The first go round.
The long term goal: South Korea
I met Dongseng (my good friend/little brother) in 2011/12 and he taught me Hangeul and suggested I teach in South Korea. After research and lots of EYK (Eat Your Kimchi) I decide this is what I want. Dongseng introduces shy me to friends. These wonderful friends introduce me to Korean food, culture and language.
2013 I visit friends that I missed, and they teach me SO MUCH MORE
In 2014 I begin working for my Bachelors Degree (and TESOL) At WWU
2015 I study abroad at Korea University (for a TESOL program)
Drop WWU TESOL program (mostly because of a teacher who was costing me a lot of money and causing me a lot of strife) and earn a certificate from Oxford Seminars due to travel & time.
January 2017 graduate with Bachelors in Communications and TESOL certification.
May 2017 acquire job at Ryan's House for Youth- working with homeless youth at a transitional housing program, as well as respite care (and Karaoke DJ) while I save up to move back to Korea.
October- Renew my passport and sign up for an additional TESOL class (Teaching business English ^^ ) November got passport back (3 weeks altogether)
- I'm also taking my dog, therefore in September/October I began getting her
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| Isabella |
paperwork and necessary health qualifications prepared.
Get Isabella prepared to move with me (Paperwork, Micro-chipped, spayed, shots updated, etc...) Isa went EVERYWHERE with me. School, work, she'd even sit in the cart at Wal-mart and greet people.
Checked savings acct mid November- Agreed savings had been reached. (because of all the issues that occurred before the agreed upon amount of $5K was to be in my account before I should go. With everything I had to do pertaining to paperwork and Isabella.
Finished +40 hours of TESOL (for a total of 140hrs) December 6th
Applied to Korvia on 12.18.18- Denied- not exactly told why- Knowing what I know now, it was because I had Isabella.
Applied to Star Teachers- Reach to Teach and Go to Korea- Star teachers said no problem taking my dog, same with Reach to teach. Go to Korea routed me via Epik UK, because I wanted to work in public schools- they have a rule- no pets- PERIOD. Isa HAD to come with me. Epik said no pets. Goodbye Epik.
Was suggested a place I thought would be perfect. Told it was close to Seoul. I asked a friend how far away am I? 2 hours.
2 hours..... 2 hours is NOT CLOSE!!! I was sad over this one. The area looked interesting, the school looked great. The commute to those I want to be close to did NOT. Yes, I need to be that close. I read reviews. Some were... scary, and I refused I'm pretty sure I'm being a pain. I was told to be picky- I just want something that's not horrible. I worked on paperwork. Something most people describe as stressful, but I was patiently waiting, figuring out what each step was, how much need to be done, so I don't miss anything. I've done as much as I can in the mean time. Somethings I didn't know I would need, other things to somethings to learn.
I ordered extra copies of my transcript, and then my letters of rec- need new ones, someone kept mine. I need copies of my diploma- those are ordered. My FBI background check- I got my fingerprints done at the Sherff's in town I sent it off to an FBI channeler and am waiting for everything to come back. It's December 30th, 2019.
The recruiters that I am talking with and I are discussing beginning of March
I talked with a good (Korean) friend who offered to help me look at reviews for Hakwons & find something close by friends (Lucy you're the BEST).
(Jan/2) I got my FBI report & Diplomas in the mail this afternoon.
I found a great blog that talked about looking for Hakwons, and basically I was doing everything right: https://www.hanacore.com/choosing-a-hagwon-job-in-korea/
I talked to one of the recruiters who wanted me to just ignore the reviews I found online and settle. I politely explained that I didn't want to go through all that work and be put at a place where I'd be burned out in after 2 months and being close to my friends is important. He was annoyed and, but seemed to understand.
Reach to teach sent me the school in Dongtan ... again.
I found some very good advice regarding interactions with my recruiter- just after I let one go for obviously not having my best interest.
Reach to teach sent me the Poly school in Gang-Dong... again... This time I said I'd consider it due to his recommendation, but further research left me very happy in my prior decision to decline. I now had an interview where we would see how that played out.
While awaiting my interview I did some further research that consisted of the current Korean job market and was sent some basic rules for interviewing
Poly Gang-dong I was told the hours were from 9-6 except 2 days a week and they would be LONGER. They liked me, a lot, wanted me to work with 3 year old children, and my heart sank- I didn't want to work with toddlers. I was at work when I did the interview so I got back to work and didn't realize the recruiter was hounding me (via email) to tell him how it went. I woke up the next morning and went to take care of things and went to work only to find an email pushing me to sign the contract immediately from the recruiter.Apparently they REALLY liked me, and wanted me at the campus. The lady I met with was really nice, but I just didn't want to work with toddlers. After talking to those closest to me, we all agreed this wasn't going to make me happy, and I declined.
So, he sent me another Poly school. I was interested in this one. It was a good campus. I liked the hours, we interviewed after a very exhausting day of work, and I got rejected. In retrospect, I'm okay with it... the person interviewing me made me uncomfortable with some of the questions, and later on a thread in reddit a person would ask questions that sounded like they interviewed with the same person, and had a similar feeling about the person.
I had applied to 2 additional recruiters- one seemingly dumped me over a misunderstanding? The other I was liking a lot.
Reach to teach sent me 2 more poly schools and SLP which I had made very clear (a couple of times) I did NOT want to work with. The whole reason I refused to work at SLP was due to their work schedule of burn them out and let them go. I've heard enough stories from teachers who've worked there say that the only good thing about SLP is they pay on time. They have a very strict and busy schedule and often before the end of your first year you're pretty burnt out from the amount of work they have you do.
The recruiter then applied me to a school on a day I was unavailable to have an interview with, due to my work schedule, without my agreeing. I was not okay with that.
1.15 drove to Olympia to get my diplomas (I ordered 2) apostillized- they confirmed that the FBI (background check) apostille had to be done via alternative channels due to it being federal- I did the right thing - something a recruiter had not given me clear instructions on when I asked, luckily I had been looking into this for many years by this time.
At some point I quit working with most of these recruiters and started working with Teach ESL Korea, who were absolutely wonderful. Apparently that really ticked off one of the other recruiters who sent me a text that said, "Oh you're working with so many recruiters now." and never contacted me again.
By that point I was fed up with how aggressive and abusive that person had become, and wasn't sad to see them quit talking to me.
I had everything ready and Teach ESL Korea were willing to put me where I wanted, they were very helpful and kind. I think I had two interviews before my family and friends told me to take a break because it had become overwhelming with two jobs (and sometimes my DJ gigs) and this search. I was very stressed and needed a break.
I promised Teach ESL Korea I wouldn't go with another recruiter, which I didn't, I would even recommend and go back to them.
A friend contacted me a month later about an opening at her school- They even said I could have my Isa.
This was January/February 2019.
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