Living In Yeosu:

I am currently working at E-World in Yeosu, South Korea. Yeosu is a small city surrounded by beautiful rolling hills and the sea. It has been convenient to live in an apartment that is but a two minute walk to all the important amenities such as a stunningly long walk along the water front, a gym, a grocery store, a pool, bakeries, bank, shops, bars, restaurants and not to mention the school. Also, for those into hiking, there are many mountains to be climbed (10-15 walk away) offering the most wonderful views of Yeosu. If beaches are what you are looking for, it is less than a 10 dollar taxi ride away.

On account of speaking to other foreigners, I am nearly certain that I have lived in one of the best apartments possible in Yeosu. The apartment is massive, with three large bedrooms (one being the size of a medium sized apartment ), a living room, large kitchen, washing machine (you must hang your clothes to dry), 2 bathrooms and a balcony undoubtedly fit for entertaining, relaxing, bbqs and so on.

The work environment at E-World:

The past year has been an experience of a life time. It can be daunting to just pick up your life and travel across the world to a foreign place; a place where they speak very little English and where you certainly stand out in appearance. There may only be around 50 or so other foreigners living in Yeosu (the majority of which are easy to meet considering there is a face book group and a lot hang out with one another quite often). I would suspect that adjusting to the Korean culture, which in my opinion is pretty traditional, especially in Yeosu, would have taken me a lot longer if I wasnt welcomed into my school by a very inviting boss (May), her sister (Lydia) and the rest of their family.

The laid back atmosphere created by this family run academy enables the teachers (3 foreign teachers, 5 Korean teachers) to really be creative and feel free to adapt their own teaching style. May is flexible and caring and always interested in her teachers. Lydia is forever thinking about others and has gone above and beyond to make sure I felt comfortable over the past year. They understand what its like to be away from home as they have both lived in Canada and therefore are always looking for new ways to care for new teachers. Both May and Lydia have taken me exploring around Korea; Lydia has done everything from helping me sort out my travel plans to Thailand and Japan, to taking me to the doctor when I was sick, to ordering pizza, and if the night called for chicken, that too. Each and every thing that they have done for me has contributed tremendously to my positive experience here. I would recommend that anyone who is looking to teach English in a foreign country and for a lovely place to call home for a year would be ever so fortunate to work in both May and Lydias presence.

Teaching:

I will end on one of the most important facets of living and working in South Korea. The teaching experience I have gained at E-world has been invaluable. I have enjoyed it so much that I am already planning to come back to South Korea following my graduation from teachers college in Canada. The non-threatening, fun learning environment created at E-World offers over 300 students ranging from five to fifteen an excellent opportunity to learn English. With a Korean teacher and foreign teacher teaming up to teach each of the classes, the students have a lot of support and as a result have demonstrated the ability to progress quite quickly. As a teacher, this has been very rewarding to see. Taken together with all that I have written above, I think it would be best to say that my overall experience as a teacher at E-World deserves five stars!