Category Archives: Info for New Teachers

Some posts for new teachers, or for people thinking about coming to Korea to teach English. Info about the things you need to do before coming and what your school might be like.

A Day in the Life

19 Thursday May 2011

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For most of you, packing your bags and moving to another country to teach when you’ve never taught before sounds a little daunting. Trust me, it is. My first couple of weeks were so daunting in fact, that at day 8, I literally got on orbitz.com to check out plane fares for trips back home. Couldn’t afford it then, can’t afford it now. I’m almost three months in, and while the job still isn’t a cakewalk, it’s gotten a lot better. Let me take you through my average teaching day. Or at least an average Thursday.

8:00-9:00am
I wake up around this time for no good reason. I work until 9:30-10pm, get to sleep around 1 or 2 am, and wake up at 8?! I eat a small breakfast of whatever I have lying around, which isn’t much. Currently, my stockpile of food consists of grapes, a carrot, an orange, some cereal, and some yogurt. Thank goodness street food is so cheap.

9:00-11:00am
After wasting time on Facebook and checking my email for 30 minutes or so, I completely regret my body’s decision to wake me up at such a stupid time. I generally debate napping, under the misguided notion that I actually have important stuff to do. My brain finally reasons with me that my morning is really pretty inconsequential, and I snooze for another hour.

11:00am-12:00pm
I waste more time. I check my email again. Check my Facebook again. Around 11:45, I question whether or not I have time to watch something on Netflix. I’m currently watching The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Don’t judge me. At this point, I run my fingers through my hair a few times and debate the necessity of washing it. If it’s too greasy, I usually try to tell myself it’s not. By the time I decide that it’s really past the “no one will notice” stage, I have to hurry.

12-12:45pm
I get ready. I will omit the details.

12:45-1:30pm
At the stroke of 12:45, the time I need to head out if I’m going to walk to work, I regret my decision to get a full-time job. I day-dream about winning the lottery. Eventually, I snap back to reality and rush off to school. I try to appreciate being stared at by the locals. It’s like being a celebrity, I tell myself. I stroll into the lobby area and press the up button on the elevator and wait. And wait. Stare angrily as I see the elevator is lingering on some other floor. What’s taking so long?! I have stuff to do! Eventually the doors open, but if you’re not watching, you won’t know it. Korean elevators are eerily silent. I get to the 4th floor, clock in by pressing my finger into the fingerprint reader, and then the fun begins!

1:30-2:30
Unless we have a meeting about something that generally raises more questions than it answers, I have one hour to prep for my Atlas class, the second-to-lowest level at my school. And the class lasts 70 minutes. That’s right- 70 minutes with 5-6 year-olds. With four pages of material to go through.

2:30-3:40pm Atlas
Atlas class. I spend the class trying to keep my cool and not let the blank stares get to me. This class in particular (I teach two Atlas classes) doesn’t seem quite with it, so they’re particularly frustrating. We get through the lesson fairly quickly, and I generally beef up the lesson with word searches and games like pictionary. Sometimes I just break out the paper and crayons and tell them to draw something that starts with whatever letter we just learned. They usually don’t listen and just draw whatever they want.

3:40-6:25pm
I have a break! Thank. goodness, after THAT class. I eat lunch. Rice and kimchi are the staples, and then the rest is usually vegetarian. When they provide meat, it feels like Christmas. Can’t complain too much though, since it’s free. After lunch, I prep for my other classes. Thursdays are pretty easy, since two of the three classes I have left for the day are listening classes. I play the tracks, and they do the work. Other than that, I have a reading lesson to prepare for, which is also pretty easy. I spend the rest of the time trying to figure out new things to do with my Atlas classes.

6:25-7:30 GI Reading
I have my Tuesday/Thursday GI reading class. Four boys. They’re mostly well-behaved. Even the troublemaker seems to be making an effort these days. I pass out the Daily Tests and check their homework books and record those grades. I collect the Daily Tests and set them outside the door for the TAs to collect. We go over vocab and read the passage. Then I spend a majority of the lesson going over the passage for reading comprehension and make them take notes. They hate that.

7:35-8:15 GI Listening
I have the same class back-to-back, and this time, I’m making them listen. And take notes. They hate that. An easy, yet boring, class for me.

8:15-8:55 GB Listening
Probably my favorite class. The kids are fun, but they can also be a little too talkative. Alright, way too talkative. We’re lucky to get through the listening lesson. I’m also lucky if the kids take decent notes.

8:55-9:30
I put the homework grades into the computer file. I finish typing up my lesson plan and save it into the network. And once that’s done, I try to find stuff to do while waiting for 9:30 to come so I can go home. I clock out on the fingerprint pad and start walking.

10:00pm-?am
I get home and snack on something. I watch Netflix. I check my email. Eventually, I get to sleep, only to wake up stupidly early and start the process all over again.

Teaching

08 Friday Apr 2011

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I have never taught anyone before.  I have never worked with children before.  I did not know what I was getting myself into, but I was determined to do my best and pick up the skills I needed to identify with these kids.  My first class was my lowest level class.  It’s the second lowest level we have.  I walked into the room and introduced myself, “Hello, my name is Victoria Teacher.”  Deadpan stares from the 5 year-olds.  One of the Korean teachers popped in there to get something, and in a hushed whisper, I exclaimed, “They don’t know what I’m saying!”  She said a few words in Korean to the kids and gave me a smile and said I’d do fine.

Korean schoolchildren are very shy.  On the first day, maybe for the first 2 or 3 days that you have them, they won’t talk.  It was difficult for me to see if they just didn’t understand, or if they were shy.  It was no doubt a bit of both.  I went ahead with the lesson, which was a whopping 3 or 4 pages of easy material that we finished with about 30 minutes to spare.  I didn’t know what else to do.  So we played Hangman.  I later found out that Hangman has been outlawed at my school.  Whoops!  I guess when the parents ask their kids what they did in this expensive private language school, all they tell them is that they played Hangman.  The parents get mad, call the school, and yell at the Korean teachers.  So no more Hangman.  sigh.

It’s been a few weeks since that day, and I’ve gotten a bit better at this whole teaching thing.  A big thing is knowing how much your kids know.  That can be hard.  They don’t always say, “Teacher, I don’t understand.”  And then the little kids still try to talk to me in Korean.  I learned how to say “Hey!” in Korean, and it’s pretty effective.  They think I must be fluent in Korean by saying that one little word.  If you ever want to get a Korean’s attention, just say, “Ya!”

Some of my kids are wonderful, some aren’t.  Like us, they have their good days and their bad days.  I try to just go with the flow.  At some point, you have to give in a little bit.  Especially with the little kids.  The nice thing about teaching here as opposed to the US is that you don’t have to worry about not touching the kids.  We’re encouraged to play around with them a little.  Muss their hair, poke them, tickle them, wrestle with them.  One of my little boys started calling me Momma and kept trying to give me kisses.  That was one thing I didn’t make concessions for.  Kissing someone else’s kid is just too weird for my American sensibilities.  He then tried to give me a booger.  What a day.

I’ve had to get the Korean teachers involved a couple of times with troublesome kids.  The younger ones will hit each other sometimes.  Just this past Monday, one of my girls hit one of the boys and made him cry.  What a brat!  I get to deal with her later today… joy.

It’s only been a month, and with any luck I’ll have this teaching thing down pat by the end of the term.  Just in time to get a new batch of kids and learn it all over again.  It’s an adventure!

Last Minute Prep and The Flight

08 Friday Apr 2011

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I know I promised all of you that I would blog about my adventures and keep you up to speed.  At first, there didn’t seem to be any time, but then it felt that I had too much to write, and that very fact was far too daunting for this teacher to face.  I think the only approach here is to write several posts at once.  Good thing I’m an early riser.

Last Minute Prep and The Flight

In order to get here on time, Rena told me that I needed to get my Visa ASAP..  This meant I had to drive from Indy to Chicago (about a 3-hour drive, so really not all that fun) in one day to drop off the passport and have the interview.  Thanks to the GPS, I got to Chicago with no trouble.  Once I got there, I found out that Rena had sent me an outdated form, so I had to re-fill everything out there.  And one of the questions was asking me my employer’s birthdate.  I just barely knew the man’s name!  I left that blank, and evidentally, doing that didn’t hurt my chances of getting my Visa.  My interview was at 10:30am, but it didn’t start for about an hour.  I was told that the interview was a 5-10 minute thing, but once I got in the room with a few other applicants, I found out why my interview was so late.  The consulate asked everyone their names and why they wanted to go to Korea.  Then he stamped our passports.  Done, right?  No!  He had a transcript of a radio program, and he wanted us to translate some of it for him.  He particularly had a difficult time with the idioms and slang we use.  That took a bit of time.  We already had the stamps we needed, so we weren’t sure if he was testing our English knowledge or if he just really wanted help with his own knowledge of English.

The passports were supposed to be ready by 3pm that Friday, and my flight was early the next morning.  Joy.  I was pleased to get there and find my passport ready.  I was sad that I couldn’t enjoy as much of Chicago as I wanted, but I needed to get back so I could pack.  I didn’t get back home until about 9pm, and then came the Ordeal of the Packing.  Trying to fit everything you think you’ll need for a year abroad, when you aren’t entirely sure what’s available in the country to which you are going.  I wound up not sleeping at all that night, as I spent the whole night putting things in my bags, taking things out of my bags, trying to rationalize what was needed and what wasn’t.  Not fun.  Everything did get packed though.

I headed out of the house, with the family in tow, at about 4:30am.  When I checked my bags, I discovered that one was 49 pounds, and one was 51.5 pounds, and the limit is 50.  Luckily, the employee at the counter decided to cut me some slack and not charge me a fee for an overweight bag.  No one in the family cried, at least not in my presence.  We said our goodbyes, and then I had to go through security.  I went from Indy to Chicago (I was JUST there!!) to Seattle to Incheon, South Korea.  The flights were long, but no longer than they were anticipated, which is always appreciated.  Since I didn’t sleep the night before, I spent most of my time on the flights sleeping.

We landed at about 6pm (Seoul time), and I spent quality time in the Immigration line.  I grabbed my bags, which luckily all present and accounted for, and then I met my driver, who spoke no English and had my name spelled almost correctly on the sign he held.  He ran a few red lights on the way, but I later discovered that all drivers do that here.  I expected to be dropped off at the school to meet my director, but he dropped me off at the 6 Motel instead.  There, the director was waiting for me, as well as three of my new co-teachers.  They were nice enough to haul my 50-pound bags up the stairs to my room.  And then the Korean adventures began!

Prep Time

02 Saturday Apr 2011

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(This post was originally published on my old blog on Feb 1, 2011.  I’ve re-posted it here, since it’s informative and not boring at all.  Enjoy.)

The process for applying to teach English in Korea is, quite frankly, a pain in the butt. I am fortunate to know a couple of people who are teaching there, and one of them put me in contact with his recruiter. Rena Kim works for ESL Park, and she’s been an enormous help in getting my requirements fulfilled. I first filled out an application for ESL Park. (To anyone who is interested in applying- give me your email address, and I’ll put Rena in contact with you.) Rena called me for a quick interview the next evening, and she sent me a list of the required documents.

1. The Criminal Background Check (CBC)- State background checks used to be considered good enough for this process, but recent changes require a federal background check. You will need to get your fingerprints done. If you’re not sure where to go, give your local law enforcement agency a call, and they should be able to direct you. It only cost me $3 to have that done. Then, go here to fill out the forms and authorize payment. Make sure to have it sent directly back to you. For the reason, just put that you want a visa to travel to Korea. Otherwise, they may want to send it to Korea instead of back to you. Then comes the waiting. My recruiter warned me that it could take three months to get the CBC back. Mine only took about 6 weeks.

You will then need to get your CBC notarized and apostilled. Any notary should work as far as the notarization goes. An apostille is like a notarization, but it is recognized internationally. It makes the document extra official. You have to send your CBC to Washington to get it apostilled, and it could take about three weeks.

2. TWO Copies of Your Diploma- Only one gets sent out to Korea with your other documents, but you need to have two copies notarized and apostilled. I was able to get mine notarized by someone at my bank (make sure that the notary dates the notarization!), and then I took them to the Secretary of State in Indiana to get them apostilled.

3. Copy of Passport- This was easy for me, since I already have a passport. This can also take a long time to process if you don’t already have one. Don’t send out the actual passport! They just require a copy of the page with the photo.

4. FOUR Passport Photos- Why do you need additional photos when you already have a passport? I don’t know. Rena told me that I could scan the photo from my actual passport and print out 4 copies. I didn’t, because my photo is so horribly washed out that I wonder how someone specifically trained to take an important photo for an important document could botch it so badly. It got me to Italy just fine a few years ago though, so I guess it works. I went to Walgreens to get some new photos. It cost a little less than $20 for four photos. It was quick and painless.

5. The Contract- You have to send in the copy of the contract that your recruiter sends you, with your signature on it.

6. Health Certificate- Rena emailed me a Health Certificate to fill out and sign. I am not sure what could set you back, as there’s nothing seriously wrong with me. Physically, anyway. I read a blog by someone in Korea who has diabetes, so I guess that’s not a problem that would prevent you from teaching. On a side note, he commented that the meds he needed were considerably cheaper in Korea.

I sent out my documents last week, and my departure depends on how quickly they get my visa in order. Rena seems to think that I will be leaving around the 21st of February, but it could be a little later.

Oh, and you don’t need to know Korean to teach there. They recommend that you try to learn Hangul, their alphabet. Knowing that should be a big help in learning the language. I’m slowly learning it, and I’ll keep you posted on what sources I find the most useful.

For those of you who are on the fence about teaching abroad, I highly recommend that you get your CBC done. If you decide in the end that you don’t want to do it, you’re only out the $20 for the prints and CBC. If you decide you do want to do it, and you haven’t gotten the CBC done, you have to wait the two or three months, and then wait even longer to get it apostilled.