#gwangyang

Wow I’ve been super busy these past couple of weeks ever since I arrived in Korea on April 16th, but things have finally calmed down enough for me to discuss how things are going so far. (I’ll try to post more regularly about life here in the future!)

I don’t think I actually mentioned this so I’ll say it now: I’m an elementary school English teacher with the Jeollanamdo Language Program (JLP). Anyway, the first week and a half was just orientation, and I’ve been in Gwangyang (where I was placed) for about a week and a half now. My apartment is pretty good and my co-teachers and students are nice, so I’m pleased about that!

[Image: We saw cherry blossoms in Jeonju during orientation!]

TEACHING

The first couple days of work was just me introducing myself to the students. I teach 21 classes a week but I see most of my students only once a week (15 unique classes) and teach at 3 different schools.

Last week was my first week of legit teaching. I was super nervous because I’ve never really taught before but it wasn’t as bad as I expected! It helps that for the most part I just follow along with the textbook. All I really do is plan a game/activity that reinforces the material in the textbook and sometimes I plan additional explanations and examples if I feel like the textbook isn’t enough.

SPEAKING KOREAN

Since it’s been almost 2 years since I last lived in Korea (at which point my Korean was at a really low level), it was interesting to see how much my Korean has improved! 

During orientation, I talked to the hotel staff a lot and they were super friendly. When I told the lady who was in charge of the hotel’s buffet that I’m vegetarian, she asked me what my favorite dish is and made it for dinner that evening!

And since coming to Gwangyang, I’ve been talking to some of the teachers at my schools in Korean too. I’m at a level where I can talk about casual everyday topics easily, but anything other than that is hard since I lack the vocabulary so school/work conversation is challenging... But still, I’m glad I’ve been getting out of my comfort zone.

Ironically though, I stopped actively studying Korean since coming here because I was so busy. Only in the past couple of days have I picked it back up again. I do a combination of studying vocabulary from a book of the 6000 most frequent Korean words and reading Korean literature. I’ve also been trying to get into doing language exchanges but we’ll see how that goes.

THE BUSYNESS WILL FADE SOON... HOPEFULLY

I’ve been frantically busy because I had to unpack and settle in + plan for my classes like a day before the class (since you don’t get your schedule and textbooks until your first day of work)... 

광양 | 매화마을

광양시(光陽市)는 대한민국 전라남도 동남부에 있는 시이다. 서쪽으로 순천시, 남쪽으로 여수시, 북쪽으로 구례군과 인접하고, 동쪽으로는 섬진강을 경계로 경상남도 하동군과 도계를 이룬다.

지리산 자락을 수놓으며 굽이굽이 흘러가는 섬진강을 따라가면 매화나무가 지천으로 심어져 있는 섬진마을이 있다. 이 마을의 농가들은 산과 밭에 곡식 대신 모두 매화나무를 심어 매년 3월이 되면 하얗게 만개한 매화꽃이 마치 백설이 내린 듯, 또는 하얀 꽃구름이 골짜기에 내려앉은 듯 장관을 이룬다.