Life Update — I’m Back in Korea!

When I decided to leave Korea in October of 2020, I wasn’t sure where life would take me. While I had enjoyed many aspects of my job teaching English at a hagwon, there were many downsides as well, and teaching young kids has never been my passion. Adding to that strict COVID guidelines and a lack of much of a social network in Daegu, and there wasn’t much to hold me there beyond my one-year contract, and so I returned to the US.

I had originally planned on getting my PhD, but that didn’t work out for that particular year, so I started a job as a university instructor instead, teaching freshmen-level English composition, which is basically a two-course sequence covering how to write essays.

That job was also a mixture of advantages and disadvantages, but it ultimately was very draining for me. On the plus side, the university experience was great for my resume, whether I tried again for a PhD or tried to get a job as an EFL professor in Korea. But on the down side, the actual course I was teaching was not a good match for me. I never wanted to primarily teach English writing, especially to native English speakers, and grading over 70 essay drafts on almost a weekly basis really drained me of energy and willpower over the course of each semester. It especially didn’t help that none of the students seemed to want to be there or participate in class, as it was a required class and most of them were quite honest about disliking writing.

So at the end of April, I applied to a job on a whim at a university in Korea. I wasn’t expecting to even hear back, since I still only had a limited amount of experience compared to their stated preferences, but my mixture of English composition and TESOL experience actually ended up being the perfect mix that they were looking for, so I got the job! And thus began the frenzy of totally altering my life plans from another draining year of teaching English composition, to basically getting my dream job of professor at a university in Korea.

I made a vlog about my journey from that point, and I really encourage you to give it a watch. It’s probably my highest quality video yet, so I’m pretty proud of it. (There’s also some cute puppy footage, if you need more convincing for some reason.)

In a few days, I start my orientation and training for the upcoming semester, and then I’ll be settling in to my new life here. I’ve already been here for 14 days, and I’ve settled decently into my apartment, but I still have a bit of anxiety about my new job. Being in a new city, with new colleagues (although they seem nice so far), and a new university with a different system than my previous ESL job — I’m sure it’ll be fine, but right now it’s just a lot of unknowns, and I’ll feel a lot better about it once I’m in the midst of it.

I’m also intending to be much more consistent with blogging here, not only for the sake of recording my life for posterity, but also as a motivation for myself to not get too comfortable in the boring but comfortable routine of just going to and from work everyday. That’s what happened last time I lived in Korea, and it led to a lot of my regrets about missed experiences and opportunities. Through this blog and my YouTube channel, hopefully I’ll continually be more driven to get a bit outside of my comfort zone and make the most of my time here, however long that might be.

I’m excited to see what this upcoming year brings me, and I hope you’ll stay tuned to find out as well. 🙂

My Goals for 2022

Is it a bit late for this type of post? Perhaps. But I’ve spent the entirety of January pondering the beginning of this year and what I want this year to hold in store for me. While I’m still not even quite sure what I want to accomplish this year, I thought I’d go ahead and put some of my thoughts out there on this blog.

My Language Learning These Days + December Goals

Can you believe 2021 is almost over? It’s hard to believe we’re already a week into the last month of the year.

A few days ago I posted a video on my YouTube channel just giving an update on my November language learning progress and my goals for the last month of the year, and I thought I’d post it here as well for any readers curious about my language learning these days.

Happy holidays!

Life Update: My New Job

It’s crazy to think that it’s already been over 10 months since I’ve returned to America from Korea. Since leaving my job at my hagwon in Daegu, I’ve mostly just been enjoying life and working from home. I have two online teaching jobs where I work as an independent contractor: one where I teach beginning level Korean to (mostly) American middle and high schoolers, and one where I teach English to kids in China.

I had originally planned to be starting my PhD this fall, but I ended up getting rejected from all three schools I applied to. While I was obviously disappointed, it also made sense. Since I hadn’t originally planned on getting a PhD when I was working on my master’s degree, I didn’t do much additional research or involvement in the academic realm, so I can see why my application wasn’t at the top of their list.

Studying 40 Hours of Languages in a Week.. Am I Crazy??

So… I did a thing. And it totally goes against everything in my personality.

My TOPIK Results! (2020)

The results are officially in, folks!

I took the TOPIK (Test of Proficiency in Korean) test for the second time back in July, and the results were finally released yesterday. In the month between taking the test and the scores being released, time always seems to slow down to a painful crawl.

Taking the TOPIK for the 2nd Time — My Thoughts

It’s been a long, bumpy road trying to take the TOPIK this year. After failing to register in time to get a spot for the January test, and then the April test being postponed and then ultimately canceled, I was finally able to take the 70th TOPIK II last weekend on July 12.

69th TOPIK Cancelled :(

Yesterday was May 24th, which was supposed to be the day that I took the TOPIK II (Test of Proficiency in Korean II) for the second time. However, about a week and a half ago, they decided that due to the remaining presence of COVID-19 in South Korea and the fact that there was a recent small outbreak in the Itaewon club area, they would be canceling the test altogether.

My Wild Ride: Korea’s Innovative Quarantined Transportation System

In my last post, I discussed what it’s like to travel via airplane in the middle of this crazy COVID-19 situation (read it here), and I’m finally back with my follow-up post regarding Korea’s impressively organized quarantine transportation system that they use to get people starting their quarantine from the airport to their homes.

Spoiler alert: This is a long post, but it starts with me cheerfully arriving in Korea and ends with me sobbing at my own doorstep, so stay tuned for the wild ride.

Airplane Travel during COVID-19 — Domestic US vs International Flight Differences

Just over two weeks ago, I traveled from Montgomery, Alabama to South Korea, and it was quite the adventure. In the midst of this global pandemic, I was admittedly a bit wary of airplane travel, since airplanes aren’t exactly the best vessels for social distancing.

You may be wondering why on earth I’m doing international travel in the middle of a pandemic, but it’s not that complicated. I left South Korea when COVID-19 first started hitting Daegu way back on February 24, thinking I would be gone for just a matter of weeks while my hagwon was temporarily closed. Then, of course, the pandemic kept escalating, both in Korea and, as time passed, on a global scale, and my return date kept getting pushed further and further back.

Finally, after an unplanned two-month furlough from my teaching position, my boss and I decided it was safe for me to come back to Korea, and I booked my ticket for the following week.