Conclusions

I am at the very end of my time in Korea now.  I have shared some stuff here on my blog, but I am certain there is much that has gone unwritten too.  So now I think it's about time I made some final conclusions about my whole experience...then perhaps I will put this blog to bed.

Korea - I had some good times and bad.  I find there are many more bland or irritating times washing over me right now, perhaps with a little or a lot more time I will find myself looking back on my time in Korea with a fondness.  But as I say this I know that not all of my time over there was so trying.  I guess I will start with the good, follow with the bad and maybe glance over some of the stuff.

Good - I have discovered that I truly enjoy teaching and that it is a career I would like to pursue, plus to my surprise it is elementary school children I am most interested in teaching.  I got to know the kids and their personalities despite the obvious language barrier.  I wish I had not had to leave them behind when I left, but that cannot be helped.

I also enjoyed some of the few nights I had out with my co-teachers, there were some awkward times, but I am glad that they made some effort, if only once or twice.  I know that it must have been difficult for them, due to lack of time and fear of using English, but it is a shame that I could not dampen the latter.  Try as I might I could not make speaking English less than a chore for them.

I spent much time hanging out with my friend Matt.  Generally we really didn't do a whole lot, but those Saturdays were often a light in my dull week.

Bad - Well now, my life was rather dull.  I had a couple of friends in the town in which I lived, although I believe they were only friends by virtue of being in a small town where choice did not arise.  On a day to day basis I could go several days without talking to someone - well barring my students that is.  There were some days I would not even come across my co-teachers...yes I was supposed to teach with them but that did not always happen.

Reliability - You are not likely to find this trait over there.  It may sound harsh, but it comes from experience.  As a foreigner it would seem that people are much less likely to treat you as an equal and therefore they will often forget to tell you things in your school until the last minute.  They will also cancel classes left and right and if they can get away with it they won't even bother telling you.  Or another example might be that, during the day I should always have had a co-teacher, so that the kids would have an English speaker and a Korean speaker in the room at the same time.  However I would say my co-teachers only showed up 50% of the time.  For me this last bit became less of a problem later in the year, but it should never have been an issue.

Crappy co-teachers - Now I did have some good co-teachers, which I am thankful of.  But there are three types of crappy co-teachers which I came across. 
1. Useless and incapable - This particular co-teacher would try to take over my class over and over but she was a terrible teacher, had crappy English and she could not control the class.
2. Aggressive - This co-teacher was actually a pretty good teacher, but she was super aggressive and if the kids erred even slightly she would come down stupidly hard on them.  At first I thought she was just laying the ground work, but I think she may just have been a bit touchy.  Not exactly terrible for me, but difficult to watch.  She would also slow down too much and do irrelevant activities if left to her own devices.
3. Not there - Thankfully for this co-teacher it did not matter overly for me as I was teaching a very capable grade and they were able to understand me without the need of a translator.

Racism - There is so much obvious racism in Korea against foreigners it is startling.  The job market brings in foreigners to work in their schools, but it is pretty obvious that much of the country wish this were not so.  I can understand their problems with having so many foreigners do a job that there a Koreans able to do the job too.  However without being able to understand foreign English Korean businessmen of the future would be screwed.  Koreans, generally and especially in the country-side are rather overtly racist, they act as though you are the first foreigner they have ever seen.  They will stare, then they will stare and then they will stare some more.  Even at a bus stop and this is one that I always found bizarre, was that the buses would always stop in front of the Koreans even if they have been lining up behind a foreigner.  I eventually came to ignore the stares and the negative treatment that would often come up, but it can be pretty overwhelming when one first arrives in Korea.

Logic - This is the last point I will talk about.  It is perhaps not something that may mean so much to other people, but for me logic is quite important.  I used to think that Americans were completely illogical, but that was until I met the South Korean nation.  There are many ways in which they have provenblog or anyone else's for that matter if you want to know more about that.

Finally - I guess I forgot to mention that the money for working in Korea was pretty good and I saved even more due to the fact that I had no real personal life to speak of.

This year has changed me significantly and I can only hope for the better, but I have come away with some scars, not really physical ones, but ones that will likely stay with more for quite some time.  I hope I can take my experiences and put them to good use this next year, be that in some kind of teaching job or in a qualification. 

I shall put it into a final sentence, although I experienced many bad things, I also found my career and saved enough money to allow me to pursue if I am given the opportunity. Thanks Korea!  Now England give me the opportunity I need!