Why did you choose this program?
I choose this program because i had the opportunty during my time at univeristy to study abroad in South korea with CIEE and I had an amazing experience. During my time, I felt very supported and through this, I knew I wanted to pursue a career abroad. It was then when CIEE made me aware of their teaching abroad program, which was perfect for me because I was majoring in elementary education and TESOL at the time. I was able to get a lot of information on all the places that I could teach abroad with the support of CIEE. I ultimately decided to go back to South Korea because I ended up working with a lot of the same staff that supported me during my study abroad, and it made the journey more special and overall less stressful. CIEE has helped me not only before applying for the program but also during my time here in South Korea as a teacher and I feel like I would have not been able to get this far had I not gotten their support. It all started from a simple study abroad and they’ve been with me since my university years and now as I’m entering the real world as an adult through my career.
What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?
CIEE has helped me throughout almost everything, including the application process and the orientation. I’ve also received a lot of assistance with just settling into South Korea and so much more. When I applied for the EPIK program, they assisted me with the application and made sure to check it to make sure that I was submitting the best application that I possibly could. I then was also supported through the visa application and as well as relying on important information regarding the job, contract, and overall my adjustment to South Korea. They essentially helped me step-by-step on everything from the application process to now and I think the only thing that I had to organize myself was having to get myself to South Korea. Other than that, they have been supporting me through a majority of the things!
What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?
I think my biggest piece of advice about going into this program and overall just being a teacher abroad is to expect the unexpected. You can read all the articles and watch all the videos to get advice on how to adjust or get used to life in a foreign country but know that everyone’s experience is going to be a little bit different because you are all going into different schools or different academies. They’re all going to be different in the way that they ran or what they teach and how they choose to teach it. This can become very overwhelming at first, but I think being able to keep an open mind into whatever can happen. You have to just get used to a lot of these things, but you can either choose to let it get to you or learn from these experiences. I think being able to understand that is going to be a little bit difficult at first, but as you start getting into a bit of a routine, it’ll become easier and honestly more rewarding to be able to teach abroad. To essentially summit up, just make sure that you keep an open mind and are willing to try new things in order to adjust to your new life.
What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?
Everyone’s life is going to look a little bit different depending on where you’re placed. Depending on your location, you might have just one school that you’ll be teaching at or multiple. For example, I only teach at one school and my average week looks very similar every day. I teach 22 classes a week that are 40 minutes long each. I teach third through sixth grade and I have four classes for each grade. There are some grades that I only see once a week and some of them that I see twice a week. I usually discuss with my co-teachers (I have two but some schools might only have one or multiple) on how we’re going to divide the class in terms of what will be teaching each and we come up with a plan every week. Almost every single day I teach from 9 AM to about 12:30 PM and after that I usually spend all the afternoon until 4:30 working on my lesson plans and other tasks that need to be done. Essentially every day you will be going into work at 8:30 and leaving at 4:30 and on average most of the teachers will have half of the day teaching in half of the day either ”desk warming” or planning for a lesson.
Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?
I think my biggest fear about moving abroad was being homesick and not feeling like I have stability. There’s also a lot of things that you lack when moving away from home, you’ll miss your friends and family, and also have to get adjusted to new things such as taking public transport to work or navigating every day life. I was honestly very afraid of that because I didn’t wanna fall into the mindset of being addicted to my work and not having any fun. But I think overall being able to create a schedule for myself and sticking to it has been the most important thing that’s helped me overcome this issue. For example, I tried to call family a couple times a week in the morning while I’m getting ready for work and my friends and I always have an alotted time during the week to call and have a long conversation so that we can still keep in touch. In terms of fun I always make sure that I leave my weekends open to doing fun things or finding things that I can do around the city. For example, I usually plan things on Saturdays and Sundays will be what I like to call my reset days where I make sure that my apartment is clean,I go grocery shopping and get ready for the week so that I’m able to have fun, but also some stability in my life
Best advice you could give?
LEARN THE LANGUAGE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! I think one of my biggest regrets was not learning the language earlier. When I applied for this job, I was under the impression that you didn’t need to know a lot of Korean to work here, but in a lot of cases, you’ll be working at schools where your co-teachers are the only ones who know English and it’s really hard to create relationships with your coworkers if you don’t know any Korean. I only started learning very basic phrases, but quickly learned that I needed to learn a lot more in order to connect with not only my students but also my coworkers so I think had I taken the time to do a little bit more research I would’ve definitely started much sooner on learning language instead of having to learn as I go here in the country.