Fire in GA/FL

Well, the Georgia wildfire has shifted enough that at this point in time it is no longer a direct threat to Waycross. However, the fire spread to the Okefenokee Swamp, made its way southward, and hopped the St. Mary's River into Florida. Additionally, there are apparently hundreds of fires currently burning throughout the state of Florida. Now, I am currently a resident of Georgia, but I grew up in Florida, and many of my friends still live there. Below are some images taken by friends in Lake City, FL.

Taken at 3:45pm, Thursday, May 10 by Stephanie Tyson
(Yes, that photo was taken in the middle of the afternoon)


Photo by Caitlin St. John - flakes of ash on her dad's truck

The Broken Doll is Sad

Turns out Youngmee won't be able to come to Korea after all :-(

Random Festivals Downtown

This afternoon I met up with my friend and former coworker Donna who's in town for a while. We planned to spend the afternoon walking around downtown, window shopping and hunting down a place to dine on some tasty Korean foods. In addition to a yummy stop at a Korean barbecue buffet, and the accidental purchase of a ridiculous lime green konglish t-shirt, we discovered that there were apparently TWO festivals going on in the pedestrian areas of downtown Daegu. One, in the main shopping drag featured free samples of soju and rice wine, in addition to free samples of various make-up products and face-painting for kids. I sampled the free booze and passed on the make-up.

Free booze in the main downtown pedestrian drag.

We wandered down to the Gukchaebosang Park (or in English, the National Debt Repayment Movement Park) took some photos.

Approaching Gukchaebosang Park

Gukchaebosang Park Bell Pavilion


Gukchaebosang Park Bell Pavilion

We then made our way to the Herbal Medicine Market, where the Yangnyeongsi Herb Medicine Festival was underway, celebrating the 350 year anniversiary of the market. Herb gardens had been literally transplanted into the middle of the street, and they were hopping with rabbits! There were booths of people displaying various traditional herbal medicines and medical procedures and such... and more free samples. I was coaxed into drinking some very strange herbal tea, as all the ajushis and ajummas cheered and clapped. Absurdity!

Traditional herbal medicine demonstration


Donna in front of one of the temporary herb gardens


Rabbit in the herb garden!


They weren't penned in; I can't imagine why they didn't escape!


This was the fellow who insisted I drink the strange herbal tea,
and who led the clapping while I drank.


Me, at the gate to the Herbal Medicine Market

In memory of Tommy

Tommy, one of the cats that my mom and I share, died yesterday from diabetic complications. I found Tommy in a convenience store parking lot in 2002; he had narrowly missed being runover by a pickup truck. After a few weeks at our house, we could tell that something was wrong. The vet diagnosed him as diabetic, and said that with proper care (insulin twice a day), he could probably live for eighteen months. That was five years ago. He lived a long, happy life for those five years, and we will miss him.

Children's Day, etc

Today was Children's Day, which is a national holiday here in Korea. Unfortunately, this year Children's Day fell on a Saturday; had it fallen on a weekday, I would've gotten a day off. Also falling under the category of "unfortunately" - I didn't realize that the park located a couple of blocks from my house was having a Children's Day Festival until the thing was all but over. I got there just in time to see various booths and stands and costumed groups packing up and heading for home. Additionally, since I got there right as the entertainments were shutting down, I - as the random foreign chick - became the entertainment for innumerable children who wanted to practice their English. Hello! How are you! Nice to meet you! What's your name! Where are you from! Ahh well.

The park, as Children's Day festivities were winding down.


My neighbor's villa has roses hanging over the wall.


Another of my neighbor's roses.


A scooter with a side car!

This past week several of the elementary schools had field days, which meant that a lot of the kids showed up for my classes in very 1980s-esque headbands.


(River, second grade)


Betty (first grade)
Remember her from this shot? :-)

She's just so darn cute!

Also, I now have black and white striped knee socks.
And you know how Mia loves dirty socks.

Jane’s Guide to Teaching English in South Korea: Part 2

Part 2: How to Find a Job Teaching English in South Korea

The most important thing to do when looking for a job in Korea is RESEARCH. I came to South Korea for the first time in 2001. I took my recruiter’s words at face value and did not do any research prior to signing the contract. What a mistake! The job I landed was a nightmare (you can read all about it here if you’re interested). Many people do like I did, and come to Korea without doing a lot of research. Please, do yourself a favor and don’t make that mistake!

First of all, where do you want to live? Some people find that even though they enjoy living in foreign countries, they really need regular contact with English speaking expatriates in order to maintain sanity. Others want to go for full immersion in a foreign culture, limiting contact to as few people from their homeland as possible. Many people are in the middle. Where do you fall on this spectrum? Large cities such as Seoul, Daegu and Busan have large expat populations. This means that these cities have plenty of “foreigner bars” and plenty of opportunities to meet people from home, if you so desire. Even in large cities, school components differ. Some schools have large foreign staffs, while other schools only employ one foreigner. Additionally, smaller cities have fewer foreigners. Keep in mind what sort of experience you’re looking for when you consider school size and location.

The majority of ESL/EFL jobs available to foreigners here in this country are at hogwans – private academies which students attend after public school. (That being said, there are certainly other ESL/EFL job opportunities available over here. I am going to discuss hogwans, as they make up the bulk of the jobs available, and as I have personal experience in the hogwan industry.) There are many, many hogwan franchises here in Korea. This means that many schools share the same name, even though they are owned and operated by different people. Some hogwan chains have bad reputations overall, while some chains have excellent reputations. That being said, the quality of the school will vary by school.

It is important to get the full name and location of any school you are considering. For example: the hogwan I work for is part of the Oedae Language Institute chain of schools. Googling Oedae Language Institute gets you a lot of information, but scrolling through the first few pages of search results gets you nothing on my particular branch. However, Googling Ansim Oedae Language Institute East Daegu gets you information about my school in particular.

If you are using a recruiting service to help you find a position, you should also Google the name of your recruiter and his/her organization. Recruiters get paid a finders fee for every person they place. While there are certainly many reputable recruiters, there are also those who will tell you whatever they think you want to hear in order to get you to sign with a school. There are plenty of blacklists out there, so if your recruiter has been up to no good, it’s probably been documented online.

In addition to simply using Google, there are several online forums, such as Dave’s ESL Café, which are great places to pose questions about a specific school, recruiter, city, etc.

Once you’ve found a school or schools for which you are interesting in working, and once you’ve vetted the school/s on Google and Dave’s ESL Café, it’s time to get actual live references. Ask the school to provide contact information for both current and former teachers. If you are replacing someone, try to get in contact with that person. Find out why he/she is leaving. Is it because his/her contract is over, or is it because he/she is unhappy? Ask as many questions as you can think of. Here are some examples:

How many classes do you teach per day?
How many hours are you at school per day?
How many students are in each class? What are their ages?
How does the school deal with disciplinary problems?
What teaching materials/supplementals are available?
How much time do you spend preparing for classes?
Do you work on weekends?
What administrative/non-teaching duties are you expected to perform? How much time do they take?
Do you receive your pay on time?
Do you have health insurance and a health card?
What is your apartment like?

The last step before agreeing to work for a school is signing the contract. Read the contract carefully. Make sure that you understand everything in the contract. If you have ANY questions about the contract, ask to have them clarified before signing. If there are any segments of your contract which seem vague, rewrite those sections in specific language and ask that you be allowed to sign the amended contract. If you think anything about the contract seems suspicious, check with others on Dave’s ESL Café. (Also, one thing to remember – contracts are based on teaching hours. Teaching hours and working hours are different. I teach approximately 24 hours a week, but I’m at work about 37 or so hours a week. That gives me perfect time to plan lessons, take lunch/dinner breaks, etc. Take a close look at required duties other than teaching as listed in your contract – some schools will require many hours of administrative duties. As these are not “teaching hours” they are unpaid and do not count towards overtime!)

Stay tuned for Part 3: Getting to Korea

Current/former English teachers in Korea – do you have any other suggestions for how to go about finding a reputable school?

Jane’s Guide to Teaching English in South Korea: Part 1

I receive a lot of emails containing questions about teaching English in South Korea. Unfortunately, I’m notoriously bad at replying to unsolicited emails in a timely manner. I’ve decided to solve this problem by writing a series of posts addressing these questions. This is Part One. (Also, if you have questions you think should be answered over the course of this series, please comment!)

Part One: Should I Go To South Korea?

So, for whatever reason, you’ve started thinking about getting a job in South Korea teaching English. Well, before you hop on a plane, there are some important questions you should ask yourself. “Why?” is a good question to start off this introspective. Once you have an answer to “why?” check out the questions I have for you below:

Are you looking for easy money while getting a chance to see Asia? So many people come to Korea to teach thinking that’s exactly what they’re going to get – easy money and a chance to see Asia. If this is all or part of your reasoning, you should keep the following in mind: Jobs in Korea are just that – jobs. Koreans tend to have an extremely high work-ethic and will expect the same of you. The Korean peninsula is small enough that you can see a lot of it on the weekends, and you will be in a good position to “see Asia” once your contract is finished – just don’t expect your time here to be a paid vacation.

Do you like working with children? While there are certainly jobs available in Korea teaching English to adults, the majority of the ESL/EFL jobs available to foreigners involve children. I teach kids in first through eighth grade; many foreigners teach kindergarteners and preschoolers as well. Keep in mind that teaching little kids requires a special kind of patience that not everyone possesses. If you’re not one of those people who can work well with the little ones, don’t sign up for a job teaching them.

How willing are you to spend a year outside of your comfort zone? KOREA IS NOT A WESTERN COUNTRY, people. This might seem obvious to some of you, but you’d be surprised how many westerners get here and are simply crushed by the differences – and there are MANY differences. They speak a different language, use a different alphabet, and (in many cases) practice a different religion. Unless you’re ethnically Asian, you’ve no chance of blending in. The streets are more crowded – not to mention much dirtier. You’ll have frequent opportunities to use squatty-potties. The food is quite different, as are the fashions. While you can find many Western goods, you’ll have a hard time finding everything you’re accustomed to. (I am so craving some Triscuits right now!) I could easily fill an entire book enumerating the difference between Korea and the West. Certainly, Korea is a modern country, and you can dine at McDonald’s and Starbucks if you so desire… HOWEVER, sometimes life in Korea can be extremely frustrating, even to the most well-adapted westerner. If you’re looking for the comforts of *your* home with different scenery, Korea probably isn’t the place for you; to live in Korea you need to be able to embrace the absurdities, accept the differences, and adapt.

If you’ve read the above and are still interested in coming to Korea, check out Part Two of this series: How To Find A Job.

(To current and former English teachers in Korea: Please feel free to contribute to this discussion! Can you think of any other important questions prospective teachers should ask themselves prior to deciding to come to Korea?)

Attention American Citizens!

Please listen to this.
You'll probably learn something.

Mooshtastic!!!

Youngmee is coming to Korea this summer!
Awesomeness shall indeed ensue.
Motherland!