First Thoughts Moving to Korea

Numinous: an adjective to describe an experience that makes you fearful yet fascinated, awed yet attracted – a powerful, personal feeling of being overwhelmed and inspired.

Since I accepted this position to teach English in Korea for a year, I have been answering the same questions over and over again.

– What grade are you teaching? 6- 16 years old, but the classes are based off of English proficiency

– Do you know where you are going to live yet? Yes, they set up housing for us. It is a single room apartment about 5 minutes away from the school (actually it is a lot closer!)

– Do you know Korea? I know absolutely no Korean. I can barely pronounce Hello. (I am trying to learn though now)

– Isn’t it going to be hard to teach them English if you do not know Korea? I am assuming they wouldn’t put me in a class where that would be an issue… (Surprisingly, even the lower level kids (kindergarten level) can some what understand me. PLUS there is NO KOREAN in the school)

– Are you excited? Yes

I knew the very basics of this coming adventure. I did no research, but was told there would be two other teachers (Which I was right, Ben and Nina), but I didn’t want to social media research them. I wanted to go into this entire experience with an open mind. I didn’t even know what Suwon was going to be like.

These responses became almost a script. I could stop thinking about what my response would be and go on auto-pilot. I did not realize until my last couple days in Minnesota, that I was actually really nervous and almost terrified to leave. I had thought that since I have traveled so much that I would be a veteran to this entire experience. I had studied abroad in Denmark for 6 months and traveled all over Europe. I had volunteered in Cape Town, South Africa. I had explored Thailand, Hong Kong, and Vietnam. I had visited Brazil. I had even done did a week long house stay in Osaka, Japan. But looking back at all those experiences, there was one thing that this trip to Korea missed… friends. I had traveled in a group or with one person I knew in all those situations. In Europe, I was surrounded by English speaking people that were in the same boat as me. It was also for shorter time periods from a week to 6 months. There was a definite end date.

For this experience, I am not sure how long I will stay. My contract is until July 6th 2016, but there is always the possibility of staying longer. The unknown is scary to think about, but it is also something lucky that I get to experience. Unlike the past 22 years of my life, I do not have a plan. Anything can happen. I just need to keep my eyes open to the path the God wants me to take.