u/sheriecherie

I'm currently an EPIK teacher working at a public elementary school in Korea. I'm from the United States, and I'm planning to teach English in China after completing two years with EPIK. I've been teaching for 6 months so far.

I have a few questions:

1. How difficult is the application and visa process when applying from Korea? I know I have to get a criminal background check but, how do I obtain that exactly in Korea? I've got my apostille diploma and TEFL certificate covered.
2. When should I start applying for teaching jobs in China? Is it okay to start applying in the middle of my EPIK contract? I know China has different hiring seasons, and applying during peak recruitment periods can increase my chances of getting hired. Would schools in China be willing to hire me several months in advance and wait until my contract in Korea ends before I relocate? Or would it be better to start applying closer to February, when my contract is about to end?
3. For Epik teachers, the agency that we applied with meet us at the airport and take us to orientation and then from orientation, our coteachers take us to our accommodation and schools. In china, since there is no orientation or agency and we have to go through multiple hiring agents, who will meet us at the airport?

What else do I need to know to ensure a smooth transition?

Thanks in advance for any advice! :)

I managed to go on a tour to Hong island and i paid 1,100 baht. However, when we went to Hong island and had a 2 hour free time, I was so sleepy I decided to take a short 20 min nap. I couldn't keep my eyes open, that's how sleepy I was. That 20 min turned into a full 2 hour nap and by time I twoke up (I kept waking up and going back to sleep), it was time for us to go. I couldn't go in the gorgeous waters, I missed out on the viewpoint and snorkeling :( i feel pretty dumb like maybe I should've forced myself to stay awake and get in the water or do something to get my money's worth.

I think what made me so sleepy was the thai motion sickness (purple packaging) pills I took right before the tour ? I was even falling asleep on the boat there too.

I feel kinda stupid like I paid 1,100 just to sleep :( idk I regret ever considering that nap in the first place. Did something similar happen to you ?

If you had to go to only one temple from these 2, which one would you choose ?

I choose doi suthep on a rainy day bc it was the only time I could go and im sorry to say, it was kinda underwhelming compared to the other temples i saw . I thought it would be way more grand bc it was on a mountain top or something. However, I love the rain so the atmosphere around the temple, how foggy it was, was a cool and pretty experience!

I decided to skip wat pha lat bc I didn't have time but maybe I should've gone there instead? What are your thoughts?

hello,

I'm a first year teacher and this is my very first english camp. I've only been teaching for 5 months since March and my students are 6th graders. My theme for camp is Harry Potter. I have 17 students who signed up for the camp.

I just finished day 1 on Friday and my teachers told me I need to motivate the students in the beginning of camp, I can't just say, "welcome to camp !" I have to get them excited to start the day but, I am struggling with this because most of the students are low level and they cannot understand me so what should i even say? As I mentioned in a previous post, I struggle to connect with my students so I really want to put effort in building rapport with them since I'm the main teacher this time. How should I praise them? Good job gets kind of receptive. Should I greet them at the door when they walk in ? They also said I should be more confident and make eye contact with students while im teaching. I guess I was just extremely nervous for day 1 since its my first time leading anything on my own.

Also, Im struggling on buying prizes for the camp. There will be a winning team or house and they will receive a special prize but, everyone else will also receive small gifts as well. I'm thinking of buying a harry potter bookmark for the winning team but, what should the rest of the students get? what kind of candy would they like? I need ideas for inexpensive gifts on coupang so it doesnt break my bank.

any general teaching tips and advice will also be very appreciated !! thank you!

I work at an elementary school and 2 days ago, I missed my coteachers email about class cancellation and thought she didnt inform so I emailed her saying, "if there are any future schedule changes affecting my classes, I would appreciate it if you could let me know directly as well. Thank you for your understanding". However, this email accidentally got sent to all the teachers in the school. My coteacher confronted me about it and told me that I made her look like a bad person. I immediately apologized and also emailed her back saying, "I am very sorry about earlier. I will be more careful next time and make sure it doesnt happen again". She replied back with, "You made everyone think I'm a bad teacher who doesnt do her job and doesnt inform about cancelled classes".

I already had miscommunications with her in the past and our relationship was kind of rocky and it only managed to get better recently. So, when she sent me that reply it initially made me feel horrible. For 2 days straight, I felt useless, incompetent, and very stupid. I felt like a committed a terrible crime.

However, I've been reflecting on it. Although, It's understandable that she was angry and exasperated, I felt that her reply was a little emotionally charged especially since I already apologized. Even though it got sent to a lot of teachers, It was in english and majority of the teachers can't speak english. Therefore, to understand my email fully, they would need to translate it in korean and I dont think they cared that much? Also the vice prinipal did ask her about it but mainly for clarification and i think it worked in her favor because she could just explain I was the one who made the mistake so he wouldnt think she didnt do her job. Plus, one of my other coteachers even reassured me by laughing about the whole situation and told me to forget it so if i did do something terrible, why would she laugh about it?

I am planning to buy my coteacher a gift and write an apology letter/card but, I would like to hear your opinions as well because I am conflicted on how I should feel.

I work at an elementary school and 2 days ago, I missed my coteachers email about class cancellation and thought she didnt inform so I emailed her saying, "if there are any future schedule changes affecting my classes, I would appreciate it if you could let me know directly as well. Thank you for your understanding". However, this email accidentally got sent to all the teachers in the school. My coteacher confronted me about it and told me that I made her look like a bad person. I immediately apologized and also emailed her back saying, "I am very sorry about earlier. I will be more careful next time and make sure it doesnt happen again". She replied back with, "You made everyone think I'm a bad teacher who doesnt do her job and doesnt inform about cancelled classes".

I already had miscommunications with her in the past and our relationship was kind of rocky and it only managed to get better recently. So, when she sent me that reply it initially made me feel horrible. For 2 days straight, I felt useless, incompetent, and very stupid. I felt like a committed a terrible crime.

However, I've been reflecting on it. Although, It's understandable that she was angry and exasperated, I felt that her her reply was a little emotionally charged especially since I already apologized. Even though it got sent to a lot of teachers, It was in english and majority of the teachers can't speak english. Therefore, to understand my email fully, they would need to translate it in korean and I dont think they cared that much? Also the vice prinipal did ask her about it but mainly for clarification and i think it worked in her favor because she could just explain I was the one who made the mistake so he wouldnt think she didnt do her job. Plus, one of my other coteachers even reassured me by laughing about the whole situation and told me to forget it so if i did do something terrible, why would she laugh about it?

I am planning to buy my coteacher a gift and write an apology letter/card but, I would like to hear your opinions as well because I am conflicted on how I should feel.

I've been teaching in elementary school for 4 months. With this coteacher, our relationship was already rocky (i posted about it earlier) because of misunderstandings, miscommunications etc.. and I think what happened today fucked it up even more. Our 4th grade classes were cancelled and I didn't read the message she sent me so I went our classroom in the morning and she very sternly told me to check messages which I understand.

However, I went back to our office and didn't see her message so I emailed her exactly this, "I checked the messages, but I couldn't understand the Korean announcement. I will continue checking the messages every morning. If there are any future schedule changes affecting my classes, I would appreciate it if you could let me know directly as well".

This made her come down from her 4th floor classroom all the way to our office, exasperated and annoyed. She made go through my messages to point out that she in fact sent me an email about the cancelation and I just missed it. She also said my above message was sent to all the teachers and it made her look like a bad person.

I feel terrible. The korean message interface is all in Korean and there are 3 sections in which you can check and receive messages. I check 2 of the sections but didn't check the third where the message about the cancelation was. I also can't read korean and when I reply to her, it never gets sent to other teachers so I dont even know it got sent to all the teachers. She was extremely annoyed and even though I apologized, I felt awful. I replied to her cancelation after she confront me telling her, "im very sorry about earlier. I'll try to be more careful next time and make sure this wont happen again". She replied with, "You made everyone think im a bad teacher who doesn't do my job and doesn't tell anyone about canceled classes". She also mentioned on the way to class that my email seemed like I was complaining to the head teacher (maybe I accidentally attached his name too?) Or that she complained to him ? And also in class before checking that she sent me the cancelation email as soon as she got the news too. The vice principal also asked her what happened after lunch. What should I do? Even though our relationship was rocky, she tried to repair it by being nice and even gave me a bday gift but I feel like we are back to square one and this messed everything with us :( I do want a good relationship with her because shes in charge of me so what else should I do ?

I apologize for the long post in advance.

I am an EPIK teacher at an elementary school, and this is my fourth month teaching in Korea. I am originally from New York City.

I have been having a hard time connecting with my students because I cannot seem to get past the language barrier. I teach third, fourth, fifth, and sixth grade, and most of my students are at a lower English level. Many of them cannot speak or understand English well, so I am struggling to figure out how to bond with them.

This really started to affect me around Teachers’ Day. I saw many other EPIK teachers receive letters and cards from their students expressing how much they loved them, how happy they were to be in their classes, and how much fun they had. Meanwhile, I only received one card. In the card, the student simply apologized for writing my name incorrectly. He did not even give it to me himself; he asked another student to give it to me. I still do not know who he is. I only know that he is a boy because my co-teacher told me.

I know I should not compare myself to other teachers, but I cannot help wondering what I am doing wrong.

In most of my classes, I feel as though I am mainly the “game teacher.” I try to find games that the students will enjoy, and I spend a lot of time editing and preparing them so that the lessons will be fun. However, I am beginning to wonder whether I am doing enough. It is also difficult because the students often do not understand me.

For example, I create practice PowerPoints to help them review the key expressions. When I ask them to repeat the expressions after me, they often do not respond because they do not understand what I am asking them to do. Yesterday, my fifth-grade co-teacher had to tell the students in Korean to repeat after me because, even after I asked them several times, they still did not understand. The same thing happens in my third-grade classes.

Some students have also stopped greeting me. They will greet my co-teachers, but when they see me, they sometimes look away without acknowledging me. Other students have started openly expressing negative reactions to the games I choose. For example, one student had to play rock-paper-scissors with other students as part of a game, and she became visibly annoyed and said that she did not want to do it.

In another sixth-grade class, a student repeatedly called for my co-teacher’s help even though I was standing directly in front of her. She called out, “Teacher!” and when I walked toward her, she began calling my co-teacher by name instead. Even the other students said in Korean, “There is a teacher right in front of you!” And she was asking about something very simple.

Experiences like these have made me question the purpose of my role here. In two of my classes, my co-teachers do not allow me much freedom with my practice PowerPoints or games. If they do not like something, they ask me to change it or change it themselves.

For example, while teaching a lesson about time, I wanted to include “a.m.” and “p.m.” in the practice PowerPoint because English speakers often say things such as “6 a.m.” or “7 p.m.” However, my co-teacher asked me to remove them because they were not included in the textbook. My 3rd grade coteacher asked to stop saying an apple or a ball because they're taught to say uhh ball and un apple in the textbook even though thats not what we say in America?

This confused me because I thought part of the purpose of having a native English-speaking teacher was to expose students to natural English and teach them how English is actually used. If I am also expected to follow the textbook exactly without adding anything, I sometimes wonder what unique role I am supposed to have. The students could simply follow the textbook without me being there.

All of this has been making me feel inadequate. My dream was to become an English teacher and teach English to children, but these experiences are making me question whether I am truly suited to being a teacher.

I tried to get tickets for goyang and comeback live for bts using international nolworld and I got an error both times. I used google chrome and I could queue just fine but, when it was time for me to enter the seat map after queuing, the time did not show up no matter what i did and I couldnt enter. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YIj0VRkSlLGBqeWEam1mHO5q-qab-ucr/view?usp=sharing

This time im using korean nolworld (i live in korea so i have an ARC and korean phone number) because I heard its better. This is my first time using it so I'm kinda scared. Any tips and tricks on how to operate korean nolworld smoothly would be very much appreciated !!

Also, should I use safari or google chrome? I'm scared I might get the same error on google chrome?