환영합니다!
When I moved to Korea in 2017 to teach English, I had no expectations for the role that experience would play in my life. If you had told 22-year-old me, struggling to say my address to a taxi driver in Korean, that 7 years later I would be doing a Ph.D. in applied linguistics and…
This is a bad story with a happy ending. In the end, I'm writing this post from an apartment that I love, looking out over the mountains. But the process, the getting here part was bad. This is the apartment hunting in Gwangju, South Korea story. But first, a bit of context. When I lived…
Joyful Coffee // 즐거운커피 I know it's been a while but I'm back. And I have a new favorite cafe. At this point I have visited a lot of cafes in Daejeon. But a lot of the places I visit to write about for this blog, I don't go back to. 즐거운커피, however, is…
Update It's been about a month since I posted anything here and I just wanted to check in and say that I'm still alive! The first year that I was in Korea every single thing I did I was doing it for the first time. It was scary and exciting and there was so…
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
TOPIK II Korean Exam The Korean proficiency exam, called TOPIK, is broken up into two tests. TOPIK I is the beginner one and you can score a level 1 or level 2. TOPIK II is the intermediate/advanced exam and you can score a level 3-6. I took TOPIK I in January of last year…
Story Time: My Korean Hospital Experience This is the story of the time I found myself waking up to a nurse telling me that I was having an allergic reaction in the middle of a procedure I was supposed to have slept through. In Korea. At the time it was just as horrifying as…
Continue reading ➞ Story Time: My Korean Hospital Experience
October Update: Some Favorite Things One of my favorite things to do is listen to people talking about stuff that they love. A lot of people on the internet use these kinds of posts or videos to talk about products they love or are selling. But for this month's update post I decided to take…
Daejeon Cafe: Interview Mansion//인터뷰맨션 It's been a long time since I made a cafe blog post, but I'm back with what might the most beautiful cafe I've been to in Daejeon. The aesthetic was exactly my style and the coffee was excellent. Interview Mansion is the sister cafe of Interview which is also located…
It's not your fault. As teachers I know it's easy to think that is, but it's not. Well some things are, of course. We are responsible for ourselves and responsible to always try to make the best lessons we can and do right by our students. But for anyone teaching in a public school,…
Hours and Miles 