Living & Working in South Korea

I have recently written a book on South Korea. It is a useful guide to anyone considering a gap year or just seeking an adventure in South Korea as a TEFL Teacher. This book gives the reader a sense of what awaits them. Packed with loads of information and helpful hints on how and where to find TEFL jobs, the school environment, Korean culture and etiquette. It gives practical advice and tips from team teaching to lesson planning, as well as ideas and suggestions on how to cope in your new environment. The author makes use of humorous anecdotes which help to convey to the reader the day to day working and social life of a TEFL Teacher in South Korea. The book also list numerous websites which will allow the reader to do further research and enable them to make a more informed decision on whether to pursue teaching in South Korea.

An Anecdotal Guide for TEFL Teachers

Order this title through your local bookseller or preferred online retailer.

ISBN 978-0-620-49501-1 or Amazon ISBN 978-1-460-92374-0

Farewell Speech

My final blog about South Korea: The farewell speech that I gave to the teachers and staff at my school.

Today I’m happy, but also very sad.

I’m happy because I know I will soon see my family in South Africa, but very sad because it feels like I’m leaving behind family in South Korea. You have made me feel so welcome here that I feel like family!

I would like to thank the Principal and Vice Principal for allowing me to teach at Buchun Middle School. It was an honour and a privilege for me to teach here.

 I came to South Korea to teach, but I think I spent more time being a student.

You have taught me so much. Thank you for teaching me compassion, sharing, kindness, generosity and the Korean way of life. I am a better person because of it.

I would like to thank all of you who have touched my life in a positive way.

A very special thank you to my guardian Angels Shil, Mrs. Park, Jin and Miran. They supported me and really looked after me during my stay in Korea. I don’t think that I would have managed without them.

Thank you all for the wonderful memories.

The staff, teachers and students of Buchun Middle School will always hold a special place in my heart. I will miss you all very much.

In the South African national anthem, we sing the words, “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrica,” which means God bless Africa. Today, I would say, “Nkosi Sikelel’ iBuchun Ekolweni”. God bless Buchun Middle School.

I would like to close with this quote:

“Goodbyes are not forever.

Goodbyes are not the end.

They simply mean I’ll miss you

Until we meet again.”

Thank you!

Experience of a lifetime

Today, I finished doing four weeks of Winter English camps. We worked straight through Christmas and New Year, so not much time for reflection and contemplation of events over the last year. I’m just so relieved that the camps are over. I feel like doing what Mel Gibson did in Brave heart, painting my face blue and running outside, thrusting my hands into the air and shouting, “Freedom!”

I now have five days off for that much needed reflection and contemplation.

Two years ago when I was thinking about going to a foreign country to experience a different culture, many people said that it was an experience of a lifetime and that I should go for it. Of course, what about 90% of the people conveniently forgot to mention to me, was that they had never done it themselves. Needless to say, taking their advice into consideration and equipped with English expressions like, “Fortune favors the brave,” to bolster my confidence, I took the plunge and here we are two years later.

Experience of a lifetime indeed. When someone mentions that to you, it conjures up images of excitement and adventure. However, it’s not all excitement, adventure and plain sailing. There are occasions where things do get a little rough and tough. But I suppose that is all part of the experience…the good and the bad. And I have had my fair share of both those experiences while I have been in South Korea.

They say you always remember your first time and trust me, I remember the first time I suffered from culture shock while in Korea. It’s etched in my mind. I don’t think I will ever be able to forget the whole going to the toilet story. I’m over the fact that most toilets consist of basically a hole in the ground surrounded by what one can only describe as a babies potty and then you have to squat over this while doing your ‘business.’ What freaks me out is the toilet paper story. In Korea, you don’t flush the toilet paper down the toilet; you place it in a basket next to the toilet. I know you are probably wondering how they dispose of it once the basket is full and so have I.  I have not asked and have no intention of asking. It’s a precautionary measure. Just in case they tell me it is recycled and then sold as toilet paper again. It will just freak me out all over again and cause more psychological scarring!

While writing this blog, my worst nightmare came true, my toilet became blocked. So now I would have to call the landlord and explain to him that my toilet was blocked. I still hadn’t figured out how I was going to explain how the toilet paper got into the toilet in the first place. I had broken out into a cold sweat and was frantically plunging away, using a toilet brush as a plunger, in the hope that I could clear the blockage. I was even prepared to try affirmations, power of positive thinking, prayer; you name it…anything to clear this blockage. Fortunately, the Gods were smiling on me, because after several “flushes” and further frantic plunging, the toilet miraculously cleared itself and the water went down to an acceptable level…just below, “it’s time to get out your life raft.” I know this should be a lesson to me and that from now on I should place the toilet paper in a bin instead of flushing it, but I’m sorry, old habits die hard!

Having put on almost eight kilograms since I have been in Korea, a few months ago I decided to join a gym and try and lose some weight. This was certainly an eye opening experience. When it comes to nudity there are some unwritten laws. Apparently, these laws are not applicable in Korea. I remember the first time that I went into the sauna. The sauna can probably seat about six people comfortably. Yet, while I was sitting on the bench, this one guy decides to get up, face me and start doing Jack Knives without warning. I mean for goodness sake! Besides the emotional trauma and psychological scarring this visual had caused me, didn’t his mother ever teach him any manners? After all, it’s rude to point! Koreans are also virtually hairless, with the exception of hair on their heads, under their arms and in the nether regions. The humorous adage, “You scratch my back, I comb yours,” would be lost on them.  Being a Westerner with hair on my arms and legs has caused much amazement, curiosity and ‘staring’ in the change room. I have even had people come up to me wanting to feel my “fur”! A peculiar habit that some of the men seem to observe, is that of drying their nether regions with a hairdryer.  And it’s not covertly done either…pretend you’re drying your hair and then when no-one is looking point it down in the direction of the nether regions and then quickly back up to the head and shoulders. No sir! One leg is thrust up onto the counter, the hairdryer is pointed in the appropriate direction, and the other hand starts to briskly ruffle the nether regions in a half-hearted attempt to speed up the drying process. If I didn’t know any better, I would swear they were just trying to ’play’ with themselves.

I’m sure I could write a book about my “experience of a lifetime” in South Korea, but all I can say is that it was all well worth it. Maybe you should give it a try?

Meaning of life stuff

I can’t believe that it was more than a month ago since I last wrote a blog. Time seems to have gone by so quickly. I have been so busy preparing for and teaching English camps that I haven’t noticed. I even started a count down calendar until my contract ends, which hasn’t been updated in a while. So, why the sudden urge to write a blog again? Nothing really. I’m busy with an English camp at the moment and I travel by bus to get back from the school. It just so happens that I caught an earlier bus which took a different route and just happened to stop outside my favourite coffee shop. So here I am sitting in my favourite coffee shop quaffing back Café Latte’s, contemplating the meaning of life.

There’s an English expression, “The world is your Oyster.” I kind of feel like that…not like an oyster that is, but more like I have an abundance of opportunities that lay ahead for me. Now when I say abundance, I’m not referring to a couple of buns up on stage doing a cabaret number either. I don’t know, maybe I’m just feeling this way because of the sudden caffeine rush that I get every time I drink coffee. Come end of March though, I suppose we will see if it was a caffeine rush or not.

So why do I feel so optimistic…caffeine rush aside!

I’ve spent almost two years in South Korea in a career which I have no formal qualification. It has been a steep learning curve with many ups and downs…none of them sex related I might add. During all of this, the most learning and “aha” moments have come during times of severe stress and suffering. It was the Mamma’s and the Papa’s who sang that, “the darkest hour is just before dawn.” They obviously had not taught at my school because on some days, the darkest ‘hours’ were between 9am and 4pm! Even though some of those times were stressful, they pushed me to improve myself or the situation further. There have also been many wonderful moments that have left me all warm and fuzzy inside, but for me, little learning has come from these moments.

So why does all this make me feel optimistic about my future? If I look back at my career history and all the jobs that I have had, the greatest learning’s have come from the most difficult jobs that I have had to do. Every time that I have struggled with a particular job, it has pushed me further out of my comfort zone, which in turn has enabled me to master that job. This reminds me of another expression that I have learnt along my journey through life, “There is no failure, only learning.”

So even though I am trying my best to do research and plan my life from end of March onwards, it doesn’t really matter. I can tackle any job or other endeavor safe in the knowledge that I cannot fail; I can only learn and grow. After all, history has a habit of repeating itself.

Hhmm, do I suddenly feel my optimism waning? “Waiter, another Café Latte please!”

The end is near

The school officially closes on the 29^th December. However, it’s as good as over. My students start writing exams this week. Once the exams are finished, there are only two weeks of school left. No point in teaching them anything new, as they would have already finished the syllabus. So it looks like movies and games for the two weeks of lessons leading up to the end of the semester.

The school year has flown by and I really don’t know where the time has gone. Teaching 900 students’ week after week might seem like it gets a little monotonous, but I really have had some good times. If I would have to choose which is my favorite grade to teach, I would have to say my 1^st graders. These are your 12 to 13 year olds. I’m given carte blanche when it comes to designing the lesson plans for 1^st graders and don’t have a set curriculum to follow. Sometimes it can be a nightmare to come up with new ways and ideas to teach them English, but it’s worth the stress when you see the results the students come up with. The 1^st graders are straight out of elementary school and aren’t afraid to express their creativity. When it comes to some 2^nd and 3^rd graders, they seem to feel that it’s beneath them to get too excited about being creative in English.

I started thinking back to some of the lessons that I had done over the last few months. Some of them were quite memorable; some had their moments, while others were quite a nightmare to manage. I remember one of the first ‘creative’ lessons I tried. It was near the beginning of the semester and I wanted to teach students expressions around rules i.e. things you can do, things you can’t do and things you are allowed to do. So I gave them a few examples about rules of the road, at the library and in a restaurant. I then split them up into groups and asked them to draw up some rules for the classroom. They seem to have gotten the idea. We had rules about not fighting in class, keeping quiet while the teacher was talking and paying attention, etc. Although, there were some odd ones like no drinking alcohol or smoking in class. Bloody hell! I should hope not, especially if you are not going to share with the teacher.

No alcohol?

Spurred on by the success of the ‘rules’ lesson, I decided to try and get them to write a story in English. It involved a few pages of clipart. The students were put into groups and had to choose six pictures from the clipart. They then had to place the clipart in a sequence and write a story about it. Majority of the students wrote stories about marriage, divorce and extra marital affairs. One wonders where these kids come up with their ideas. Never under estimate the power of television and Korean soap operas.

Korean soapies?

One of my favorite lessons was the one about fashion. I taught the students new vocabulary relating to fashion accessories, clothing and how to describe what a person was wearing. I then split them up into groups and gave them a pile of magazines. They had to cut out pictures of clothing and accessories, stick them onto a cut-out person and then describe what the person was wearing. The girls took to this lesson and came up with some really creative designs. And what about the boys? Well, boys will be boys. They were cutting out all the pictures of panties and bra’s and making their near naked models.

Fashion

After each lesson I will always put some of the students’ endeavors up on the board at the back of the classroom. I couldn’t help but notice that some of the boys were always going to this one picture and lifting up the dress and looking under it. My co-teacher must have also noticed and eventually glued it down. Now I’m not sure what the students had put under there for them to be so curious, but I wasn’t about to go and look for myself. Can you imagine if I did go take a look and someone just happened to walk in or notice me doing it? How do you try and explain to them that you were just looking to see what the students were up to, without them suspecting you of being a pervert!

What's under that skirt?

A more recent lesson I did, was one about Halloween. I gave them a picture of the various parts of a skeleton. They had to cut out the parts and then assemble the skeleton and paste it onto a sheet of paper. The students would name the skeleton and then tell a little story about it.

Britney Bones

The boys seemed to have fared a bit better than the girls this time around. However, this didn’t stop some of them getting up to mischief. One of the groups had taken one of the leg bones of the skeleton and placed it in the centre of the skeleton’s body to represent a male sex organ. They could not contain their excitement to show me their handy work. “Look teacher. Scary Skeleton has a big penis!” My co-teacher was well aware of this groups endeavor, but still chose them to present their artwork to the whole class. She came to me afterwards to say how embarrassed she was by their presentation. Hello? Why then did you choose them to present?

Scary Skeletons

Even though there have been ups and downs throughout the year, all in all I think it has been a good year of teaching. I will always have fond memories of teaching my 1^st graders.  Let’s see what the new semester brings.