Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

This year hasn’t been the right year for traveling abroad. This is true for everyone everywhere in the world. One can travel for business, but for pleasure and family visits, then it is hard. In my case, I am used to taking some time off to visit family yearly. I had my vacation dates set aside well in advance. They were plans made pre-covid. So, of course, those plans were canceled once covid struck. As an English teacher and the faculty manager of two branches, I don’t have the time to travel to my family in the US. In order to spend two weeks with family, I would have to request four weeks off! The additional two weeks is due to the mandatory two week quarantine for those entering the country from abroad. So, I truly thought seeing my family this year was going to be impossible.

Hello everyone! You are now talking to (or i guess just reading?) an English teacher who has completed her first week. Some updates: Still no Wifi, still sleeping on an air mattress (waiting for my bed and it feels like forever), work is fun, and co-workers are great. Since we last met, I went to this place in Itaewon, Seoul – this is where a lot of foreigners go. I was able to hear this awesome DJ play, my friends and I loved him. That next day one of my friends from when I studied abroad in Gwangju, South Korea in 2015 visited me. We had Korean BBQ (when do I not??), strawberry macaroon bingsu, and we also went to ikea where I bought my first piece of actual furniture – a white little dresser.

I arrived in Seoul last year towards the end of November. I started working at Daechi April campus at at the beginning of their winter term. My year was almost up, so it was time for me to think seriously about whether I wanted to renew my contract. In the end, I chose to stay working as an April Chungdahm teacher. When I think of the reasons for making this decision, I believe I can sum them up into the following three categories:

Hi, my name is Tijana Huysamen. I am from Cape Town, South Africa, have been traveling for 6 years, 4 of which was spent teaching in Korea, and have been to 42 different countries.

I am currently a Team Manager at Chungdahm Learning in Seoul where I work at the Songpa Branch and have been an employee of the company for 3 years now. I absolutely love working at CDL, as the hours and the pay are the best in Korea! The amount of opportunities and growth you will experience at the company, will allow you to feel like your time abroad is well spent.

My name is Benjamin Kelsey and I’m from Chicago. I graduated from Olivet Nazarene University in 2014 with my degree in Elementary Education. Upon graduation I wanted to go to live and teach in Korea because I had never travelled anywhere before and my wife Jessica told me about the possibilities of working with Chungdahm. After applying and interviewing through Aclipse, I eventually received a contract to teach for ChungDahm and in November of 2014, I moved to Geoje with Jessica and we taught English together at the Geoje Chungdahm campus. and lived there for a year.

After moving back to Chicago for year and half, my wife and I became bored and we yearned to go to Korea to begin teaching again.  After applying through Aclipse again, we recived contracts this past May to work for ChungDahm at their Seodaemun branch in Seoul.  While we love living and working in Seoul, we wanted to make you all aware of the amazing year we had living on Geoje.

 Living and teaching in Korea is great. I absolutely love it here. But there are a few differences that can make life a little bit more challenging, like the fact that there isn’t a clothes dryer, your parents aren’t here to cook for you, and space is a luxury. In my blog, I hope to help you overcome some of these obstacles so that you can have a cleaner, healthier, and cheaper life.

Making the move from your home country to Korea is a big deal.  You will love your time here and grow to embrace the Korean culture. To make your time even better, check out my 3 tips that you should know to make your transition a lot smoother as you begin your time teaching in Korea.

After a round of drinking with some Korean friends, some of us foreigners were talking about the Korean dating scene. After talking about some differences between the Western and Eastern mindset, we were talking about some of the different Korean myths that surround dating and everyday life. Even though there is no proven truth to any of this, many Koreans still believe that this is important. Here are some myths that you should know about before teaching in Korea.

When you begin teaching in Korea, you will quickly realize upon your arrival that Korea is one of the leading fashion capitals in the world. The Korean influence has been spreading from their Kpop music, Korean movies and dramas, and Korean fusion food. One thing that you will notice in Korea, is that many Koreans try to keep in shape from the youngest to the oldest in Korean society. With all of the soju drinking and Korean BBQs, you would think that Koreans would be so unhealthy. However, this is not the case for many people.  In this blog I will write how to sign up for a gym membership.  If however want to learn about how to workout in non-traditional gyms, such as at a yoga studio or at a bouldering gym, feel free to also check out Linda's recent blog.

Hopefully you enjoyed the first part of my blog ChungDahm Teacher Asks Top Questions About Teaching in Korea. Today I will answer some of the other popular questions that I have been asked by candidates who are interested in teaching in Korea for ChungDahm.