This is the story of how I left my job in Wellington, packed up my life and moved to Korea to teach English. I would say to anyone considering taking part in a Global TESOL course and moving overseas to teach English – What are you waiting for? There are so many opportunities in the TESOL world.
THE FIRST STEP TOWARDS A NEW LIFE
My partner Richard and I knew we wanted to travel overseas for a long time, but year after year there always seemed to be something holding us back. But we decided that 2009 would be the year to do something new and exciting and see the world.
We had both done fairly extensive university study but neither of us had any background in teaching and we decided that we should really get some further qualifications before we began to search the globe for a new job and a new life.
After searching the internet we came across Global TESOL and found out that they had an information night coming up so we figured we would go along and see what the company was all about. The information evening “sealed the deal” for me – the staff at Global TESOL were great, so friendly and professional. Plus they had all taught English overseas so they had great insights to life in various countries.
THE TESOL COURSE
We completed our Global TESOL Certificate in Wellington over two weekends. I had done plenty of study in my life but I wasn’t really sure to expect from a course like this as it was unlike anything I had done before.
The course was exhausting but it was also a lot of fun, the tutors were great and had a lot of passion for teaching English. Plus I met a lot of great people, one of our friends from the TESOL course told us he will be moving to China shortly and we are already making plans to visit each other.
The tuition is really great and the classes are small you really learn a lot, and although was intimidating at the time I was so glad the course gave me the opportunity to “teach” a class (even if the classroom consisted of the other participants of the course!) as this really helped on the first day I was faced with a classroom of 36 Korean 5th graders!
TIME FOR A CHANGE
I’m quite sure many of my friends, family and work colleagues thought I had gone a little crazy and even some of my friends in Korea are a little perplexed at my choice to leave behind a legal career to travel the world teaching English.
But for me the decision was quite simple, it was time to try something new and have an adventure. There’s a whole big wide world out there, sure I could make enough money to take week long trips to far away destinations but you really never experience another culture that way, you really only scratch the surface.
Plus for every person that thought I had finally “lost the plot” there was another who was telling me how jealous there were and how they wish they were brave enough to head away to a foreign country.
FINDING A JOB
The next step was for us to find a job, this turned out to be the trickiest part of the process. We had done our research and decided that South Korea was the best destination for us. In Korea we would receive good pay and would have all our accommodation provided by our school, which is a pretty good incentive for a couple that has never lived overseas before.
We began to look at websites like Dave’s ESL café for our first job – there are so many jobs in Korea it’s hard to know where to start. The best advice I can give anyone who is looking for an English Teaching job overseas is do your research!
After considering many jobs and having many phone interviews and e-mail discussions we found a couple of schools that we thought sounded great – they were both public schools in the city of Uiejeongbu and we would be hired under the GEPIK scheme.
ARRIVING IN KOREA
The most nerve wracking moment of our decision to move to Korea would have to be when our plane touched down on the tarmac at Incheon airport and I realised that I was really beyond the point of no return.
When we went through the gates of the airport we were picked up by a Korean man holding a sign with our names on it, he didn’t speak a lot of English but he knew how to get us to our apartment which was all that mattered by that stage.
I think stepping into that apartment was pretty scary – I’d seen all of these horrible pictures on the internet living in tiny apartments. But it was fine, in fact it was better than fine! Actually it’s bigger than one of the flats we had in Wellington. Plus it has air-conditioning for when it’s hot and under floor heating for when it’s cold.
Before I knew it I was working as a 5th Grade English teacher at a Korean Elementary school which was very different from anything I have ever done before.
For the first month or so I felt like a total rock star, many of the children at my school had never met a “foreigner” before and were so excited they would follow me around the school and I have to admit I think some of the teachers were just as excited!
It wasn’t long before I settled down into a routine of teaching, because I work at a public school I have to stick to the school curriculum to a certain extent but there is also room for developing your own materials and also adding a game or two into the mix. Last year I also taught an additional English class which gave me the chance to develop my own materials and also to make a bit of extra money.
One of the biggest difficulties I have faced in Korea is the language. Korean is very different from Korean but once you pick up a few basic phrases, life becomes easier. Also, in general, Korean people like foreigners and will do their best to help you out where they can even if their English skills are limited!
The other difficulty is of course, loneliness, for our first two weeks in Korea we didn’t meet any other native English speakers. I have a friend that didn’t meet another native English speaker for the first six weeks she was in Korea. It can be hard to meet new people but you have to also remember that there are other people out there feeling just the same way you are and you will meet up with them sooner or later! Also don’t forget the internet is a great source for networking particularly www.facebook.com and www.meetup.com.
OUR NEXT STEPS
Our contracts in Korea finish in Korea on 1 September 2010 – so the question on my mind lately is ‘what should we do next?’
It seems clear that both our schools would be happy to keep us on for another year which would be great but we are also considering China or Taiwan or maybe moving to Eastern Europe and teaching in Hungary or the Czech Republic. I have also been thinking about teaching legal English in Russia – we seem to have so many choices the toughest question now seems to be deciding what to do next!
Other Korean Sucess Stories!
Bryan with his charges
Rachel with her lovelies!
