So, I have added a contact page to my blog. Just in case there’s someone out there who does want to get in touch!
If it’s a question about a post, an offer of a collaboration, maybe even a book deal (a guy can dream right?), please contact me in the manners listed!
Click the following link to be taken to my brand new contact page: Want to Get in Touch?
Ok, so I know I said I’d have this here by the end of the weekend, but it’s the weekend somewhere right? Or is that it’s 5pm somewhere? I don’t know, and I doubt you care readers. You’re too eager to hear about the differences between working for a public school and a private academy (or hagwon as they are known).
Let’s begin.
It’s been quite a while since I’ve written anything for this blog. Scratch that. I mean, since I’ve written anything full stop. I’m going to shirk responsibility for that onto the Christmas season and my vacation from school (a whopping 5 days doing as little as humanly possible). Please accept my humble apologies for this silence!
So readers, HAPPY NEW YEAR, 2015 is full of endless possibilities: bright lights, big cities, busty ladies. Although, I think I’d rather early nights, low lights, and a good book. What an exciting live I’ve come to lead.
Joking aside, this is basically what my vacation consisted of, and boy was I happy about it! Rather than bore you with a blow-by-blow account of my time off, instead I’ll just show you a gallery of pictures that capture what I did with myself for the time off.
Ok… It seems I only took two photographs on my time off, good thing I’m not a photo-blogger I guess! These pictures come from the first day of my vacation, when I walked from my house to the old downtown, Nampo-dong. It takes roughly 2 hours to cover the distance on foot, alternatively I could have taken the subway for a less scenic 17 minute journey.
That night was spent in utter recline with great friends, scoffing as much pizza, fried chicken, and (bizarrely) feta salad as we could, and of course, ringing in the new year.
The next few days were spent in a similar fashion: relaxing, hanging out, and eating. Then on Monday, school started back and the holiday season seemed to drift out of focus and into my memory. Back to the grindstone it is!
P.S. If you were hoping for part 3 of So You Want to Come to Korea, I will try to have it up by the end of this weekend!
This is an interesting read, and I was myself, thinking along the same lines just last night. Despite not being a practicing Catholic, nor even a believing one, I find it hard to see the mass consumerism at Christmas. Especially given that I’m the world away from my family this year, I find that the things I’m missing most aren’t the mince pies and the tin of Roses (although I do miss those!!!). It’s the feeling of being together with family that I’m longing for, and that I think, is the true spirit of Christmas!
So yesterday(ish) I wrote about the boatload of documents you need to get you application for a visa to come to Korea (see here). Today, I move onto the somewhat confusing topic of recruiters. Recruiters are one of the best ways to find a job in Korea, if you are not already in the country as they will know about many upcoming jobs and can often have a large catchment area of schools.
Trust me, at least once in your dealings with Korean recruiters you are going to feel like the man above. It can be frustrating and agonizing!
Firstly, what exactly are recruiters?
Well, I’m glad you’ve asked, because this is a very important question and an even more important answer! In short they are companies that find candidates for schools. Key point here. They are businesses, who work for schools. Recruiters do not work for you, they work with you, but not for you never forget this.
After 8 months here in the ‘Land of the Morning Calm’, 8 months spent recommending it to anyone who’d listen for longer than a second, I’ve decided it might be time to let you know how to get here. Hopefully those 8-10 second recommendations have piqued at least some curiosity!
I hope do do a few posts in this series about coming to Korea, the first of which is about the documents you’ll need to get here, or at least get a visa application to do so. Please note that this guide is most applicable for the Irish out there and those looking for a basic guide to getting yourselves together enough to make it to Korea.
So, tell me what documents I need Emmet!!!
This week has gone by in quite a blur if I’m honest, probably because I had Tuesday off work in fairness. I still love that it’s Friday, finally the weekend! If only I had an actual Crunchie to give me that true Friday feeling. Instead I’ll content myself with the …dulcet… tones of Rebecca Black. Just 6 more classes until the weekend!
Holidays are coming, holidays are coming, and yet I have not seen the iconic Coke ad that is the signal to all and sundry that the Christmas season has well and truly begun. I’m beginning to wonder if I know it’s Christmas at all!
It makes me feel truly odd that it’s already the 8th of December and I’ve only heard a few Christmas songs and seen a few paltry decorations in the more Western chain stores, that is to say Starbucks and any retailer looking to cash in on the Christmas buzz.
However, that said, Korea doesn’t have much of a “Christmas buzz” for they don’t have the Catholic or Christian roots so strongly evidenced back home. Christmas here is view as one of two things: a holiday for Westerners and the minority of Christians and Catholics, thoroughly part of some culture other than that of the natives; or something cutesy for couples to indulge in. Either way there’s not a whole lot of traction for the Christmas industry’s wheels to gain.
A few months ago, right back at the start of this blog, way back on Blogger, I promised I would grab some snaps of the hilarious “English” on some products, notepads, and buildings around Busan. Now, I think it’s time to make good on this promise.
First up I’ve got this lovely notebook from my student Brian. Now I know the English isn’t actually bad on this one, but the misquote in order to avoid copyright laws just cracks me up every time I see this notebook. Some of you readers may have seen this months ago on my Instagram feed, but who doesn’t love a re-post? Sadly, little Brian has finished this one and no longer do I get to answer “Yes, I do feel lovely, PUNK” to his notebook… On second thoughts perhaps it’s better I don’t have questions to answer to notebooks, that’s just lunacy.
For a couple of weeks I snickered every time I looked at the front cover of a notebook as many of them have such bizarre writing on them. It can be anything, from misquoted Disney songs/characters/movies/anything really to random information about a color or a random place in the English-speaking world. I swear I once saw a notebook with a passage about Manchester City and it’s great mining history, missing however, was any mention of Maggie Thatcher.
Buachaill Busan: Busan Boy 