(exciting hip-hop music)
- Hey guys, so my name is Ashley.
I'm gonna be taking over ITA's Instagram for the day.
A little bit about me, I'm living in a small town
in South Korea, it's called Geochang.
Okay, so this is just looking into my bedroom.
I live in a studio apartment.
My school set me up with this place before I came to Korea.
So the previous teacher, I was actually really lucky,
the previous teacher left a lot of these things
that you're seeing,
so when I got here, I didn't have to spend
that much money getting set up.
So this back room is the laundry room area,
storage closet, and a little window
looking out into a parking lot.
And then back in here, I'm lucky, I have a double bed.
Most people who come to Korea get set up in a single bed,
so I'm lucky that way.
And then here is my kitchen.
Pretty small kitchen, no oven, but it works,
and then this is the bathroom.
So, pretty small, nothing too fancy.
But yeah, feel free to ask me any questions
about this place.
So I'm just leaving my apartment now,
I usually bike pretty much everywhere I have to go,
so this is my baby here.
This has been a lifesaver living here,
so definitely recommend.
Guess who else I'm teaching with today?
Ohhh. - What's up, man!
- [Ashley] Can you guys all say hello?
- [Group] Hello!
- [Ashley] Oh, woo!
Hey guys, so, I'm here with Tim,
we are on lunch break, we're having some coffee
at one of our favorite spots.
So right now we just started Winter Camp,
so when you're working in the public school system
in Korea, you will do both winter
and summer English camp with students.
So today, one of my camps just ended,
so that had about 14 students in it,
and then this afternoon, a new camp will start,
and it will have about 40 students in it,
so that'll be quite a bit different.
So I'm gonna put a question box up for you guys
to message us or ask any questions you might have.
And I know a lot of you were asking
about what happened with the sound in the second video,
and I'm not sure what happened,
but all I was saying is that I am teaching
in South Korea in a small town called Geochang.
I'm originally from Canada, British Columbia,
I lived in a small city kind of near Vancouver,
and I've been in Korea for about nine months now.
So I'm here teaching on an E-2 visa.
I found my job before I came to Korea through a recruiter,
which is pretty typical when you are looking
to teach public schools in Korea, and yeah,
feel free to ask any questions that you might have.
- So Ash insisted that I come here and say a couple words.
The last post she did was the expenses post,
and it said that you can save from $1400 USD a month.
That is very true, especially if you're frugal
and have a goal of paying off debt like we do.
If you're not frugal, you can still save $1200,
if you want to party and have a good time,
I can't do that anymore, but you can save
like $1000 USD a month, no problem.
You still get a chance to travel around
and explore and enjoy Korea,
so yeah, there's many opportunities
for you to save money while still having fun and travel.
- Hey guys, so I just wanted to jump on here
and answer a few questions.
So one question is about the application process
and how long it took to find a job.
So, I think we started looking in January.
We went with a recruiter named Alistair
through Korean Horizons,
and that process, in filling out the paperwork,
and getting the documentation completed,
took about maybe two to three months.
Then after that, we found out where
we were going to be placed, and we arrived here
at the end of March 2018.
So it was actually a pretty quick turnaround,
once all the documents were gathered,
and everything was completed, and our interviews were done,
they figured out where they wanted us to go
and we found out fairly quickly.
Okay, so a couple other questions.
One was around the likelihood of being placed in Seoul.
We actually applied through the Gyeongsangnam-do
Office of Education, so I'm not sure what
the process is for applying to Seoul,
because we did not go through that program.
Another question was around lesson planning.
So, there are some really great sites
that foreign teachers can use once you get to Korea.
One is KorShare, and it is completely free,
and another is called Waygook,
and it's $20 a year subscription.
And so both of those sites have all the textbooks
that English teachers use in Korea,
and people have created tons of material for you to use,
so it's really helpful, so I'll put those up on here
for you guys to write down if you are coming to Korea.
And then another question was about there being more women,
versus men, teaching here in Korea.
And, honestly, there might be slightly more women,
but there are a lot of men teaching here, too.
Hey guys, so I'm just gonna sign off for the night.
I hope you've had a good day following along with me,
and I hope I've been able to answer most of your questions.
Honestly, I've been here nine months now,
and it has been one of the most amazing experiences.
So if you're thinking about taking this step,
and going through the process, I highly recommend it,
it's definitely worth it in the end.
So I'll leave my personal Instagram ID up here,
so if you have any more questions you want to ask me,
you can do so on there.
Thanks again, and hope you have a good night.
(energetic hip-hop music)