(upbeat techno music)
- Good morning!
My name is Claire, and today I'll be showing you
what a typical day is like for me
as an English teacher in Jeju Island, South Korea.
So, a little bit about myself.
I am originally from Florida, in the United States.
I've been living here in Jeju since August of 2018.
So, about a year and three months.
And I'm a public school teacher through the EPIK Program.
So, I'm about to head to work for the day.
As you can see, I'm in my car.
So, if you have any questions
about what it's like to have a car in Korea,
or getting a license, or driving here,
you can definitely ask me those.
I left the question box in the slide before this one.
And also I wanted to mention that I do teach
at three middle schools,
so in Jeju, it's quite common for the public school teachers
to teach at multiple schools.
Yeah, so I'm about to head to this school that I work at
on Wednesdays and Fridays,
and I will try to film a little bit in my classes
and answer your questions later.
(students cheering loudly)
(students chatting loudly)
- Hey, I'm on my lunch break now.
I'm at a little park near my school,
so I'll try to answer a few questions.
I got a lot of questions
specifically related to the EPIK Program and public schools,
so I'll go ahead and answer a couple of those first.
I did intend to work in public schools
when I started the process of coming to Korea.
When I was doing my research on working at public schools
versus private academies,
personally for me, it seemed that there were more benefits
to working at a public school.
For example, the EPIK Program now offers...
You get 26 vacation days on your year contract,
and I have friends who work at some academies
where they only have five or six.
There are benefits to working at Hagwons
or private academies,
but it really just depends on what you're looking for.
Public schools schedules are also during the day
because you're working during normal school hours,
so typically...
Most teachers here work from about 8:30 to 4:30.
Private schools, on the other hand,
go later into the evening,
so if you like to sleep in, go to work later,
that's an option but then you have to stay at work
until maybe nine or eight o'clock.
(traffic bustling)
- All right, so now that I'm home
I can show you around my apartment quickly.
It's a very small studio apartment.
But anyways, when you walk in,
the bathroom is right here in this room.
There's a closet here for shoes and other storage.
And then, this is my kitchen.
It came with a fridge and a microwave.
The toaster oven and all that I bought.
And, yeah.
Table, my bed,
and then I have these two closets for clothes.
That closet has the boiler in there,
and then there's some more storage here, so...
EPIK provides the apartment for you.
In Jeju, a lot of teachers
live in the same apartment blocks.
I know in other parts of Korea
that usually it's because,
the apartment is in relation to where your school is.
Here it's not really the case.
I know people who travel really far to their schools
because they have limited apartments here.
But yeah, most jobs, if not all of the ESL jobs in Korea,
will provide you with free housing.
So, it's really great.
Hey, so the last question I'm gonna answer
is what I think the most difficult thing was for me
in the entire process.
I'm not sure if that means leading up to moving here
or while living here,
but for me, I think the most difficult thing
was adjusting to three new work environments instead of one,
because I work at three schools.
So, it did take time for me
to get used to how each school works,
you know, they have their own textbooks,
their own way of running things.
So, my advice for that is to just be patient
with everything: yourself, your coworkers, your students,
and eventually you'll establish your routine
at each school, and you'll be okay.
All right, if you have any other questions
about teaching English in Korea or abroad,
feel free to send me a message on my personal Instagram.
I'll put is on the screen.
Yeah, thank you very much for watching,
and if you are considering getting your TEFL Certification,
I would recommend you just do it
because it is totally worth it,
no matter where you decide to teach.
All right!
Thanks again and have a good night!
(upbeat techno music)