Sunday, March 02, 2014
Tomorrow I begin my full fledged career as a teacher and cast away my happy-free life. Much has come to pass since my beginnings in this type of field, dating back to the first time I decided to become a teacher. Its hard to really explain how I feel, nervous, excited, its a mixture, and I know that this experience, from start to finish, will be a very helpful and beneficial one.
For those who've still followed me, this is certainly a big leap for me, even after going through the motions and prep-work, I'm still filled with butterflies in my gut to what's going to unfold here in the next couple of weeks. However, this didn't just happen right off the bat, much had gone on in the prior week to settle myself with the school I will be teaching at.
To start off, its called Trinity Junior School, a small academy or Hogwan located in Bundang, near Yapta station just south of Seoul. Its a quaint establishment with 5 native Korean teachers and 5 Foreign teachers. It holds several modest size classrooms, a gym, a small library, a teachers room and a kitchen, there are also bathrooms for the children as well as a reception desk and back office for the administration. The school primarily teaches Kinder level students, but also supports Elementary level from within TJS's own system (Kinder who remain and graduate to Elementary Level within the school) as well as outside students from Public Elementary Schools who wish to study English. The school itself provides a very comfortable environment for them to learn and work with English, and with many resources, projects and activities from them to partake in, they can truly practice the skill. I believe one of my co-workers noted that we're doing a major favor for these children, several years down the line, they will be so fluent in English, they will do drastic things for their family and their economy. English in itself isn't a hard language, there are difficulties in grammar and phonics as well as spelling, but it's slowly becoming commonly accepted, and is considered a very Business Oriented language, which is why so many counties demand their students to learn it.
I feel I'm doing a very good thing for these kids, and I look forward to becoming someone important and influential in their lives. I will do my utmost to care and educate them and try to find as many creative ways possible to do so.
Until next time, keep reading!
Hello, I have an interview with this same school on Thursday! I am graduating over summer and looking to move to Korea in August. Can you tell me what recruiter you used? And from your more recent posts it seems you're happy, would you say you're pleased with the school you were placed in?
ReplyDeleteHey Genie, I'd be more than happy to let you know. I used Seoul ESL, the recruiter was Nicky, whose extremely awesome and very helpful; I can't thank her enough for all the work she helped me with.
DeleteI'm rather pleased with the school, compared to other stories, I got a very good gig here, nice place, nice teachers, and a very close walk from where I'm staying; all in all, it's pretty sweet.
Hopefully you can get the position, would be glad to show you around and get you settled. If you get it, when would you be going?
Okay, yeah, I'm using the same recruiter! She had very nice things to say about the director and whatnot, but I'm glad to have a teacher's perspective!
ReplyDeleteI would be coming in August, so still a few months to go! I'm not sure if there's someone leaving or if they're just hiring ahead of time?
Also, I wanted to be the typical candidate and vouch for living near Seoul. Is this a decent location? I really want to be in a city-like area. What are your thoughts on your surroundings?
Thanks so much! If I get the job I will definitely appreciate someone to show me around once I'm there!
Hrmm, perhaps, I'm not too sure. There are at least 5 of us Foreign teachers and three of them who were here before us are going to be here till August and October, so I would imagine you'd be replace those leaving in the former date.
DeleteTbh, and as the other teachers have told me, its not all that fun living in Seoul, we're actually on the "Outer Circle" District [The Province name of Gyeonggi-do roughly translating to Surrounding Seoul or something, and the city being Seongnam with us in the District of Bundang-gu.] and its more of a suburban/urban environment. Likewise, its very peaceful and calm here, Seoul is a lot nosier with a lot more going on, so having a nice quaint place to be is much better for taking it easy, and you're only an hour subway ride away from Seoul (depending).
I like it here, its nice, there is a lot to see, do and eat, and you're close to a subway that can take you anywhere in Seoul. It gives a nice bit of charm to South Korea without overloading you. (Did I mention we're near a military air-base here too? See C-130 trnasports fly around the city every morning.)
I'd be glad to take you around, its fun to see and do stuff here and with so much else, it'd be a wonderful experience.
Yeah, so far I've seen a lot of teachers have found they prefer living in the areas outside of Seoul.
DeleteThank you so much for the help! I had my interview with the director Thursday and she was super sweet. I'll be looking into a couple other jobs, but it's nice that I found you on here, so thank you for writing a blog, it's really helpful for people looking into going there!
Hi, Do you have any contact info for TJS? Like Scott's email, or anything? I was trying to get a reference from there. Thanks, love that school!
ReplyDelete