Teachers Share their Experiences While Living Abroad!

Not long ago, I wrote about my experience teaching online classes. Now, it has been a little over a month that my school began offering offline classes again. So, we started offline classes again in May, but not fully. At that time, the situation was growing increasingly stable, so many parents felt like they could feel comfortable sending their kids back to the classroom. However, not all parents felt this same sentiment. In order to accommodate everyone, my school decided to open a combination of offline and online classes. Thus, currently, my co-workers and I have a mixed class schedule of offline and online classes and I don’t see this changing for the next two months - at the very least. 

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. 

Why did you choose Korea? That’s a question I get asked often - both by foreigners and by Koreans. I knew early on that I wanted to live abroad after university. I just didn’t know where. Often people are surprised by my response. I guess they assume that I’ll see I was a huge fan of some K-Pop idols and/or watched a lot of Korean dramas. However, my appeal of Korean culture came in a very different manner. 

When I first started working with Chungdahm over a year ago, having never taught before, I learned that kids can complete activities much quicker than you expect. It’s always good to have a short game or craft if you have extra time at the end of class. Here are a few of my favorite games, they are little to no prep and my students love them! They can easily take anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes depending on how much time you have, and they’re great for reviewing key concepts.  

Occasionally, as a Chungdahm April teacher, I get to chaperone on field trips! Recently, I went on my third field trip to a place called KidZania. This is my favorite field trip location. There is nothing for me to do because, as the name shows, it is only for kids. Thus, I just simply love the place's concept and love to see how much fun the kids have on these field trips.

I lived and taught in Seoul, South Korea for a year from August 2016-September 2017 and it is definitely the best decision I’ve ever made. My first thought when I first had the crazy idea to move abroad was to, of course, talk to friends and family for advice! In these conversations, I actually learned that a friend of a friend had lived in Korea and loved it so much that he stayed for 3 years. Obviously, my next move was to talk to this person. He had the same goals as me: teach, travel and explore! He had enjoyed his time in Seoul and found it to be a very fun, interesting and safe place to live.

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.