Departure Date: Feb. 18th!

HandS Korea called me about an hour ago yay! Now I know my (tentative?) departure date:  February 18th!

I asked if I could arrive earlier. I was told it is NOT suggested for very good reasons.

1. All the other 10-12 teachers who will be teaching with me at the same school will be arriving in Korea on February 20th. The recruiters would like all of us to arrive in Seoul, ROK, the same day. (Makes sense.) Then we can all travel together to Daejeon!

2. Accommodations are being made for us based on a February 20th arrival date. (Again, makes sense.)

The Process- Episode 1

The process to get a teaching job in Korea has been a long one for me. *However,* I'm sure it'll be worthwhile! I'm not sure how many "episodes" it will take me to explain the process so we'll see...

The process for me started quite a while ago. However, I'll cut to the process that most people- I assume- would go through to get a teaching job in Korea.

1. Get a TEFL certificate, preferably of at least 100 hours. TEFL = Teaching English as a Foreign Language. TESOL seems to be used interchangeably with TEFL; TESOL = Teaching English as a Second/Other Language.

I got my certificate through Oxford Seminars. It meant spending 3 weekends (Sat and Sun), 9am-6pm, with three other adults seeking a TEFL certificate. We had a superb instructor who had taught English overseas for a number of years, and who was supportive and knowledgeable. Our classes were held partly in the interesting "zero waste" hotel called, "Boulder Outlook Hotel & Suites," (in Boulder, Colorado), and partly in a large, clean, modern, basement classroom in one of the buildings on the campus of the University of Colorado (at Boulder).

Another way to get one's TEFL certificate is through online companies. I looked into Bridge Linguatec, Inc. online, but decided I needed part of my class to be in person.

2. Update your resume. 

The company I got my TEFL through, Oxford Seminars, has very handy information on how the resume should look. It's different in a few ways from your regular resume in that your picture is required and also your current health condition, marital status, and country of citizenship, to name a few.

3. Send recruiters/potential employers your resume and cover letter.

Here I didn't have to do much at all. I simply went to "My Oxford Seminars," logged in, and clicked on "Graduate Placement Services." I think there was a questionnaire asking things like in which countries I wanted to get a job, how soon I wanted a job, and what ages I wanted to teach. Once I sent this back to them, OS quickly responded asking if I'd like them to send my resume and cover letter on to their Korean contacts. I said, "Yes," without thinking much about it and less than 5 calendar days later, I had 4 emails from Korean job recruiters *and* one phone call.

4. Create a film clip of yourself, the contents of which depends on which recruiter you're working with. 

One recruiter asked me to film myself giving a 5-7 minute teaching demo. (I didn't do this.) Another recruiter asked me to film myself giving just an introduction with my name, my teaching background and experience, and to answer the question, "Why do you want to teach in Korea?" (Link to my film to be supplied in the near future...)

5. Prepare for over-the-phone or skype interview.

I had two over-the-phone interviews. Although I had read that the interviewer would do most of the talking, my first interview seemed odd to me because I hardly talked about myself at all. Perhaps this was partly due to the interviewer having called me at the end of what sounded like a very LONG day for him, and long list of interviews. He must've been used to hearing certain responses over and over because, after he asked me a question, he gave the answer he thought he'd hear, ending with, "right?" For those answers that did not fit me, I told him so, but otherwise I hardly said anything.

The second interview I had was with a woman from Samyook Elementary School. Again I did less than 1/3 of the talking, but this time I made sure to give my mentally-prepared 30-second speech, and to convey a few very important points. This was different than interviews I'd experienced so far in the U.S. because they didn't ask me what my strongest or weakest points are, nor why I believe I would be an asset.

6. Get interviewed.

I made sure to take notes while I was being interviewed because I'm not good at remembering what they said or I said. Afterwards, I made sure to email the interviewer a "thank you" email.

7. Look at contract closely!

Again, Oxford Seminars has very helpful information in their booklet entitled, "Job Search Manual," which a TEFL course graduate receives. I'm glad I heeded their advice! It turned out that, under the salary section, some of the percentages of deductions from salary were *incorrect* in that they were too high on the contract I was originally emailed. The corrected contract has lower percentage numbers on it.

8. Sign the contract once you approve of it.

For me, after I signed it, I then scanned and emailed it back to the recruiters who then passed it on to the school. I received confirmation that my position was secured at the school from the recruiters.

Predictions

When volunteering in a local second grade classroom, I was reminded of how it's important to make predictions. Therefore, here are my predictions (based on what I've read online, in books, and have been told by Americans and Koreans) about Korea.

1. The Korean elementary school children I will be teaching will have better manners in the classroom than most American schoolchildren in public schools.

2. Gum is not allowed in school. I gather that too maybe it's not a socially-acceptable thing to chew gum at work.

3. There will be a lot fewer "special needs" children, and none actually labeled as such, at the elementary school.

4. Most everyone will stare at me but I'll get used to it.

5. Even though I'm petite, I will have a hard time finding pants that fit.

6. I will have a hard time finding cheese in Korea. Luckily, I've been wanting to try a diet free of dairy so I predict it will be easy to have a dairy-free diet.

7. I won't have a microwave in my tiny furnished apartment.

I hope to check up on these later to determine if they are true or not. As with making predictions when reading, I don't care if my predictions end up being correct or not; I only care that I learn what *is* correct and move on with my new-found information! :)

Wonderings: weather

Here in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, as I type, large dendrites are falling and inside my parents, cat, and I sit by the wood stove, cozy and warm. Not a day goes by here when I'm not aware of the weather because of how it directly affects my parents' business and our lives on a daily basis. Every day one, of our chores is to ensure we have enough kindling and fire wood for that night. A couple days ago, my dad spent more than half an hour clinging to the top of a 40 foot tower at up 10,000+ feet above sea level in 60+ mph winds to fix a cable; not a job to sneeze at!

Too, perhaps I'm cloud conscious because of growing up with a meteorologist for a mother. I'm used to seeing my mom measure the precip and enter the data into "CoCoRaHS" online (Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network). My mornings as a child started by her entering my bedroom, opening the curtain, declaring, "Rise and shine; it's early morning time!" and reporting to me about the weather for the day so that I would know what to wear.

I wonder how the weather will affect my daily life in Korea?...

"So what happens now?"

"So what happens now?" It's what everyone has been asking me and I don't know the answer exactly...

Tomorrow my precious apostilled one sheet of paper (FBI background check results), that my parents' wonderful world-traveling friends FedExed to me- thank you!- should arrive.

On the twenty-sixth day of January I plan on mailing to Korea:  the apostilled FBI background check results, my notarized apostilled college diploma, two official *separately sealed* university transcripts, two letters of recommendation, a photocopy of my passport, four passport photos, one signed Medical Statement, all 24 pages of my signed employment contract (in English and Korean), and a partridge in a pear tree!

Then apparently the recruiters will submit my documents to the immigration office there. Then, 3-5 business days later the immigration office will give the recruiters my visa number which the recruiters will email to me along with the visa application.

Once I have that, I will go to the nearest Korean consulate (apparently there isn't one in Colorado; I have to go to San Francisco) for the in-person interview to get my visa.

After that, I don't know what happens. I'm not sure if I'll be able to go to San Francisco on my way to Korea, of if I'll have to fly to SF and back here to CO before I fly to Korea...

Meanwhile, I spent Monday morning and this morning volunteering in a second grade classroom at the local elementary school (where I had gone to school for 5th and 6th grade!). In order to be a volunteer I had to *pay* $16.00 to have an "FBI background check" done, a *different* background check than one I will receive tomorrow that my parents' friends got apostilled in our nation's capital. The background check for volunteering is apparently a much easier, cheaper and faster one; it cost only $16.00, took only two days and was simply a matter of filling out a quick form online, instead of the $170+ (including shipping), 6 weeks, and multiple smaller steps, offices to go to and people to call, that it took for the federal official full-blown FBI background check (required by the recruiters).

Anyway, I know this:  the winds of change are blowing REALLY strongly here; the gusts outside are literally above 60 mph! I won't miss these high winds in Korea!

Happy (Lunar) New Year!

"Happy New Year" in Korean is "새해 복 많이 받으세요"(pronounced "saehae bog manh-i bad-euseyo"). [This is a loose translation.] 

 

The Lunar New Year, called, "설날" (pronounced "Seollal") is apparently one of the

most important holidays celebrated in Korea. It is a national holiday where people travel

to see their family members and celebrate the Lunar New Year (January 22-24th).

One custom is to watch the sunrise of the new year. Cheers to a super Seollal Sunrise!

Visit the Official Korea Tourism Organization at:

http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto; 

click on "2012 Seollal Special Programs" for more info. 

(I was going to include a quote from their website but decided I won't until I know how to do the citation properly, or until I determine I don't need to bother with proper citations...)

Important note about Oxford Seminars' Graduate Placement Services

Here's an important note. I received my TEFL Certificate through Oxford Seminars (OS) which has *excellent* Graduate Placement Services (good FOR LIFE)! After I completed the 3-week in-person 60-hour course, and subsequent 40-hour online self-paced portion, I contacted the Graduate Placement Services people. They asked me where I was interested in getting a teaching job. I couldn't decide but to put down *something* to get the process started, I typed on a whim, "Korea," without thinking much further about it. OS Graduate Placement Services also asked for my cover letter and resume (I believe), and once I sent that, they asked if I was ready to have them send these things on to their contacts in Korea. Since I wasn't sure what I wanted, but didn't want to lose more time in thinking about it, I said, "Yes." This simple "Yes," catapulted me into the process of getting a job in Korea. I haven't looked back or thought about another country since then because I know me- I needed to focus on one country; otherwise I knew I would get overwhelmed and that I might have ended up not going at all.

My points are these.

1. Oxford Seminars' Graduate Placement Services are extremely helpful! They have GREAT contacts and promptly respond to emails.

2. Once I told OS to send my resume to Korea, this short simple act is what got the ball rolling; it started a whole rapid chain of events that I hadn't expected that required *me* to be on the ball as well!

Why teach in Korea?

Why Korea? Good question! When I first started researching teaching job overseas, I naturally thought of teaching in a Spanish-speaking country because I have a Bachelor's in Spanish, and I'm conversationally-comfortable ("fluent" as some might say) in it. However, I discovered that the teaching overseas jobs that pay the best- generally speaking- are in Asia, not Latin America. As for Spain and the rest of Europe, I crossed them off my list partly because I heard the competition to get a job there would be higher than for a lot of the Asian jobs.

Besides, I have never been to Asia and have always wanted to go! (I know, I know; Asia is a huge continent and there are immense differences in cultures, languages, etcetera, but I have to generalize to some degree as I'm sure you understand.) I heard about the JET program in Japan, but wasn't sure I have the minimum qualifications; I didn't look into other programs in Japan for whatever reasons or lack thereof. The more I researched jobs, the more it seemed I was talking to people who had worked in Korea, or who ARE Koreans living and working in the U.S., so I gravitated towards Korean jobs.

Also, ALL Koreans I have ever met have been very friendly, warm people! Plus, all Korean food I've ever tasted I have loved. For all of these reasons, and my innate curiosity, I decided to teach in Korea.

Background

January 21, 2012

I will try to explain the background of what led me down this path to teach in South Korea, also known as "ROK" (the Republic of Korea).

**Note:  From here on out, I will use "Korea" to mean "South Korea" unless I make it very clear otherwise.

I have wanted to live and work abroad, aka outside the United States, for as long as I can remember. This is probably partly due to growing up hearing my parents' stories about traveling the world, and to traveling myself- with my family or other groups- outside the U.S.

More recently, within the last year or two, I realized (via many avenues) a few things. First of all, NOW is the BEST possible time for me to live and work overseas. As they (the ancient Greeks) said, "Know thyself." I know that I could easily get rolled up into another job here in the U.S. that may be excellent but would ultimately be a diversion from aiming for my ultimate dream. 

Secondly, I realized I LOVE teaching students of all ages and of many subjects, and that I seem to be good at it (which usually helps). Furthermore, having shadowed public school teachers and worked as a Substitute Teacher in public schools, I determined that I currently not cut out for being a regular/traditional U.S. public school teacher. Therefore, the obvious stared me in my face- teach overseas.

I think that's enough for my first (*ever*) blog post.