Blogs from Jeonju, Jeollabuk-do, South Korea, Asia - page 6

Today was a most exciting day for all of us at the Hogwan. This morning we went to the Korean cultural center and Hanok Village. Most all of the children wore their traditional Korean Hanboks. When we (the foreign teachers) arrived at the school, we went on a quest for our Hanboks because we were supposed to wear them as well, however they were nowhere to be found. Later, Mrs. Ahn said that they were in storage and old and moldy, but we think they probably forgot. It was okay though, because it was pretty hot to begin with without all of the extra layers. I had asked one of the Korean teachers if she was going to wear hers today, and she said, “Oh no, I don’t have one. Too expensive!” That made it sink ... read more

Today I went to school and had a pretty normal day there. Outside of school was a different story. The Kinders didn’t do anything special. They just did their seat work and practiced writing. I also noticed that the elevator numbers were 1, 2, 3, F, 5, and I wondered about why they didn’t put 4, but instead put F. I found out that it’s like our number 13. The number 4 means death, so they put an F instead! Weird! I had previously mentioned to Mrs. Ahn that my apartment was dirty when I arrived and she said that she would send a maid. Well, today was the day of the maid. Even though I had a class at 1pm, she wanted me at my apartment to meet the maid. Mrs. Ahn is such a ... read more

Today was my first day of school at the Hogwan. A little bit of background on what exactly a Hogwan is: A Hogwan is a private school that students attend to get taught extra subjects. These students’ parents pay big bucks for their children to attend these types of schools. My school, Top Language School was established in 1973, and is the most prestigious in all of Jeonju. I work at the Seoshin-Dong branch. (A dong is a neighborhood, so it’s the Seoshin-neighborhood branch.) All subjects are taught in English at this school. I have a Korean co-teacher, but we don’t teach together. She has the class one day, and I have them the next. We just flip-flop. The Korean teacher’s job is to teach them the meanings of the English words in Korean so when ... read more

"What the hell have I done?" I thought that as I sat in my room in the "love motel" rented by my new employer. I had arrived in Jeonju, Korea at 10 PM, after an extremely hectic couple of weeks. Most of you will know by now that I have been thinking about teaching in Korea for a few years now. When I applied to the teaching program at UBC this summer, Korea became my fallback. The rejection letter came about a month ago, after I had finally decided to give up and just go. I put my resume on an internet job board; and was immediately flooded with calls from recruiters. My email inbox had at least 15 new messages a day from recruiters. It turns out that for 35,000 available teaching jobs in Korea ... read more

Jeonju.... I think this may be one of the nicest city's I visited. Though I only spent a day here I just really enjoyed the feeling the city has. There are not a lot of sky rises and overdressed people rushing around on tight filled day schedules. I visited the Hanok Village where Korean tradition is kept. There are around 800 traditional style homes and in the village that must be kept that way, the owners are not allowed to make modernized changes to their homes. There are also lots of traditional style shops and mini museums to check out. As I was heading there I met a guy Lee who spoke very good English and offered to show me around. I was a little hesitant but after speaking with him for a while I though ... read more