- Hello. Good morning.
Happy St. Patrick's Day.
My name is Donna.
I'm from California.
I'm doing the epic program here in Sacheon
South Korea to NDO province.
I've been here for about four years.
So, if you have any questions,
I'm gonna leave a question box
and feel free to ask me anything.
Okay. So it is about 7:55 right now
and I'm walking to the bus to get to school.
My walk to the bus takes me about two minutes.
Here's my walk to the bus.
It's gonna be pretty rainy today, as you can see,
but this isn't the main street.
This is just the street on my way to the bus.
Okay. So I'm at my bus now. This is my friend Abby.
- Hi.
So we both got certified through ITA.
I've been here for about four years now.
And how long have you been here?
- Like a month.
- Yeah. How is it so far for you?
- It's great.
I love it.
- It's so nice over here.
- How is it with the pandemic coming during our pandemic?
- It hasn't been too bad, honestly.
You just have to be really careful.
- Yeah
- Wear your mask and make sure you're not part
of big crowd, but other than that, it's been really fun.
- So this is our bus.
It comes at around bus comes in around 8 0 5.
We're not at the same schools
but we just go in the same direction.
And so, like I said, my bus walk is only about
two minutes and it costs about 1,401.
So about one 40 USD for one way.
Okay, bye.
- Bye
- See you at school.
Okay. So I just got
off the bus now and now I'm walking to school.
My walk from the bus stop is also about two minutes.
I teach at two different schools
and today I'm teaching at my main school.
It's about it's eight 30 right now.
Here's my school and kids start showing
up in about 10 minutes.
- Hi.
I'm at school now.
I don't have my own classroom.
So I'm in the office with the other staff.
This is my old co-teacher John Juan.
- Hey. Hi.
- Yeah, it's really nice to have him as a co-worker.
So even though I'm the only native speaker here
I have a lot of good friends that help me a lot.
- Yes
- So yeah, this is where I do my lesson planning.
Yeah bye.
- I don't have my own classroom.
I walk from classroom to classroom to teach my classes.
So I'm walking
to the fifth grade classroom right now to teach my
first period.
Good.
Where was Hyun from?
Hyun Hyun.
He is from Vietnam.
Good. What about, where was Kendra from?
Mexico. She is from.
Okay Banjani can be the dad.
Who wants to be the girl?
Haru girl?
Okay. Let's get some different people.
Who wants to be Nutcracker?
Nutcracker. Thank you Soyun.
Kendra?
Naray?
And then Heeyun.
Soya. Okay.
Ready? Action.
Okay.
Good job.
So I didn't go through a recruiter.
I didn't feel like it was necessary
cause I know I wanted to go through EPIK
and it's easy enough just through to apply through them.
I know that EPIK has two main intakes.
One is in the spring.
One is in the summer, which is like August.
I applied around June and was interviewed in July.
And then I actually got a late placement in October.
So really it is year round.
You can kind of apply whenever.
I found a recruiter to
not be necessary though.
So I chose EPIK over a Hagwon
because I didn't care what city I was placed in
or if I was in a rural area.
And EPIK
they just treat you better.
I think there are good Hagwons,
but I've heard too many horror stories
about being overworked and underpaid.
So I didn't want to go through..
They let you pick your top five provinces, to be honest
I don't think they take it
into consideration cause
you kind of are just placed randomly.
I'm in a rural area, but I'm very happy with it.
So if you don't really need to be in a city, this is
for you.
But if you really need to be in, but if you really
need to be in Seoul or another city,
I would probably go Hagwon route.
I do have a word of advice for this.
If you really wanna be in Seoul
or something.
I would do EPIK
and just get placed wherever first.
And then once you're here, you can get a better idea
of what a good Hagwan is.
And you can also apply to go to a public private.
It's easier once you're
I just finished lunch and I'm walking in my school's gym now
and the best experience I would have to say are my students.
I just adore them.
I've been here long enough to teach the same kids
from first grade through sixth grade.
And that's really what has kept me here so long.
And then on top of, yeah, I'm very close with them.
They text me.
I was in an accident here and they actually came
to the hospital to visit me and, yeah and then I have just
amazing friends from all over the world.
I call them my best friends and I've traveled too.
I've been to
(cars on street)
Carasada clap.
(clapping)
Carasada ride a bike.
(kids yelling)
Clap. Clap.
Carasada clap.
Dance.
Stand up and listen to Yeiwan.
Ready? Go.
(kids talking and laughing)
Out. Out.
In Korea, you wear slippers in the school.
You take your out, outside shoes off.
And then you put these
on that's and these are provided for me.
And here's just what my hallways look like.
This is the first, second in kindergarten classrooms here.
They're little shoe cubbies.
Let's go to second floor.
The classes for older kids.
Third through six.
Hi.
The science room.
- I love you.
Okay, so it's three 50 right now
and I'm gonna catch the 3 55 bus.
I usually actually catch the 5 0 5 bus,
but my Vice Principal's not here
and I finish lesson planning.
So I'm gonna go home early.
- Bye. Bye.
I love you.
- See you tomorrow.
Bye. Oh, I love you.
Love you.
Bye bye.
Bye. Bye bye.
Okay, I'm gonna try to make my bus.
So my bus is the same one that I'm dropped off
at the morning.
It's about a two minute walk from my school and it also
takes me just about 15 minutes to get home.
And it's 1,401.
So one 40 U S D.
So I've always wanted to live abroad.
I'm not the type to stay in one place my whole life.
And I've always enjoyed working with kids and teaching.
So I thought this would be the best option.
I love to travel.
I pick South Korea because it has the best benefits
and the best pay.
And then I just fell in.
I found placements to be right, quite random.
Everyone in my town, their apartment to their school
is about 15 to 20 minutes.
The furthest one away is 40 minutes by bus.
And I've had friends in different areas who are
about an hour away.
And those people who are
So I do have friends, not in my town
but from orientation who are placed in different areas.
And they're about an hour more away from their school.
And they got enough stipend because of that
that they were able to purchase a
and car insurance and they just drive here.
So here's the main street of my town.
Here's a grocery store right here.
There's a lot of cute coffee shops
and there's a Paris baguette up there.
There's a lot of good restaurants too.
There's like a sushi place.
I really like down here.
There's not a lot to do here.
There's not a lot to do.
I really just go out to dinner for fun.
And there's a couple bars here too.
If you wanna do something besides go to a restaurant
you can take a bus to the neighboring city near me
which is like 20 minutes away.
And there's also a train station, but yeah
you can see the idea of it.
There's plenty of coffee shops
plenty of convenience stores.
So you have everything you need.
There's a Daiso down the road
and there's also a train station four minutes away.
So you can go anywhere you want from there.
So it's easy enough to get out
but it has everything..
So look at the grocery store.
Fruit is very expensive here.
Other than that groceries are quite affordable.
So the dentist is amazing.
I've actually gotten two wisdom teeth
taken out for 25 dollars USD total.
I have to make the appointment in Korean when I call
and my Korean's good enough to do that
but you might have to get a co-teacher to do it, but usually
in the city, usually in the city, they will speak English.
You could make sure that happens
but I have gotten my wisdom teeth out with them
not speaking English and it was fine.
And I've done a lot of things like that too.
I've actually got hit by a car here
and I was in the hospital for a month and surprising.
So my accident was pretty serious
and I was in the hospital for a month
for broken ribs, punctured liver, minor brain hemorrhage.
And so I did have a translator at that hospital
but usually the day-to-day nurses
it was fine with just rudimentary Korean
but I would really suggest
anything you wanna get done do it here.
Like get your wisdom teeth out here.
It's so much cheaper.
If you're an American, I know a ton
of people that have got LASIK eye surgery here
cause it's so much cheaper in this country.
I know people that got, have gotten cosmetic surgery here
cause it's so much cheaper.
(people working out)
Okay. So my apartment here is my wonderful kitchen.
And then my room, I have a desk
I have a queen size bed, which is lovely.
I do live alone, which is amazing.
I have a clothing rack, even though I do have a closet
I just put my storage in there.
Here's the bathroom in Korea.
The whole room is the shower.
So you're gonna have your little shower shoes when
the floor is wet.
And then I have my laundry room here.
I just have a washer, no dryer.
This is where I hang my clothes
and we got a TV and yeah, yeah, everything you need.
The fan my Principal painted for me.
Here's just a little 360 view.
The bed was provided by the way.
So was the TV.
And so was the desk.
Favorite part is the people.
Everyone is so kind to me, even the taxi drivers
I take care about me.
They buy me water.
They always say hi to me and things like that.
I love my students and it's a beautiful country
and it's easy to travel and I have tons of friends.
This is getting really long.
So I'm gonna sign off goodnight.
If I didn't answer your question,
I'm gonna leave my Instagram.
Feel free to message me or add me.
I also have a YouTube channel and I'm gonna just
tag some face group books that you can add yourself
in to ask more questions.
(music playing)