1. What position do you hold at Korvia Consulting? What has been your career path so far?
I am currently the head of public relations at Korvia. Before coming to South Korea, I worked for NBC San Diego, the San Diego Padres, and the American Language Institute at San Diego State University.
2. Did YOU teach abroad?! If so, where and what inspired you to go?
I taught at a public school in South Korea for 2 years prior to joining Korvia. I was inspired by my time at the American Language Institute in San Diego, California.
There, I met many Korean students who were studying abroad. After classes would end, they would all constantly tell me all about Korean culture and their country, so I finally decided to experience it first hand and came over as an English teacher.
3. What does the future hold for Korvia Consulting - any exciting new programs to share?
We're currently expanding into different educational industries as well as transforming Korvia from just a recruiting agency into more of a lifetime education agency. We're working on offering our recruits new ways to receive support, abilities to network with others, learn about various job opportunities, as well as allow them to to contribute to the Korean community with the hobbies and skills they already have.
4. What about the future of the teach abroad industry? How do you think education will change over the next 10 years?
I think the future is bright for those that want to go abroad to experience a different culture while also being financially responsible. The pure amount of ESL job portals and TEFL courses that are available today compared to 10 years ago is incredible.
People now have greater access to media that exposes the adventurous and great opportunities abroad, as well as blogs and resources that help guide people to make their dream of working abroad a reality.
I think over the next 10 years, higher learning online courses will really take off. For a long while, people (along with myself) believed that online learning was teaching just done through Skype.
But now with video being the new preferred way to learn, individuals are able to market and distribute their own ideas and learning methods with a mass audience online.
There’s already millions of people that eagerly wait for that certain day of the week when their favorite YouTube channel uploads a new tutorial or guide on how to do something. Before I came to Korea, that was my preferred way of learning the Korean language.
5. Which teach abroad destination is most underrated? Conversely, which is most overrated?
I’m going to answer both with South Korea. In terms of being overrated, we try to relay to our candidates as best as possible that teaching is a job first and foremost, and that the schools want their students to have a better overall education standard.
Many teachers think that teaching abroad is supposed to be more of a cultural tourism experience for themselves rather than teaching. This disappoints of a lot of individuals.
As far as underrated, teachers in Korea have incredible opportunities outside of class to get connected with the Korean community. The English craze is definitely alive and well here, and Korvia has had many of our recruits go on to become small celebrities in Korea.
We’ve had teachers go on to become models, TV personalities, K-pop industry professionals, as well as go on to launch their own online companies.