I did it. 375 days ago I landed at Seoul Incheon International Airport and tomorrow I will be leaving from it. I have mixed feelings. I know I wrote a pretty nasty post a couple of days ago about my experience here, but I was angry. That anger has subsided since my severance pay has been transferred to my Canadian bank account, and the pension office has my payment in the works.
It’s not all about the money though. In the last few days I’ve realized a lot of things about a lot of the people that I’ve known here – most of them Korean. The principal and vice-principal, along with the head teachers, took me out for a really nice lunch on my last day. At the end of the school day I had to say a few words to the teachers in the office and then they presented me with two wonderful gifts – a pair of traditional Korean dancing shoes and a hand-made Korean fan. They are both beautiful and expensive, in fact, some of the teachers were shocked by how expensive they were and commented that they could never afford such nice things… neither could I, and so they are greatly appreciated.
Apart from that, people have just been telling me that they are sad I am leaving and that they will miss me. One of my teachers thanked me for helping her to learn how to be more creative and use her imagination. Some of my students told me that I have inspired them to work hard to learn English so they can travel abroad. Some have told me they want to be English teachers because of me.
It’s hard while you’re here to realize if you’re making any difference at all. You don’t often see any real (or serious) improvement in the kids’ English. No one gives you any kind of feedback on how you are doing. Most of the time you are in the dark about everything – even regular test scores. But in the last week I’ve had student come and actually speak to me in English without any help. It feels good to be leaving knowing that I’ve made a difference, however small or big in at least a couple of kids’ lives. It’s one of the reasons I came in the first place – to try to help them learn about the world, about English, and about themselves. I guess it worked.
As much as I’ve had more than my share of difficulties in Korea, I will miss a lot of things; kids bowing to me (in school, on the street, bus, store…), being called “teacher” (it’s so cute when they do it – “but teacher! That’s not right!”), air conditioning on city buses, cheap taxis, living in my own apartment, not paying rent, cheap delicious food, walking to work, the mountains out my window, shiny sparkly things everywhere, and of course it should go without saying, all of the great friends that I’ve made.
I could write a list of things that I won’t miss, but that would be redundant as they’ve all been written on this blog over the past year, and I’d like to end the Korea posts on a positive note… how unlike me! In about 30 hours I will be home in Montreal trying to sort out the rest of my life, but for now I won’t worry about any of that. I think I’ll dwell for a while longer on all the good things that Korea has done for me.
Stay tuned for the rest of Thailand... I'll get to them as soon as I can.
It’s not all about the money though. In the last few days I’ve realized a lot of things about a lot of the people that I’ve known here – most of them Korean. The principal and vice-principal, along with the head teachers, took me out for a really nice lunch on my last day. At the end of the school day I had to say a few words to the teachers in the office and then they presented me with two wonderful gifts – a pair of traditional Korean dancing shoes and a hand-made Korean fan. They are both beautiful and expensive, in fact, some of the teachers were shocked by how expensive they were and commented that they could never afford such nice things… neither could I, and so they are greatly appreciated.
Apart from that, people have just been telling me that they are sad I am leaving and that they will miss me. One of my teachers thanked me for helping her to learn how to be more creative and use her imagination. Some of my students told me that I have inspired them to work hard to learn English so they can travel abroad. Some have told me they want to be English teachers because of me.
It’s hard while you’re here to realize if you’re making any difference at all. You don’t often see any real (or serious) improvement in the kids’ English. No one gives you any kind of feedback on how you are doing. Most of the time you are in the dark about everything – even regular test scores. But in the last week I’ve had student come and actually speak to me in English without any help. It feels good to be leaving knowing that I’ve made a difference, however small or big in at least a couple of kids’ lives. It’s one of the reasons I came in the first place – to try to help them learn about the world, about English, and about themselves. I guess it worked.
As much as I’ve had more than my share of difficulties in Korea, I will miss a lot of things; kids bowing to me (in school, on the street, bus, store…), being called “teacher” (it’s so cute when they do it – “but teacher! That’s not right!”), air conditioning on city buses, cheap taxis, living in my own apartment, not paying rent, cheap delicious food, walking to work, the mountains out my window, shiny sparkly things everywhere, and of course it should go without saying, all of the great friends that I’ve made.
I could write a list of things that I won’t miss, but that would be redundant as they’ve all been written on this blog over the past year, and I’d like to end the Korea posts on a positive note… how unlike me! In about 30 hours I will be home in Montreal trying to sort out the rest of my life, but for now I won’t worry about any of that. I think I’ll dwell for a while longer on all the good things that Korea has done for me.
Stay tuned for the rest of Thailand... I'll get to them as soon as I can.
1 Comment:
congrats liz, on making it one year in korea! so proud of you! i hope you'll keep up the blog, even in montreal...have a safe flight home and hope to see you when you get back!
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