A Few Good Words for Alphabet Street

When I first got offered a job at Alphabet Street, I wanted to make sure I would make the right decision. I went online and tried to find out as much information as I could about the school. There was not much that I could find, though I did find that some people were not quite happy with the school. (I won't put the links, but if you really care you can search for them). There were enough positive responses to the negative comments I read, that I decided in favour of accepting the job offer.

I have been working at the school for just over five weeks now and I have been pleasantly surprised. If you are thinking about accepting a job offer here, this is what I can tell you:

One of the best things about the school is the effort that the administration puts into the running of the school. So much goes on at the school, but the staff works well together to get everything done and to keep everyone informed as best as they can. Another bonus is that there is no shortage of people who speak English and Korean. For the few staff members who do not speak English, there is always a Korean teacher around who can help translate. Though this can make learning Korean more difficult (more on learning Korean in a future post).

On the topic of the staff, the staff is super-friendly and super-supportive. Whenever I had a question, I could easily find someone who could give me an answer or who would help me find an answer. This goes for both the Korean and foreign (they call us Native teachers - I think because we're native speakers of English, even though we would never really consider ourselves Natives in the North American sense).

All of our housing and living arrangements have been carefully taken care of by someone. When we needed to go get a medical checkup for our Alien Registration Cards (again, that will be the topic of a future post), we were accompanied to the hospital by an staff member (Mr. Park - who has been so helpful, he probably deserves a post of his own). When another staff member needed to visit the American Embassy to figure out an issue with a visa extension, Mr. Park drove her.

Despite long days (I usually get in around 8 or 8:30am and leave around 7pm), there are many breaks and we are only on contract to work 110 hours every 20 days, which works out to a nice 5 and a half hours a day. Mind you, that's just hours in the classroom, but the work is much less than a teacher back home (as there is very little planning) and any work over 110 hours results in an increase is salary.

Having more than ten English teachers at the school is also helpful as there is always someone who is willing to show you the ropes in Seoul, or just to hang out with. The second week we were here, the Principal took a group of us to Costco in the school van to buy food. No doubt, the group at Alphabet Street - all of the staff included - has made my life much easier than it would have been.

Now to be honest, there are things about Alphabet Street that are not perfect, but the administration is listening to constructive criticism and from what I have heard from other staff members, changes have been made recently based upon that constructive feedback.

So, while there are many dissenting opinions, it is in my experience that Alphabet Street is a good place to work and you will more than likely enjoy your time at the job.

I Got A Job!

So I think the title speaks for itself. Actually, this isn't really news per se. If you've talked to me recently you would know all about my plans. So what are they you ask (as most people probably don't talk to me)?

Well, I the school that I will be working at is called Alphabet Street (I googled it and found a lot of Prince lyrics) and it is located in a rather nice area of Seoul (or so I'm told). Alex and I will be both be at the same school (a plus) and we'll get to share a two bedroom apartment (another plus, though I'm not sure yet if their definition or a two-bedroom apartment is the same as mine - only time will tell).

Some other hilights I can share with you (that I know right now):

- The apartment is aparently (I'm using this word a lot) within a 10 minute walk of the school (not too shabby cause I can probably do it in 7 or 8 if they say 10).

- We start March 1st, though rumour has it the school wants us there on the 22nd of February (more on that later) to get settled and such.

- We get two (separate) weeks of vacation and one is in August so there is still hope to get to the Olympics.

- About half the day is devoted to teaching a small (about 10) group of kindergarten students and the rest of the day will be elementary students.

That's about all I think you might find important. Since I last wrote Alex and I have been frantically trying to get all of our documents together so we can get our visas. I think my next post will be about that fun and exciting process (on the plus side, I can now say I don't have HIV or Hepatitis C).