Seven years ago, I was sitting in a classroom of a thousand bible school students listening to Bethel Church’s Bill Johnson speak on dreams and goals in life. He said, “If you didn’t fear anything–fear of failure, fear of people–anything–what would you do with your life? What decisions would you make?”
My year at BSSM (Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry) changed my life; it showed me that my love for South Korea was not superficial–that it was a gift from God, and I was blessed by my peers and teachers to pursue it with all my heart. So when Bill asked that question, I realized, “If I had no fear…I would teach English in South Korea.”
7 years later, I’m moving to South Korea to do just that!
It took 7 years because of all the intentional and unintentional things I did beforehand. First, of course, I had to get my Bachelor’s degree to teach abroad, but between my schooling, I traveled to Japan and South Korea to explore Asia for the first time, I moved to Canada for a year, and then I attended Youth With a Mission in Kona, Hawaii before COVID sent me home to Texas, where at last, I finished my degree.
All these things have somehow prepared me for the greatest journey I’m about to take, and even though it’s been so long since I had that thought in BSSM, I had 7 years worth of time to better understand myself and the world around me, and to see if I truly wanted what I said I did.
Well…I do.
And it’s taken half a year of gathering documents, doing interviews, tracking international parcels, researching for endless hours, emailing dozens of questions, until it’s finally become official: I’ve got my visa, my plane ticket, and my checklists ready…South Korea, here I come!
Your Questions Answered:
What are you doing in South Korea?
I’m teaching English as a foreign language in a South Korean public school! I’ve been hired by one of Korea’s most renown programs, EPIK (English Program in Korea), and for good measure, I went through a third party agency called Korvia to make sure I had the best chances of getting hired and having additional support through my 6-month-long application process (it took forever to get to this point, guys).
When are you leaving?
My flight leaves from Dallas, Texas on August 17th. I’ll be arriving in Incheon, South Korea on August 18th after a 14-hour flight (pray for me). Fortunately, there are a handful of other EPIK teachers who are on my same exact flight! So I’ll begin a journey with several others in the same process, and that’s incredibly comforting.
Once I arrive in Korea, I’ll begin a week-long orientation with hundreds of other EPIK teachers at Jungwon University, which includes a health examination, SIM card set up, banking assistance, and basic lessons on teaching and learning more about the Korean culture. I’ll be dorming with several other girls for that week, which sounds an awful lot like my time at YWAM Kona. (See, I told you the Lord is using every experience I’ve ever had to prepare me for EPIK.)
Where exactly will you be living?
I don’t know! Haha, no seriously, I don’t know. It’s crazy. All I know is that I’ll be living and teaching somewhere in the Gyeonggi Province. It’s a large chunk of land that surrounds Seoul like a donut and touches the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea:
During the EPIK application process, I was given several cities to choose from, but when I asked the Lord what He would prefer, I felt like He wanted me to pick the only option that happened to be a province–and also the place my agent told me not to pick if I was afraid of rural placements–which sounded about right (God usually chooses what we wouldn’t at first.) I decided that by choosing the Gyeonggi province instead of a city like Daegu, Busan or Seoul, I gave myself less control of what I wanted and more control of what God wanted out of my journey.
So all that to say, I won’t know where exactly I’ll be living or teaching in the Gyeonggi province until I sign my contract with EPIK during orientation! (EPIK will provide single-unit housing after orientation which I also won’t see until I arrive there. Yes, I’m crazy, but let us take the adventure that shall fall to us!)
P.S: If you send me a postcard, I’ll send you a postcard. That is the Allison Guarantee.
How long will you stay there?
My contract with EPIK will be 1 year, but if all goes well, a renewal of the contract will be offered and–if I seriously love it–I’ll probably sign back on until I feel the Lord wants me to make a different decision. Either way, you’ll know all about it in my blogs. Because yes, I’ll be writing and posting pictures a lot while I’m living in South Korea!
What grade levels will you be teaching?
This is also something that will not be specified to me until I sign my contract at the EPIK orientation. From what I’ve heard and understood about the process, it’s highly likely that I’ll teach my preferred grade level: Elementary! In South Korea, that would be grades 1 through 6, or ages 6 to 11. These kids will be around the same age as my niece and nephew, and when I substituted for a summer in Texas, it was my favorite grade levels to teach. Let’s hope this is the case, but I’ll keep you updated whatever happens.
Why do you want to teach English in South Korea?
I’ve had a burning heart for Korea since 2015–for their people, their culture, their history–everything! Other than doing missions work there directly, teaching English is a way for me to discover more about this country I’ve come to know and love over the last 7 years. I can open doors of opportunity all around the world for my students when I teach them English, too. I hope that they can learn from me linguistically but also, if they experience the joy and love that God has for them in my classroom, it would make all of this worth every year I had to wait to live in South Korea.
In conclusion, teaching English in South Korea was a thought that scared me 7 years ago, and honestly it still kind of does. But I don’t want that fear to stop me from discovering what all is out there waiting for me! So, what if you set aside all your fears, what would you do?
It’s okay if your dreams take a long time to come true, too. The journey getting there is what God wants to be a part of, and it’s in that waiting where you’ve been quietly and unexpectedly prepared to accomplish the desires God put in your heart. Not saying I feel prepared at all, but God says so…so, here I go!
Be sure to subscribe to my newsletter to follow along my journey in South Korea! I can’t wait to take you along the adventures that shall fall to us!
Signed,
Allison the Adventurer
