Mission Accepted

I have finally accepted a teaching position in South Korea

I know, after all my whining and moaning, I have finally chosen a job. I will tell you all as much as possible about it, and then when I get there and tell the REAL story we can see how they compare :)

I am really excited about the move, but nervous at the same time. Either way, its gonna be a huge adventure, and I hope everyone at home will email/fb/comment/skype often so we can all stay connected. Anyway, I am getting ahead of myself...

Songsin Elementary School, Pyeongtaek-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea

This is where I will be for the year. The school is a public elementary school, and I will be teaching English to grades 4 - 6. I had the interview on Wednesday arvo last week with my co-teacher Mr. Park, who has been to Melbourne a few years ago on a teacher exchange. He visited Frankston (God knows why :s) so already feels like we have heaps to talk about. 

It was a crazy few days, because I hadn't heard back from the school about if they wanted me or not, and in the meantime another one of my awesome recruiters (I actually mean this - Dan from Teach ESL Korea is a great guy) had found me some other really great positions. So it came down to my choice - did I want to take a great, highly recommended position in a Hagwon in Gwangju, or take this public position in Pyeongtaek?  The choice was really hard. And, strangely enough, many would think I made the wrong choice. 

In Gwangju, I would have a huge network of foreign teachers and made a heap of friends. The place is beautiful, with really nice mountains and all that near by. 

In Pyeongtaek, the foreign community does not seem as big. The place seems kinda ugly (judgement call here based on Google Images - I may be really wrong) and doesn't seem to have any real drawcard. Its only claim to fame is an American Airforce Base... 

So why did I pick Pyeongtaek?

As I told Dan, I wanted to be a bit closer to Seoul. Gwangju is like, 4 hours away by bus... A bit far, especially when I have people in Seoul and surrounding areas that i want to meet up with and hang out with. Another reason is that I really wanted to teach kids. I will be honest, it is pretty daunting the idea of teaching kids who speak no English, in a class size of 30+ with a co-teacher I don't know, but for some strange reason the challenge appealed to me. 

We all know I tend to do things the hard way. Its a strange knack i have...

And there is another reason, but I can't put my finger on what it is... I just feel like this is the place for me. 

I may be totally wrong, and this might be the worst year of my life. I might hate it, and have no friends. But, as one good friend says, there is no such thing as a bad decision. You make the best choice you can with the given information, and then you make the best of your choice. Simple as that. If YOU have decided it, then its right.

Anyway, here is the Wiki for the area - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyeongtaek

The white area in the middle is the are around Seoul. 

Pyeongtaek is about 20 mins further south of Suwon. If I find a better map I will pop it up.

Here is a link to the schools website (its in Korean, I have no idea what it says. Someone tell me if it means Death School or something ok?) - http://www.songshin.es.kr/

Some basic information about Pyeongtaek - 

Area size - 453km2

Population approx - 412, 757

The contract includes the standard return airfare, severance pay, 50/50 medical insurance and accommodation. I also get 300,000 won to get myself settled in. The accommodation is not yet picked for me, so I am a bit nervous about what it will be like :s

Like I said, the co-teacher sounded really nice, he has already pre warned me that the kids speak basically no English so at lease I know in advance. The start date on the contract is September 1st, which is actually a Saturday, so I don't know yet when i will be flying out. I suppose it is all still dependent on the visa and documents.

Document update

I have received an email from the AFP, saying that my CRC is complete and that they are posting it out with the next available Australia Post service. So I am assuming that I will get it sometime Monday or Tuesday. Prob Tuesday. So, as soon as I have it in my hand I will go make a copy and get both the CRC and my degree copy notarised. There is a guy in Box Hill who can do it after hours so i can go that night if I need to. And then the very next day I can drop the documents down to get the Apostille, and then thats pretty much it! I have my reference letters, and my passport sized photos. I need to make colour copies of my passport info page, but as soon as I get some more ink for the printer at home I can get that done too. So, if all goes to plan, all my documents will be ready by the end of the week, and be en route to Korea!

Recruiters

I feel that I should put a special area in about this. The recruiters have been a big part of my job selection. A word to anyone thinking about embarking on this same journey - choose your recruiter wisely! There are so many out there... In the end I ditched a heap who were either not legit enough for me, or who were not really helping me find suitable jobs. The position I have taken was found for me by Jean from Korvia recruiting. They are are big recruitment company, and only find positions for the GEPIK schools (GEPIK - Gyeonggi English Program in Korea) which are all public. They are well reviewed on the internet, and heaps of people I have spoken with or read posts from online have used Korvia.

GEPIK - http://gepik-tek.weebly.com/index.html
Have a look at this site - tells more about GEPIK and the education system in South Korea :)

This is not to say that others are bad. I just got a good vibe from Jean, she was really honest with me the whole time. And she is handling all my documents and getting all my visa stuff sorted. I guess she is speaking with the school, means I don't have to do it. It will be interesting to see if there is any follow up communication from her once I get to Korea. 

As I mentioned earlier, Teach ESL Korea have been super fantastic too. Although I have not accepted one of their positions, I am still on their FB page, and Dan has still extended the hand of friendship for any help I might need. He was pretty devo that I didn't take the position he offered, but I emailed him some of my reasons and I hope he is cool about it. It totally get that they worked to find me a good spot, and I do feel bad. But like I said, this place called to me for some unknown reason.

In a nutshell...

I have no idea why I actually went with this school. It just felt right. I don't really trust my gut instincts, I am usually way off, so i anticipate me finding that I should have chosen otherwise. But for now I feel good about the decision. 

I am pretty nervous, I am worried that I won't make friends, or that i will be bad at teaching. These feelings are normal I guess. 

Pyeongtaek appears to be one of the most boring places in Korea. There isn't anything there that would draw tourists. But I am not a tourist, I am there to work so hopefully it won't matter. I have joined the FB group for the area so with a bit of luck I can do some networking before I get there. And, at least if the North attack, I am near a US Airbase so I should be able to escape pretty quickly :) Better make friends with some army blokes haha. Don't worry mum, just friends.

This is all I can really think of at the moment, I guess the blog is gonna change gears a bit now, from the decision now to the prep. Its not real until I get on the plane, but it is a step closer... Once I know when I fly out I can plan everything a bit better. 

NB - 

South Korea have decided to not go a' whaling! I was so excited to hear this, they must have read my blog haha

xox