As is often the case, people & information began showing themselves as I dug deeper into possible destinations & continued to research where the jumping off spot could be. As some of you know, I’ve got a solid grasp & ability to speak Spanish, so that seemed to be a real possibility plus I really have an affinity for the Spanish culture, food, music, etc; it just seemed like the ‘safe’ move & I wasn’t sure that’s what I wanted just yet. I likely would have been living a very simple existence (which isn't necessarily anything new) had I strolled off to Central or South America. Not to mention things seem a bit unstable in parts of that world so kept it in my thoughts but continued exploring options.
Then there was the popular European route. Offering a wide array of cultures, ethnicities, diversity & opportunities all within close proximity to one another yet each able to maintain its inherent uniqueness. Again, it seemed too safe & overdone. I loved the time spent there with the family in ’09 & am anxious to get back (I met a school director at the airport in MNPLS who gave me her card and wanted me to email my resume as she’s at an American School in Madrid Spain) but really wasn’t sure if that’s where my first adventure should take me. Still too comfortable; need the unknown & truly different.
I've always had a distinct intrigue towards Eastern culture & philosophy. Plus, my spiritual path over the past decade has been more in line with the Buddhist mentality, which did little to quell the interest I’ve had in delving deeper into immersing myself into ‘the other side of the world.’
Over the past 20 years there has been a real emphasis to recruit native English speakers into the schools & academies throughout Asia & the more I though about it, it made sense. There is hardly a strong contingency of people speaking Korean, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Thai, etc outside of those countries themselves & with the emerging technology production throughout the region, the ability to have their citizens learn the English language was becoming a necessity. That was certainly a market to look into while the opportunity for first hand immersion still held strongly & the countries I was looking at were 'relatively' stable.
I gave serious thought to the Middle East as, again, native English speaking teachers are in seriously high demand & the pay is ridiculous. Not one who pays a tremendous amount of attention to the turmoil throughout the world but being smart enough to understand the region is terribly unstable, I opted to put the Middle East on the back burner & see how the other opportunities played out. I’ve never really cared much for making a ton of money, so fortunately that didn’t have to be a determining factor with this one, although heading home w/$100k in the bank after a year would have definitely been sweet!
So it was back to the Far East, Southeast Asia or Central America. There were so many great destinations but realistically, the timing had to be perfect & the situation/school needed to be what I was looking for, as there are plenty of horror stories out there about teachers getting screwed over pretty good, left hanging out in the cold, so to speak with little to no pay, terrible accommodations (if any at all) and no way home. I continued my research & as talked to people who'd been through it; more often than not, China, Japan & Korean were pretty much the best bets for stability, opportunity & a great experience. As I continued the process, I was surprised at how many people I came across who had taught overseas or had good friends who’d done it....such a small world but a pleasant surprise to see plenty who'd gone before me & survived while having good things to say about their experiences.
Something just didn’t jive as I looked into Japan & China, both offer tremendous opportunities but I just wasn’t feeling the draw – sure, I’d still love to visit the countries & may end up spending time in both of them but they simply didn’t jump off the page at me the way Korea & Thailand did.
With all the great countries I’d looked into, I chose possibly the least sexy of all of them but there was still something intriguing about Korea. A country legitimately torn in two, eerily similar to Germany a few decades ago, with two vastly different end results. The South has become a justifiable player on the world in a number of areas of commerce & industry; within merely a half century transforming themselves from a genuinely agrarian society (almost third world conditions) to one of contemporary genius as they continue to, almost single-handedly, revolutionize many facets of technology. Below is South Korea's GDP over the past century....pretty amazing how it went from nearly nothing through the roof in a few decades!
The North, comparatively, seems to be falling further behind their brethren to the South in nearly every imaginable category, whilst burning bridges globally, alienating their citizens & existing (from my perspective, anyway) in a sort of la-la land, unaware or unaccepting of their imminent demise.
Over the years, education has been thrust to the forefront of importance in a country similar in size to Florida. The understanding that investing in future generations by enabling them to gain the necessary knowledge & skills to be truly competitive in a globally vicious economy certainly was something of interest to me, as an educator in America, which was once the gold standard by which countries throughout the world strove to attain equality (yet has now slid rather unceremoniously into mediocrity, at best).
As I learned more about Korea, I was anxious to see the importance the familial unit has maintained throughout Korean society, even considering outrageous growth, domestication, rampant capitalism & a solid presence on the world stage. I see no serious issue with crime & it’s eerily reminiscent to the days on the farm when you simply trusted your neighbors & towns folk, knowing there was a mutual respect for one another & nothing harmful or deceitful would be done to the other.
Then there was the chance to explore the various parts of the country & not feel like as much of a tourist as I did it. Korea is a fairly mountainous country but nothing all that breathtaking or mammoth in comparison to the Rockies but yet a distinctive terrain & countryside relatively unexplored by either natives or foreigners. The population is typical of Asia with large masses of people crammed into urban areas, literally on top of one another while beautiful, yet mostly developmentally untouched rural regions beckon.
So, Korea wasn't necessarily some dream destination or the 'easy choice' but to me it seemed like the right opportunity to challenge myself in new ways while having the experiencing something uniquely different and having (what I hope to be) a positive & enlightening impact on a group of students who will hopefully see the world they live in as a better place after spending a year getting to know me, having some fun, learning some English & probably teaching me something in return.
I feel extremely fortunate to have the ability to be a teacher in a variety of environments & that this 'career' is able to take me to parts of the world I really never even knew existed, let alone considered as a possible residence when I was growing up on that little farm back in Central Iowa way back in the 80's.
So there it is, hopefully a bit of an explanation into the thought process I went through as I decided where, exactly, I would spend some time teaching. Not to worry, I certainly would like to hit up a few of the more 'tropical' locales I'd considered as my thin Florida blood is getting a nice winter wake-up call but I wouldn't have it any other way....besides, it's the journey, right?
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