Starting in Autumn

After completing 11 months of work at Do Your Best Academy in Seoul, it was fall of 2012 and I was planning to return home upon completion of the final month of my twelve-month contract.  Then, one evening on my 15-minute dinner break at work, my supervisor called.  He said that a kindergarten teacher at a sister institute of ours had disappeared overnight and they needed someone new, fast.  Would I be interested?  Sure, I guess I’d be interested in learning more about the position.  

The next day at 10am, I went in to the kindergarten for an interview.  The CEO told me how great of a workplace it was, boasted about the building design, and continued to raise the monthly rate until I agreed to sign a 6-month contract.  (Money was not my primary motivation, but with student loans sitting on my shoulders, it admittedly did help.)  And so I started, the very next morning, as a homeroom teacher at Lanpus English kindergarten.  

After spending fall and winter teaching kindergarten, I dedicated spring to studying Korean at a language institute.  Late in May of 2013, I went home, reunited with family and friends, baked bread, and tossed coats onto conveyer belts.  It was Valentine’s Day, 2014, when I returned to Korea to teach English in a rural public school.   

Nine months in to my twelve-month contract, I was enjoying working at Yanggu Girls High School and planning to stay a second year, when I learned that my position would be eliminated due to nationwide budget cuts.  I could stay in the province, but I’d have to transfer schools. 

Having had a good experience in the little town I lived in, surrounded by mountains and decorated with neon street lights, I put in a request to transfer to the only position available in that town at that time, at a prestigious boarding-type high school that admits only the top-ranked students from around the province.  

And so I signed on for another year and transferred to Gangwon Foreign Language High School.  It was a challenging but rewarding experience.  I got to know the students on a more personal level, seeing some classes for as many as four hours per week.  I loved teaching a course based on a novel and enjoyed exploring literary concepts with the students.  I signed up to stay on.  

  With students at Gangwon Foreign Language High School  

I was just about six months through the next year-long contract when I got a phone call.  The head coordinator, who worked at a desk at the Gangwon Provincial Office of Education (POE), had decided at the last minute not to renew his contract.  He needed to find a successor, fast.  Would I be interested?  Sure, I guess I’d be interested in learning more about the position. 

Two days later, I answered my phone and listened to a voice tell me that I’d been selected for the part and an official announcement had already been sent out, meaning there was no turning back.  I was to start training the day after tomorrow. 

 The Gangwon Provincial Office of Education 

I spent tomorrow making phone calls to co-teachers and saying goodbyes to my students.  Most accepted the news in a disappointed, yet overall fairly matter-of-fact manner.  A few seemed confused and asked why their teacher must go so suddenly.  One boy fell to his knees, shouting, “Ahn-dwae!” meaning “no” in Korean.  Another complained that her previous English teacher, the current head coordinator, had been whisked away from teaching her in middle school three years prior, and whined that now the Office of Education was taking another teacher out of her classroom.  The next day, I began training for the new role. 

 My desk in the International Education department 

Now, I am nine months in to my fourth twelve-month contract in Korea (the third with this employer).  Four months have passed since I began working as head coordinator at the POE.  As I review my time in Korea, I realize how flexibility has resulted in transitions and how those transitions have resulted in difficulty and development.

I have not sought out transition while living in Korea, but I have been open to it.  I have not refused offers even if I believed myself incapable of fulfilling their demands.  Instead, I figured I could at least try.

 Esther's visit! 

I tried to teach kindergarten and found that keeping up with kids is tiring, but learned that most of the problems in the grown-up world can be solved by following the advice that adults give to children.

I tried to carry on conversations in Korean and felt the frustration of being misunderstood, but learned that progress takes time and mishaps should not be meditated on.

I tried to teach English in the countryside and realized how hard it is to commute to work by bus, but began to appreciate the increased observations that came with the slow in pace.

I tried to coordinate the 267 foreign English teachers in this province and got angry at the seemingly unfair bureaucracy underlying everything, but learned that there are pieces imperceptible at first glance and all angles should be considered equally.

 Sunrise over the East Sea 

Tomorrow begins 2017 and I do not know what transitions the year may hold, but I have come to see the good in trying.  There will be challenge, but change will come, and learning something new is likely to make it worth it.

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Thanks for reading :)