What’s a typical day like as an EPIK teacher? I’m sure in each town and city there are variations of a teacher’s schedule, but I thought it would be interesting to share mine. I work in a small city in Gangwon-do, South Korea near the eastern coast. I wake up every morning, Monday through Friday, prepare myself at home then head to my bus stop just down the street from my apartment. Usually I wait a few minutes for the bus, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter, depending on the day. From what I’ve discovered, the bus system in my city is not that reliable as the bus may come on its designated time, or it may not. However, once I’m on the bus, it takes me about 15 minutes to arrive at my main school in another part of my city. From there, I enter my school through the English classroom entrance and take off my shoes, switching them for a pair of slip-on sandals.
In Korean culture, you take off your shoes when entering most places (besides shops and some restaurants) to avoid bringing in dirt. Then I head up to my classroom and prepare for the morning. I usually have my lesson planned the day before so I can just walk into the classroom and set up the main computer. My co-teacher is always there in the mornings and if I don’t set up for the first class, she does. Every day I have four classes before lunch time, with 10 minutes in between each class, and a 20-minute break halfway through the morning.
an idea of what lunch looks like
Then comes lunch time. I always eat lunch at school since it’s provided and quite filling most of the time. At 12:30, my co-teacher and I head out to the lunch room for food. We stand in one of two lines, grab a spoon and pair of chopsticks, and a tray. For each lunch, there is the main dish of rice (always gotta have rice!), some sort of soup, and four banchan (side dishes). There’s usually some sort of greens, a kimchi variation, meat (or meats), and a “dessert” of either fruit or something else. My favorite meal thus far has been 떡볶이 (tteokbokki) on the side and curry for the main meal. Some days the food is absolutely divine, while other days, I have a hard time finishing half of it. Once the meal is done, I put all the leftover food in one dip in the tray to make dumping it out easier. In Korea, food waste is separated from regular trash so anything still edible must go in one bin.
Sometimes after lunch, I might have one or two more classes before teaching is over for the day. These classes are just like the morning ones. 40-minutes long, consisting of either 5th graders or 6th graders. Once those classes are over, I’m free for the rest of the work day. And by free, I just mean desk warming. If I’m not teaching, I’m usually at my desk lesson planning for either my main school or my travel school. And if I’m done lesson planning, and feel motivated enough, I’ll study some Korean. Other than that, it’s a struggle some days to find something productive to do. Once it hits 4:50PM, I start packing up my stuff and shut down my computer, then go to change my shoes. There’s a bus stop down the street from my school, so I take the bus home from there.
On Friday’s I go to my travel school, which is another 20-25 minutes stacked on top of my 15 to my main school. I thankfully can take the same bus route to my travel school but must be on the bus by 8:14AM if I don’t want to be late or have to take a taxi. There’s only two buses that go to my school since it’s so far out and if I don’t make the first one, I will have to taxi, which is not that cheap. I found out the hard way one Friday and my coordinator had to call me a taxi from the middle (of what I thought) nowhere. Thankfully, I haven’t had any trouble since then. At my travel school, I teach four classes, from grades third to sixth. I have lunch at my travel school and then take a bus back to my main school. Once I’m back at my main school, it’s just desk warming for the rest of the work day. I go back to my main school after lunch because there’s no English classroom at my travel school, so I can’t work on anything there after teaching.
Sometimes on Friday’s, before going directly back to my main school (if I have time), I grab a coffee from the cafe right next door. I’ve been there so often (and have such a recognizable face) that the workers all know my order. And they’re so sweet about it! I know how to order in Korean and will always use that phrase to get my coffee. “아이스 아메리카노 하나 주세요”. One iced Americano please.
One day after working at my school for almost a month, I discovered this really nice walking trail just down the road from my school. It runs along the river in my city. I took a walk there with some of my friends as we headed downtown for dinner. It was very peaceful to just walk near the water. Though, maybe not as peaceful since that was the day J-Hope’s Chicken Noodle Soup video came out and we were all watching it and hyping him up hehe. I haven’t really been back since then. I’m usually too tired by the end of the day to go there and I usually forget anyways. But it’s nice to know that the path is there for whenever I do decide to go after work.
While I have certainly gotten into a routine for work, some days it feels really difficult to get out of bed and go teach. I realize this is a part of life and I know I have felt this way back in the States, so it’s really nothing new. I’m thankful, though, for this opportunity to experience something unique and exciting in a different country and within a different culture.
meghan-o in gangwon-do 