Teaching English. Funnily enough, I had never thought of myself as a teacher, nor as the type of person who would be capable of spending large quantities of time surrounded by children. In fact, I wasn't even the favourite of some of my little cousins... It's not that I disliked kids, I had just never spent any real time with them, and I really didn't know what to expect.
I first discovered that working as an English teacher abroad when I was living in Spain. My roommate was from England, and he had moved to Spain to teach English for a little bit. His girlfriend was American, and she was doing the same thing. I quickly discovered that not only was there a large community of native English teachers in Madrid, but that this was a thing, and something that could be done all around the world.
At one point, this same roommate had told me that he had been looking into teaching in Japan, that the salaries were much higher there and that teachers were really well-respected. This truly was worldwide, and it was something that I stored in the back of my mind as a potential future plan, seeing as, at the time, I still needed to return home and graduate university before making any future plans.
Fast forward to December 2016, when I finally graduated university. I was fortunate enough to find a job at my university's international office immediately after graduating, however this position was temporary as I was just filling in for a few months. This is when I really started looking into opportunities teaching English abroad. I took a five-day crash course to learn about how to teach, and I started exploring options.
I remember debating between going back to Spain, going to Asia, or going to South America. It turned out that salaries and benefits were way higher in Asia, and my instructor had been heavily pushing China. In fact, he had even gotten me a job offer in Shanghai, though China never really appealed to me due to its restriction on personal freedoms and polluted air. I found some job-search websites and sent some applications out to Korea, Japan and Hong Kong. I was offered a job in Seoul, with what seemed like good money and benefits, and off I went.
I literally took off early on the morning of Saturday, July 1st, and arrived in Seoul on the evening of July 2nd (the journey wasn't as long as it seems given the 13-hour time difference). The following day, with no delay, it was off to work!
I arrived on my first day, was given little instruction and little help. I was given a schedule and a pile of books, and told to teach. That's it.
It started off a bit rough. I don't think I was ever a bad teacher, but getting the class to properly focus and keeping the kids on task was definitely a challenge. After my first month, I remember my boss calling me into her office to tell me that some students quit specifically because of me (which I don't believe for a second). She then even cut my hours for my second month, August, which meant I was working very little.
Given my little training, poor first experience and a necessary adaptation process to the Korean hagwon system, it's natural that it started off quite difficult. That said, I'm always one to learn from my surroundings and I feel like I really managed to organize myself well.
So, of course, my job was to teach, but behind every lesson came lots of preparation. We were given books to teach to each class at the start of every term. Each term lasted three months, and we essentially needed to finish all of our books by the end of the term. This meant that we needed to pace ourselves in order to finish the book on time. This usually meant that we'd cover 3-4 pages in the textbook per class, and we'd assign the students about two pages of homework in their workbooks. We'd also need to quiz the students about once per week, and give them a unit test every two weeks (because Korean parents love testing...). Additionally, we needed to collect and correct their homework books every couple of weeks, and even assign them extra homework worksheets during those days. It was busy, especially when you're teaching 10 classes per term.
As time went on, I got to know the students better and we created a pretty good relationship. Classes went by more and more smoothly, and I was managing my time really well in terms of getting all my materials ready. While I was lost when I first started, at the end of my 14 months I was really efficient. I had developed my own grading and homework rubric, I was writing pretty good tests and quizzes, and the kids loved me. We were all working really hard, but it was great!
The thing I'm most proud of, and probably my fondest memory, is regarding how well I bonded with my students, especially the younger ones. The kids absolutely loved me, and it was definitely reciprocal. These kids are overworked in nearly all aspects of their lives. Their lives are strictly structured by their moms, and they do indeed spend way too much time studying.
My approach to my classes was to have them kind of have fun and enjoy themselves; God knows they need it. Of course, we did always get our work done, but I made it a priority to goof around a bit. I think what differentiated me from some other teachers is that I'd just come in, laugh with them and kind of treat them like equals as opposed to going in there and imposing some strict teacher-student relationships. I found it important to take some serious interest in their personal lives and in their personalities, and I think they really appreciated that. I remember, at the end of one term, one of my favourite students came up to me and gave me a card stating that his one wish was that I "could be his teacher again."
The kids' energy and positive attitude was contagious, and it was a pure pleasure to be around them everyday. My last day with them was really emotional, and I still miss spending time with them.
Probably the cutest thing to come out of it all was my youngest ones writing me goodbye cards.
From uncertainty, to confusion, to organization, to control and total confidence, spending time in the classroom with young Korean kids was a roller-coaster ride, but it is a memory that I will cherish forever.
-Daniele
