Hi there! My name is Sarah and I’m an English teacher in Gwangju, South Korea. If you are interested in South Korea then read Sarah’s story.

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Sarah in Gwangju, South Korea

Hi there! My name is Sarah and I’m an English teacher in Gwangju, South Korea. If you are interested in South Korea then read Sarah’s story.

Our customers say Excellent

4.6 out of 5 based on 9,712 reviews

Introduction

Hi there! My name is Sarah and I’m an English teacher in Gwangju, South Korea.

Why I chose TEFL

In my previous job I worked as an administration manager for a health care company, and I was under a massive amount of stress that was really affecting my mood. I was working long hours each week, with barely any time or energy left over to spend with my husband.

My schedule couldn’t be more different now since we both made a huge life change by moving here to work at an elementary school in February 2018. We may have only been here for around ten weeks but we absolutely love it and are already talking about extending our planned two year stay into five years…

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Where I went and what I did

Our job is a little different to many in South Korea as we don’t work in a public school (a job you typically get through the EPIK program) or an after school academy (hagwon). Our employer, Songwon Elementary, is a private, fee-paying school, so we’re lucky enough to get a lot of benefits and a good amount of free time.

My working day starts at 8am. I enjoy a coffee in my classroom and get ready for the day. First up is my morning class with a group of ten third and fourth graders of mixed ability. I teach them four mornings a week for 50 minutes, and it’s an elective based on teaching English through science. We do a lot of experiments and games as well as teaching vocabulary and quizzes to check their understanding of the material. The textbook we’re using for this semester comes with a teacher’s guide so the lessons are really easy to plan, but I can also add in any extra activities or materials that I think would be of benefit to the kids.

Next is the regular lessons. Our school has six 40 minute lessons a day. Four in the morning and then two in the afternoon. I’ve found in general that Korean students are very well behaved compared to their UK counterparts and most lessons are really enjoyable.

Whenever we’re not teaching, we can sit in our classrooms and relax, do any marking or prep for upcoming lessons. We heard that the previous native teachers used to practice yoga in their classrooms sometimes too!

In addition to teaching, the job role also involves grading English diaries, essays and tests, setting test questions, and taking part in ‘open classes.’ This is where the parents come and watch you teach.

One of my favourite parts of the day is lunch time! We eat in the cafeteria with our students and the other teachers and so far it’s been a fantastic opportunity for us to try a ton of new foods that we would probably have never ordered ourselves. Also, I still feel like a celebrity every time I walk in and a ton of cute little kids shout “Sarah teacher!” with big smiles on their faces.

The scenery here is pretty breathtaking. We’ve been hiking a couple of times by ourselves, but we’ve also joined a hiking group and go out for full days with them around the country one day a month. One of the teachers at our school invited us along and we had the best time with everyone getting some exercise, checking out breathtaking vistas, eating, drinking and making friends. If you come to Korea I would definitely recommend getting out of the densely populated cities every once in a while and exploring the gorgeous countryside whenever you can.

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Reflection and future plans

Although I absolutely love teaching, I have to admit that a huge part about what makes Korea so great is the culture and the expat life in general. It’s an amazing change for us to be able to send over half of our wages home each month to pay off debts and still feel like we’re living an amazing life without worrying about money. We spend a lot of our free time socialising and having fun in a way we simply couldn’t afford to back home.

So far we’ve been with friends to our very first baseball game, spent a long and relaxed afternoon at a jimjillbang (naked Korean spa/sauna), and eaten more BBQ than I care to remember. We’ve also been trying to learn Korean by taking classes on Tuesday nights at the local International Centre. This has been a great chance for us to make connections with other people who arrived in the city at a similar time and helped us feel more rooted within our community.

I had a little experience of teaching before we arrived but it was pretty much completely new to my husband. We’ve both found it very easy to adjust to the new role though as we’re given a lot of support from the Korean teachers in the department.

In terms of meeting people, I actually met some of my best friends here after a brief exchange about baked beans over Instagram (thanks, Laura!) so definitely check in with local hashtags to find other expats in your area if you’re feeling lonely. You never know what wonderful friendships might develop as the result of a quick comment! Other places to meet people are the local expat bar and by searching for ‘cultural exchanges’ online you should be able to meet some Korean friends in your city too.

In terms of future plans, we’re planning to spend a few days in Laos in August, hopefully visiting Hong Kong and Shenzhen in January, and squeezing in a long weekend in Tokyo at some point. There’s so many other places in Korea we still need to visit too, though. Soon we’ll be spending Children’s Day weekend in Busan and we also have two trips up to Seoul for when family members are visiting. It definitely feels non-stop sometimes, but in the best possible way!

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Sarah in Gwangju, South Korea

Hi there! My name is Sarah and I’m an English teacher in Gwangju, South Korea. If you are interested in South Korea then read Sarah’s story.

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