teaching in korea.
Deciding to teach in Korea was a huge decision for me. It meant leaving my friends and family, a job I really love, and more. However, it has been something I wanted to do since high school, and I would rather regret doing it than regret not doing it. So, when I was in my last semester of university (Spring 2017), I went ahead and put in my application to a recruiting agency, Korvia, and started the grueling application process to teach in Korea. I had done research into teaching in Korea and what different programs I could apply to, so I was pretty set on wanting to apply to the GEPIK program. However, after interviewing with my recruiting agency, my interviewer suggested applying to EPIK because of a few reasons:
1. GEPIK positions were scarce for the incoming Fall term 2. GEPIK was looking for teachers with more experience or ones that were preferably already in Korea The differences between EPIK and GEPIK are mainly in location (GEPIK covers the Gyeonggi-do area that surrounds Seoul and EPIK covers all of Korea) and that with GEPIK, you interview directly with GEPIK schools. Although I was a little disappointed, my main goal was to teach in Korea. Read: anywhere in Korea. The EPIK application process is something I will get into later on and in more depth, but a key point in my journey to teach in Korea is that in June, I got waitlisted for EPIK. My departure got delayed to the Spring term in 2018, and again, this is something I will get into in a later post, but I am in the same boat as many applicants for the EPIK Spring 2018 term, eagerly waiting for any news of placement. This post is meant to be a general overview of the beginning of my EPIK journey, but as I’ve said (like, too many times at this point!), I will make more in depth posts, including a timeline of my EPIK application process. Until next time!
