First Day of Work

I will have to come back and add pictures because I forgot my Camera on the first day.

Anyways I will start by saying the school is absolutely beautiful it is a very modern school and it is very idyllic of what they think that the schools are like in North America. Each class sits up to 12 students in a U shaped formation of desks. There is a really cool hybrid black board at the front that is the colour of a black board but uses white white board markers that are dust and allergy free to write on the board. Each of the rooms is named after an ivy league collage in either Canada or the USA. So my first classes yesterday were in Yale, Harvard, UCLA, MIT, UofT etc.

The other thing that is important to mention is that the school is not an actual school it is more of an extra curricular school. Accept for the Kinders are 2-5 and do accelerated English school and the 2 0'clock special class that gets credits for their English work, the school is more a just an extra curricular option.

The way that this works is actually very similar to when I taught swimming lessons. There are there types of classes these are your regular level classes where they go through English phonics books, than there are the classes I think 6 or 8 levels of easy reader books, than there are special classes that you teach everyday, and they are usually no more than 3 or 4 students. Than there are also private lessons for students who want to accelerate their English or need remedial assistance.

So the school is a lot of work there are on average 8 classes a day on Mon, Wed, Friday and on Tuesday and Thursday only teach part or half days. The students are for the most part really cute. They try so hard with their English. One of the cutest things that they do is so many of them when you ask a question will end their answer with "that is all". "You will be like How was your weekend?" they will answer " It was good, I practiced piano and went to math academy, that is all."

The other thing that takes a lot of getting use to is the cultural differences students and education standards are very different in Korea. The Students will randomly pull out a cap gun in class and start shooting each other. Or they will have a plastic sword fight in class. I find it so different from back home because at home that would get someone in a lot of trouble, here all I can do is ask them to put it away.

Let the Journey Begin

My New School in Jeonju, Jeon Buk, South Korea

Wednesday September 17, 2008 (10:16am) - Countdown 25 Hours and 34 minutes till I board the plane to my new life.


I am getting ahead of myself. Let me first start by saying how this adventure all began. I graduated on June 21, 2008 from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology. I was in the Bachelor of commerce program where I specialized in Marketing particularly E-Marketing and high tech innovations. I since the time I was little always loved school. Some kids will pretend to be sick to get out of school, I was the opposite I would pretend to not be sick to go to school. I love to learn and have come to the conclusion that I am my own greatest asset. During my last year of school I worked hard to get good grades and applied diligently to a number of post graduate programs. However through a series of events none of those dreams never came to be and I got mad at myself and frustrated by the way things were.

I knew I was not ready for what is considered to be a "real job" where I would have a 9-5 work day and all the other circumstances that surround normalcy. I went to a number of job fairs and a handful of interviews however I was generally discouraged by the whole scene and knew that was not the path for me (at least not yet). So here is my situation, no school, no job and parental pacient wearing thin. The idea to go overseas had been something I had considered for awhile however if you know me you know that my personality is very conservative and that I generally am got the "lets go on an adventure and move to the other side of the world" type of person, so for me this was a huge deal. I had been working with an organization called Canada2Korea and there was so much to do to get ready! My goodness. Let me just outline some of the steps I needed to take.

1) Find and apply to the Agency (http://www.canada2korea.com/)
2) Internal interview with the Agency
If Passed
3) Start filling paper work
1. Resume
2. Application
3. Personal Essay
4. Official Medical Report
5. Two Letters of Recommendation
6. Diploma ( Original ) or notarized copy
7. Passport copy ( photo page )
8. Two Passport_size photos
9. Two university Sealed Transcripts
10. A Document of proving teaching career ( if you have )
11. A background criminal check
12.A signed contract. ( Three Copies )
Than...
4) you take the degree and the criminal reference check to the lawyer and have them be notarized.
5) once that is done you go to the Korean Consulate (555 Avenue Rd. Toronto) and have them stamped.
6) than you send all of that to the agency
7) Once that is done your profile gets set up the website
8) Schools and organizations looking for teachers will contact you for an interview
9) once you pass the interview with the school they may ask you to do a telephone English test
10) After that you sign the contract and it is sent to Korea
11) than your School director (principal) will sign the contract
12) at this time all the work you have been doing to get ready will be transferred by courier to South Korea and to the director
13) the director will go to the ministry of justice and get a (E-2) visa number issued
14) than you go back to the consulate with the visa number and a certified check for $55 dollars and they set you up with let another interview time
15) you go to the interview at the consulate and it is like going through customs you are asked questions again about your health, what other traveling you have done and such.
16) you wait yet another week to see if your visa is issued (because there is a chance even now that you may not be allowed to go)
17) pick up your visa and scan a copy of the visa to the agency
18) once they have proof of the visa they will get your airline ticket.!

YIKES!

NOTE **** - For anyone who is interested to going overseas and teaching make sure you start planning at least 6months to a year in advanced. There are a lot of steps and delays are frequent so keep that in mind.

So for me even after that amazingly long and grueling process I still was determined to go this. During University I worked for one of my professors who gave me so many amazing opportunities. Including last summer I went to China to do research at Fudan University and participate in an international symposium hosted by Boeing Phantom on computer privacy. That experience let me know that I enjoyed the Asian Culture and made me more interested in pursuing other similar opportunities.

Okay so this has gotten long but stay posted as my journey continues!