Becoming an ESL teacher in South Korea…what a challenge!

Posted by Jimmy on Oct 29, 2009 in ESL/TEFL, korea, thailand | 0 comments

Felicitaciones are in order! Rachel and I were offered jobs as English teachers through the EPIK programme last week, and how we were pleased! After 2 months of gathering documents, paying hidden charges on everything, and generally cursing the process involved in gaining a visa for South Korea we rocked into our telephone interviews absolutely desperate to get the jobs. I couldn’t decide whether the desire to actually do the job was what had me so eager to pass the interview or whether it was the need to have something to show for all the running around that we had to do to get our visas (Click here for visa info). Either way we passed.

This charming piece of news means that we’ll be leaving for Thailand on January the 6th for a nice relaxing chill out session before plodding over to South Korea. Feeling all excited and what-have-you we’ve been looking at some potential ‘chill out-spots’ in Thailand where one can slip out of ones beach hut and roly-poly onto the sand and into the sea. We found these bad boy beach huts (on Big Buddha Beach) which at a whopping £13 a night are supposedly expensive.

Not bad eh! Apparently these are secluded enough for you to have the beach to yourself but only a 20 minute ride from the nightlife of Ko Samui and a 20 minute boat ride from the nearest full moon party. We might book these for a week or so and then play the rest of the 6 weeks by ear. It’s a hard life but someone’s got to do it.

On a different note,

I’ve noticed a strange thing over the past two years or so, a behavioural occurrence I think I’ll very cleverly call it. Whenever Rachel and I would discuss our plans with people we would inevitably get this strange look of scepticism, almost like a ‘yeah right’. In fact many wouldn’t just give the look but would actually say ‘yeah right’…well maybe not exactly those words but words to that effect. Younger people seemed much more open minded to the idea of being able to actually create a desirable future for yourself. I’m almost convinced that their reaction isn’t one of scepticism towards us but rather a reflection of their beliefs about their own capabilities. Bloody hell I think I just burst my only brain cell with that little chest nut. Good job I wrote it down! How’s that? You think I’m wrong and I’m over thinking things? Well keep it shut coz no one was asking you! Anyhoo, I know it’s very Freudian and all that but how can you not respect the theories of a plebian who shoved more cocaine up his nose than Pablo Escobar?(Psychological Projection for the curious)

Strangely enough our closest friends who know us better than most have never showed scepticism towards our plans (not to our face anyway) and as we’ve drawn closer to our date with Thailand the sceptical voices have faded away and now I hear ‘yeah well you’re just really focused and all that’ or ‘We didn’t have those opportunities back then. You’re just lucky blah blah blah…’ I suppose what I’m trying to say is I wonder which one you are the excuse maker or the do-er.. Ooh how deep!