1. You're moving to Korea? North or South?- South, of course! I'll be safe, I promise. Though I might visit the DMZ (the border).
2. Where in Korea?- You don't know in the beginning, you have to wait to be placed. Luckily, I got placed in the city I asked for, Daegu! You can read all about it in my blog post here.
3. When do you leave?- The EPIK semester starts the first of March, orientation starts the middle to end of February. Fortunately I've been getting to know some people that are going to be with EPIK through Facebook and we have all decided to arrive a few days early to get to know one another, get over jet lag and have fun! I'm leaving on February 14th and arriving on February 15th. We are all waiting to meet up at the airport and taking the shuttle into the city to stay at the hostel. We will all be staying at the Kimchee Guesthouse in DongDaeMun (www.kimcheeguesthouse.com). The pictures look so fun, they have luggage storage, lockers, linens, internet and a rooftop cafe. There are several of us checking in the day I get there, several the next, and a LOT the next day. At the end of it all, I think there will be nearly 25-30 of us! We are taking Seoul by storm!
4. So you are staying in Seoul until you start teaching?- That's what I thought at first, however we found out that there will be two orientation sites and we will be split up in two teams. Team 1 will be going to Jeonju and Team 2 (my team) will be going to Daejeon. We will be at our orientation site for 8 days taking classes and doing survival Korean. After that, we are all split up and we go to our separate cities where our "handler" picks us up, takes us to our schools and our apartments.
5. What age will you be teaching?- We don't find this out until we get to orientation. Or at least we aren't supposed to find out. However, I was lucky enough to find out that I will be teaching high school students. Other people don't know if they will be teaching elementary, middle or high school students. You can read more about how I found out my students here.
6. Do you speak Korean?- Nope. I've started to try to learn the alphabet, but I haven't gotten much farther than that. We have Survival Korean during our orientation, then once I get there and get settled in, I'll start learning more Korean. I've heard that they offer Korean classes at the YMCA in Daegu, so I might start there.
7. How are you going to talk to the kids if you don't know Korean?- We have Korean co-teachers in the class with us that help with translating things that I don't understand or am having a hard time teaching, but for the most part, I'll be lucky to have most students that can understand pretty well.
8. Do they pay you?- Yes. I get paid a monthly salary, and they also pay for our apartment and flight there and back, as well as half of our health insurance.
9. Are you nervous?- Not really. I've been looking forward to this for years, so I feel pretty prepared.
10. Why Korea?- I originally wanted to move to Europe to teach, however I spoke with some people that lived there and taught and they said it was very hard to make ends meet with only teaching, which forced them to get a second job. I would really like to only have to juggle one job, and Korea offers such great benefits. Not only that, but they have a very interesting culture and the EPIK program has a great reputation.
11. How long are you staying there?- This is tough. My contract is for one year, however you can renew after the first year. I find it hard to believe that I won't be having the time of my life once I get there, so I'd say probably several years.
12. What will your living situation be like?- I'll be living my myself in a studio-style apartment, but that's really all I'm supposed to know. However, I was lucky again and found out that I'll be living in an apartment that is a 7 minute walk from my school, it will be a little small, but it will be by myself! Again, you can find some more information about my apartment here.
13. Will you be able to come home to visit?- Yes. And no. Yes, I have time off, which I can spend coming home to visit friends and family, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, so I will probably spend my vacation time visiting other Asian countries- Japan and Thailand are the top on my list.
I'm sure there are a few others that have been asked, but these are the most prevalent. if you have any other questions type them in the comments.
haha! I found your blog during an image search. Your Wonka meme is perfect! I wrote a whole post about being asked that question. I hope your year goes really well!
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