Before coming to the Korean peninsula, much thought was tossed around in my mind if it would be the right decision or not. With no question, it's a big decision to just pack up your things leave your friends and family behind even if it is just for one year, especially if you're never been abroad before. Leaving what you're comfortable with, what you've known so perfectly for the majority of your life and depending on how you perceive it, a year could be a long time or seem like a very short time. Things like that can't really be answered until you actually get to your destination and start living the experience. If you hate it, time could drag and obviously if you enjoy it, the time will go a bit quicker. Just one example of the questions that rush through your head before inking the contract.
But if you think about it, would you really not want to have the opportunity to see other parts of the world? I couldn't stand thinking that way. Grow up, live and die in Buffalo. Not that there is anything wrong with it, some people have very successful meaningful lives living in one city their whole life. I'm just not one of those lucky ones, I didn't have much going on in Buffalo. I was trapped at an unsatisfying office job, trying to pursue journalist opportunities within the city for resume fodder and thinking about graduate school. All of those aspects in life are a recipe for frustration and an urge for distraction. Teaching abroad was on the back burner of my brain months before I actually considered going for it. I've heard about it through friends and family, always hearing positive things. However, hearing the good things didn't exactly make me feel any better about it, I mean someone has to not like it, right?
My curiosity finally hooked me in and I finally decided to send in the papers to get things started. It took about three months the finalize everything. Going through the obnoxious bureaucratic steps of sending criminal records reports, getting authentications, certifications, apostilles and sending them from departments of county to other county departments to the department of state to Korea was rather redundant. Meeting with the Korean consulate in New York City was the final step, they would finalize my working visa and in a couple weeks I'd be shipped to South Korea to teach English.
During my recruitment all I knew is that I wanted to teach in Seoul or close to Seoul. The first interview was the first job that was offered to me in Gimpo and I accepted it. Gimpo, which is considered the "country side" by some Koreans that I've met, is approximately an hour away from the hot spots in the country's capital. It may seem like a long time to travel but isn't a big deal at all. The hagwon (학원) where I'm employed is Avalon English, where I'm going to spend the next 10 months of my English teaching career.
Hagwons in Korea are for profit academies utilized to give children further education in their choice subject. Mainly, hagwons offer subjects like math, foreign languages, arts, music or science. These kids come to these private academies directly after getting their public school education. They are constantly being educated all day long. One misconception that I had before coming to Korea was that teachers are highly respected. I can't necessarily say it's not entirely true but kids are kids. They want to play, fool around and talk to their friends. So they come into these academies exhausted and at times hard to grasp on to their full attention.
Avalon has this corporate feel to it that I'm just not really in to but from what I've heard Avalon is one of the top rated hagwons for English in Korea. It's expected to be the best and so I assume it's one of the most expensive. Parents are paying for their children to come there and since they are the ones paying they are the ones that we are to keep happy. I quivered from hearing one of the Korean teachers title them almost hauntingly as "our precious customers". There's definitely a tough balance to uphold at a hagwon. Parents want their kids to work hard and make sure the text books that they shell out cash for are filled in completely. As I mentioned before kids are kids, they want to play and have fun, if you're a kid being lectured all day long filling in a boring workbook, you're going to go home and whine about it . This causes a chain reaction of your approval rating to dwindle, causing you to shift from educator to entertainer. After the swift shift of roles the kids start enjoying themselves a little more after the parents complain that their child isn't happy there. Then the books start to become a little more incomplete causing the parents to become unhappy. It's a strange cycle. It could be quite annoying depending where your academic standards lie. Do you want to be portrayed as an educator or a foreigner coming to jump through hoops?
Despite the queer algorithm of parent and student pleasing, coming to teach English in Korea was a good decision. The sense of camaraderie between foreigners here is awesome and you meet a ton of new people every weekend in Seoul. I'm finally stumbling upon live music, something that I've missed ever since leaving my hometown. I'm also getting into the experience, learning the language, culture and seeing some things people might not always have the opportunity too. Two months here and I'm already wondering if I were to come back to Buffalo (besides the obvious), what would it be for?
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