{"id":24949,"date":"2012-05-06T08:04:28","date_gmt":"2012-05-06T12:04:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/?p=24949"},"modified":"2012-05-06T08:04:28","modified_gmt":"2012-05-06T12:04:28","slug":"jet-to-epik-one-jets-esl-journey-from-japan-to-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/2012\/05\/06\/jet-to-epik-one-jets-esl-journey-from-japan-to-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"JET to EPIK: One JET’s ESL journey from Japan to Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JET alum Kyle Timmermeyer (Ibaraki-ken)<\/strong>, currently teaching English in Korea on the EPIK program. \u00a0Note<\/span>: \u00a0For the past three years I’ve been trying to find a JET alum who also taught English on the EPIK program in Korea to write about some of the similarities and differences of the two programs. \u00a0So thanks to Kyle for his contribution.<\/em><\/p>\n

After teaching mostly elementary school English in Japan for 4 years,\u00a0I decided I needed a slight change of pace.\u00a0 I got JLPT N2\u00a0certification, but my idealized vision of translation and\u00a0transitioning into business or “international relations” had hit a\u00a0wall in terms of motivation.\u00a0 I was desperately bored, and extremely\u00a0restless.\u00a0 So, I decided that doing the same (rather easy) job in a\u00a0different country was the sweet spot.\u00a0 Korea seemed like the obvious\u00a0choice from the first, and after plenty of additional research and\u00a0reflection, it won out.<\/p>\n

After getting into JET, I figured that acceptance into the Korean\u00a0equivalent, EPIK would be just as easy.\u00a0 As a bonus, unlike JET which\u00a0doesn’t cover Tokyo at all, EPIK has a specific subdivision\u00a0responsible for recruiting teachers into Seoul called SMOE.\u00a0 The\u00a0names–EPIK\/SMOE–tend to turn into consonant salad in my brain, in\u00a0part because of politics and some corruption in a former iteration of\u00a0the Seoul division. Naturally, the vague, seedy story made me wary,\u00a0but piqued my interest at the same time.\u00a0 After total immersion in a\u00a0rather stagnant Japanese position, I could see the silver lining on a\u00a0Korean cloud that seemed to be ready to purge itself of the acid rain\u00a0of corruption.\u00a0 And, regardless of the politics of the situation, I\u00a0was craving some of that big city excitement.\u00a0 And so, after living in\u00a0Nagasaki and Ibaraki for 2 years each, this native Kansan set his\u00a0sights on the big city.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Happy spoiler alert: In all my time here, I haven’t run into any\u00a0problems that seemed to be based in corruption.\u00a0 My fears in general\u00a0seem to have proved baseless.\u00a0 Going back, though, when going through\u00a0a big international transition, it’s only natural to end up worried\u00a0sick about one aspect or another, if not the entire shebang.\u00a0 On top\u00a0of all that, I am typically an anxious sort of person, so I ended up\u00a0with bad relocation jitters.<\/p>\n

The recruitment process did not help matters one bit.\u00a0 I won’t attempt\u00a0to speak for others’ experiences, but I had a professional,\u00a0straightforward, and fairly smooth induction process into JET.\u00a0 EPIK\u00a0(SMOE) is not like that.\u00a0 Although they are a large government\u00a0initiative, just like JET, the Korean counterpart relies rather\u00a0heavily on private recruiting agencies.\u00a0 And I came into contact with\u00a0a recruiter who was… less than fantastic.\u00a0 There was little\u00a0communication, and I only got the final contract and go-ahead only 2\u00a0weeks or less before the official start date, and even then I didn’t\u00a0know my neighborhood …although I did know that I got into Seoul!<\/p>\n

If you’re considering applying to EPIK (SMOE), you can apply directly\u00a0and avoid the recruiters, but that means even less communication than
\nwith a bad recruiter.\u00a0 If I have any specific inside information to\u00a0give potential applicants an edge… getting a good recruiter is key.\u00a0Very specifically, Korvia is a good agency.\u00a0 To be clear, no one is\u00a0asking me to plug them; it’s just that my friends seemed to have a\u00a0really good experience with them.\u00a0 Anyway, there are so many EPIK\u00a0recruiters that if you get a bad feeling from one, there’s always\u00a0another company to try.<\/p>\n

More since I am speaking mainly to ex-JETs, the Japanese public school\u00a0teaching experience does directly apply.\u00a0 In my interview, I made sure\u00a0to acknowledge that Korea is not Japan (of course), but that it was\u00a0pretty obvious that the English programs inspired each other, and
\noften copy each other, even now, I think.<\/p>\n

And, much like JET, there was an extensive orientation program that\u00a0was inordinately heavy on theory and glossed over the practical
\nchallenges and realities of the job.\u00a0 To be honest, EPIK’s orientation\u00a0was probably worse than JET’s, because it lasted a full week, 8 hours+
\nper day, and the officials didn’t give us our school assignments (and\u00a0apartments!) until late in the week, even though it was pretty clear
\nthat they knew our assignments much earlier.\u00a0 I liked the way that\u00a0only part of my JET orientation was in a massive group in Tokyo, and
\nthe rest waited until we had split up and could form more specific,\u00a0useful questions.<\/p>\n

After the painful EPIK recruitment process and too-long orientation, I\u00a0was ready for the other shoe to drop… but fortune favored me.\u00a0 And,
\nin fact, none of my fellow public school teachers in Seoul have\u00a0reported a really bad overall experience.\u00a0 And mine has been really
\ngood.\u00a0 My principal is hands-off, my co-teachers are nice, and my\u00a0students are not only respectful, but generally care about English.
\nThere are nationally standardized textbooks for even elementary\u00a0students… and while the books are not great in terms of teaching
\nmaterials (par for the course in Asia, right?), its one big sign that\u00a0Korea officially and genuinely values English education.\u00a0 Though there
\nare exceptions in Japan, the rule, in my humble experience, seems to\u00a0have been tatemae to English with the real focus on the hard sciences.
\nAnd, I mean, if you’re just enjoying a “gap year” or two, that’s one\u00a0thing, but since settling into the work after a few years, it’s nice
\nto have the job both approached in a practical manner and treated with\u00a0respect the way I’ve experienced in Seoul.<\/p>\n

And that basically sums up my experience with EPIK SMOE.\u00a0 I look\u00a0forward to questions, comments, and writing in more detail.<\/p>\n

Kyle Timmermeyer<\/strong> is a former JET currently teaching in Seoul with\u00a0plans to move on toward a TESOL MA in Thailand soon.\u00a0 He’s also<\/em>
\nrecently published 2 novels in the fantasy dystopia series Legend of\u00a0the Elementals.\u00a0 Book 1: Reintroduction<\/a> is available for FREE on<\/em>
\nAmazon.com<\/a> and in all popular e-formats on Smashwords.com<\/a>.\u00a0 He enjoys\u00a0candlelight dinners and battling space ninjas, preferably at the same\u00a0time.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JET alum Kyle Timmermeyer (Ibaraki-ken), currently teaching English in Korea on the EPIK program. \u00a0Note: \u00a0For the past three years I’ve been trying to find a JET alum who also taught English on the EPIK program in Korea to write about some of the similarities and differences of the two programs. \u00a0So thanks to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-career"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pkZ7m-6up","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24949"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24951,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24949\/revisions\/24951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jetwit.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}