Ross Parker
I've just finished my 4 year degree in Civil Engineering and am desperate for a break from looking at buildings, roads and bridges. So I'm off to teach ESL in South Korea to 3 year olds for the next year. I have no idea what to expect so I will be updating you all as I go along!Ross Parker
Travel Blog Posts
April 17th 2012
Talk about a change of season. Literally over one weekend the weather has changed into beautiful 20+ degrees weather and all the trees and flowers are blossoming like crazy. It's great to finally have a bit of heat and colour here, the cold and dull brown colour of everything was getting pretty tiresome! Anyway, as I mentioned last time, now it's getting so much nicer it is making it easier to go out and do things. And there are so many different festivals to choose from every weekend, so there is plenty to do and see! We kicked things off a couple of weekends ago by heading on a trip over to Jindo island, in the southwest corner of Korea. On the way we stopped off in Boseong, to visit a green tea plantation. The tea ... read more
April 4th 2012
Spring has finally reached Busan, the weather has warmed up and it is making my life so much better. I've never really minded the cold but this winter has gone on way too long, it's been freezing since I first landed here 5 months ago! My motivation levels to go and do things are through the roof, so the last couple of weeks have been pretty busy. A couple of weeks ago, three of my co-workers that left the school in March invited me on a road trip. I didn't really know what they had planned, I just knew we were going exploring through Korea. I had been feeling a bit trapped in Busan and felt I hadn't seen much of Korea, so it was the perfect opportunity to go on a bit of an adventure. ... read more
March 13th 2012
Sometimes I wonder how I managed to get such a cushy job, and why I would ever consider getting a job in an office sitting staring at a computer. February was such an easy month, particularly the last week, which was the last week of the school year. For example, on the Monday I got paid to go ice skating all morning, and then to go and eat the fattest steak I could find on the menu at the steakhouse. This was the field trip for the oldest class in kindergarten, who were graduating to elementary school. They asked to go ice skating, which I was quite happy to go along with. I think they regretted the decision though, poor kids looked pretty stressed out after spending the whole morning hitting the deck every 30 seconds. ... read more
February 12th 2012
Probably about time I did an update, been a bit lazy the last few weeks! So in Korea Lunar New Year (or seollal) is one of the most important holidays. It's the same as the Chinese New Year, and this year is the year of the black water dragon. Apparently people are quite superstitious about these things - it is good for a boy to be born in a dragon year, but very bad for a girl. I guess because dragons are big and scary and no one wants their baby girl to behave like a fire breathing monster. I could be wrong on this but I think that year of the horse is supposed to be the worst one for some reason? I was talking about this with my co-workers the other day and they ... read more
January 15th 2012
Time for an update I think. As all the weird things that happen are starting to become normal, it seems I have less things to report, but here's the top news from the last couple of weeks. School is the same old same old really. Kids are still crying and fighting all the time, but it's amazing how much they can cheer you up if you're having a bad day! The latest addition to my baby class is Jerome. He is the youngest yet, only 2! But he isn't phased by me at all, he just finds everything really funny. I asked him how he was the other day and he started hitting himself in the face while roaring with laughter. I guess that means he's OK. I left him to it anyway. It was phone ... read more
January 1st 2012
Happy New Year! Hope you all had a good Christmas and that Santa brought you everything you asked for. Thought I'd give a little update to fill you all in on what's been going on here over Christmas. The last week of school before Christmas was pretty fun, nice and easygoing. The week ended on Friday with a school trip to a chocolate making factory with the little kids. You can imagine the carnage that 50 little kids armed with tubes of liquid chocolate would cause. It was all over their faces, clothes, the floor, but luckily some of it made it to actual solid chocolate form which they could take home. Back at school we had a big buffet lunch with them all, after which Santa Claus (or Santa haraboji in Korean) paid a visit. ... read more
December 19th 2011
So the best news this week was that I got paid, a cool 1.6 million. And thats not even a full pay packet. Although the fact that everyone else here is a millionaire too does make it less interesting. Anyway, at least I can buy food now. School is still going great, dealing with the kids gets better every week. I want them to like me but I think it's more important to get their respect first so they don't mess around in class. I had to deal with my first proper tantrum in class the other day - one of the boys hit another boy on the arm so I shouted at him and took one of his stickers away, at which point he threw all his books across the room, screamed, and then bawled ... read more
December 4th 2011
So the Korean goverment have now officially classified me as an alien. OK, I'm not flying around or anything, but I've now got my 'alien registration card'. Which I'm pretty happy about, as there's not much you can do here without it - you can't get a bank account (although I think you actually need some money for that to be useful?!), you can't get a phone, or even join the local swimming pool. Although maybe it's a little unfair for me to blame the fact I have done no exercise since I arrived on the government. School is still going well, although crying is increasing at an alarming rate. I don't think it's my fault, some of them are just ridiculously sensitive! For example this week I did a little competition in one of the ... read more
November 27th 2011
After the stress of having to learn a completely new job very quickly last week, this week has been a lot more relaxed. I spent a few hours on Monday evening preparing for the rest of the week, which meant I could concentrate more on teaching than on frantically printing out worksheets and working out what I should be doing! So it's been a good week, I'm feeling a lot more comfortable with the job now I know how things work a bit more. The only problem I've had this week is with kids crying. I had 5 cry on me in one day. Just stupid things like someone taps another kid on the arm and they burst into tears, and then the first one starts crying because they've upset the other kid. I have to ... read more
November 20th 2011
So this week was my first proper week of teaching. I am shattered. Talk about being thrown in at the deep end with your arms and legs tied behind your back! OK, so it wasn't that bad, but it was pretty daunting suddenly having to teach 8 lessons a day to a bunch of little kids without ever having done it before! I teach the little kids in the morning - this is kids from the age of 3 to 6. This is generally phonics work and singing books. In general I don't have to do too much extra work, just make a few worksheets here and there to pad out some of the lessons. But I also get to teach them art & craft and science which is pretty fun and the kids love it. ... read more
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