This year all Chungdahm locations will be closed next week for two days to observe the Chuseok holiday. Chuseok is the Korean equivalent of Thanksgiving and depending on your branch, you might be lucky enough to get a few extra days off before and after the vacation. At Songpa branch, where I work, instructors were excited to hear about the schedule changes that will allow for a few extra days of relaxation!
Read MoreTags: things to do in Korea, Vacations in Korea, Chuseok, Korean traditions, Thanksgiving, Holidays in South Korea
In the ESL world Summer school happens all over. At Chungdahm Learning we have two periods of extra classes. These happen during the Winter and Summer vacation months and they are called Summer and Winter Intensives and they are usually conducted from Weeks 9-12 of both semesters. Currently, CDL is hosting their Summer Intensives and plenty of Korean students either switch over to morning classes or do intensives as well as regular classes. It is a time when the academy is super busy with Achievement testing and the winding down of a term. It can be rather overwhelming for teachers and staff, so it is best to be prepared in advance and have a set schedule to follow. In this blog I will go over the summer intensive curriculum along with tips on how you can make sure you are well prepared.
Read MoreTags: summer in korea, English teacher in Korea, Vacations in Korea, ESL, chungdahm learning, teaching abroad, Teaching skills, how to be a great ESL teacher, intensives, summer school
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.
Read MoreTags: Vacations in Korea, vacation, Chuseok, lesson planning, annual vacation, seollal, substitute teachers
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.
Read MoreTags: 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.
Read MoreTags: 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
While I love living in Busan, Korea has plenty of other places that are incredible to explore as well. My family and I decided to enjoy Jeju Island, a population vacation spot for Koreans. We booked a place from airbnb, rented a car, and flew Jeju Air to begin this new adventure!
Tags: vacation spot in Korea, Vacations in Korea, vacation, vacation destinations, jeju
This year, Korea's Chuseok holiday fell on a Thursday, meaning we would have Wednesday-Friday off from teaching. A glorious 5-day weekend is a rare thing, so I was resolved to go somewhere awesome this year. As I watched airplane tickets to international destinations steadily climb in price, I turned to domestic spots. I'd been eyeing Ulleungdo for over a year, with it hovering near the top of my Korea Bucket List, and I quickly realized that the Chuseok weekend was a prime opportunity.
Tags: islands, ulleungdo, dokdo, teaching in Korea, things to do before leaving korea, vacation spot in Korea, Vacations in Korea, vacation destinations, korea bucket list, Chuseok, tourist attraction, tourist attraction in korea, Activities to do in Korea, island, makgeolli, Beaches in Korea
As someone who grew up in a landlocked state nearly smack in the middle of the U.S., traveling to another state was normal. But going to another country? Too far and too expensive. In fact, while I've traveled all over the U.S., moving to Korea was the first time I'd ever left my home country. Now that I'm here, the novelty of being able to easily country-hop is still so amazing to me. I can't even count the hours I've spent planning the trips I'll be taking someday. Lucky for you, in all of my planning, I've amassed a huge amount of resources. So get ready to bookmark websites, because it's about to get real with a whole lot of information.
Tags: teaching in Korea, KTX, Korea, vacation spot in Korea, Vacations in Korea, vacation, Trips in Korea, road trips in korea, free time in korea, Thailand, Asia, Vietnam, vacation destinations, south korea, what to do on the weekend, korea bucket list, Bali, jeju, japan, taiwan, philippines, china
Chungdahm is one of the bigger English academies in South Korea. Many of my teacher friends here in Pohang are public school English teacher and you will quickly learn that there are many differences, one of which is of course, pay and another is time off. As a Chungdahm Institute (CDI) teacher, there will be many opportunities for adventure on the weekends. As an English Teacher living in Asia, there is much to see and do. Luckily, flights to neighboring countries like Japan, Vietnam, China and elsewhere are relatively cheap.
I arrived in Seoul smack in the middle of February, an unsympathetic month following the excitement of holiday cheer in December and the promise of new beginnings in January. February rudely reminds you that winter has no plans to retire anytime soon and you better start planning a vacation if you want to remain sane. Shortly after settling into my new life of teaching and living in Korea, I met a handful of new friends and we compared teaching jobs, living arrangements and vacation dates. I was ecstatic when I realized I shared the same summer vacation with two of my new friends. Even though we had just started our lives abroad, we quickly began planning our first adventure outside of Korea. I think the planning is half the fun!
We decided to spend a week in Taiwan in late July. We booked our flights in the spring and then we all became busy teaching and living life in Korea. Time flew by, as it does in Korea, and before I knew it, it was a week before my vacation. I found myself panicking and I soon realized I was stressed about my upcoming week off from work. Is that even allowed? I was nervous about traveling for a week with new friends. I loved meeting them for coffee and laughing over teaching stories and exploring Seoul on the weekends, but would we work together as a traveling trio? Perhaps one of us might surface as an annoying diva and make us all suffer for the week? Would another throw caution to the wind and make irrational and dangerous decisions in a country we knew little about? Was it possible that one of us was secretly a vacation dictator and would order the group around with daily itineraries and little time to rest or be spontaneous? I knew these girls socially, but would we mesh in vacation world?
Tags: teaching in Korea, a year in Korea, English teachers in Korea, Vacations in Korea, taiwan, cultural experience, friends in Korea, Beaches in Korea