(upbeat electric music)
- (foreign language)
Hello everyone, good morning
from (foreign language), South Korea.
(foreign language)
My name is Elizabeth Chance, you guys,
and I am so excited to have this opportunity
to share a little bit of my life here in South Korea,
a day in the life of an EPIK teacher,
I have been here for three years, which is crazy,
but this place just gets a hold of your heart
and won't let go.
So I'll be taking you about my day,
and sharing with you a little bit about my life
and what's going on, I'd love to answer any questions
and I'll include my link up here to my personal page
to follow and I'll include
a little box to ask me some questions as well.
It is kind of early, pardon me if I stumble over my words,
you're the first people I'm talking to today.
We're going to hit the gym here in just a min-
So yeah, let's get ready to head to the gym
and I gotta take out some trash,
and we're just gonna be fine,
the light is actually coming out
so I don't have to walk in darkness, yay!
So, let's go!
I'd absolutely love to!
Just finished at the gym
so I'm heading back into my apartment complex
and, yeah, I'll give you guys a tour in just a minute.
Okay, apartment tour time.
Now, preface: I have a bit of a unicorn apartment.
This isn't something that is super typical,
and in fact I might have one of the best apartments
out of like all my friend group,
like other expats,
I don't say that to brag it's just the truth,
I have a lot of space,
it's possible when you live in a more rural area
for the money that is in your contract for your housing
to go a bit further,
so if your in Seoul you're not going to get as much space
as if your in a kind of a more rural area.
So, just to preface that, don't like-
I was so surprised when I got this apartment,
and I'm super blessed, I love it, I'm a homebody,
this is like my jam, so, let me show you!
Okay, so coming in we have our entry,
it is a keyless entry, so I just have my code.
We have tons of storage, mask, shoes, bags, whatever.
Reusable shopping bags, a collection of masks.
I've got my trash organization.
To the right we have bedroom number one,
and yes, I said bedroom number one.
This is kind of- I call my guestroom,
my office for online teaching
when I've had to work from home.
Then comes my favorite part of the house, the kitchen.
This is more space than my other apartment
that I had when I first moved here,
and I use it all the time
because I do have some dietary restrictions,
so I cook most of my own food.
And I've got this little breakfast nook
which can pull out if I need some more seating.
Then, let's come on over to the right and-
in here we've got storage stuff, cleaning, extra bags.
In here is - hello - myself and, my bathroom.
So it is a wet room.
Thankfully there is a little like ledge here,
so it usually keeps the water from the toilet area.
And in the mirrors, is some more storage on both sides,
which is awesome, so I've got that vitamins,
and all kinds of fun things in there.
Let's keep going.
By the way, you can get these big towels in Korea,
don't worry about it.
Here comes my bedroom.
So I've got my rack for my laundry, bed,
this was provided by the school, provided by the school,
I bought that.
This is kind of my closet situation,
which totally works for me, it's not-
Yep, so, totally works for me, I've got the Ondol,
so the heating system.
That's my trash.
And we go to the living room,
where I have my lovely refrigerator, and Christmas tree
I've yet to take down.
Some local artist work,
a very uncomfortable couch that I still can nap on, somehow.
My little TV set up, books.
A lot of this was provided by the school, the TV was,
I bought this shelf thing I wanted to have plants on it,
I killed all the plants so that didn't work.
And then we have the veranda.
I've got a little table out here, little set up for,
not sunbathing, but getting air.
And I love my view, I take so many pictures here.
And this is another way to hang up my clothes, that,
or blankets and what not as well as-
So, yep, this my apartment! Wee!
I really love it here, and I am super hungry
so I'm going to take a quick break, grab some food,
and then I think I'll take you guys on a little adventure -
you have no choice, you're coming with me, okay?
So I wanted to answer a few of your questions
so I am here on an A2 visa, with the EPIK program,
I've only ever worked with the
Gyeonggi office of education,
I haven't transferred to any of the other regions,
and I've never worked in Hamgyeong,
so I can't really speak for the Hamgyeong experience.
I've loved working in the public education system,
and initially I got started by doing
the online ITA program or course,
back in 2017, summer, and I finished in the fall,
I applied directly to EPIK, in the fall of 2017,
and I was given a job by winter of 2018,
and I was here February 2018.
So it was a pretty quick process.
So, by adventure, I mean I'm taking you to school with me.
It's actually my off day, but I wanted to share with-
or show you guys a little bit about my school,
tell you about my classes and stuff like that.
So real quick,
I work at (foreign language) elementary school,
in (foreign language) and I have about four hundred kids,
I teach grades three through six,
and, yeah, that's regular classes, after school classes,
and camp, and also English club.
So, these are all my responsibilities as an EPIK teacher
and I'm just walking up here,
I'll show you guys in just a minute.
So, walking by the school, over here,
I'll give you a better picture in just a minute,
but I also wanted to add
that I am working forty hours a week,
but I do twenty two of those are teaching hours,
the rest are-
(truck drives past)
Sorry!
(laughing)
prep and other such things, so I'm-
So you guys can see, there's my lovely school!
And the pencils, these are my favorite things ever,
I don't know why, but they are.
And, yeah, the big field,
there's no really grass fields here,
for the most part it's dirt.
And, yes, the school is five stories,
and we've got K through sixth grade in our school.
So they're doing some construction on it right now,
but I'm going to see if I can take you guys inside
and show you around a little bit more.
I'll see you guys again in a minute.
Great question.
So the greatest has probably been the adventure,
it's challenged me in so many different ways
and to do things that I never thought I could do,
and, yet at the same time that challenge is really hard
and you have to learn to be flexible
and give up expectations and just -
(foreign language)
Sadly, I can't.
I'm not conversational, but I can navigate around,
I can use it in the classroom a little bit
and I can order food and all that.
I studied a little, I could study some more.
I highly recommend you do if you can.
I've had to learn to rely on the Lord a lot more
than I ever did before, to be honest.
And it's been an amazing experience,
I've come to know God better here than anywhere else,
and my church family is my family.
They're amazing, and so diverse, and incredible.
I love it here.
So before winter break I was teaching both online
and in person, we had a hybrid system in place.
Not sure what it's going to look like in the future,
I can't really put an expectation out there
but we make it work with what we can,
so it's been an adjustment.
Absolutely.
There's plenty of room to save money,
it really is how well you budget your money.
I've had some surgeries and I have student loans
so I haven't saved as much
but there's definitely potential there,
no problem with that.
I have some great relationships with both EPIK teachers
as well as my teachers at school.
I'm closer probably to my expat friends
due to the language issue,
but I have great relationships with both,
and I'm really honored by that.
It's a little cliche,
but initially I got into Korean culture
through K-Pop and K-dramas,
but then I did further research
and I just fell in love with the culture
and I knew that I had to experience it,
so South Korea was number one.
So I did some substitute teaching before I moved to Korea,
and that was kind of how I realized
that I actually love teaching and I love kids,
and these are both kind of important aspects to the job, so.
As for the other part of the question,
yes the course did prepare me to teach abroad.
I do think it is really important to continue to learn:
learn about the culture,
learn about what works in your classroom,
never stop being a student yourself.
Hey guys, so, it is lunch time, I'm starving,
and I am going to take you, lunch is on me today,
I know, I'm fabulous, right?
JK, I'm going to get myself some lunch though.
And it is at my favorite, (foreign language) place,
which is a soup with meat and vegetables and rice,
and I'll show you guys a picture, in just a minute.
Okay guys so this is the (foreign language),
it is bubbling, yes it is boiling hot,
so I give it a minute before I dive in.
There is meat on the bone that I shred off,
and I put the bones over here.
And then we've got the kimchi, and some carrots,
and some different sauces.
And of course, rice.
So I'm excited to dive in, and (foreign language).
So I am at my relatively new mall
here in Pyeongtaek/Anseong, it's called Starfield,
and it's pretty.
Sorry, probably got dizzy there
but it's amazing, and its beautiful,
lots of fun shopping, lots of great food,
lots of things to see,
and I'm actually going to see a movie in a little bit,
but I'll probably check in with a few more of your questions
before I head in to see Wonder Woman.
Whoop whoop!
So just like any other company, getting hired is a process,
I would say it's relatively straight forward,
it is tedious there's a lot of paperwork.
But going through EPIK was what I wanted to do
to get into the public school system and it was very doable.
Hey guys, so I just got out of the movie, it was great,
and there's the theater.
A lot of times there are theaters actually
in different malls and stuff so this is just a bonus
that it's so close to my place.
So, yeah, I just wanted to let you know I'm going to head
to get some dinner, I think I might just head home,
and try to answer a few more of your guys' questions
before I sign off for the day.
Hey guys, so I made it home,
and I'm going to answer just a couple more questions
before I have some dinner and sign off for the night.
Keyword is boundaries.
I really try not to bring any work home.
And I really am careful to protect my personal life
and keep it from spilling over into the classroom,
because that's just not the place for it.
With this I really do want to clarify like,
have a personal life, and have a great work life,
have great relationships.
Just be very careful to keep your time sacred.
Y'know, when you're out of school take care of yourself,
when in school take care of your job.
So I am from a small town in (foreign language).
However, I am only about forty five minutes away
by express bus to Seoul central.
There's so much of Korea and it's really pretty easily
accessible through public transportation.
So before I go I wanted to give you guys just a few tips,
things that I've learned across these three years
that I've been living here.
Number one: have grace for yourself in this process,
it's an adventure and it's hard sometimes,
and it's really stretching, so be kind to yourself.
Number two: learn the language and culture,
it really goes a long way in fostering healthy relationships
with your coworkers, your students, just learn a bit,
they really respect that.
And number three would be: be open, be so open and flexible
to what you're going to learn here,
or wherever you go abroad, it's just an amazing experience,
so be open to that.
Thank you guys so much for joining me today,
it was a pleasure to have you along,
and it was a pleasure to answer you're questions.
If you have any further questions
that I wasn't able to get to,
then please send me a message at my personal account
and I will do by best to get back to you.
I hope you guys have an amazing adventure
wherever you're off to,
whatever stage of this process you're in,
take it one day at a time and you'll do amazing things
and go to amazing places.
Take care.
(upbeat electric music)