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Teach ESL in Korea
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Going Alone
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Going Alone
- Traveling to Korea may require
some bravery and courage on your part.
To quote M. Scott Peck, M.D., the author
of the classic, “The Road Less Traveled”, 1978,
“courage is not the absence of fear; it is the making
of action in spite of fear, the moving out against the
resistance engendered by fear into the unknown and
into the future.” The act of going alone to Korea for
a year to teach ESL is perhaps such an act of change
in one’s life, that it requires courage. This will
depend on you, the individual and perhaps previous life experience.
- For me personally I felt very strange when I
first arrived in Korea.
The Korean language was seen everywhere on shops, signs
and heard being spoken, as well as me being a visible
minority, gave me a feeling of insecurity. However, the
feeling soon passed. You may find yourself settling in perhaps
faster than you expected, getting used to and
adapting to your new environment.
- Going alone will help you be more prone to
making new friends
as opposed to keeping close
only to friends accompanying you.
If already accompanied, you may tend
to stick together only with people
already well known to you, which can
often inhibit meeting others.
- Others have done the trip alone
and found it easier than I have. This will
depend on you. Not more then a year after I
arrived in Korea, it felt like a second home
to me and does so more everyday.
Elaborate Information and Personal Story
Going as a Couple
Going to Korea as a couple
can certainly have advantages. For one thing,
fear of the unknown can be greatly comforted and
reduced by your other half. You can share the
new experience together, walking hand in hand
into the great unknown. Some schools even prefer
to hire couples. The school will usually provide a somewhat
larger apartment and together you can save a great
deal of money. I have met several ESL teaching
couples in Korea who can rely on each other,
make friends and learn to live in Korea together.
Middle Aged ESL Teachers
- Even the well to do middle aged
are heading to Korea, for a change,
something new, or to find a new venture in life.
Many
go alone
and some
go as a Couple. Many
get tired of the old routine or career they may have
done for more than 20 years. They need a change.
-
For most middle aged people at this point
in life, it is hard to let go of the old routine
and of what has become apart of their lives and
venture into a new kind of life. It is difficult to leave
a 20+ year career, young adult chidren, and a home one has
put much of their lives into.
-
I have met several ESL teachers in Korea in their
mid to late 50’s who have informed me of having a fine
time in Korea. The middle aged ESL teachers I have met in
Korea have mostly exclaimed a new sense
of freedom and a more simple life. There is freedom from certain bills
such as house maintenance, land taxes, mortgages and even
from rent. There will most likely be no car bills in Korea as well, since
public transportation
is excellent in Korea and
driving can often seem a bit stressful.
Also, teaching ESL is relatively less hectic and demanding work compared with many other types of work. There is a lot of free time for you as well, depending on your school schedule and
employment types.
-
Korea has an excellent modern health care system, relatively
cheap, many English speaking doctors and dentists.
Health insurance
is fairly cheap in Korea as well.
-
Please do not be discouraged about your age and seek
to the skies. Choosing to live in Korea for either
a new venture, travel, save for retirement, a new house,
or for whatever reasons, will only broaden and enrich your
life experience. For some entering the ESL world in Korea
the opportunities extend to owing businesses,
acting in films, publishing memoirs,
Korean Marriage and more.
“The skies the limit for the foreign ESL teacher”, as
one Nigerian business man I met in Seoul sad to me.
I believe him.
Elaborate Information
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