Since November 9th I’ve been fighting a war within myself that I’m certain many others are feeling right now too. On one side is the get up and act part of me that, until this year, was always there but never ignited. On the other side there’s the part of me that just keeps thinking “So when will things get back to normal?” It’s very tempting to give into that side. To scroll past political posts on my news feed, delete my NPR app and go back to pretending that the most important decisions I have to make right now are whether to instagram my day at the aquarium or just go ahead and snapchat the whole thing. Central to this turmoil is apathy. Apathy requires zero effort. Apathy justifies the excuse of “someone else will do it.” With so much changing on a daily basis right now, it’s so simple to just give up; because what really can one person do when everything we’ve understood about our way of life has been turned on its head? As easy as it could be to go that place, I’m finding it a little hard right now to give much thought to “normal” posts on social media. Congratulations Nicole from high school on getting engaged, but I’m going to skip your generic “I said yes!” photo and click on a story about how a green-card holding University professor is currently stranded at JFK airport unable to return to her job because of Trump’s ban on Muslims order. I extend the same disinterest to myself. It feels irresponsible and insensitive to share anything that suggests “life as usual.” Because this is not life as usual. So much of me that wishes we could just jump back to the way things were before. Back when Barack Obama was President of the United States and I felt very sure of what my country represented and the morals it championed. But I realize that means I want to go back to being comfortable. When I would engage but not too much, not enough and never in a way that would make me feel uncomfortable. I don’t have that choice any more. None of us do. There’s no going back and no one is allowed to sit this one out. So as happy as you may be about how pretty your kale and quinoa salad is, save it for when this shit gets sorted out and share the contact information for congressmen we need to be calling instead.
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I’ve walked down the National Mall and the surrounding streets many times in my life. As a kid, my mom regularly took me to the Smithsonian museums; the Museum of Natural History with the giant elephant in its atrium was always my favorite. I once ran a 5k that looped around the tidal basin spotted with spring cherry blossom trees and in the summer my boyfriend and I lounged in the botanical gardens listening to jazz. I’ve walked down Independence Avenue and the surrounding, patriotically-named streets countless times and never thought of them as more than relics of an old city that was historically significant but didn't have much bearing on my present.
Now, however, I know that when I go to the mall again, I won’t be able to look at it without imagining that awe-inspiring sea of pink hats. I’ll again feel that palpable energy that was passionate, empowering and united. All of those people crammed together, breathing together, walking, chanting, being together made those streets feel alive in the way for which they were intended. I looked around and I felt proud of my city. Because what I saw was what I see every day on the metro. It's what I really missed when I was living in Korea’s noticeably homogenous society. To me, that beautiful mix of ages, races, backgrounds, orientations, causes and customized pussy cat hats is as American as it gets. Yesterday wasn’t without its imperfections. We couldn’t (technically) march and there were and still are concerns about exactly who the movement represents and if it does so equally. But it was a start. There's much to be done and there's always more to learn. I faced an unexpected imperfection in my own experience. As much as I wanted to be that woman proudly dancing around in the vagina hat leading chants and waving a clever, home-made sign I couldn’t get past my fear of feeling trapped by the ever-growing crowd. But even though I was scared, I’m happy I went. It made it very clear to me what will be required of us in the coming days, months and years. This may turn out to be the challenge of our lifetime and for me, yesterday was a taste of what it means to be truly brave. I take comfort that when I’m not sure what to do next or how to react in the face of overwhelming ugliness, I can take a walk down Independence Avenue and be reminded that in this same place on January 22, 2017, half a million people were not afraid. Last week, I caught my two supervisors looking uncharacteristically tired. Concerned, I asked them, what was up? Jenny just groaned. Alice explained. “Me and Jenny Teacher stayed out until 3 AM yesterday.” It was a Wednesday and these are women who are typically asleep by 10:30. I was very confused. “Party, party?” I asked, palms up like a lecherous old man at a nightclub. Because what other kind of party is there, really? “No, no!” she insisted, “Mr. Yoon asked us to join him for one drink so we went. But he really didn’t want to stop drinking. He kept having more soju but we didn’t want to.” “So you drank with him till 3am!?” “Of course not!” Jenny Teacher chimed in. “We just had cola after the first drink but we couldn’t leave him early because, ah, it would be so rude.” This coming from Korean people, I immediately understood but, at the same time, was entirely baffled. Mr. Yoon is essentially the custodian of our private academy. He’s a hunched-over, string-bean of an old man who regularly creeps around the building, scaring the children and teachers alike with his grouchy, temperamental demeanor. In contrast, my two Korean supervisors are young, energetic people who behave in a friendly and socially acceptable manner, as far as I know. So why in the name of King Sejong would they subject themselves to more than four hours in Mr. Kim’s drunken company on a Tuesday night? Let me introduce you to a unique cultural nuance birthed straight from the bowels of Korean collectivism: In social settings, Koreans are extremely reluctant to be the first person to leave a gathering regardless of how tired, bored, or uncomfortable they might be. The trouble is, Korean gatherings can go on for hours. Broken up into “rounds”, a single night can see you travelling to a coffee shop, dinner, bowling, noraebang, second dinner, a dessert cafe , a pool hall, and finally, to wind it all down, another coffee shop. People will physically drop like flies during one of these 10 hour endeavours, falling asleep on cafe couches or doubled over drunk in the darkness of the singing rooms. Despite all of this, each exhausted member finds the willpower to trudge through the night and make it to the sunrise to disperse with everyone else. There are several reasons why this is a thing. First, in social settings, it’s considered a slight to the host or the person who organized a gathering if you don’t stick around the entire time. Leaving early suggests that you think the events or the present company aren’t fun enough or that you might not be having THE BEST TIME EVER. Second, it’s a work-related outing and the boss is picking up the tab. I’d say it’s also expected in Western companies that you will stay the entire time if a boss or authority figure treats their employees to a dinner or night out. The difference is that it can be taken to the extremes here because of the work hard, play harder culture. If boss man wants to finish a bottle of soju every 10 minutes, prepare to go shot for shot. If he also wants to stay out in Seoul until the trains start up again at 5 AM, you’d better stick around too. Last, social pariah-phobia. This one definitely had a strong influence on my poor supervisors and the situation they found themselves in. Mr. Yoon holds no power really at all in the school hierarchy, but he’s a drinking buddy of the school director. So that apparently gives him a high enough status that demands recognition. If they left and hurt his pride enough that he would mention it to their boss or anyone else at school, there could have been major social and professional repercussions. No irreversible harm came to my supervisors because of their forced night out, mostly just sleepy eyes and an increased need for coffee. But that’s not always the case. South Korea recently made international news because of two high-profile crimes committed against women. The first was a random murder of a young woman in the upscale Gangnam district of Seoul. The suspect claimed he did it because women never paid any attention to him. Aww, male entitlement is really cute right? Especially when it’s lethal. The second involved a young teacher who was gang raped by three men, two of whom were fathers of her students. Nice, huh? An article from the South China Morning Post explained how many teachers in smaller, more remote areas, like the island where this teacher was located, rely heavily on parent support and assistance to run their schools. This makes it harder for them “to refuse when asked to attend dinners, invariably accompanied by drinks” with those parents. In the gang-rape case, the victim was having dinner on her own, planning on an early night so she could have energy to explore the village the next day. The three men joined her and insisted that she drink with them, despite her refusals. When they had gotten her sufficiently inebriated for their needs, they “volunteered” to drive her home and then took turns raping her (The Korea Herald). What happened to this woman was in no way her fault and the guilty parties should probably be castrated - or just locked up for a long time, since medieval punishments aren’t acceptable anymore, even for rapists. However, when I first read about it, my gut reaction was, why didn’t she just not drink? I couldn’t imagine ever being comfortable enough to drink heavily around my students’ parents. Additionally, as a 24-year-old woman, my own society’s broken standards have forced me to accept that until both sexes are educated equally about rape, I will have to protect myself from men. Then I had that conversation with my supervisor and I understood more about how that teacher could have ended up in such a terrible situation. Koreans are very trusting. More so than most other groups of people that I’ve met. A friend of mine left his wallet on a KTX train at 1:30 in the morning. He was able to retrieve it after the train traveled three stations away and back. His bank cards, ID and cash were all still there. That’s very common here. I can see how that trust, so lovely and special most of the time, combined with the social pressure I mentioned before, could override a young woman’s sense of personal safety. Those same things could give a group of men the idea that they are innocent of wrongdoing - even, they would argue, that getting to have sex with this woman was justified, given how much they do for her and her school. Gender equality in Korea is just as screwed up as it is in the U.S. Maybe even more so because of the social pressures that are unique to an eastern society. This country is very safe, despite what you hear about our Northern neighbor and his flirtations with nuclear power. Unfortunately, as it is so for many other countries, half of the population is not as safe as the other. As gender rights progress here, the challenge will be even more difficult for young women and men to change the perspective because they will have to uproot deeply conditioned behaviors that are not only social, but cultural as well. My hope is that my Korean friends will discuss this issue and work towards changing it within their own social circles. I also hope that they continue to party like crazy people into the early morning hours. But if someone wants to leave early, I hope that person will not be embarrassed to go home, especially if their safety is in question. I went on a trip to the Seorak mountains with a group of my coworkers a few weeks ago. The first day there, we did a three hour hike up to Ulsan Bawi rock. The first two-thirds were great but the last leg was an enormous set of steep, metal stairs that zig-zagged up the face of the mountain with frighteningly large gaps between each step. Fast forward five flights up: I'm crouched over the railing, regretting every day I've ever skipped a work-out in my life and swearing off hiking as a stupid activity - I mean really? All of this to see some rock and a view you can enjoy better with a glass of wine and a baggie of pretzels from an airplane window? I did eventually make it to the top...and after my lungs re-expanded I was able to sit and enjoy squinting through the pollution haze out to the Pacific Ocean. Suffice to say, by the time our group made it (painstakingly) back down the mountain, we were all very sore and in need of a little R&R.
Earlier in the day our guide recommended the “hot springs” at the top of the hill near our guest house. The seven of us were sharing a single bedroom with a single bathroom and a single shower so we eagerly went on a hunt for these hot springs once we arrived, hoping to find some showers as well. I don’t know about you, but when I think about “hot springs” I picture bubbly, outdoor stone baths full of people soaking in their bathing suits. It turns out that the promised hot spring was actually your regular, old Korean jimjibang. A quick definition for you: a jimjibang is a uniquely Korean spa where, for a small fee, you can chill out in a bunch of different baths and saunas. Everyone is segregated by gender because, you guessed it, being completely nude is a requirement. Me and my fellow female coworkers were about to get reaaaall close. Nothing like seeing each other’s lady bits to form a lifelong bond. We bid adieu to our male compatriots, and strode into the woman’s locker room to strip down and stash all of our clothing. We grabbed one of the tiny towels they give you and headed into the main spa. None of us were really sure what to do with the towels or where to put them so naturally, we draped them over our crotches all casual-like to give the appearance that we didn’t care that much. The four of us women shuffled into the huge, balmy room, tried not to stare at each other’s tits, and immediately split for the nearest shower. Korean women have a very specific washing ritual before they hop into any of the baths which requires roughly scrubbing off your first layer of skin so none of your personal nasties get to anyone else. Generally, I’m more of a casual scrubber but I did my best to mimic the women around me. The first bath I checked out was a warm, green tea bath. The color was a little green but, other than that, there wasn’t much to indicate that there was actually any tea ingredients in it. Regardless, it was lovely, and after I had nicely submerged (hidden) my body, I started to relax and really enjoy it. Trying not to be creepy about it, I started to look around at the other people. I mean, how often do you get to compare your body to one that doesn’t belong to a celebrity or model? I read an article awhile back about how women in the west have more painful childbirth because they are extremely self-conscious of their vaginas. We tense up from fear and embarrassment which makes labor much more difficult. I couldn’t help but think about this as I looked around at the Korean women who had grown up going to jimjibangs. Maybe to them, the naked female body is not so strange and forbidden? I had a discussion recently with a friend about when we first realized that our “private parts” were something shameful that was meant to be hidden. We couldn’t exactly pinpoint a time but whenever it was, it is something that has stuck with us. This has major repercussions as you grow up and your body matures, especially for girls and young women. From self-image and self worth to how you feel about sex and sexuality, it’s a real challenge to overcome the idea that exposing your body is wrong. I wondered how things would be different if I had grown up going to a jimjibang or an American cultural equivalent. It sounds strange, but there was something so empowering and therapeutic about hanging out with a bunch of naked strangers. For me, whenever I’m in a bathing suit or even just form fitting clothing, i’m constantly sucking my tummy in or pulling at my shirt hem so my little love handles don’t peek out over my waistband. In the jimjibang, in a place free from the male gaze and female-to-female competition, everyone can just let their belly bulge out. Sweating off the mountain grime in that green tea pool, I found that I really liked the feeling of not hiding or feeling ashamed of my body. When it was time to switch to the next bath I rose from the water and didn’t try to hide anything with my towel. Instead, I strolled confidently to the sauna, smiling at my fellow women folk and thinking “Hello sister, your body is beautiful, my body is beautiful, we are all beautiful.” Confidence brimming, I plunged into the next bath without a care in the world. Sadly, it turned out to be an ice cold bath and I emerged from the water screaming loudly and breaking the serene silence. Oh well, just like a naked body, you can’t have beautiful without a little awkward too, right? Trip to Kyoto and Osaka Last Friday, as I made my way onto the tiny plane bound for Osaka, Japan, I was delighted and surprised to feel something I had never felt before: a complete lack of fear and anxiety at the thought of traveling to a country where I am totally unfamiliar with the language, food, customs...pretty much everything! I credit this to the fact that after living in Korea for 7 months, Danny and I have dispelled the “scary Asia” myth for ourselves and now, hopefully, after the adventures we had with our two friends, Kelsey and Ryan, we’ve dispelled it a little for them too! Day 1 We arrived around 4 pm in Kyoto right around the same time that Kelsey and Ryan got in after leaving Mt. Fuji - lucky kids. It took a little searching but eventually we found our Air BnB which was located in the historically famous (or infamous, depending how you look at it) “pleasure district” of Kyoto. As I’m sure you can infer, this was the area of the city swarming with geishas and still is today - in a more contemporary form. The BnB was so cute and charming. To get to it you have to walk through a sliding wooden door that lets out on to the street, walk down a wood paneled alleyway and then turn a corner spotted with bikes, plants, a moped and little buddhist shrine at the end. Inside there are more sliding doors, some with frosted glass, and of course, tons of fun Japanese features. My personal favorite was the super cool toilet that was everything anyone has ever said about Japanese toilets. Bidets for days, music to play to cover up a stray toot, warm seat...let’s just say I really looked forward to peeing or doing that other thing that ladies don’t do since we, you know, poop rainbows and what not. Anyways, the house was lovely but we only took a short rest after arriving and then set out to explore the area. Our first stop was a tiny little noodle shop where we munched (and slurped) on delicious udon noodles. The restaurant was located on the Shijo Dori road, an area full of shops with tons of cute little trinkets and sweets of all varieties. I tried a soft-serve green tea and vanilla swirl cone and it was absolutely magical. We explored a little but suppressed our shopping desires for the moment, determined not to blow all our recently exchanged Yen in the first few hours. I’m a grandma so after some down-time and a short nap, for me, we headed to the Yasaka Shrine and checked out the gardens and night-market around it. I tried Takoyaki - a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour that’s filled with octopus. A little funky at first but once you get past the tentacle texture it’s really tasty! Day 2 We headed out early and grabbed a bus bound for Arashiyama, a beautiful, mountainous area a short ride from the main city. This place was absolutely stunning, completely overrun with tourists since we did go during peak season, but still an amazing place to check out. We were all really excited to visit the bamboo forest so we headed there first. You see this place pop up on Pinterest on the reg so it was definitely one of those expectation vs. reality moments since the path was swarming with selfie-stick wielding tourists. It was all ok, we joined the frey, snapped our future profile pics and then actually put our phones down and appreciated our beautiful surroundings. After the bamboo forest - which is really more of a bamboo path - we were all feeling a little hangry so we checked out a buffet place that served everything from tofu to miso. There was also this delicious caramel custard that I could have eaten until I became as fat as a sumo wrestler but, you know, summer is coming so...only one small piece for body-conscious Casey. Our next destination was a short hike up to the monkey grove which, as it sounds, has actual monkeys living there! It was so cute but also a little scary because though the monkeys are comfortable with people, they are still wild. Multiple signs warned us not to touch the monkeys, get too close or put our cameras in their faces - makes sense. Unfortunately, we humans can be much less intelligent than our primate counterparts, especially when we blatantly ignore warnings meant to keep us safe from harm. Case in point: as we’re standing in a group of people looking at this little monkey family with three adorable babies, this young American guy crouches down and creeps closer and closer, trying to get a perfect shot of the playing monkeys. Papa monkey notices, get super pissed and charges at the unprepared photographer. The guy lets out a shriek, runs away, leaving the monkey with no one to attack so it grabs the shirt of the poor girl who was standing behind him. She reacted less dramatically and the monkey quickly lost interest, opting instead to run around beating his chest and swinging from trees to prove his dominance to we big, silly creatures. A little alarming, but mostly funny. We ended our day in Arashiyama with some green tea ice cream by the river. It was such a stunning place and I would absolutely return if we make it back to Kyoto. For dinner that night the boys and girls split to different restaurants since the boys are uncultured buffoons who get squeamish about seafood. Kelsey and I ended up at one of those fun revolving sushi restaurants while the boys hunted down some meat and Saki. Kelsey, feeling over-confident in her spice tolerance, tried wasabi rolls and ended up gulping down water and holding back tears as the restaurant staff laughed at us. It was cute and now we can check “have sushi in Japan” off the bucket list. Day 3 Sunday was our last day all together and we were all really enjoying Kyoto so we decided to spend the day exploring a few more places before parting. We got on a very crowded bus and were joined by a group of very, let’s say, energetic high schoolers from Australia and their less-than enthusiastic chaperone. The whole ride I couldn’t help but wonder, was this poor guy forced into his job? Or did he really think leading a group of 15 teenage boys around Japan would be a breeze? Crammed into the aisle of the bus, these boys thought it was hilarious to continually push and shove each other, regularly stumbling and putting their whole weight onto their angry chaperone. Though annoying, it was also very entertaining to hear this poor man shout things like “Ay! You blokes, knock it off or you're in big traable!” Lol. Aussies. We soon escaped the crowded bus and made our way up to the Golden Pavilion, a buddhist temple famous because, as the name suggests, it is covered in pure gold leaf. We snapped our photos, checked out the enormous coy fish, and oooed and ahhed at the pretty gold, it was all very lovely and touristy. My favorite part, however, was visiting a little pagoda just past the pavilion where we enjoyed some stinky, albeit delicious, green tea and cute little cakes. It was sweet and peaceful, Danny really got into the tea drinking part. After the pavilion we hopped on a train for the Inari shrine. A quick thought on Japanese trains, they are so cute and vintage! It may only be in the historical and touristy areas but it was really fun to take them to the different places we visited. They are also super comfortable and significantly less crowded than the trains we use in Korea. So we took one of these cool trains to the Inari shrine. This place is pretty iconic because of the striking orange arches that often show up in photographs on travel sites. This was probably my favorite place of all that we visited in Kyoto. There was something really moving and special about visiting the many shrines and walking through the endless arches that led through the forest. We learned how to pray at one of the shrines and also observed a monk leading prayer in one of the temples right in the center of all the crazy tourist hubbub. Danny and I were both having a little bit of the homesick feels because the woods smelled a lot like the woods we like to hike back home in Virginia, but the more we wandered through the shrines and trees, the more they were replaced by the spiritual feels. I snapped a few photos here but I also found myself walking through the arches and just absorbing everything. I found it to be a really inspiring place and I think I will go explore eastern religions a bit more at some of temples and shrines in Korea. We headed back to Kyoto Station and said goodbye to Kelsey and Ryan who would fly back to the U.S. in the morning. We had a crazy fun few days together and it was nice to feel like they brought us a bit of home all the way to this side of the world! Danny and I grabbed a train bound for Osaka. We had booked another Air BnB in the city close to Kansai Airport. Now this place was cheap, like 40 USD a night cheap, so neither of us were expecting a palace. It did have good reviews so I was fairly certain we weren’t going to walk into a serial killer’s lair. The host, an American guy named Stacey, was super nice and met us at the metro stop to walk us to where we were staying. Stacey is “that guy." You know the type? He’s someone who you meet and immediately feel like he should be a character in a book or movie. A little untethered, drops his whole life story on you in the first few minutes, knows all the people you pass by and they also seem to know him. A little odd but really, a nice guy. “That guy.” So Stacey leads us from the station and into this old, old neighborhood. Like old, vintage Japan neighborhood. The streets are tight and the house is situated down a half-covered market street dotted with shops, mostly-shut down, with their sliding metal doors securely locked. The way he explained it, the neighborhood used to be run by the shopkeepers but most have grown old, passed away and none of their children want to inherit the shop business. Hence the sad but sweet and nostalgic street that remains. The house was super simple and small but totally functional and comfortable for a two night stay. The walls were paper-thin but we’re used to that from living in our Korean apartment. We were both a little hungry so we checked out this little bistro that Stacey pointed out on our way over. Neither of us really knew what we were ordering so we just went with it and ended up having a really fun time just trying lots of random Japanese food. We actually ordered something listed as “steak”....yes, in quotation marks. Still not totally sure what it was but we think it was some kind of potato-like veggie with a mix of meat seasoning. It was actually very yummy. I also tried Japanese plum wine which was so, so good - and a little dangerous, as Danny can attest, I swayed and giggled my way back to our house after our weird and fun meal. Day 4 We had one day to spend in Osaka so we headed out early and grabbed some breakfast at this cute diner next to the train station. Breakfast places are not really a thing in Korea so we were excited to find a place that served waffles, eggs and pancakes. They also brewed drip coffee in this really cool upside down contraption. Our waiter was this nice, older gentleman who was very patient and not judgemental of our poor Japanese skills. We spent the morning visiting Osaka Castle. The castle was really interesting but I was impressed by the enormous outer walls and moat. The grounds and gardens around the castle were also really special and we took some silly pictures with one of the castle’s “warriors.” There was lots of food for sale so we paused for a tasty ramen lunch before we went into the castle to check out the museum. Interesting history fact, Osaka Castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a man who was born to a peasant and rose to become Imperial Regent of Japan in a very Game of Thrones-esque fashion. It’s definitely worth a look at this guy’s Wikipedia page if you’re into Japanese history. As we exited the castle we ran into a man who tried to sell us some pamphlets and tell us that Japan’s prison system is worse than North Korea’s, so that was weird, but we were trying to get to the Osaka Aquarium so ain’t nobody got time for that. The Osaka Aquarium is listed as one of the top tourist sites in Japan so we were curious if it would live up to the hype. OH MY GOD IT DID. We saw so many cute, fat seals and sea lions, got to touch some sea critters and...seriously, WHALE SHARKS ARE THE COOLEST! I want to write a song about how cool whale sharks are! In the center of the aquarium there is this enormous tank that you can look at as you walk down several floors and they had not one, not two, but THREE whale sharks. I could seriously watch them swim all day, they are just amazing. Danny was more about the otters and the fat seals but I’m a whale shark girl through and through, if there is such a thing. We got some cute aquatic accessories on our way out and left feeling refreshed and giddy from our visit under the sea. To celebrate our last night in Japan we went for dinner at a fun little place tucked away from one of the main shopping areas. We ordered a bunch of different dishes, Japanese tapas style, and drank more plum wine and saki. We headed home for an early night in preparation for a very early flight and fell asleep feeling well-traveled and happy. So you're thinking about teaching English abroad. Maybe you're flirting with the idea of South Korea or maybe you've already signed a contract. Wherever you are in your TEFL journey, here are some things to consider before you settle on teaching in Korea.
Hagwon, Public School, EPIK? What do these all mean? I suggest researching all three in-depth if you want to do a comparison. Right now I want to tell you more about my experience applying to and signing with a Hagwon. First of all, yes, there are Hagwon horror stories. But do your research, ask a ton of questions and there's a very good chance you'll land with a good school. A quick break down of the advantages and disadvantages of working for a Hagwon:
Consider a recruiter. When I started searching for jobs my biggest challenge was finding a school that would be willing to hire my boyfriend and I as a couple. If you are in a similar situation I highly recommend going with a recruiter. You can definitely find jobs on your own and apply directly to schools but if you have any "special circumstances" a good recruiter is incredibly useful. Case in point, our recruiter was probably one of the biggest reasons we decided to sign with SLP Ansan. The biggest selling point that made him stand out from the other recruiters I contacted was the fact that he was very available and always willing to chat with us via Skype. Most of the others responded with very generic, unhelpful emails that rarely answered my questions. After speaking with this recruiter we went through a series of two more interviews, one with the Foreign coordinator and one with the Korean supervisor at the school, before we were ever offered a contract. This does not always seem to be the process with many Hagwons so we took it as a positive sign that the school was making an effort to really vet their candidates. Do you need a TESOL/TEFL certification? For a Hagwon, it's questionable. I went with a middle-of-the-road, online certification through Global English. Overall, I was really pleased with the support they offered and the course covered all of the bases. Would I say it was worth the $600 price tag? In Korea, not necessarily. And for Hagwon work, probably not. It is a strict requirement for EPIK, GEPIK and the like so if you are going in that direction I'd definitely recommend Global English. I went for one that had an extra certification specific to teaching young students in Korea but you can find cheaper options on their site. Again, do your research. Don't spend more than is necessary, save that money for when you arrive instead. Get your paperwork in order ASAP. I would recommend making this a priority before you even begin applying to schools. Trust me, it's a lot of running around to collect the appropriate apostilles and official documents and you don't want to deal with that headache a month out from your departure date...not that I uh...speak from experience or anything. The basic document requirements include:
If you've got the time for it, consider a 2-year stay. The unanimous word around the teaching scene here is that the job opportunities get significantly better once you are in country, as does your earning potential. I've known people who have packed up, moved to Korea sans contract and found work within a month. Personally, this would give me way too much anxiety so if you're the same, find yourself a decent first-year position and then keep your eyes open for that sweet public school job with a shiny salary to match. Stay tuned for an upcoming post on tips for after you sign: what to pack, how much money you should bring, those first few weeks, etc. Exciting stuff! To help you in your research here a few links I found helpful when I was starting the process: School Reviews: Waygook.org Korean Black List Dave's ESL Cafe TEFL Course Reviews: TEFLcoursereview.com Good break down from The Guardian Fun, random info Reddit - Teaching in Korea 1, Miss - Mexican food. Oh sweet, sweet Mexican food. If you gave me three Chipotle burritos and told me that two of the three most certainly had E.Coli I would still take my chances. That's how much I miss la comida perfecta that is Mexican food. The closest we've found here is a restaurant in Hongdae - a foreigner-heavy area of Seoul - called "Vatos Tacos." Tasty, but not quite at the level of what you find in the good old U.S. of A. 2. Don't Miss - Driving. I'm a big fan of public transportation. It's good excercise walking to and from the station, it's cheap (Hullo $3-4 round trip ticket to Seoul from Ansan...the equivalent NOVA to DC would be almost $20 during peak times yes?) and I'm afraid of driving. Before you judge, I have never had an accident so it's not that i'm bad of it, it just really makes me at anxious. I also think that in another life I was a European princess so I prefer to have someone else drive me around. Life goal: get rich enough to make that happen. 3. Miss - Clean air. I never realized how much I took this for granted until I came here. There will be the occasionally smelly dumpster or stinky street corner in D.C., but there is nothing like the odorous adventure of walking through a Korean city. I think it mainly has to do with bad plumbing. Maybe it's everyone pooping out kimchi and really pungent seafood all the time, but it's a very distinct smell that you can't miss, Danny has coined it "KPS" (Korean Poop Smell). It always catches you off-guard too. You'll be cutting through an ally, breathing pretty much odor-free air when WHAM! KPS hits you straight in the nostrils. It's got that effect of one of your own really stinky farts: it's so bad you want to keep smelling but at the same time you feel like you might throw up if you do. The air-quality in general is definitely different. Korea doesn't have a major smog problem like China but that doesn't mean we aren't affected by our southern neighbor's pollution issues. We noticed it more during the warmer months but there will be those occasional days when you look out the window and there is a gritty yellow haze just hanging out. I can't say I feel any immediate physical effects but I have a feeling that when I make it back to the US the difference will be noticeable. So, moral is, love your clean air people. Not everyone in the world is privileged enough to have it. 4. Don't Miss - English. This one actually surprised me. I think, coming from a western culture, I was really intimidated about learning an Asian language. The sounds are so different than our own. Now, after several months of drilling vocab, I'm finally starting to understand some Korean. I got so excited yesterday when one of my students said to my Korean partner teacher, "Chaegi eobsoyo," and I understood that he was saying, "I don't have my book." It's also super satisfying to wield that power of "you don't know how much I know" over my students who think they can say sassy stuff to my face. I never expected to learn Korean well, but now that I'm giving it a try it's something I think I'll stick with. 5. Miss - Bathtubs. For obvious reasons. Baths are magical. Korean apartments are itty bitty so ha ha, bathtubs? Whut? 6. Don't Miss - Bros. Let me tell you a cringe-worthy story that should make you want to go punch a bro-type in the face right now. We're a little isolated from the areas of Seoul that are inundated with Americans, mainly, army guys. So, at times, it's easy to forget that the more embarrassing American stereotypes still exist on this side of the globe. Lest we forget too soon, a pair of personal trainers brought us back to reality one night at the meet-up group where we hang out with both our Korean and international friends. Let's call them Bro 1 and Bro 2. Both were clearly very proud of their overly-buff bodies and assumed that that would automatically grant them a free pass to any Korean woman and her vagina should she be so lucky to speak to them. But, to prove their superior (albeit, fragile) masculinity, they proceeded to challenge every guy in the bar to arm wrestling matches. Face, meet palm. Repeatedly. Over-hearing our friends grumbling that Bro 1 and Bro 2 were from the U.S., Danny and I were quick to jump in and insist that they did not represent Americans and pleasedonotassumethatunderanycircumstances. But the most jarring and frustrating thing that had us both on edge was the way they talked to our Korean friends. They did that annoying thing where they shout and slow down their voices to the point that anything they said came across as condescending and ridiculous. Case in point, our friend was talking to Bro 2, the younger, blonder and dumber one and she mispronounced a word. Jumping to correct her, Bro 2 elongates the word, pinching his fingers in front of her face as he says it and makes her repeat it like she's a naughty child. Then he asks her for a hug. Our sweet and confused friend gives him a half-hearted squeeze before retreating to the pool table. He was gross, it was weird. They sucked. The end. 7. Miss - Snow days. Definitely not a thing here. Especially if you don't own a car. I was super jealous of the huge snow storm all you east coasters got. Shut up about being bored, you got a week of Netflix and chill. I also just discovered adult coloring pages and bought a beautiful set of 50 colored pencils that I have yet to break out, so yeah, tell me again how bad those days off were. 8. Don't Miss - Salt. Koreans are so afraid to over-do it on the salt. Not always the case, but quite often we find ourselves faced with a bland meal, wishing that salt and pepper could be swapped for the very pickled pickles and cabbage. 9. Miss - Reese's cups. We ran out. Send more please and I'll send you back the weirdest Korean products I can find. 10. Don't Miss - Modesty in public bathing areas. This one probably sounds weird. Considering how conservative Korean society is about exposed skin, it's interesting how nudity is totally acceptable in places like the gym locker rooms and Jimjibangs (spas that you purposefully go to to get naked and sit in hot tubs and saunas). You do all this, of course, surrounded only by those of the same sex. It's definitely made me recognize how modest American women can be in "public" places where it is actually totally ok to be unclothed. I've also realized how embarrassed I can be about my body. I was a little nervous trying out the sauna at my gym the first time, expecting to stand out with my tall, pale, out-of-shape waygook body. But when I walked in, I was greeted by am older Korean lady, sitting cross legged on the floor, all of her lady bits on display, who smiled at me congenially. "Welcome," she said, in English. I smiled back, absorbing the warmth of her welcome and that of the sauna. I uncrossed my arms and relaxed, we were just some naked ladies hanging out together, and there's nothing wrong with naked ladies, right? Do you recognize that quote? I'll give you a hint - it has something to do with Anne Hathaway's break-out role. If you guessed "The Princess Diaries" then you're right. Good job, you know your chick flicks. Let me refresh you on the context of this quote. It's towards the end of the movie. Adorkable Anne Hathaway, playing the recently royal and athletically challenged Mia Thermopolis, is up to bat during a PE class softball game. This is right after Mia's been betrayed by her new cheerleader friends, alienated her real ones, and is generally failing at behaving like a proper 21st century noble. On her first try, Mia barely hits the ball and it rolls through the group of cheerleader frenemies who are conveniently practicing their routines next to the softball field...not you know, attending class during an average day at high school because, well, evil movie cheerleaders are, as everyone knows, always cheer leading. On her second try, Mia hits the ball directly into the barely-protected by gym-shorts junk of her former-crush: the very douchey, popular boy Josh. Yessss, classic movie justice of taking out the jerk with a blow to the balls. If only that could happen more in real life. Mia triumphantly sprints around the bases and makes it safely home, winning back her pride and (finally!) passing gym class. Let's back track for a second. I'm happy for MIa and as a fellow athletically-challenged adolescent I completely identified with her struggle and longed for a reckoning of my own. Sadly, I never got that moment. Instead, I was more like the cheerleaders shrieking and running away from Mia's first hit. Long exposition aside, this is where I come back to that quote, shouted at the scattering cheerleaders by their exasperated coach: "Oh come on, girls. It's a ball not a snake!" As a teacher at a private academy, I teach a range of different ages. My youngest students are 5-years-old and my oldest are 16. It's fascinating and sad to watch my female students go through that transition of the ball turning into a snake for pretty much every athletic activity. I think about my third-grade girls who haven't really realized that running full-speed across a soccer field and charging past one of their boy classmates to score a goal will make them appear aggressive, tom-boyish and unattractive in just a few years. Right now, they give zero you-know-what's about how they look when they're playing soccer. They just want to score because screw that, soccer day only comes once a month and the other team is not going to win. Flash forward a few hours and I'm playing one-on-one in the gym with one of my 14-year-old male students.I box him out and sink my next three shots. This kid can be a pain so this one-on-one game is my chance to remind him who's really got the power. Luckily, I haven't totally lost my basketball skills gained from 6 years of bench-warming, uh, I mean, practice. Meanwhile, the three girls in the class are huddled in the corner, pulling at their too-short uniform skirts that had to have been an unfortunate choice made by a male administrator, ignoring my suggestions that they join in. When I toss the ball to Minseo she swats it away like it's a disgusting bug. When Ji Eun actually attempts to make a shot she gives it barely any strength, misses the rim by a foot, giggles (while covering her mouth, of course) and glances to see if the guys noticed - they didn't. Hyo Sheen's throwing Bon Seok into the Kindy ball pit, for the third time. Ok, time to go shout at them again... What's so infuriating is not this age group. What's infuriating is the groups in-between. I can see the girls starting to doubt themselves and their own strength, holding back, shrinking into their own bodies and valuing those same bodies only on how desirable they are to their male peers. It's not like this is something unique to young Korean women and girls. I was thinking back and trying to pinpoint when I first realized that being "lady-like" was more important than being athletic. I can imagine several different scenarios and I'm sure that it must have been a combination of a few of these that really made the impact. Maybe it started when my older brother got signed up for baseball and I went to ballet. Or maybe in elementary school, during a unit about future jobs, when the teacher encouraged the idea of the boys becoming sports stars but reacted with little enthusiasm to girls who had the same dream. Or perhaps it was in middle school, when the girls who were starting to get attention from boys introduced the idea that behaving (and talking) like their brains were just for show - probably learned from older sisters or that god-awful Laguna Beach - is what would land you a boyfriend. Whatever it was, it was somewhere in that intersection of discovering that very specific behaviors are seen as more attractive to men and realizing that as a member of the female sex, I have little choice of when the ball becomes the snake. Yes you read that right. Four months in and we are about to move to our fourth apartment in Ansan. Is this a normal thing for schools to play housing hot seat with their foreign teachers? Most definitely not. But, for us, due to a stroke of bad luck and cultural miscommunications, we've been playing the game a few more times than we'd like and our suitcases are starting to complain.
Let me take you through it one unfortunate housing situation at a time. Room 205: Unwanted Guests When we arrived in August we were asked to share a room for a single occupant because we were promised couples housing a month later when my contract started. We agreed, seeing as how our school hired us, together, and flew us over together - unmarried, scandalous couple that we are. So we started in room 205 of the (now infamous, to us) JS Building. An ugly, run-down concrete building that looked like it was birthed from the junk drawer of blue prints at an early 1970s Korean construction company. For that entire first month we took shifts sleeping on a mat on the floor while the other person took the single bed. Oh, what? Single bed you say? For two people? Yes that's right. Having been told to bring sets of queen-sized sheets you can imagine our unpleasant surprise upon arriving and discovering that oops!, our American coordinator was confused and thought there was a bigger bed. However, rather than complaining and coming across as over-demanding foreigners we shrugged it off and said to ourselves, "It's only one month, it's not so bad." For the first month I was mostly solo during the day while Danny worked but I didn't have to worry about feeling homesick or lonely - I had plenty of company...of the many-legged variety. Cockroaches, beetles, and one enormous spider that Danny bravely defeated while I was, thankfully, not in the room. Unfortunately, if I felt like having a dinner party with any of my new friends this was not possible as the gas stove only had one setting: burn anything and everything you silly humans try to cook. Room 304 and 305 If I made you believe that we got couples housing after our first month ha ha!...joke's on you...well, really, on us. Due to a sneaky little sentence in our contract that reads something along the lines of "The school will provide couples housing when available" our verbal promise changed to "Can you take another single room instead?" Without any other choice, we reluctantly agreed. We were disappointed but we reasoned "At least we'll both be off the floor, it's not so bad." Enter: room 304. This little beauty is situated right in the center of the third floor of JS building. So unlike room 205 which is a corner room with a bathroom window and laundry room window, 204 only had one window and inadequate ventilation. Korean showers are odd. If you've ever seen one then you know that there is really no separation between the shower and bathroom. There is a drain in the center of the floor and basically everything gets drenched during bath time. In newer places it's ok because it dries fast and cleaning is pretty easy. In rotten, old JS however, it was like nothing ever dried. And what likes damp places? Hello holy moldy! It was everywhere. In-between every tile, in corners of the wash room and even in the air conditioner. Yipee, breathing is mold is super great for your health, right? I lasted in that room about one month. When we both stated getting major allergies Danny lost it and we revisited couples housing with our recruiter and supervisors. Their solution... Room 305 and a queen sized bed. Oh right, because I forgot to mention. The "bed" in 304 was a mattress sans bed frame. So technically I did get off the floor...by about 4 inches. We checked out 305. It looked clean, the burners worked and the air flow seemed existent. Abandoning 304 we relocated, thinking that at last, we could claim 2 acceptable rooms in JS as our own. Little did we know, about a month and a half after moving in and using 305 as our main living and sleeping space, we were doing some cleaning and made an unpleasant discovery. In the corner of the room that was normally hidden by the bed, a flourishing patch of very black mold was growing up the wall paper. Peeling it back we found that it was also giving a lot of love to the concrete underneath. It also happened to be about a foot away from where our faces were when we slept. At this point we said ok, that's it. Get us out of this place. We really don't want to die because of mold after moving all the way to Korea. Junang for Christmas Two weeks before the holidays we got the word that we could move into a newer apartment in Junang (the city one metro stop away from school). We went to check it out and it looked great. Clean, lots of light, loft style, still small but actually in good condition. No mold, no critters, nothing unexpected - as determined by Danny's very thorough inspection that included everything from water pressure to intense examination of every hole, scratch, crack and corner. Sometimes OCD is good. As I write this now we are in this Junang apartment. We had a fun Christmas here with a tree and even a little dinner sitting amongst our suitcases and boxes. We were at the point of arguing about where the TV and playstation should go (I was for the loft because hullooo who wants a huge TV cluttering up the already tiny kitchen/living room/main apartment space that's 13ft long by 6 ft wide). We should have known better. Because #Korea. Yesterday, I get a text from my Korean coordinator. "I have just got an issue...can we meet??" I come to find out that the landlord of our building changed and the old lady taking on responsibilities decided that it is a ripe time to sell our apartment. Never mind the contract the school has to rent it, she is an old woman who said please and culturally, that's just how things go. At that exact moment, Danny was haggling for a deal on furniture. So this morning when a very large Mongolian man lugged our new kitchen table and dresser into the apartment that is no longer ours we told him (through hand gestures) to not bother taking anything out of the boxes, they wouldn't be staying here long. This time it sounds like we'll actually get a choice in where we go next. Plus the landlord really wants to sell so she's offering to pay movers to help us out. In truth, it's annoying but rather than freak out we're finding the humor in it all. When we consider all of the things we do have: great friends; the rest of Asia a short plane ride away; fun students; good food; an interesting language to learn; palaces and temples to explore; and of course, each other, our housing troubles are, truly, not that bad. More to come on Apartment #4. |
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