10 Things to Know Before Teaching English in South Korea

Previously, I shared a post explaining 10 things the EPIK program fails to tell you before you begin teaching in South Korea. Now I am here to share the things EPIK does tell you prior to arriving in Korea, and during orientation, that you should pay close attention to.

When you are overloaded with information {like you are at the 10 day EPIK orientation} it can be overwhelming to decipher what information is relevant to you. You will here some bullshit, but for the most part, I found most of the information to be extremely helpful. The EPIK program does a great job at helping you acclimate to your new life, and these tips remain true even four months into teaching.

1. “It depends”

There has never been a statement so true, and yet so frustrating.You will hear these words on an hourly basis during orientation. It’s understandable that you will want to know every detail about your new life in South Korea, but don’t set yourself up for disappointment. Most likely, you will have no idea about your living situation, your school {or schools}, the grade level you will be teaching, or anything else of importance, until after orientation.

There were multiple people throughout my orientation asking specific questions about rare instances, all of which were answered with, ‘It depends’. It’s not because EPIK doesn’t want to be helpful, but it honestly does depends on individual circumstances. For example, ‘Will my apartment be close to my school?’. Well, it depends. If you have one school, then it may be down the road. If you have five schools, however, it’s impossible to be close to every single one of them. Some people live an hour away from their school, while I can walk to mine within two minutes. It depends. Get used to it. 

2. Be prepared for “Korean Surprises”

Another phrase you will hear a lot at orientation is the famous ‘Korean Surprise’. Since arriving at my school three months ago, I have experienced maybe two normal weeks. That means, I taught all the classes I was designated to teach, on the designated day, at the designated time. But the majority of the time, I arrive on Monday and have absolutely no idea what my schedule will be like. This means I have to over prepare for my week, just in case I’m asked to teach grade 4 on a normal grade 6 day.

Today is a great example as I showed up to school expecting to teach three grade 6 classes, only to find out they were all postponed to next week. Other ‘Korean Surprises’ include random school dinners, badminton tournaments, volleyball tournaments, field trips, etc. of which you will be the last to know. Some of these things you simply cannot prepare for. That being said, teaching in South Korea will undoubtedly help you with adaptability if this is an area in which you struggle.

3. The significance of your relationship with your co-teachers

You relationship with your co-teachers can make or break your experience here in South Korea. You will most likely have more than one, and will be expected to coordinate with them from lesson planning to opening a bank account. They are not necessarily responsible for you outside of school, but if you get lucky like I did, they will become your lifeline.

It can be difficult to co-teach with someone from your own country; clashing teaching styles, a difference in opinion with lesson planning, cooperative classroom management, etc. So you can imagine the level of difficulty it takes to teach alongside someone when English is their second language, and you are a foreigner in their country.

Misunderstandings will occur, and that’s okay. As long as both parities attempt to do their best to communicate, you will reach a solution eventually. I got really lucky with both of my co-teachers. No one is perfect, but for the most part I have strong relationships with both my male and female co-teacher. We respect one another and are able to have a laugh each and every day. This lightens the pressures of molding the young minds in front of us on a regular basis.

Some of my friends were less fortunate and shared multiple horror stories of co-teachers criticizing them in the classroom and harassing them outside of school hours. As with tip number one: it all depends on individual circumstance and chance.

 

4. Stealing materials is accepted {and encouraged} in the ESL community

Past EPIK teachers have paved the way with phenomenal free teaching resources online. Both Waygook and Korshare provide materials for nearly every lesson in every textbook in Korea. All you have to do is login, find your specific textbook and lesson chapter, and voila! More often than not, I download PowerPoints and have to edit them to better suit my students. Even so, this rarely takes me any time and most of my lesson planning takes me an hour or less per lesson.

Most of the creators require you to credit them, so make sure you are doing so! I honestly have no idea what I would do without these two online resources. And the best part, EPIK fully encourages it. You never have to feel ethically wrong, or seemingly lazy. Moral of the story: steal everything.

5. You will bomb a lesson or two

Yes, it will happen to you. EPIK tells us to prepare for this, and that’s exactly what I did. So when one of my activities took an entire 15 minutes to explain, leaving us less than 5 minutes to actually play, I wasn’t extremely hard on myself. Sometimes you may have a brilliant idea, until you implement it inside the classroom and the reality is a mess. There are so many factors involved in what works and what doesn’t — it’s not worth trying to decipher. Just note it down and move on to the next lesson plan. Trust me, your co-teachers will forgive you.

6. The accuracy of your celebrity status within your school

You will be a celebrity within your school — and it will boost your ego. When you first start your new job, you will say ‘안녕하세요’ and bow every five minutes. Everyone will want to speak to you, even if just to say hello. Eventually your celebrity status wears off among your co-workers, but I still have students giving me the royal treatment. I constantly look forward to the excitement on my students faces when they see Rachel Teacher is joining class for the day. I still can’t walk to the bathroom without saying ‘Hello’ in English at least five times to all my kiddies. It is definitely one of the perks of teaching English here in Korea.

7. You speak too fast

This was something I, admittedly, brushed off at orientation. I mean, how hard is it to slow down while speaking? Very hard apparently. Hence why they tell us multiple times to slow down even more so than we feel comfortable. I figured I was speaking at a decent speed, but after having my open class, I received feedback that I should slow down. Ironically, I gave the same feedback in the open classes I observed.

This got me thinking that we must all believe we are speaking at a slow pace, and yet it’s still not slow enough. Every year, EPIK receives feedback from students we teach. And every year the number one complaint they hear is that ESL teachers speak too fast.

8. Your co-teacher will teach incorrect English

This is a tricky one. It is not custom to correct your co-teacher, in fact EPIK will urge you not to. That being said, it can be tough to sit there and bite your tongue when you hear the intonation on the incorrect syllable, the wrong use of a word, etc. Personally, one of my co-teachers encourages me to correct him because he is also still learning. Most of the time however, the rule of thumb is to keep your mouth shut. I know… an English lover’s nightmare. It’s like watching someone use the wrong version of their, there, and they’re. Cringe-worthy.

Just try and remember that your job ultimately, is to help the students gain confidence in speaking English. There are certain things that you might just have to let go. If you absolutely cannot refrain from correcting the mistake, I suggest doing so outside of the classroom. It is extremely disrespectful to undermine your co-teacher in front of students.

9. Koreans go to the doctor for everything

I thought this was an exaggeration when it was brought up at orientation, but I’m here to tell you friends, IT. IS. NOT. When I came down with a common cold, my co-teachers immediately wanted to send me to the clinic to get a prescription. For what doeee? I declined the offer at first, but after the cold {and constant questioning} lagged for longer than a week, I gave in. And it was a visit to the doctor unlike any I’ve experienced before. You can read the full {dramatic} story here.

 

10. Teaching English in South Korea will change your life

You hear testimonials from other EPIK teachers, but it’s hard to appreciate their enthusiasm for this program before you begin teaching. Teaching English in South Korea will indeed change your life. Personally, this experience has already changed me in ways I was not expecting. I am a happier, well-rounded, empathetic, less-judgmental version of myself. I’ve gained even more independence and a contentment that was missing from my life in New York. I cannot wait to see how I feel at the end of this entire process after already seeing results four months in.

Overall, this entire experience comes down to what you make of it. I know people that left within the first month, and others that plan to stay here for at least another year or two. I had no prior experience teaching and yet I live to tell the tale of teaching English here in Korea.

So are you ready for South Korea to change your life? I guess it all depends.