One month in Gangwon!

안녕하세요! I just finished my second week of actual teaching. Teaching English is harder than I had initially thought, but also easier. It’s hard because most of my students do not have high enough English levels to understand even my most basic sentences. Teaching is easy, because I’m going off a book and my co-teacher is super helpful. I have to admit, I really like my school and the students. I have at least one high level English student in each class that participates and is excited to learn English. While some of the students don’t care for English at all, I look forward to hearing from those particularly excited students whenever we have lessons together. My students get really excited when I speak a little bit of Korean to them and immediately start clapping. It warms my heart and I hope they start to feel that way about English!

*Biiiiiig sigh* Korean… is so, so, so very hard to learn. I just recently enrolled in an online language course and hope that will improve my Korean language abilities. So far, self-studying while working full time and trying to take in the culture, while making friends, and lesson planning is failing me. Going to the bank and phone store with my co-teacher made me realize just how much I depend on those who know Korean to help me navigate this new reality of mine. And to be quite honest, I don’t like it. However, I am incredibly thankful for those who are and who have helped me. Seriously the amount of patience most Koreans have while I’m trying to piece together a slightly cohesive sentence is just phenomenal. But having to rely on others all the time is frustrating. I feel like a child again. I realize this is just part of my life right now and despite how much it frustrates and exhausts me, I can’t do much to change it until I know more Korean. 

I am a part of a weekly conversation group that brings together local Koreans who want to practice English and fellow EPIK teachers. We come together every week with a topic to discuss in English (though the past two weeks, my group’s conversation has revolved around BTS—sorry not sorry). It’s fun and I’ve made some friends from it. Despite that, meeting people has been incredibly difficult. I live downtown, whereas my school and most of my coworkers live on the other side of the river—about a 20-minute bus ride each direction. And not knowing any Korean doesn’t help to make friends with the locals who are shy about speaking English. I’m looking forward to being able to travel more around my city and spending time with the people I have already met. Being an introvert also does not help the friend-making process. But I have met some other crackhead BTS fans and we celebrated one of the member’s birthday with cake and BTS UNO! Thankful to have friends who support and share my interests!

All-in-all, I’ve been enjoying my time in South Korea despite some large obstacles. I’m ready to learn more of the language and make at least a few new friends so traveling around the country can be more enjoyable. Something I love is that on almost every corner (some corners doubled up) lies a coffee shop or cafe. I have maaaaany options to choose from when it comes to all my caffeine needs. However, only the Starbucks serves lactose-free milk. Boo, I miss my almond milk!

Here are some of the delicious meals I’ve had.

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Favorite so far: spicy grilled chicken (dak galbi – 닭 갈비) with rice cakes and noodles. The picture quality isn’t the best, but boy that meal was delicious!

I’ve also had some yummy desserts, and despite not being a cake person, most of the desserts I’ve had are cakes… what can I say, Korea makes some good dessert cakes!

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Thank you for reading my post, and stay tuned for the next update about my tour around my city and a trip to Seoul!
안녕히가세요!