Four years ago I was doing pretty much the same thing I am now: staring at my computer screen and contemplating life abroad. The difference is, I was fresh from wrist surgery at Imakiire Hospital in Kagoshima, having shattered my distal radius in December 2007. How could I possibly feel nostalgic for such a...
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I had one of the most depressing and culturally insightful classes with some of my higher-level students this week. Unlike in some hagwon, where foreign teachers are not allowed their say when it come to class format and textbooks, my boss really values my input; I have had total creative control of the gold...
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Having just completed one year in Korea, I thought I’d give prospective expats an idea of how much one can pocket and live on in a year here. You hear stories all the time about how Korea is the country to go teach EFL if you want to make money, but has anyone actually...
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Some of the business practices I’ve seen my hagwon doing, and why I believe Korea has more of a relationship-based culture vs. a legal one.
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Greetings from Korea. I’m still trying to integrate Google+ into my blog (and deciding if I really want to do it). If you’d like to add me, go right ahead. In the meantime, with my videos from the Boryeong Mud Festival still in the buffer, I thought I’d discuss something that’s been going on...
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I throw my opinion into the ongoing debate for incoming English teachers: public schools or privates (hagwons)? Most of the time, it’s a no-brainer: public schools for better vacations, stability, and sick days. But there are some reasons why you might want to risk a hagwon.
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I thought about doing this as a video blog, but as I’m not feeling so hot on this lazy Sunday and my cooking dinner is creating a little too much ambient noise, I will try to express myself in text. This really just popped into my head a few minutes ago, and it’s not...
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Today is a holiday in South Korea: Buddha’s Birthday. My original plan was to enjoy a temple visit, but the weather did not oblige. So, I sit inside my clean apartment and think of things to write. Once you get out of the habit of blogging, it’s hard to start up again. This past...
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Of course my title is a bit of an overstatement. Nor is this blog really a rant about how crazy my kids can get at times. Still, I’m a little surprised how disorderly Korean kids (if my students are any indication) can be in the classroom. A few Thai public school kids were “worse”...
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…at least in terms of teaching English as a foreign language. In fact, I have (thankfully) not yet tried to devour any of my students, no matter how many invitations they seem to give me. When you’re teaching and want to provoke certain answers, sometimes you just choose questions so ludicrous that students have...
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