"An nyoung hae sayo"(which is "hello" in Korean), took me a week to be able to say properly--could have been a mix of the 1st-11hr flight, the 2nd-4hr flight, 3.5hr bus ride, exhaustion from the move, trouble with the visa, hangover from the going-away party, puffy eyes from saying a year's worth of "goodbye" to my nearest and dearest. Could have been any of that. I think it's more so that Korean culture, life, and mostly language is the perfect 180 to American, especially pronunciation.
In this introduction-to-my-blog, I'm not necessarily hoping to self-promote my writing, nor do I think that my words or experience is so special that it sets me apart from the loads of other people out there who are doing this very same thing, and also blogging about it. I merely would like to do mainly these few things:
*Share my experiences and photos with said nearest and dearest, or anyone who needs a little distraction from Facebook and/or work.
*Share my experience and provide helpful advice and useful resources--those who are researching because they are thinking about teaching English in South Korea--so someone may benefit from my trials and tribulations with the process, itself.
*To think out loud (and hopefully start discussions) about the Teaching World.
So, my posts will be varied, but feel free to ask questions or contact me, or simply suggest things, and so on. After all, contrary to popular belief, I hate being the only one talking.
So, on that note, let me introduce myself--I'm Jen. I just moved to Gwangju, South Korea to teach English as a second/foreign language through a program called EPIK. I recently quit teaching full-time at Rasmussen College (for-profit, private), at one of their campuses near Chicago. I was there for about 2.5 years teaching Composition and Intro to Literature mostly--residentially, and online.
A lot of different reasons have fueled my move, mainly debt; hopefully, if you're reading this, you'll stick around and find out about the rest--under the umbrella of personal and professional growth--and maybe you can laugh and cry with me a little.
**I'm having issues with my camera. Mainly, I bought a new computer that doesn't have a card reader, and packed away my usb cord. Kinks such as these will be ironed out in the next 2 weeks. Subsequently, I'll post several photos I've gotten from others until then. After that, there will be many more.
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