Preparing to Teach English in South Korea, Part 1

Some of you might feel interested in what I've learned and had to do over the course of the last little while in preparation for this endeavor half-way around the world.

The first step was to decide that I wanted to teach English overseas. This decision was motivated by my desire to gain valuable experience at teaching so I could apply to B.Ed. programs in the future, while, at the same time earning enough money to save towards school, while continuing to pay off my student loans. At some point, being the best-educated McDonald's worker in the restaurant just has to really grate on a person!

The next step was to start searching. I sent a couple of inquiries off, along with my resume, to a few recruiting companies, and Footprints Recruiting expressed interest first. I stayed with them. Since saving money was important to me, Footprints recommended South Korea over Japan, due to the increases in the high cost of living in the latter country. Footprints managed to coordinate an interview with the English-language director of LTRC, an older, not-for-profit school located downtown Seoul, near the British Embassy. I stuttered during the telephone interview with the director, but landed one of the positions anyway.

In a later blog, I'll talk about why I was pleased to be hired at LTRC. Another post will detail the legalities of teaching English in South Korea. At some point, I hope to feature a few of the resources I've managed to find that will help to prepare the future English teacher for what awaits him (or her). While I won't publish every day, I think you can count on seeing something here a couple times a week, at least. See you later!

Acknowledgements

In the run-up to my trip to Seoul, both family and friends have made me feel quite special. My parents bought me a new laptop to work (and play) on. For those of you who don't know, I was running Windows 95 on my old one, which should tell you something about how much an upgrade was needed! My dad's boss, Bob Ross, was instrumental in setting up the computer, and in transferring my old data to it. My good friend and former English teacher, Rob Harding, took me out for a meal at the Keg, and gave me a beautiful diary (don't worry, Rob, I'll still be using the diary). My friend Marcos, whom I've known since childhood, treated me to a meal at a local pub, and to a very good bottle of wine afterwards. On the other side of the Pacific, in Seoul already, my good friend from my Toronto days, Ian Chung, has already gone above the call of friendship in assisting me. It will be good to see you again, Ian! Meanwhile, my brother, Jeremy and his wife, Sylvia, my sister, Rachel, and my other friends, including Brian Mullins, "Thomas & Insoon," Hyoungjoon, my cousin Jen & hubby Lyle Hall, Joel Atallah, Gary Graber, Geoff & Christine Smith, as well as family friends Rubin and Bette Fuhrmann, Bette and Gary Robson, Janette McLennan, and last, but most certainly not least, my wonderful girlfriend, Alexandra Zoller, have all supported me and cared for me in many ways.

Thanks are also due to my boss-to-be, Mr. David Fullarton of LTRC, Kyle McKown, also of LTRC, and to Ben Glickman and Kara Stirling, both of Footprints Recruiting. My old bosses at McD's shouldn't be forgotten, as they were all very nice when the chips were down: Willie Quan, my owner, Dil, Doreen, and Peter. UPDATE (Aug. 9th): Congratulations, Peter, on your newborn!

I suppose I shouldn't forget my aging cat, Tinkerbell. Take it easy, munchkin!

Welcome to my blog from Seoul!

This is the inaugeral posting of my "blog from Seoul." (In fact, my flight doesn't leave until mid-August.) I'm both excited and nervous at the prospect of living for a year in a totally different country, gaining experience at teaching English!

I hope you'll feel welcome to this blog, whoever you are, whether family member or friend, or seeker of information on the overseas job field. Hosted on Blogspot, this electronic means of communication gives me a chance to play at blogging again, and to practice my bit of HTML by making customizations, from time to time, of the blog template's code. I was going to link to my old blog on election year politics in the US, but perhaps it's better to keep politics separate from this endeavor.