Not that I know results of my EPIK interview, they could very well be bad, but I figured I'd share how the interview went... some of the questions I was asked, etc...
The interview started with verifying how to pronounce my name, my birthday, my GPA, etc. My interviewer told me that, unfortunately, the city I had put as my first choice (Busan) has changed it's requirements and I am not eligible to teach there (they require that all applicants have at least 60 in class hours during their certification, seeing as mine is an online course, I'm not eligible), so he suggested that I look into 2 other metropolitan cities, Daegu and Ulsan. We will see if I decide if I choose to request one of those cities, or if I decide to leave my preference blank.
- He asked me about my background, where I lived, school, my major, etc....
- Where I wanted to be in 5 years.
- How I would deal with the uncertainty of Korean life. If I went to school and they said "FYI you are teaching different classes than you were expecting".-- After I answered, he said that what I said was good. He gave me advice that, when making lesson plans, think about how to adapt them from one level to another, changing the vocabulary or activities, etc.
- How many hours have I completed in my TEFL certification? What date do I expect for it to be finished?-- He told me that the absolute final date to submit was January 20th, however he recommended getting the class finished by the end of December because tutors go on vacation, etc. and can be hard to reach.
- What my weaknesses would be with teaching (other than I'm new to teaching).
- He asked me about the medical part of my application, confirming that my allergies were only seasonal and recommended bringing a large supply of allergy medicine with me if I like one better than others, but also mentioned that, once I get to Korea, I may not have any because the trees are different. He also suggested to bring a large amount of the other prescription medicine as well, as they may not have that brand in Korea. I assured him that it wouldn't be a problem, that I only take either very sparingly and rarely go through one bottle a year.
- We then went over my lesson plan, which he seemed very impressed with. My lesson plan was about sports and activities. One of my activities was having pictures of famous athletes on the board and prompting the class what they did, another activity was having activities written in the hexagons of a soccer ball and having students do charades, and the last included a bingo sheet that had clip art of sports in the squares. His first question started out something like this, "I think that the gender lines in Korea are much stronger than in America, meaning many girls don't like sports. How would you adapt this lesson plan to be less masculine?" First of all, good to know. Second of all, easy... add more activities than sports (gymnastics, watching a favorite TV show, listening to a favorite band, piano, knitting, or reading). And if needed, take the soccer ball out of the mix and just have kids draw the activity. The second piece of advice was a suggestion more so than anything. He said that, though my lesson plan was great, he thinks that I could go above and beyond by doing a little research and using pictures of famous Koreans instead of just a clip art image. I could also do that in my example with my first activity (in which I used Nastia Lukin). I thought this was a great suggestion and hope that it makes my application stand out even more if and when they do recommend me to a city or province. The reasoning, he said, was that sometimes students may or may not be so enthralled with western culture, and that they may not care who Nastia Lukin is, so it would be better to use people that interest them more. Great idea.
- He also asked me about how I thought I could work with a co-teacher. How would I address a co-teacher that was outgoing and fun, but made errors in grammar or pronunciation and the kids were catching on and making the same mistakes? How would I deal with a shy co-teacher that was reluctant to get involved and usually sat at the edge of the classroom?-- After I answered, he said that I answered well, and continued with something along the lines of "Something I think is extremely important and a lot of EPIK teachers often forget to do is getting to know their co-teacher in the first 2-3 days of being in Korea. Get to know them, their interests, and get comfortable with them. Also ask them about their teaching style and philosophy and what they expect your role in the classroom to be (just serve as a fill in or teach full classes, etc). He said to be sure to deal with these arrangements in advance and collaborate.
- The one thing that he did ask me that it was obvious that I didn't give him the exact answer he wanted was something along the lines of "If you had a student or students that were acting up and disrupting the class, being rude, etc, how would you deal with that"... he was definitely looking for "positive reinforcement"... he proceeded to give examples of how I could do so, basically by bribing the kids with goodies... pencils, erasers, etc... he also said to break them up into groups and give them a goal as a group, that way kids around the troublemaker could calm him down by saying "shh, be quiet, focus, I want the prize"...
Overall, I think I did OK. I say OK because there were a few things that I didn't quite hit the nail on the head with, but I don't think I bombed either.
One thing I really liked about this interview was that my interviewer was really laid back it seemed. Before it started, I was expecting an older, Korean man (because that's what I had last time) or at least someone Korean, but this was a young (possibly even younger than I), native English speaker (I'd guess American)... another thing I really liked that he would ask me a question, give me time to answer the question, then after I was finished talking he was follow up, either agreeing with what I had said, repeating some of the highlights, or adding something. Not in a "you were wrong, this is what you should've said" way, but in a summary type of way. I really enjoyed it, it gave me time to take notes on what he said, as well as gave me a chance to unwind and get ready for the next question.
At the end of the interview he said that I would hear back with the results within 2-3 days (ugh). He continued with some other information about the EPIK program, the program begins in mid-February, there is a 9 day orientation, and you begin teaching around the beginning of March. There is a 1.3 million won entrance severance, but that you don't receive that until about a month after you arrive. He also said that I would be responsible for purchasing my airline ticket (which is later reimbursed, but is that the entrance severance or is that on top of that? I'm not quite sure, I'll have to look it up) and you don't get paid until about a month into the program, so they suggest that you have about $1,000 saved up (DONE!).
Then he asked me if I had any questions... I asked a question about changing my age (since my birthday is next week) and if I needed to begin putting any other paperwork together. He said to go ahead and begin gathering all of my documents right away, that some can take their time. He also suggested that I get more than one copy because if I decide that I want to apply to another province after my first year, I'll need all the documents again, which could be difficult to do from Korea.
One thing that I realized at the end of my interview was the amount of time that it took. At the beginning, he said that it would take about 30 minutes, however during the interview our video chat was cut off twice. After the second time we got cut off, he decided to finish the interview with just voice, which I hope was not a negative thing. But what really shocked me was that the interview took 52 minutes! Crazy... but I hope it was not a bad thing and just due to the fact that we kept getting cut off.
Overall, I think I did as well as I could. I hope that I get accepted, and the faster the email comes, the better. I felt that, at the end of the interview, he kind of sounded like "yeah go ahead and get your stuff together" but then again, he kept saying "we will notify you IF you were accepted or NOT in 2-3 days." Again, UGH.
Keep your fingers crossed!
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