Making the Decision.

Ten New Words a Day


I first knew I was going to teach in Korea about a year ago. Brandon (the boyfriend) and I decided when we were London (England not Ontario) to go see a musical entitled Avenue Q. I have a thing for musical theatre and had been angling to see Wicked, but tickets for this particular musical were cheaper, the theatre was closer and easier to find(we’re more than a little bad with maps), and the reviews were positive. So we went, and to our surprise it was a fairly amazing and clever show .It was like Jim Henson meets Rent with some Abbott and Costello tossed in. The message of this play also struck home with me. To elaborate, the opening lines of the musical was sung by a rather dapper looking puppet, and went something like this;

What do you do with a BA in English?
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge
have earned me this useless degree.
I can’t pay the bills yet
Because I have no skills yet

After the show, Brandon and I wandered around downtown London, looking for a store that sold good cheap wine and admiring the bustling street cafes. I was pretty quiet and was thinking about how I was going to finish of my degree soon, and wasn’t sure if I had any skills to offer, any way to pay back my student loan, or if I was even interested in attending grad school right away, which had always been the plan. I had tutored a family from Korea the previous year, and had briefly entertained the idea of teaching there. In short, a silly musical had pretty much thrown me into one of those infamous “what am I going to do with my life” panic attacks. I pulled Brandon onto a park bench somewhere near Soho, took a deep breathe and told Brandon that I maybe wanted to go to Korea for a year by myself and teach English, that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do next, and would that be okay if I took a year to travel, try teaching, have some fun , and decide. Brandon, being the great and awesome boyfriend that he is, said the magic words I was hoping to hear, “Of course it’s okay. I want you to do what makes you happy. I’ll come visit you in Korea! I love you, and I think this would be a great experience!”

When I got back to Canada, I started researching Korea and it’s infinite teaching opportunities and hooked myself up with Canadian Connections. Which is the best recruiting agency ever. I him and hawwed over the decision for another seven months. But now I’m getting ready to teach English on the outskirts of Seoul Korea.

Obviously I have some fears. I’m going alone which petrifies me in some ways. I’m not the greatest cook, I have a tendency to lose bank cards at an alarming rate( I actually hold the record for lost bank cards at the RBC in Canada-a fact that I’m half ashamed by and half amazed by), and I also have a habit of locking myself of my apartments. More than once has a friend had to boost me through an unlocked window or drive me to a landlords house so that I could sheepishly beg for a spare key. Truth be told, I’m a pretty unorganized and careless person, and my friends, who I love dearly, help me out a lot. They sometimes cook when they come over, get me organized, call me, shop with me, gossip, and generally make my life good. Not having Katie, Darrah, Gil, Brandon, James, Donnie, Ryan Chris, Tristan, Dee, Al Doug and others around is going to be very strange and very weird. I’m scared of being lonely-is the point I’m trying to make. But these fears are good. I’m excited to be able to spend a year, exploring, teaching and researching a new country and I’m excited to (somewhat) make over my life. I’ve set goals for the new and improved Korean me!

1) Learn to appreciate Korean food!

2) I want to learn five Korean words a day! By the end of my trip I want to be able to read an article in a Korean newspaper and know what it means. I know this may not be ambitious, and it’s not the same as vowing to learn an entire language, but it seems more realistic, attainable, and fun than sloughing through language books for an entire year. And when I’m busy teaching all day I’m sure that five words a day will be challenging enough.

3) I want to adopt a new exercise regime. For years I have existed on a dull cycle of twenty minutes on a bike, twenty on the elliptical, and 20 on a treadmill. This had basically become an exercise hell from which I have long yearned to escape. In Korea I want to learn either a martial art, a new dance, or start practicing yoga. Something to make being fit more fun. I also vow to never step on an elliptical machine again.

4) I want to learn to read a map. Whenever Brandon and I have gone somewhere Brandon inevitably ends up navigating. My internal compass is broken and I have long been afraid of maps. But, this notion of man and the map, while the woman plods alongside seems outdated and sexist. So I’m going to embrace navigation and learn how to get where I need to go. I’m excited to figure out airports and rail systems on my own.

5) Make friends. I want to meet impossibly sexy people. Expats who decided on a whim to teach in Korea, who love hiking, who love exploring big outdoor marketplaces, and who always know the best places to go and most exciting things to do.

6) Travel. I want to go to India. And Thailand. Cambodia. Bali. While this can’t all happen as I need to try and save some money. The new improved organized me will go to at least one of these places.

7) Teach! Teach well! I'm excited to be a good teacher. I had some great teachers growing up and I know how much they effected me.



8) Be a grown-up. My friends and I always talk about when we’ll get there. When we’ll wake up and say “Hey ! I’m totally a mature adult!”. I thought I would feel like that when I moved out of my parents house. Dragging your dirty laundry to your parents home for four years in order to use the free washing machine quickly removes any idea that you held about being an adult from your head. Hopefully this helps!