2014: A Year in Review

HAPPY NEW YEARS! While we welcome a new year, we would like to take a moment to reflect on the one that has just concluded. 2014 was a year of transition for Hedgers Abroad. Finishing our contracts at our first job in Korea was a struggle of will and perspective that we eventually won; leading to a much better situation in public schools.

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A Day in the Life… How to Find a GOOD Hagwon Job

Last week we shared our extremely bad experience of our last year’s hagwon job. However, we do want to stress that even though situations like these can happen, there are many teachers who really love working for private academies and highly recommend them. The key is to know how to find the right school that is reputable.

A Day in the Life – The Nightmare Hagwon

We have put off talking about this for a long time. We needed a chance to let the dust settle before writing about our experience last year.

As many of you know, we taught in Seoul last year. We taught a private academy, or hagwon. We chose to live in the capital because of the convenience for foreigners and also because Seoul just seemed like such an interesting and fun place to live. And it was.

A Day in the Life – Public vs Hagwon Schools

After teaching in Korea for a year and a half with experience at both public schools and private academies, we wanted to put together a list of the pros and cons of each. These are important to consider when applying for an ESL position in Korea, so be sure to do your research before deciding which is best for you.

A Day in the Life – How to Teach in Korea

We have already voiced our opinion about why Korea is the top choice for many people looking to teach ESL in Asia. However, recently we have been getting a lot of questions about how to teach here in Korea. Before moving our lives half way around the world, we did months and months of research.

Stamps in our passports… Taiwan!

As some of you may know, next week Korea celebrates Chuseok. Chuseok is kind of like the Korean equivalent to Thanksgiving in the states. It is a harvest festival and people here celebrate it by going to their ancestral hometowns and eating a feast of traditional foods. The three day holiday this year starts on Wednesday next week.  From what we hear, Seoul, a city of just under eleven million people, empties out and becomes a ghost town.

A Day in the Life – In the Halls

Last week we read to you some of the awesome writing assignments that our students submitted. If you haven’t seen the video yet, go check it out here. We have recently started vlogging on youtube and now have our very own channel! It is still in the workings, but we hope that you all like it. Let us know what you think and subscribe for more.

A Day in the Life – Ryan’s Youngest Class

A Day in the Life is the newest chapter on our blog! Our goal is to show you what it is like in the daily life of an ESL teacher living in South Korea. We had so many questions about our job before we came to Korea, and now that we are here, we want to show you what it is like teaching abroad.