I was bored so I wrote an essay...

This week, I had a few days off while my sixth grade students went on a cultural trip (of which I was not invited!) so my co-teacher and I decided to spend our time writing for an essay contest. The contest is being sponsored by the Korean government and is a chance for foreign and korean teachers to talk about their experiences and offer suggestions to improve the English program in Korea. Specifically, foreign teachers were supposed to write about the challenges of adjusting to life and work in Korea and how they overcame them. The grand prize is $500 and there are 12 other prizes from $300 - $50... it was thrown together pretty last minute and is by no means great, but I'm hoping for a little dough!

Below is most of my essay; I cut a number of paragraphs about my co-teacher and the english education program because it would be kind of boring for you all to read. But I hope the rest will give you a better idea of my first three months of work. Enjoy...

You Get What You Give:
Lessons Learned about Becoming a Teacher in Korea

Last New Years Eve, standing in Central Park in New York City, I vowed to change my life and travel. I thought to myself, "On New Years 2009, I want to be on the other side of the world." I kept this thought in my mind for a couple of months, but I didn’t see anything abroad that looked feasible so I just let it be. Then one day, I stumbled upon an advertisement for teaching public school abroad in South Korea. The job with EPIK had everything I was looking for; living in an Asian country, an opportunity to gain teaching experience, good pay, housing, airfare, and an orientation where I could meet other foreigners. I decided to go for it. And though it was a long and sometimes tedious application process, I finally found myself stepping off of the plane in Seoul last August.

The orientation in Seoul was a great opportunity to meet many new people, adjust to life in Korea and develop skills and ideas for teaching in public school. Over the course of the week in Seoul, we took many classes about teaching and life in Korea, took a field trip to a Korean folk village, and had several different cultural lessons to help us better understand Korean history and tradition. It was a good time; yet, at the end of the week we felt like we had been in a safe bubble and had no idea what challenges lay ahead of us in the real world of Korea.

Arriving in Busan, I don’t think there was a single EPIK teacher that wasn’t nervous about what would happen when we arrived. Would we like our co-teacher? Would our school have an apartment ready? Would we be allowed to go see our apartment or would we have to go out and meet the principle of our school on the first night? The nervousness and anticipation seemed too much to handle, and then in a moment we arrived at the Busan Education Office and our questions were answered. In what seemed like some kind of organized chaos, our co-teachers found us in a sea of people, helped us grab our luggage and whisked us away, unsure of where we were going or when we would see our friends again. And for the next week, some of us had smooth transitions and some of us had it a little more rough, but we all faced some kind of challenges. In my case, my school had not found an apartment for me (which was very disappointing), but when I learned that they were concerned for my happiness and wanted me to choose where I would be living for the next year, I felt relieved and knew I was in good hands.

For a week, I stayed with my co-teacher, Jeongim, who graciously offered her home and anything she had. While I was thankful and happy to have such a nice co-teacher, I felt overwhelmed living in someone else’s home, which I had never prepared for. For 8 days, my luggage could not be unpacked and I felt like this wasn’t my life, just a quick vacation and I would soon be going home. We went looking for apartments on several occasions, but nothing was ever good enough for them (although I would have taken anything, my school did not want me to settle). The anxiety began to affect me and one day at school, I let the emotions get to me. I cried to Jeongim and told her that I was very thankful for her hospitality, but I didn’t feel comfortable living with her anymore, and I wanted to find an apartment soon. She immediately got to work calling real estate agents and within two days I was moved into a great little apartment down the street from my school. Although the first obstacle was out of my way, I still faced many more in the month to come. Getting my life sorted out was no simple task, and it felt like I had to rely on my co-teacher for everything. From getting my medical check to opening a bank account to learning how to purchase garbage bags, I felt completely helpless. But with a little patience and a lot of help from my co-teacher, I finally my life sorted out, seven weeks after arriving to Korea.

I came to Korea with a desire to teach and had a lot of experience working with kids in a camp environment, but no real experience teaching in the classroom. I knew it would be tough, but no one could have prepared me for the difficulties of the first month of teaching. I arrived at school on the first day, feeling like a child on the first day of kindergarten; nervous and excited about the new life ahead of me and all of the lessons I was about to learn. Things went pretty smoothly at first. I met my co-workers and was greeted warmly by all of the faculty, students and parents. My first week of class was a breeze as I just introduced myself, showed pictures of my home and got to know my students and their English ability. And then I went to my second school, and it was a whole different ball game.

My second school is located at the top of Geumjeong Mountain. It is a very small, rural school somewhat secluded from the city, so they had never had a Guest English Teacher (GET) before. I was immediately thrown into teaching and was shocked to see that their style of co-teaching was very different from my first schools; it didn’t exist. The co-teacher just sat in the back of the room and watched me teach. On top of this, both the third and fourth grade had already finished the curriculum during summer English camp, so I would be responsible for lesson planning every week. There is nothing like the feeling of standing up in front of a class and realizing that you’ve finished your lesson but you still have 15 minutes left to teach. Having 20 sixth graders stare at you as if they are saying, “Now what, teacher?” is sure to produce anxiety in even the most easygoing person. At first, I was constantly worried about my two days a week at the mountain school and dreaded going to there. I did not come prepared for this kind of pressure. I tried explaining to the teachers why I was having such difficulty and asked them for help, but they were all busy with their own classes and they were very shy to speak English, so nothing ever got done.

After a few weeks, and many tearful hours at my desk, I came to the conclusion that the school wasn’t going to change, so I had to. I found an English text book that I liked called “Gogo Loves English” and I realized that I could use the book for both third and fourth grade, just by changing the difficulty of the activities. Soon, I began to gain confidence in the classroom as I put systems in place and used games, songs and activities that both excited and encouraged the children to speak English. Now, I am unfortunately no longer at the mountain school because the education office decided to place me in my first school full-time, but I have been given my own first grade class here which I teach four times a week. I no longer have any anxiety about teaching by myself; in fact I find that teaching my own class makes my job more exciting and worthwhile. Being in the classroom and constantly having to challenge myself to create a lesson or explain something difficult to my students has helped me to learn very quickly. For Halloween, I created an entire lesson plan for the sixth graders, which turned out very successful (I have provided a copy of the lesson below). I’m proud that over the past three months, I’ve become confident in my teaching skills and have become a leader and an equal partner with my co-teacher.

For any person teaching in Korea who is not happy with their job, my advice is to get up and do something about it. Sure, I am very lucky to have a great co-teacher, but my co-teacher is not the reason I’ve had a good experience, I am. If you feel like you’re not doing much in the classroom, ask to be given more responsibility. If your school doesn’t want to entrust you with your own first grade class, start small, and ask to teach 10 minutes of the class on your own. Then make sure those 10 minutes are fantastic. Whatever challenges you face at your school, there is always something you can do to make your situation better. It’s never going to be perfect, but with a positive, “go-get-em” attitude, you can be sure that you make your experience the best it can be.

Though I’ve been in Korea for just three short months, I’ve come a long way and have learned about myself and about teaching. I am grateful for the people that have helped me settle in, and so proud that I have achieved my goals. Life here is wonderful and if you come with a positive attitude and a little bit of patience, you can have the experience of a lifetime. This New Years Eve I will feel an incredible sense of accomplishment knowing how far I’ve come in just a year. I can only imagine what exciting things await in 2009.