My First Teaching Position
Hey everyone, who is reading this, I hope you enjoy hearing about my time teaching here in South Korea. Before I start to talk about the present I need to back and talk about the past so you can understand a little more about where I am now.
So it all began when I finished college and I decided that I wanted to get rid of my student loans very quickly. I decided to check out the best way of working off this money and since I had a BA in TESOL (teaching English to students of other languages) I figured that I should start using it. I checked out the internet and on Dave's ESL Cafe found many job postings for teaching English in South Korea for a fair amount of money. So I hooked up with a recruiter, that I thought was good, and they found me a job in Jinju.
Off I went to Jinju, having no contacts other than the recruiters. The flight was long and I didn't know what to expect. I arrived in Seoul and met the recruiter, who took me to the bus station to put me on a bus to Jinju. 4 hours later I arrived in Jinju, around 4:00 AM. The director and his wife met me and took me to my house. I was told that I would be picked up at 12:00 PM to go to the school the next day. Talk about a quick start to things.
Anyways, after finding some clothes to change into and finding the roll of toilet paper, that I was luck to have packed as there was no toilet paper in the house, I tried to go to bed. I woke up very early and started to unpack. There was absolutely no food in the house and I was not told were there was a store, I was really hungry. I waited until 12:00 when I was to be picked up and the director's wife, English name Julie, asked if I had eaten anything. I explained that I didn't know where any stores were and so she took me to Mc Donald's on the way to the school.
So my first day consisted of meeting all the classes. I was given 10 minutes in each class to introduce myself, find out a little about the students, and them ask me any questions. It was an exhausting day. After that I went to the grocery store with Julie and got food and things that I would need.
So this was life in Korea. I found out very fast that there were only 2 teachers at my school who spoke English well enough to understand me and carry on a conversation. They became very helpful to me. They helped me to find various items and different kinds of stores to shop at.
Teaching at this school was a big challenge because I had no text book, I had all ages and all levels, and very large classes of 16-20 students. I finally convinced Julie that I needed to have a text book and she allowed me to buy Side by Side to use. I would photocopy this and try and teach it to the students. Boy, was that a challenge. The students have a very hard time thinking outside of the box. They learn that what the teacher tells you is the way it is and they don't think for themselves. Very difficult.
It was not a very enjoyable time for me because I wouldn't be told about changes or meetings until the last minute and I felt very left out of a lot of things, being the only foreign teacher at the school. I was also to go to another school one day a week and be passed around to the classes every 20 minutes. This was also bad because you can't teach students anything much in 20 minutes and have them remember it one week later. This was also the problem with the school that I mainly worked at also. I only saw the students one time a week and they would forget what they had learned.
Anyways, time went on and I got very worn out, so much that I ended up getting really sick. I was so sick that I could hardly speak because my throat was sore. I went to the doctors and was told that I needed to rest. I went to the school and stayed 20 minutes and found that I was getting worse. I talked to Julie and told her that I was unable to stay because of how I was feeling. She seemed very disappointed and then discussed in Korean, with her husband, what should be done for 5 monutes. They finally decided that I could go home and come back the next day. This was the point where I decided I needed to get out because no one at the school really cared about my well being.
I found in my contract that after 6 months I could leave without having to pay back my whole airflight. So I told Juile that I wanted out and she was far from happy about this. Meanwhile, I had found a better position and was accepted for the job come the start of Febuary. So I left Korea the beginning of January.
This is one of the largest classes, nicknamed the Cute Class (to help me keep track of all the different classes). Not all the students were there that day, maybe about 4 are missing. Note that I didn't choose the name of the class.
So it all began when I finished college and I decided that I wanted to get rid of my student loans very quickly. I decided to check out the best way of working off this money and since I had a BA in TESOL (teaching English to students of other languages) I figured that I should start using it. I checked out the internet and on Dave's ESL Cafe found many job postings for teaching English in South Korea for a fair amount of money. So I hooked up with a recruiter, that I thought was good, and they found me a job in Jinju.
Off I went to Jinju, having no contacts other than the recruiters. The flight was long and I didn't know what to expect. I arrived in Seoul and met the recruiter, who took me to the bus station to put me on a bus to Jinju. 4 hours later I arrived in Jinju, around 4:00 AM. The director and his wife met me and took me to my house. I was told that I would be picked up at 12:00 PM to go to the school the next day. Talk about a quick start to things.
Anyways, after finding some clothes to change into and finding the roll of toilet paper, that I was luck to have packed as there was no toilet paper in the house, I tried to go to bed. I woke up very early and started to unpack. There was absolutely no food in the house and I was not told were there was a store, I was really hungry. I waited until 12:00 when I was to be picked up and the director's wife, English name Julie, asked if I had eaten anything. I explained that I didn't know where any stores were and so she took me to Mc Donald's on the way to the school.
So my first day consisted of meeting all the classes. I was given 10 minutes in each class to introduce myself, find out a little about the students, and them ask me any questions. It was an exhausting day. After that I went to the grocery store with Julie and got food and things that I would need.
So this was life in Korea. I found out very fast that there were only 2 teachers at my school who spoke English well enough to understand me and carry on a conversation. They became very helpful to me. They helped me to find various items and different kinds of stores to shop at.
Teaching at this school was a big challenge because I had no text book, I had all ages and all levels, and very large classes of 16-20 students. I finally convinced Julie that I needed to have a text book and she allowed me to buy Side by Side to use. I would photocopy this and try and teach it to the students. Boy, was that a challenge. The students have a very hard time thinking outside of the box. They learn that what the teacher tells you is the way it is and they don't think for themselves. Very difficult.
It was not a very enjoyable time for me because I wouldn't be told about changes or meetings until the last minute and I felt very left out of a lot of things, being the only foreign teacher at the school. I was also to go to another school one day a week and be passed around to the classes every 20 minutes. This was also bad because you can't teach students anything much in 20 minutes and have them remember it one week later. This was also the problem with the school that I mainly worked at also. I only saw the students one time a week and they would forget what they had learned.
Anyways, time went on and I got very worn out, so much that I ended up getting really sick. I was so sick that I could hardly speak because my throat was sore. I went to the doctors and was told that I needed to rest. I went to the school and stayed 20 minutes and found that I was getting worse. I talked to Julie and told her that I was unable to stay because of how I was feeling. She seemed very disappointed and then discussed in Korean, with her husband, what should be done for 5 monutes. They finally decided that I could go home and come back the next day. This was the point where I decided I needed to get out because no one at the school really cared about my well being.
I found in my contract that after 6 months I could leave without having to pay back my whole airflight. So I told Juile that I wanted out and she was far from happy about this. Meanwhile, I had found a better position and was accepted for the job come the start of Febuary. So I left Korea the beginning of January.
This is one of the largest classes, nicknamed the Cute Class (to help me keep track of all the different classes). Not all the students were there that day, maybe about 4 are missing. Note that I didn't choose the name of the class.
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