Check, Check and Check

I have lots of good news this week.

1. I've been notified that I'm going to my city of choice in Korea to teach!

2. I finished my final project and turned it in.

3. I finished my practicum hours and turned the packet in.

This week is officially the week where things end. My time as ANWA newsletter editor is pretty much ending this week. Not really good news, since I enjoyed it (despite the occasional stress situation...), but I'm looking forward to focusing on other things in its place.

So, what am I looking forward to now? Let's see...

- Receive TEFL certificate.
- Receive documents.
- Apply for E-2 visa.
- Buy plane ticket.
- Pre-orientation.
- Fly to Korea.
- Orientation.
- Move into apartment.
- Teach.

It's all moving so much faster now. I'm so excited, but nervous at the same time. Still raising and saving up money, but I'm getting there. Some stuff was more expensive than I thought it would be (like the IRS form for tax exemption, which I will write about later) and some things were a lot easier than I thought.

Thank you for reading. 'Til next time.

Week Two: TEFL Course

I'm probably not going to do this for every week of my TEFL course, since you guys have better things to do than read about every detail of my life, but here's an update on week two!

Is it strange that I'm actually enjoying my "homework" so far? I began writing my entry for peer participation last week, thinking that my entry would be a lot shorter than what resulted. I found that I had more to say than expected, and even had to tell myself to stop because it was getting too long.

As for this blog post, I'm going to just keep it nice and short. I have lots of things to do in the next few weeks, so my updates might be a little brief for a while.

So, until some giant milestone happens... take care!

EPIK Applicants Kill Trees

I think half my brain is already in Korea. This has to explain my tendency to begin a thought and then have it peter out before I even figure out... yeah.

I think that I have just been distracted while focusing on getting things DONE. I've had editing to do, my EPIK application to send, gathering proper paperwork and more. Meanwhile, I'm anxiously awaiting the start of my TEFL course (starting next week!) and then this picture shows up on EPIK's Twitter and Facebook:

See full tweet here.

Do you know what that stack is? THAT is a stack of already processed applications sent in directly to EPIK. Yowza! I know that each application consists of at least 10 pages -- hopefully more, because they ask for quite a few things to be included -- but that is a mighty tall stack. And how many of those applicants have more experience than me, a higher GPA, or know how to charm an interviewer better than me?

I have been told that I am a decent applicant, but I still feel nervous. Another part of me, the part I really should not be listening to, secretly hopes that half the applicants are super picky about their placement and don't want to go where I put as my preference. But, let's face it, the city I want to go to is pretty awesome. The more and more I learn about it, the more I want to at least take a trip there if not live there for a year.

I'll talk about my preferred placement in more detail later -- maybe when I find out where I'm actually being placed. I feel like I shouldn't talk about it here just yet, just in case I jinx myself or something.

If anyone has questions or comments, please leave them. I will do my best to answer.

Toodles!

Why Teach?

Children are entertaining. They just are. They say things, do things, and even though those things occasionally mean you're cleaning up a disastrous mess or calling the doctor to schedule the removal of a foreign object from said child's ear, the entertaining or warm n' fuzzy moments pretty much make up for it.

But, mostly, it's the entertaining moments.

I might be saying this simply because I don't have kids of my own, but it's the fun moments that make it worth it for me. At least, that's what makes being around kids in a school environment worth it to me.

I was helping out at health fair this year (where they weigh you, see how tall you are, check your eyes and ears). I've helped out a number of years with the hearing part of the health fair, and it's always fun to test the really young ones who are doing it for the first or second time.

Most of them raise their hand so fast, they raise off their seats from the momentum. Others hesitantly lift their hand to touch the headphones for the first few frequencies, their hand getting higher as they go along. Each student seems to have their own unique reaction to hearing the strange warbling, alien bird sound in their ears. One kid even turned around and told me that I needed to turn it up because he couldn't hear it very well.

Well, I'll get right on that.

The point of me posting this is that I realized that I haven't really talked about the student side of teaching abroad. I've been keeping you guys posted about the application process, South Korea info and such, but I haven't told you about why I specifically decided that I wanted to work with children for a living.

This is why.

Kids are fun. Kids are great. When they get something, and they are enthusiastic about it, it's even better. I was kind of tired after a full day of health fair screenings, but I wasn't exhausted and I didn't feel like my day had been wasted. Today, I woke up at 9 since I didn't need to be up as early and felt like my day was half gone.

A while ago, I watched a video about motivation. My dad showed it to me, and now I'm going to share it with you on this blog:

The video is kind of long, so I'm just going to pin-point the one thing that is significant to me at this point in my life. I have some great jobs right now from some great companies, but it took quite a bit of work to find them among the crowd of "make $200 every day" and "Easy, Great Pay" jobs that weren't actually all that great.

There are more and more jobs out there that are asking freelance writers to write more for less. What they want is quantity over quality, and in the end you, the writer, hardly get paid and actually feel a little... icky.

Then, there are the jobs that offer decent pay, but are so monotonous that banging your head on the keyboard would be more interesting and meaningful. I had quite a few of those jobs in the past, and while people were telling me how great it must be to be able to work wherever and whenever I want, I was getting headaches.

There was no satisfaction of a job well done, no feeling like I'd made a positive impact on the world and half the time I felt like my work was being deconstructed in front of me to be worked on a hundred times more.

So, I put my foot down. I decided that I wasn't going to do those jobs anymore, even if it meant more time in between jobs. This decision has done wonders for my mental state. I feel less anxious, even though I'm making less money, and I actually look forward to the work.

Which is why I decided to finally work towards teaching ESL abroad. For me, the meaning behind the work outweighs the possible disasters. I get to spend time with students who are bound to surprise me and amuse me, and I get to learn more about a different culture. To top it all off, I get paid and I get housing.

Sounds good to me.

If you have any questions, comments (maybe you want to help me out a little...) feel free to leave 'em where I can seem 'em. I'll do my best to respond. 읽어 주셔서 감사합니다!

Korvia Interview

First, I got my passport today. Yes! Only took about 2 weeks!

Second, after lots of thought and endless amounts of videos/posts/blogs, I decided to go with Korvia Consulting to help me find a job in South Korea as a teacher. I sent in my online application at the start of this week, and they contacted me soon after. I was surprised by the email, because they took the time to calculate my time zone for an interview time. They are in Korea, I'm in Arizona -- big time difference. They were an hour off, but the fact that they did that extra step made me feel pretty good about my decision.

For those who do not know what Korvia is, it is a consulting agency who works with some of the more common teaching programs in South Korea. They work with public schools, and they make sure that you get all of your paperwork in correctly. They also provide support, like helping you transition into a new culture, connect with other teachers who applied through Korvia and offer a free phone until you can get your own.

The interview I had with them Thursday night was my first of hopefully about two that I need to go through to hired. Korvia becomes a third recommendation when you apply through them. You need two recommendation letters from an academic or work related individual, but Korvia looks at your resume, asks you some questions and then sends off their impression of you and a recommendation to your potential employers.

I didn't really know what to expect from the interview before it happened but here's what did happen: We talked for about an hour, there was a lot of laughing, and we went off topic a LOT. So, hopefully that is a good thing. The agent I spoke to was very nice. She seemed impressed by a lot of my answers to her questions, but I'm not completely sure. She reassured me that she saw no reason why I shouldn't find be hired. I told her I was pretty flexible, adapted well and I was genuinely interested in learning a new culture. I also seem to have given the right answers to the questions concerning teaching children. Hopefully...

The Korvia agent talked about how competitive the job market was, especially for EPIK (the program I'm applying to). She saw no reason why I shouldn't be hired, but she did say that it was first come, first serve. She also suggested a few things, which I will be considering to improve my chances.
 

I marked on the questionnaire she sent me that I didn't have any Korean skills, because I really don't. I see being able to form a sentence as basic, which I can't do. What I do know are a few words here and there, and I know about half of the Korean writing system (Hangul) without having to stare blankly at it for a few minutes. Still learning how to read it faster, which is a good thing to learn so I don't look like a crazy foreigner, staring intensely at a sign and sounding out the letters like a 4-year-old.

When it came to that part of the interview, the Korvia agent told me that she was really surprised by pronunciation of a province I had mentioned earlier when asked about locations I might prefer. I realized later that I had no idea whether or not that was actually the correct pronunciation, since I'd never looked up the name in Hangul. I suppose I've become more familiar with it than I initially realized, and I might just be able to indicate that I have some Korean language skills on the application form.

What Korean words do I know? Well, I know a basic greeting, how to say thank you, sorry, ask for water. I know how to say tree and can name some fruits... So, if I ever need to apologize to a tree, I'm all set.

Now that I have done the interview with Korvia, I need to prepare my application to send in later this month.

Things I need to finish:

 - Application
 - Lesson plan (part of application)
 - Personal essay (also part of app)
 - Receive recommendation letters (expecting one very soon, yay!)


There is more to do, but much of it will be done later and would stress me out if I thought about it now. I'm also starting my TEFL course at the end of this month, and planning to volunteer to help tutor ESL students soon as part of my practicum experience. I think I have one location where I can do this, so things seem to be going well.

Fingers crossed!

Intrigued with a dash of Grammar Nazi

There are 2 things in this world, which I find I know a lot more about than I initially thought. Those are: technology and grammar.

When you grow up around technology, are older than the Internet (It's true) and take a hand-full of classes that require you to use computers on a regular basis, it sort of creeps up on you. You know how to navigate computers and the Internet fairly well, and when it comes to the continuing growth of technology you tend to pick up on the new basics faster.

But, this post is not about technology. It is about grammar.

I am not an expert on grammar. I know that there are many things that I still do not have memorized. Half the time, I can't even remember the proper names. The more and more I read things online, however, the more I am aware that my level of grammar skills are actually quite good. And, unfortunately, there are a number of English teachers abroad who have grammatical errors up to their ears, and you wonder what they are teaching those foreign kiddies.

They probably have great luck when it comes to conversation English, most definitely. When it comes to writing... not so much. I have seen apostrophes where they ought not be and misused words, my grammar-aware friends. I have even seen an English teacher write a sentence that went along the lines of: "I was talking to this girl, who's English is quite well."

Now, I'm not a Grammar Nazi. I don't have the qualifications to be one. However, if I see a sentence like this I'm going to think, "This is very, very off." Then, I'm going to write about it in my blog. :)

First of all -- the apostrophe. From what I've seen of their posts, they seem to be under the impression that apostrophes must be used as much as possible. This is incorrect. Use them rarely.

Second of all -- "English is quite well." It sounds awkward, like you're saying that a guy named English is doing well, thanks for asking.

In the end, it should have been something more like this: "I was talking to this girl, whose English is quite good."

I'm not trying to be mean. I didn't furiously begin typing up this blog post, trying to convey my anger and annoyance to the world. I just want to point out something I've noticed over the last month or so while browsing the Internet for information on South Korean English teaching. I get punctuation wrong all the time. ALL THE TIME. I'm just not the worst offender out there... thank goodness.

Let's hope that this means I have an even better chance at a job.

Funding, background checks and paperwork -- oh my!

Image courtesy of 

Gualberto107 /FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I feel like my head is ready to burst at the moment and the first thing that came to my head was, "Hey, I should write!" The second was that I should go play this zombie trailer park game I like for when I need a break (I have that open in another tab).

I have been collecting information for my teaching abroad adventure. I have watched soooo many videos and read so many blog posts in the last couple days. Kimchi Teaching has been really helpful, and the information I gleaned from a number of random videos have made me feel a little less stressed about getting all my ducks in a row.




What I have done so far:

- Recommendation letter requests
- Ordered official transcript (I'm gonna need at least 2, apparently...)
- Started my gofundme page
- Gotten 1/2 my needed vaccination doses

Right now, it's a bit of a waiting game. I have 2 promised recommendation letters, which I will be receiving as soon as they are written. I've met some wonderful people, both academically and professionally, who are fully willing to help me with my next big adventure (Yay!).

Which brings me to another topic -- I was wavering with my decision to teach abroad for a while before I decided to do it. I've been considering the possibility for over a year now, but if I'd actually made this decision back then I wouldn't have had one of the recommendations I have now. I'm grateful for what hesitations can bring me and also grateful that I finally made the decision.

Now, these are the things I want to do and might have done within a few weeks or so:

- Get my passport renewed
- Send out background check request (need, need, need, to get the FBI seal and the signature of a division official on that)
- Notarize copy of diploma (need to get that apostilled, but I'm probably going to wait a bit)
- Decide whether I'm going through an agency or not


I occasionally go into panic mode, thinking about all the things that I need to get done. I have to remind myself that worrying won't make the process go any faster. I have to just start from the beginning and work my way down the line. There's no use worrying about or thinking too much about things I can't even do right now.

*sigh*

In the meantime, I'm spending my time collecting paperwork and information. I'm also working (You know, 'cause I kind of need the money. At least I'm doing some interesting work right now.) and developing new products for my Etsy shop.

I'll keep you posted on any mishaps and/or great successes in the next week or so.

Go Fund Me.... please?

Guess what everyone? I started a GoFundMe page to raise money for my crazy dream! I'm going to make a short video to add to it soon, but for now I have some written details on the page, which you can visit here.

I need all the help I can get. Part of the reason I'm doing this -- other than the personal self fulfillment, getting to teach little munchkins and experiencing/sharing a culture -- is that I have no money. I'm hardly making enough money to pay my loans at the moment, and I really want to do more with my life (and paycheck) than pay off loans.

I also have a widget to the side of this blog that will be there even when this post has been pushed out by a new one. Just click on the gofundme widget and you can donate through there. I would like to ask that, instead of gifts for Christmas this year (far way off, I know) from family and friends, a donation through GoFundMe is all I'm asking for. Any amount you can give would be fantastic. Also, you can check out my Etsy Page, where I'm selling polymer clay figurines. Thank You!

I'm Going On An Adventure!

Bilbo and I have a few things in common. We're both short in stature, we both enjoy food and we've both been content to just sit in our comfortable homes until someone or something came along to remind us that we're adventurers at heart. I've dreamed of traveling, but most of my trips have been short and far between. A while back, however, I decided that I was going to do something a bit crazy -- go to South Korea and teach English for a year.

Yes, a year.

I may not be facing goblins, orcs, giant spiders (let's REALLY hope there won't be any giant spiders) or dragons, but I will be facing culture shock, a language I can barely understand and children who speak said language I can't understand.   And, let's not forget co-workers who I may or may not understand either.

There are a number of reasons why I decided to do this. First, I want to see more of the world and its cultures. Travel Channel can only show me so much. Second, I want to share my own culture with others. In order to better understand another language, understanding its culture is required, after all. Third, South Korea is intriguing. I'm not just talking about Kdramas and Kpop, here. There are symbols, customs and foods I'm itching to experience.  

I could probably keep listing reasons, but this post would get exceptionally long...

So, what have I done so far?

• Researched agencies
• Researched TEFL courses
• Registered for a TEFL course 
• Started to get up-to-date on vaccinations (Can I just say -- Ow!)
• Started passport renewal process

The TEFL course is through International TEFL Academy (ITA) and takes 3 months to finish. They have job guidance and the admissions advisor has been pretty helpful in answering my questions. She even helped set up an installment payment plan so that I could register now and simply pay in 3 installments.

I'll be starting my course in about 2 months. It's an exciting and nerve-wrecking experience. Meanwhile, I have a few things to attend to, like funding and getting paperwork together. Anyone who is willing to help me out, I'm coming up with some fundraising ideas right now.

I'll keep you posted.