Dan - A Sea of Paperwork

Hey all! Dan here. In light of preparing for this journey I really just want to make notice of the insane amount of paperwork that has gone into applying for this job. Obviously living in another country alone takes a lot of paperwork; my experience volunteering with an English Camp in Brazil was bad, but this is much worse! Not complaining, but as a start I just want to really give a realistic view of what goes into this EPIK program.

Initially we started the process in late march. Catt and I will delve into more detail into another post, the EPIK (English Program in Korea) program is a government sponsored entity that places international English speaking adults into public schools within Korea. I’m not sure of the exact number, but it’s well over a few thousand teachers for each main intake period (which are August and February respectively). Credentials are a BA in any subject (English or Teaching degrees preferred), a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) certificate with around 120 hours (Waived if you have a BA in English or Teacher) and to have lived in a country that speaks English as a primary language. It’s a year long contact with the option to renew if they like you.

Since EPIK works with so many different people, a plethora of recruiters have popped up as sort of a middleman between EPIK and the teacher. There’s dozens of them; some small, some big. Some old, some newer. Some based out of Korea, some based in the states or Canada. What they all have in common is that they will guide you through the process and at the end when you are in Korea and employed, EPIK will pay them a cut for ‘finding’ you.

So Catt and I went with EduCon back in March, a Chicago-based recruiter with their offices in Seoul. The initial back and forth was very pleasant as we found out about what our life would be like over in Korea. Overall it’s been a good experience. Some of the other recruiters we worked with seemed more diverse and professional, and it was much harder to get in contact with them the closer we got to the flight but I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to a “the grass is greener” mentality. Josh and Kristin in particular were amazing to work with and were always extremely helpful and pleasant.  

After the initial contact, Educon had us do the following by mid April.

• Submit an FBI background check. This takes months and is almost always the first thing that needs to be done.
• Submit our resume and cover letter.
• Take multiple passport photos. I wish I had a set of 10-15, we needed tons of these.
• Submit 2 letters of recommendation. These needed to be within two years with someone in a position higher than us. It also needed an original ink signature. I had a letter from my mentor teacher back when I was student teaching. They rejected it because apparently a mentor teacher is not in a higher position than a student teacher.
• Fill out a ten page EPIK application form. This took several afternoons.
• The usual stuff. Full name, gender, citizenship, address, prior jobs, educational background, teaching experience, contact information, health concerns, placement preference, etc.
• A two page essay (500-800 words) detailing your ability to work ask Language teacher.
• Two page lesson plan of a sample English lesson. I did a fun little game that utilized learning adjectives with the board game Guess Who? Sample worksheets and discussion questions are mandatory.

Educon was very helpful in this stage by looking over our application and making corrections. There are numerous unwritten red flags that EPIK looks for and thankfully we had none. Once all that was taken care of, we submitted the paperwork to EPIK.

And then we waited. And waited.

Finally in the early days of May right before bedtime Catt got her email saying her interview was scheduled. A few moments of panic later and we hit the books. The interview was a Skype interview at 8:30pm that lasted about a half hour. I certainly wasn’t listening outside the door or anything, but from what Catt told me it was a fairly straightforward interview. They asked questions similar to these.

• Why do you want to teach in Korea?
• What experience do you have teaching English?
• How would you discipline a distracting student?
• What is your teaching philosophy?
• How would you deal with a difficult co teacher?
• Do you have any questions for me?
• I followed this up with “What advice would you give a starting teacher in EPIK? What cultural shocks should I expect? and a third that I can’t remember right now.

Educon helped us prepare for these questions, though of course they didn’t give them to us outright. Catt and I practiced together. I got my interview scheduled in late May. Catt got the email that she had passed the interview shortly after I had mine. Overall it wasn’t too bad, but it was still an interview and anyone reading this going into the program should prepare as much as they can.

There was a minor heart attack the weekend after the interview. I was told I would find out by Sunday. Catt’s graduation was that weekend and I was checking my phone constantly, hoping for that wonderful email that told me I had passed. Saturday night: Dinner with her family and nothing. Sunday was a leisurely day of congratulations; I was glued to my phone refreshing every five minutes. I was sweating. I was thinking up what to say to Catt if I had failed. I knew that question about the time I had to compromise with another adult I could have phrased better, but damn it I nailed everything else!

On the drive home I got a call from my recruiter. I’m thinking “Ah gez”. If I had passed, they would have sent me an email. But they were calling. This couldn’t be good. With trembling hands, I talked with Jinny at EduCon. She was asking me questions about the interview environment. If there was anyone else in there. Apparently, my mannerisms during the Skype interview caused question to if I was really alone in the room. There wasn’t, of course, and I was livid. If I failed, I wanted to fail on my own merits. Not because of a misunderstood technicality. Thank god Jinny gave the EPIK interviewer a call and smoothed things over. At around 11 Josh messaged me on Google Hangouts and told me I passed. I ran circles and freaked the cat out.

Of course, the process wasn't over yet. We still had to verify that the paperwork we had sent in earlier was still good. The FBI background check arrived around this time. EPIK mailed EduCon a packet of materials, which in turn was mailed to us. This packet included a copy of our contract (Not the real one! That would wait until we were in Korea), a Notice of Appointment (which is an official one page looking thing that says we’re EPIK teachers) and a purple set of paperwork that answered our questions about orientation, arrival, pay, etc.

Next up, getting our visas. Thankfully we live right on the outskirts of Chicago so we just took the green line into the city. They required us to get our diplomas notarized (which basically verifies the document is legitimate) and apostatized (which basically verifies the person who notarized is legit). There was a lot of back and forth as apparently the first person didn't notarize it properly and it had to be redone, but we finally got to the Korean Consulate building. Aaaaaand they rejected Catherine’s because she didn't get a copy of her diploma in from her college yet.

Mine was ready in a week. Catherine had a doozy of time doing back and forth with Columbia College. Missing transcripts, missing order for her rush order of her diploma; wherever they could screw up, Columbia failed with flying colors. At this point it’s almost comical. The icing on the cake was her misspelled name on her diploma, which as of this writing is still being corrected. Thankfully the documents were accepted for her visa, and things were getting back on track.

So what else after this? Plane tickets, which we got for a very nice $950 for August 17th through Asiana Airlines (no jokes!). Making sure Catt gets her Visa, and then off to Korea!

After we arrive, we will experience orientation at Jeonju University from August 19th to the 27th. It’s in the southern part of the country, which EPIK will provide shuttle buses for. But that’s a story for another post. See you then!

-Dan