I know you're all waiting to hear where I've been placed, but I promise, there will be a post up on Sunday! Promise. 😸
I'm here to talk about another topic. Let's talk daily life, shall we?
I'm sure many of you are curious about what I actually get up to on the day to day. Spoilers: it's programming/Korean classes.
To get started, my day generally starts at 6am...
...well, I realize I'm no longer sleeping and its a new day. My roommate is generally still sleeping, so I tend to snooze for the next hour-ish or so. I generally get out of bed sometime between 7am and 7h30am.
Breakfast starts at 7h45am, so I tend to show up a few minutes after. We have about 20mins to finish breakfast and then head over to our classroom building. It's the next building over from the dorm and class starts at 8h15am.
Korean Language Instruction (KLI) lasts until 12h15pm. Which means, I am in a classroom for 4 hours, learning Korean. Which isn't too bad. We get ten minute breaks at each hours. And 선생님 (the teacher) has been really fun and very informational! It's been great.
Lunch starts at 12h15pm and ends at 1h15pm. But our last hour of KLI starts at 1h15pm, so I tend to leave around 1pm.
Teaching and/or culture workshops start around 2pm. We also may or may not have a General Meeting as well. We get a lot of information between 2 and 5pm, generally.
Dinner starts at 5pm and goes until 6h30pm.
After that, we tend to have free time, or we go to office hours for extra help with Korean. Personally, I go on my evening walk and tour the area we are in. I've been getting some nice pictures these last couple of days. I'll have to make more of an effort to upload pictures!
Essentially, expect a separate post of evening pictures and another for my meals I have been having! Because the meals that Yonsei University has been giving us have been fantastic. You guys might be jealous.
Unless you're someone in my cohort reading this. If so...heeeyyyyyy Fam~!
If you guys want to hear about anything of my experience here, leave a comment and I'll make a post about it! Please don't hesitate. If my experience can help you learn more about Korea or answer questions before you come here, please-please-please-please!, reach out!
#SaveOurToya
This is so interesting, I love reading about your experiences in S. Korea! I'm actually interested in doing Fulbright in Korea or another country but I don't know where to start. It's quite intimidating. In another post you also mentioned that you have both a TEFL and TESOL certificate - do you think it's better to have both? Also, I am curious as to what your motivations are to go to Korea and teach English. Sorry for all the questions, I'm just very interested!!
ReplyDeleteHello! I'm so excited to hear that you're interested in Fulbright! (Korea or elsewhere :)) It is a bit intimidating, isn't it? But deep breathes! You just need to find your purpose! Wait...does that sound intimidating too? It's not supposed to!
DeletePersonally, the way I looked at it was, 'the worst they can do is tell me 'no'.' There are other ways to get abroad, and while Fulbright would be amazing, it's not your only option. Something to remember as you go through your application process! Make sure not to put all your eggs in one basket. It'll help relieve the pressure/stress you put on yourself!
As for my certifications. Fun story that. It's not better, I just kind of fell into two certifications. I got a TEFL certificate while I was still in school. But Fulbright also paid for us to get a TESOL certificate once we've accepted the award. My university was taking a while to finalize my certification (literally got done two weeks before I was sent off), and while I could've gotten a degree verification, I felt it was better for me to have the extra practice in 'being' a teacher. Certifications are great, and you'll need one either way, BUT if you could also do classroom teaching experience you'd be better off than having two certificates. Side note, there isn't much difference between TEFL and TESOL, if at all. It all depends on whether you're teaching in abroad or in an English-Speaking country. :)
As for my motivations in going to Korea, it came from an interest in their popculture and spread into an appreciation of their overall culture. I've wanted to visit Korea since high school, but never found a way to do it until I got to college where I heard you can teach English abroad. And what a better way to get a job after graduation, travel, and be able to help others! PErsonally, I've always had a passion for languages, and maybe I can inspire a student to learn English like I want to learn Korean?
I hope that answered all your questions! Don't hesitate to reach out~!
#SaveOurToya