Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

Going to a new country can be intimidating. There’re so many things to prepare before departure, and the added pandemic made things even more difficult. High death tolls back in the States, flights being cancelled, supplies difficult to come by. I was very stressed before coming to Korea. I was wondering if I would still be able to make it considering all that was going on in the world. I hope this article will answer some questions about what it was like arriving in Korea. The honest answer is it was perfectly fine.

While in late February, the world may have looked down on Korea for being the first country outside of China to face a covid-19 outbreak, it didn’t take long for the world to see how the Korean government and people have handled dealing with this pandemic. Now, many world leaders from powerful countries around the world turn to South Korea for knowledge and supplies to overcome the outbreaks being faced in their homelands. My family no longer expresses concern for me being in Seoul, and much like I’ve heard from colleagues and fellow expats, they now advise me to stay in Korea. While I can go down a rather impressive list of reasons why I feel I am in the best country to live in during this pandemic, I will condense my list down to my top three main reasons. 

Now, with the covid19 pandemic, many education systems and institutes around the world have turned to online classes. This has brought up some anxiety amongst teachers everywhere. While some teachers are barely starting their online classes, Chungdahm academies began online classes ahead of the rest. So, I’ve been teaching through Zoom meetings since March 6th. Since it has been a little over a month that I’ve been teaching online, I want to share my top four reasons why I am currently satisfied with teaching Chungdahm April classes online - while still commenting on how this experience compares to offline classes. 

It’s about to be a full two years since I began living and teaching in Seoul. I started my journey by applying to Aclipse. While I am so grateful for my luck finding Aclipse, I am particularly grateful to my recruiter Colette. The reason I am especially grateful to Colette is that she not only helped me find employment at my current branch in Gangnam, Seoul, but that she recommended me as someone to join the Aclipse team. 

Taking the first steps of an adventure is almost never an easy ordeal. You have all these questions that zoom in and out of your head adding to the list before you can even answer the first ones that popped up. Will it work out? Will I be happy? What if I get lost? What if I do something wrong? What if a giant prehistoric creature ascends from the oceans and battles a giant moth? Ok, maybe that last one was a horrible reference to Godzilla vs Mothra but you get the idea. 

After being in Seoul for 6 months, I decided it was time for me to learn the language. It can be frustrating wanting to communicate, but not being able to do so because of limited understanding. Luckily, a coworker of mine knew of a place that isn't far and Korean language classes are taught for free.

As an April/CDI instructor, I get to work with students from 1st to 9th grade. April classes are 40 - 45 minutes long, and they meet either three times each week,or two times each week. Chungdahm classes are three hours long, and they meet twice each week. Teaching April and Chungdahm can be hectic if there is no organization. The following are a few tasks that I do every day to make the workload easier:

I arrived in Seoul a few days before training in February, so I could explore the city without the stress of training. It was so cold, I ended up staying in my hotel and enjoying the convenience of delivery services provided throughout Seoul. I received my training schedule during this time, so I was able to familiarize myself with the map and metro system prior to Day 1 of training. I was also able to complete the “pre-training” course online which you must complete and pass in order to successfully complete the training week.

Growing up in Los Angeles, I’d  consider myself very health conscious. There is a range to this. LA health can become a parody of itself, with twelve dollar activated charcoal juice and any vegetable you can imagine being “massaged.” Yoga studios charge exorbitant amounts for classes that make you wonder how aligned the practice is from the place it was created. But for each absurdity you encounter when it comes to wellness, there is also gold. While raised in a predominantly Asian and Latinx neighborhood, there was a fruit stand each direction where I could buy a mango bouquet drenched in chili powder and lime as well as decades-old family run acupuncture studios passing down the stunning tradition of cupping therapy. I had the privilege of having access to so much greenery, with mountains skirting through the city, with countless breathtaking hikes that jumped out at you from the freeway. I’d run through the mountains as frequently as I could, so when I got to South Korea, I knew Bukhansan National Park would be my friend. But I was wrong.

It took three and a half days for me to fall in love with Seoul, South Korea. On my way to a summer fellowship in Manila, I decided to make a pit stop to visit my best friend who lives there. I touched down in Incheon, and we made our way on the airport bus to her house which sat right on the southern half of the Han River. The subsequent hours consisted of noraebang and fried chicken, a hike through Bukhansan (I’d never met a place with a national park within not just a city, but a citywith millions of inhabitants), weaving through the countless markets and underground malls, and stunning palaces and museums.