As the pitch of the wind rushing past the window rises and the scenery whips by, there is a sense of motion unparalleled by most other modes of transportation. Indeed 300 km/h is not particularly fast for an airplane, and the flight from Seoul to Busan is much quicker, but gliding along the ground at these speeds is a new experience that amplifies the excitement of travel.
Talk to just about anyone involved in South Korean education, and you quickly learn that the pupils of this rising Asian nation are tired. Not only because of the daily school grind, the fatigue also comes from the invasion of continued academics into what little break they have.
The education system in South Korea is changing, and the thing about change is that it takes time to perfect. I learned this the hard way and it’s greatly impacted my year as an English teacher in The Land of The Morning Calm in many positive (and sometimes not so positive) ways.
Reach To Teach interview with our teacher in Korea, Geoffrey De Sena
Last week you saw the first installment of this two-part series which aims to guide teachers in the right direction during your time in Korea. there are many ways that you can go wrong with your experience in Korea, but there are also many ways you can go right. Here is the second part to making your time in Korea count.
If there’s anything I’ve learned from the things life has thrown at me, it’s that people have their own reasons for making the choices they make. Moving to Korea as a foreign language teacher is no different; we’re all here for our own reasons, at varying stages in life, and with diverse intentions.
Meeting the teachers before they head off to orientation for the February 2015 EPIK session is the final step before the adventure begins!
I have to be very honest: I wasn’t very joyful during my first few weeks living in Daegu, South Korea. In fact, I was upset, frustrated, and annoyed more often than I was happy. While all my friends were experiencing their ‘honey moon’ phase, I was feeling defeated. There were three things that helped me get out of my funk and start enjoying my time here, two fold.