Getting to Korea

so this whole process has been about less than 2 months. i sent in my initial application then i did a voice message as the next step. within a few days i received my first bite and a school in seoul wanted to interview me.

the interview was very interesting! first of all it was at 11:00 at night due to the time difference. i think they just found someone who could speak some english because the person who interviewed me did not know really anything about me - which is interesting considering the fact that i mailed them a resume and application. but the interview felt impromptu and was very relaxed. she asked me how soon i could come, have i lived overseas for a year, have i taught english before, do i have four seasons where i live? and then she gave me the opportunity to ask questions and i attempted to ask how involved parents are in their children's education but after a few times the best answer i got was "no you don't have to worry about parents coming to the school only once or twice. no worries!" hahaha awesome. truthfully it didn't feel like an interview but rather more like them offering me the job right there. she even told me, you sound nice and i think you should come work here. i giggled to myself alot during the interview but i got a great vibe from the experience.

i did a second interview 2 nights later with a more "professional" school. they told me how they have several different schools around korea and they use a curriculum from new york and the man who interviewed me knew where buffalo was! haha! but he asked me very specific questions like what kind of work i have done before and why do i want this job. also asked me if i was a christian and if i had ever taken any drugs or was addicted to alcohol. this was soon followed by "but if you have tried marijuana its ok, we have many teachers who come from california and they tell us that they try it once or twice and that is ok." hahaha, well good to know. so that interview felt more like a real interview where he had very clear expectations of what the school expects from its teachers and what life would be like. again, the interview went great and he was very nice, but it just didn't work out with that school.

during the interviews i just made sure to speak slowly and clearly and answer the questions to the best of my ability. you know, simple enough, right? but both interview experiences were very nice and positive though different in professionalism. needless to say, that first interview is the school i decided to attend for the next year. :)