teaching esl

Time really does fly. I was just sitting at my desk in Korea, wasn’t I? Yet, just like that, I was sitting at my new desk in a new school preparing to teach English in Japan for a year. Kind of scary.

I didn’t actually teach any classes today, but I needed to go in to sign lots of paperwork and do some administrative tasks…like burning CD ROMs. After lunch I headed over to the university for an orientation with new teachers throughout the organization. With the exception of myself and two new foreign teachers, they were all Japanese. I’d say maybe 30-40 in total. Because of this, everything was spoken in Japanese. Believe it or not I was able to pick up a number of words from the speaker. I guess studying on your own can actually work.

I teach for three more days and then have three days off before leaving Quinhon forever.  The three months I’ve spent here have been surreal, sort of like a learn-about-yourself-bootcamp. I have to say, I’m pretty goddamn proud of myself for making it through, since it hasn’t been easy.  The hardest part about the expat life here is the communication and culture barrier. However, the time I’ve spent trying to understand these barriers, while difficult, has also been the best part about living here, hands down.  Should be interesting to integrate these new perspectives into life back in the USA in only 22 days!

Another bright part of my time here in Quinhon has been teaching. My happiest moments here have been in front of the classroom. I’m no expert teacher, but I figured I’d write a post about some teaching tips and tricks that have helped me, because more often than not you won’t get any training in Vietnam before your first class, haha.

This is a really difficult post for me to write, because I am so enraged and sad about what happened to me at the company I work(ed?) for, ChungDahm International. (Shame on the name!)

Please know that every hagwon and every teaching job in Korea is different. Just because I’ve had a nightmarish experience doesn’t mean that everybody does, and it certainly doesn’t mean that South Korea is a bad place to live and work in. This post is about my personal experience with a specific branch of one company.

A little backstory…

I had been planning on working with ChungDahm for over a year. I heard they pay well and on time, and seemed to be a reputable company. Before I came here, I’d been in contact for months with my recruiter. I should have known by the sounds of her ominous name, Misty Crooks, that something was up with ChungDahm.

I’ve been in South Korea for a little over a month now.

Here are my thoughts.

Teaching at Company X in Cheonan is just okay.

Positives: I love the autonomy I have in front of the classroom. No supervisors are there to look over my shoulder. No one’s yelling at me and telling me what to do. Inside the classroom, I’m da boss, and it’s pretty great. I take pride in the work, and feel really good when things go smoothly in the classroom. It’s actually really fun experimenting with what works and what does not work with each group of students. There’s a lot to learn and it’s pretty much all on me to figure it out. In that sense, I like teaching.