4 month stint essentially 180'd my ideas on what I wanted to do post-college. I said I would head back to SK to teach English when I had the chance. Many people thought it was just a passing "Jesse phase" and that I would snap back into the flow of American life and forget about it.

That was just simply not so!

After teetering back and forth between the prospects of teaching English in South Korea versus Japan, I have truly settled my mind about 95% that yes, I want to teach in South Korea. Some people are asking me why I am heading back to a country I've already lived in (especially when I haven't visited any others) but I have a gut feeling about Korea, and usually go with my instincts on major life decisions. It seems I can make them quite quickly with ease.

So now I've talked with a couple of recruiters and interviewed with (and been accepted by) one I really enjoy: Reach To Teach. After I graduate and receive my degree, I will provide them with a copy and start looking at contracts! ^.^ As of now, I'm looking to leave in September so that I can save up a bit this summer for startup costs in SK, see my family, and essentially get all my ducks in a row before I ship out 7,000 miles away. It's a bit nerve wracking knowing I'll be leaving everything I know and love behind for a full year, especially when I'm used to such a fast-paced, ever-changing life over here...but at this point I have no real strings holding me down in the states: no mortgage, no relationship, etc. Just a chunk of bills that I will be able to take care of throughout my adventure. This really is the best time for me to take a year and really explore whether I want to continue on this trend of my Asian affinity.

This will be my biggest adventure yet: a full year on my own, with my own apartment, living in a different country that's main language ISN'T English, working at a real job, and a clean slate for the friends + family department. I've been looking forward to this for a long time and things are finally starting to shape up. There is still the 4-month stint of time before I head over the water which may not be too exciting. When somewhat interesting news arises concerning my SK2K8 adventure, I'll make it a point to post it.