My Korea Over the past two and a half years I have detailed a lot of my feelings about Korea on this blog. I am, by nature, an overly sentimental person and so looking back on my posts from when I first arrived in Korea they read as such. Overly sentimental. But the truth…
Helping Your Students Feel Comfortable Speaking English One of the biggest barriers we face as native English teachers in Korea is that it can be really hard to feel like you connect with the students in the same way that the other teachers do. Not only is there the obvious language barrier but also…
Continue reading ➞ Helping Your Students Feel Comfortable Speaking English
Why I Love Living in Daejeon, Korea (And why I'm glad I DON'T live in Seoul.) I officially got my Daejeon placement from EPIK on December 14, 2016. My immediate reaction was to start frantically searching for cool cafe's and restaurants and try to figure out where in the city I was hoping to…
Dear New EPIK Teachers, I think a lot of you will be walking into your schools to work for the first time on Monday. It wasn't all that long ago that I did the same exact thing and to be perfectly honest I'll be walking into school again on Monday with my own set or…
An Open Letter To My Students (Because that's never been done before...) To any of my students past or present, Should any of you ever find this by accident, hello! I hope life is treating you okay. I am writing this to you because there are some things that I want you to know.…
When The Shine Wears Off This is year two for me living and working in Daejeon, Korea. So that means that, for two-thirds of my students this is their second year with me. It means that the novelty of me has worn off for most of my kids. That manifests itself in good and…
두번째하루 Last Saturday I walked out of my house into the most incredible weather we've had all year and hopped on a bus to 유천동 to meet up with a friend and visit a cafe that I've been wanting to try for a while! The cafe itself was lovely but the cafe plus the…
When you're living in a country that's so homogeneous it's people took note when the foreign population jumped from 1% to 3% it's easy to feel like you're fighting a losing battle in terms of "fitting in" with the country and culture around you. In a bizarre turn of events, one of the hardest things…
Continue reading ➞ Ways to Get Connected While Living Abroad
Tips for Surviving Your First Day as an EPIK Teacher If walking up to my school on the first day amid a literal sea of students staring and gawking at me wasn't enough to make me nervous, then standing in front of my first class of 30 something 15-year-old boys was. Your first few…
Continue reading ➞ Tips for Surviving Your First Day as an EPIK Teacher
One of the major perks of teaching middle school are the multitude of ridiculous things that I get to hear on a daily basis. Whether it's something clever and witty from a high level student, something bold from a kid who's inflated ego has managed to disregard the fact that they can't put together a…
Continue reading ➞ Things My Students Have Said to Me: Part 2
Hours and Miles 