After 2 years of not being in America, I found myself somewhat out of place when I visited my family back home in Las Vegas, Nevada this past July. I guess I have really adjusted to Korean life. While talking to my friends who I’ve met and worked with at ChungDahm, they said the sense of normalcy would return to me after at least half a year. As much as I tried to become ‘American’, I found it hard and I tended to miss Korea more. Although I do love America, my heart is split among the two lands that I call home. In this blog I will talk about the 4 big differences that I felt had the biggest impact on me when traveling back to America.
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Tags:
vacation,
shopping in Korea,
food in Korea,
Korean people,
Beauty Products in Korea,
annual vacation,
Korean food
In my six years living and teaching in Korea, I’ve been lucky to take many vacations all over Korea and Asia. However, I’ve only been able to go back home to America twice using my personal vacation. After reading these tips, you should be well prepared on how to plan a vacation while abroad to ensure you won't become stressed and so you can fully enjoy your time off.
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Tags:
Vacations in Korea,
vacation,
Chuseok,
lesson planning,
annual vacation,
seollal,
substitute teachers
When you are teaching in Korea and have a 3 day weekend working for ChungDahm or April, it's always worth your while to take a mini vacation if you can afford it. Now that I am splitting my time between teaching ChungDahm and April Academy, I am getting more time off. Knowing that Lunar New Year would be coming up, my friend and I realized how expensive those tickets would be. So we decided to go on our trip the weekend before the major holiday. She had never been to Osaka or Kyoto so we decided to see if we could spend one day in Osaka and one day in Kyoto. My advice would be to not do it. A one day trip to either place is not nearly enough time to soak in what each city has to offer. There is so much to see and do in both places, you will not do either city its justice. Many teachers love to go to Osaka because it is only a 2 hour flight from Incheon International Airport (ICN) to Kansai International Airport (KIX). The last time I took this trip, we spent a full day at Universal Studios Japan (Osaka) and toured the following day. However, many teachers don't realize how close, how beautiful, and how historic Kyoto is. Here was my to-do list for traveling to Kyoto.
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Tags:
Japan from Korea,
vacation,
vacation destinations,
japan,
Osaka,
Kyoto,
visit japan,
teach and travel,,
traveling,
weekend travel,
seollal
Annually Koreans celebrate their New Year, Seollal. The holiday falls on different days each year. This year the holiday is being held over January 27-29. The period is decided according to the Lunar Calender.
Seollal and Chuseok are two of the biggest holidays in Korea where millions of Koreans take time off to travel to their home cities to spend time with their families. The Western equivalent would be Thanksgiving and Christmas. Seollal is very traditional with various associated foods and activities. Our students usually get money from their parents, aunts and uncles and Koreans festively say to one another 새해 복 많이 받으세요 (sae hae bok manhi bah doo seh yo) – which means “Happy Seollal.” This blog will help explain the customs and traditions of Seollal, so you will have a better understanding of the holiday when you are teaching in Korea.
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Tags:
things to do in Korea,
Vacations in Korea,
vacation,
Lunar New Year,
Holidays in South Korea,
seollal
One of the longest breaks you will have as a ChungDahm teacher is during the Korean holiday of Chuseok (Korean Thanksgiving). The other major holiday would be Seollnal (Lunar New Years). Whenever these holidays approach, I always take the time to leave the city. In times past, I’ve visited Malaysia, Manila, and Busan. We have had teachers visit Hong Kong and Thailand during this long vacation too. This year, I decided to take time and go to a place that I had been to before but never got a really chance to explore. This place I decided to go back to was Jeju.
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Tags:
things to do on Jeju,
visit Jeju,
things to do in Korea,
vacation spot in Korea,
Vacations in Korea,
vacation,
vacation destinations,
Jeju Island,
hiking,
Chuseok,
hiking in korea,
island of Jeju,
Beaches in Korea,
hiking in south Korea
I’ve been working with Chungdahm Academy in South Korea for over 3 years now. Until recently, I had yet to travel home to America for a visit or any country whose primary language is English. My friends who had gone back to America for a vacation said that being home would feel weird. I did not really believe them until recently, when I went home for a vacation. Here are a few observations I made when I went back:
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Tags:
Korea,
vacation,
Asia,
living in Korea,
USA,
Teach English in South Korea
Every teacher needs a holiday, and when that time arrives you want to be fully prepared for an awesome time, free of school and any daily activities. My vacation time at Chungdahm Learning consists of 15 days and it must be taken consecutively, but this also depends on your branch and the way it is managed.
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Tags:
vacation,
vacation destinations,
teaching at Chungdahm,
annual vacation
Living in Korea has countless benefits, but one of the best perks is the country's proximity to so many other countries. In fact, when presented with time off from ChungDahm, it's difficult to decide where to go! I took my one-week vacation this past week, spending it mostly in Kyoto, Japan. Read on for a recap of my trip and some tips for your travels in Kyoto...
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Tags:
Teach English in Korea,
Teach Abroad,
Teach in Asia,
teaching in Korea,
Japan from Korea,
vacation,
vacation destinations,
japan,
Kyoto
Although I enjoyed the peace and quiet of Kyoto, I was eager to throw myself into the hustle and bustle of the city of 35 million people, Tokyo. I had heard a lot about Tokyo, about the all night attitude and the politeness of the Japanese people. I had also heard that they speak very little English in Japan in comparison to Korea, so I was both eager to explore and also a little nervous.
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Tags:
vacation,
vacation destinations,
japan,
winter in Korea,
Tokyo
Japan is very close to Korea, you can take a ferry or hop on a three hour plane ride to get there. When I first signed on with Chungdahm I promised myself that I would make it over to Japan to expand my horizons even further. I was able to keep this promise over winter vacation!
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Tags:
vacation,
vacation destinations,
japan,
winter in Korea,
Kyoto
