September 2018: My First Month In Korea

Ahh I finally finished! This video took me longer to make than I expected--not that I spent a ton of time editing it or anything, just that it took me forever to get started.

I originally wanted to make a vlog about pre-orientation and then orientation, but I got so busy, and I started to feel self conscious talking to the camera, so I scrapped that and just tried to get clips of everything. Eventually it was three weeks after orientation and I was like, I'll just throw everything I have in here.

Is it weird to feel nostalgic for orientation? Because that's a bit of how I felt when looking through this footage. I made a lot of friends with Gangwon province people, since our class was half Daejeon, half Gangwon. I also loved our class leaders-- Heo and Esther.

Anyway, how's it been, in my own words?

Exciting, terrifying, so busy. I want to be incredibly candid about my experiences, so let me say that I panicked a couple of times, especially when I was boarding my plane to Seoul. I had a moment of sheer terror, like I was practically shaking from fear and nerves and the pain of just having said goodbye to my best friend.

But, despite that, I've been pretty solid since arriving. I feel like I'm adjusting really well, actually. My friends and I hang out most nights, travel to Seoul on the weekend together, and try new foods (new for me). Almost all of my friends are either Korean-American/Canadian or speak Korean well and so the language barrier isn't so impossible.

However, that's got its own downsides. Since I'm the worst Korean speaker in our group, I often don't have to be on the front lines of translating, which lets me too get comfortable. So we try to make sure I'm the one ordering food, and things like that, so I'm forced to speak.

The language barrier is easily the most stressful part of this whole thing. I've had plenty of really uncomfortable experiences because of it already. As I mentioned in my last blog post, I don't think I fully realized how overwhelming and total the barrier is. I don't like feeling helpless, and that's a common feeling when you're unable to understand anything and no one can understand you.

Yet it's still somehow easy to feel comfortable and slip into an ease about learning Korean once you learn the survival phrases. I'm taking classes and doing tons of self-study, and my friends sometimes tell me not to beat myself up about my language skills, but I feel like it's too easy to get lax about it.

If you're reading this and considering teaching English abroad, I really stress starting to learn Korean now, even if you're not sure you'll end up doing it. It's a really systematic and interesting language, so I would totally begin that now, no matter how early it is. I recommend Talk to Me in Korean's free lessons.

Besides that, teaching has been going well, besides a bit of impostor syndrome. I'm always looking for new games and ways to incorporate my culture into the classroom. I already love my kids so much, even though I don't know all their names yet (I've got like 180 kids, I'm trying!). My coteachers (and coworkers in general) are also so incredibly warm.

My apartment is also really cute, which is fortunate. It's clean, a decent size, and now that I've got rugs and a bit of decor, it's starting to feel cozy and like my own space.

So yeah, it's been good. I plan to make more videos (maybe an apartment tour, a school tour) somewhat soon. I want to get better at editing too, lol. I might make videos where I actually talk in them?? We'll see. Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading. If you have any questions, feel free to ask!