We got our flight itinerary! We are leaving on Wednesday the 17th at 8:00 that evening from the Indianapolis airport. From there, we go to Chicago and then straight to Seoul! From Incheon airport in Seoul we then have to get to the Gimpo airport to fly straight to Gwangju. I'm very happy about this, since our recruiter originally told us we would probably take a bus from Seoul to Gwangju, a 4-hour journey. Now it will only take 50 minutes on a plane. We will then arrive on Friday the 19th at about 11 AM.
We are also currently talking about living arrangements, and it looks like we will have two studio apartments next to each other in a building with the other teachers. My understanding is that if we were adamant about sharing a room, they would have to find us a bigger one in another area. I think being around the other teachers would be much more helpful to get acquainted with the new culture. Though we currently live together and having the living situation change will take some getting used to, I think it will all work out just fine once we adapt.
This is going to be such an experience. I'm getting more excited everyday!
Showing posts with label preparations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label preparations. Show all posts
Monday, January 25, 2010
Sunday, January 10, 2010
1 comments
The Visa
This past Wednesday, Andrew and I drove up to Chicago (a 3-4 hour drive from where we live) in order to interview at the Korean Consulate for our visas. Our journey was uneventful and long, but thankfully we JUST missed a major winter storm that hit that night.
I'm still not exactly sure what the interview is for, since one has already acquired a job, signed a contract, and paid for the visa. I don't know what someone could possibly do to screw up the interview and get denied a visa into Korea.
Anyway, we met some people in the lobby waiting for their interviews. One girl was going to be teaching in the same city with another school. Another girl was Asian and laughed about how difficult it had been for her to get a position teaching English in Korea because she wasn't white. She was also completely baffled about how Andrew and I and another guy in the lobby had gotten jobs without being completely TESOL certified. We told her it was because we graduated with the great old English degree. They were all nice besides the quiet anti-social one sitting next to me, and I hope my coteachers in Korea will be the same.
We are currently waiting on our visas to arrive (with our passports, plz). And we have been told the school wants us to arrive in Korea on the 19th of February. So I finally let my landlord know our last day will be the 17th, and he's only making us pay two weeks rent :)
I'm excitedly counting down the days until I get to quit my job at the bookstore. My last day is the 29th, the same day as our going away party, and I hope that goes well. Andrew and I are slowly going through our books deciding which ones to store for a year and which to sell. Goodbye my beloved books.
I'm getting more and more nervous as the time approaches. I hope this experience will be as amazing as I'm hoping.
I'm still not exactly sure what the interview is for, since one has already acquired a job, signed a contract, and paid for the visa. I don't know what someone could possibly do to screw up the interview and get denied a visa into Korea.
Anyway, we met some people in the lobby waiting for their interviews. One girl was going to be teaching in the same city with another school. Another girl was Asian and laughed about how difficult it had been for her to get a position teaching English in Korea because she wasn't white. She was also completely baffled about how Andrew and I and another guy in the lobby had gotten jobs without being completely TESOL certified. We told her it was because we graduated with the great old English degree. They were all nice besides the quiet anti-social one sitting next to me, and I hope my coteachers in Korea will be the same.
We are currently waiting on our visas to arrive (with our passports, plz). And we have been told the school wants us to arrive in Korea on the 19th of February. So I finally let my landlord know our last day will be the 17th, and he's only making us pay two weeks rent :)
I'm excitedly counting down the days until I get to quit my job at the bookstore. My last day is the 29th, the same day as our going away party, and I hope that goes well. Andrew and I are slowly going through our books deciding which ones to store for a year and which to sell. Goodbye my beloved books.
I'm getting more and more nervous as the time approaches. I hope this experience will be as amazing as I'm hoping.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
0
Visa Application
Yesterday we mailed our documents to the school in Korea in order to get our visas. I'm really hoping we didn't mess anything up, because it's quite expensive to ship documents overseas. Now we just have to wait to receive our visa number and we can continue on our way!
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
0
So how should I begin?
My name is Cayce, and I am on an adventure.
My boyfriend Andrew and I are about to begin teaching English overseas. Because it's such a huge decision, and because what is getting me through the most stressful moments of doubt are two other blogs, I want to be able to share with you our adventures through this process.
"Who are these people?," you are undoubtedly asking yourself right now. Well, we are both recent college graduates from an small Indiana University campus. Andrew graduated in December 2008, and I graduated in May 2009. We both majored in English, (and I minored in International Studies, finding travel as my passion in the summer of my Freshman year), and no one decided to tell us that you can't find a job with that degree during a recession until we were nearing graduation.
So what are two recent graduates going to do with their lives now?
Thanks to a professor of ours who convinced us that teaching English overseas is what we NEEDED to do whether we knew it or not, we enrolled in a TESOL certification course with Oxford Seminars (www.oxfordseminars.com). The certification was only 60 hours, which we found out later doesn't really mean much in the ESL world unless it's 100 or more hours. However, they promised (guaranteed actually, but with ridiculous stipulations) to find us jobs when our certification was complete.
We both found the class useful because before we took it, we had no idea at all what we might have been getting ourselves into. Now, at least, we know how to prepare a lesson plan. So we finished that in August (it was only 3 weekends), and at the beginning of October, we contacted the Teacher Placement Services. Now, we were told we could teach anywhere and that we could teach together; however, that wasn't exactly the way it has worked out. After giving the adviser our three countries of choice, we were told only Taiwan, China, and Korea would be viable options for us if we wanted to stay together.
Within the same day, we were contacted by a school in China and a recruiter for Korean schools. Hesitant because the China school's job offer came so quickly, I did a quick Google search (which has been my saving grace) and found a ton of bad reviews from people who worked with them. Unprofessional, unorganized, far too much work outside of their contracted hours. So I didn't even reply to that e-mail. However, we contacted the Korean recruiter, even more hesitant because we didn't really want that country at all. We knew nothing about Korea, and in America, all Koreans seem to get a very bad rap because of the northern part of the land mass.
But when our recruiter Ms. Moon contacted us for a screening interview, I immediately felt more at ease. Her English was great, she was very nice, and she promised us that she knew what she was doing and felt strongly that she could get us into a good school. She made a point of telling us that she is working for us.
She sent our resumes and cover letters to some schools, and we were quickly contacted by JNS Academies and their schools Avalon and Langcon. Ms. Moon told us it was a great school, the director loves couples, and that it would be a great place for us. After a few complications with scheduling, we interviewed with the HR rep at the school and the interviews went very well.
The next day we scheduled an interview with the director of the school. She was VERY nice and comforting and was very impressed with the fact that I have been with the same company for four years. So she asked us personal questions about religion, bodily decorations, and family. See, they don't know who they are going to get until after the teacher arrives so they ask questions you would never get asked in the States.
Within the past few day we have received our job offers and contracts, and after reading every posting on these two blogs by people teaching with the same school, and I beyond excited to begin this journey now: http://gwangjueverywhere.blogspot.com and http://theseoulsurvivors.blogspot.com
I'm waiting to talk to our recruiter in a couple of hours to discuss some things about the contract, but I plan on sending them off within the next day or two.
Anyway, I've never been a very dedicated blogger. And this post was long and boring, but this process is one I am very interested in and hopefully this will help someone else out in the long run.
I hope to keep you updated as we travel to South Korea!
My boyfriend Andrew and I are about to begin teaching English overseas. Because it's such a huge decision, and because what is getting me through the most stressful moments of doubt are two other blogs, I want to be able to share with you our adventures through this process.
"Who are these people?," you are undoubtedly asking yourself right now. Well, we are both recent college graduates from an small Indiana University campus. Andrew graduated in December 2008, and I graduated in May 2009. We both majored in English, (and I minored in International Studies, finding travel as my passion in the summer of my Freshman year), and no one decided to tell us that you can't find a job with that degree during a recession until we were nearing graduation.
So what are two recent graduates going to do with their lives now?
Thanks to a professor of ours who convinced us that teaching English overseas is what we NEEDED to do whether we knew it or not, we enrolled in a TESOL certification course with Oxford Seminars (www.oxfordseminars.com). The certification was only 60 hours, which we found out later doesn't really mean much in the ESL world unless it's 100 or more hours. However, they promised (guaranteed actually, but with ridiculous stipulations) to find us jobs when our certification was complete.
We both found the class useful because before we took it, we had no idea at all what we might have been getting ourselves into. Now, at least, we know how to prepare a lesson plan. So we finished that in August (it was only 3 weekends), and at the beginning of October, we contacted the Teacher Placement Services. Now, we were told we could teach anywhere and that we could teach together; however, that wasn't exactly the way it has worked out. After giving the adviser our three countries of choice, we were told only Taiwan, China, and Korea would be viable options for us if we wanted to stay together.
Within the same day, we were contacted by a school in China and a recruiter for Korean schools. Hesitant because the China school's job offer came so quickly, I did a quick Google search (which has been my saving grace) and found a ton of bad reviews from people who worked with them. Unprofessional, unorganized, far too much work outside of their contracted hours. So I didn't even reply to that e-mail. However, we contacted the Korean recruiter, even more hesitant because we didn't really want that country at all. We knew nothing about Korea, and in America, all Koreans seem to get a very bad rap because of the northern part of the land mass.
But when our recruiter Ms. Moon contacted us for a screening interview, I immediately felt more at ease. Her English was great, she was very nice, and she promised us that she knew what she was doing and felt strongly that she could get us into a good school. She made a point of telling us that she is working for us.
She sent our resumes and cover letters to some schools, and we were quickly contacted by JNS Academies and their schools Avalon and Langcon. Ms. Moon told us it was a great school, the director loves couples, and that it would be a great place for us. After a few complications with scheduling, we interviewed with the HR rep at the school and the interviews went very well.
The next day we scheduled an interview with the director of the school. She was VERY nice and comforting and was very impressed with the fact that I have been with the same company for four years. So she asked us personal questions about religion, bodily decorations, and family. See, they don't know who they are going to get until after the teacher arrives so they ask questions you would never get asked in the States.
Within the past few day we have received our job offers and contracts, and after reading every posting on these two blogs by people teaching with the same school, and I beyond excited to begin this journey now: http://gwangjueverywhere.blogspot.com and http://theseoulsurvivors.blogspot.com
I'm waiting to talk to our recruiter in a couple of hours to discuss some things about the contract, but I plan on sending them off within the next day or two.
Anyway, I've never been a very dedicated blogger. And this post was long and boring, but this process is one I am very interested in and hopefully this will help someone else out in the long run.
I hope to keep you updated as we travel to South Korea!
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