- Anyoung haseyo!
My name is Paige Butterfield.
I am teaching in Seoul in South Korea.
(bouncy music)
This is my first time traveling abroad anywhere.
I graduated college and I wasn't sure
exactly what I wanted to do next,
but I was sure that I didn't want
to just jump into a regular nine-to-five job locally.
After some research, I found that South Korea has
great living costs
and great food, great people, great culture
and it's a really, really beautiful place.
So that's why I chose South Korea.
And I chose the International TEFL Academy
specifically because they had the option
to take your courses online
and the International TEFL Academy was
one of the only online courses that I could find
that also required a practicum,
and for South Korea, to teach at a public school
like I wanted to, you must have a practicum
and experience actually physically teaching.
Before International TEFL Academy,
I had really no teaching experience
and I was really scared
that I was going to walk into a classroom
and just not have any control over the students,
but luckily the International TEFL Academy
set me up with
some pretty good plans to put in place.
I cannot explain to you how much I love
my teaching job here and how lucky I feel
that I got it.
The lesson planning is pretty much up to me
and my co-teachers serve as support
and disciplinarian, but I really make up
my own lesson plans,
and International TEFL Academy helped prepare me for that.
I get to walk to school every day.
It's about 15-, 20-minute walk
but it's in a really nice area,
and that's actually one of my favorite parts
of the day is that walk to school.
There's so much to do here.
I'm never going to do it all.
There's mountains to hike,
there's so many different good places to eat food,
there's museum and cultural experiences,
there's so many foreigner meetups
where you can meet tons of different people,
and I think especially being abroad,
people are really open to meeting each other.
But I think the most memorable thing
about being in Seoul is
how not foreign it has seemed.
When I stepped off of the plane
and I saw Hungle everywhere
and I couldn't understand anything,
I knew I was in a foreign place.
But now that I've been here,
this seems completely normal to me
and I can't explain enough
how nice people are and welcoming.
My co-teachers here have done everything
in their power to make me comfortable.
They went shopping with me on the first day
when I didn't have any idea what I was doing.
Even just random strangers here,
they're so happy to see a foreigner
and they're usually really eager to
practice their English on you
or give you a tip about where to eat.
If you're thinking about Korea,
I would highly recommend it.
And if you're thinking about
getting a TEFL certificate,
I think International TEFL Academy Online was
a great way to go, very cost-effective
and very helpful.
Bye, anyoung hee gyeseyo.
(bouncy music)