Starting the Journey

As you read this blog, you may find yourself wondering what on Earth could have brought a seemingly content office worker to quit her job and hop on a plane to South Korea. Well, to explain that, I need to explain a little about me.

Starting from a very young age, my two older sisters and I were thoroughly encouraged to travel. My father made it one of his personal missions to ensure we had been outside the country before we turned 18. Thus began the Daddy-daughter trips.

Starting at age 11, my father would take each of us girls on a foreign trip. When I was 12, and hyped up on Percy Jackson novels, my dad took me to Greece. I wish I could remember more of that trip, but sadly my 12-year-old brain was not able to retain the detail I wished it did. I do remember tight alleys and white buildings stacked precariously over the impossibly blue Aegean Sea.

At age 15, my dad once again took me out of the country. This time it was to northern Europe: Denmark, Finland, and Russia. I remember that trip more vividly. I remember the quaintness of a Christmas market and the taste of warm mulled wine in Denmark, the Olympic stadium in freezing Finland, and the impossible grandeur of the buildings in St. Petersburg, Russia.

I also remember losing my passport in the Russian airport and accepting my fate as being trapped in Russia before it was located by a kind security employee. Let me tell you, you haven't lived until you've sobbed in the bathroom of a McDonald's in the middle of nowhere Russia.

Then I didn't travel for a long time. Life got busy, and I went to college for marketing at San Diego State University. I chose marketing due to my love of writing and stories, and marketing seemed the most likely path that would make money while also giving me a chance to write.

During the first semester of my senior year, I took an international marketing class where we were assigned a country to make a marketing plan for as our capstone project. The country I studied just so happened to be South Korea.

Around the same time, my longtime roommate from freshman year introduced me to my first K-Drama. As a notorious story and romance lover, I was soon entranced by the sweetness and abundance of Korean soap operas.

Also, at the beginning of my senior year, I moved in with some new girls, and one of them just so happened to be Korean-American and happy to share her culture with the entire apartment.

Suddenly, I found myself listening to the infamous K-pop, watching twice as many K-Dramas as I had started with, and buried in Korean culture as I researched my capstone project.

As cringey as it may appear from the outside, I found an immense amount of enjoyment in K-pop. Something about fan culture bringing people together in a riot of shared excitement paired with good music and dancing was just what my personality was seeking.

The summer after I graduated college, despite having applied for jobs for six months prior, I still had not landed a full-time position. If you know me, I don't do well with an excess of free time. So, in an attempt to combat my boredom and feelings of impending dread that accompany graduating college, I decided to learn the Korean language. I figured I was absorbing so much of it already; I might as well.

And thus began my 한국어 journey. I've never been a low-key person. Try as I might, I've never been chill about anything ever, and when I want to do something, I go all in. In those few weeks before I secured a full-time copywriting position, I studied Korean upwards of six hours a day.

Even after landing my first big-girl job, I was still caught up in learning the language. I discovered something about myself that I never knew: I love languages! I knew I loved stories and writing, but words themselves and the ins and outs of language fascinated me as well. And culture. The sheer humanness that culture represents was infinitely fascinating to me.

In 2023, after about a year of studying, I decided that the only way to level up my Korean skills was to work with a native speaker. Thanks to a Reddit post, I discovered the English in Action program at UCSD. This program matches international students and their spouses with a native English speaker to help them improve their English.

I was the only person at the quick Zoom orientation for this program, and they were happy to fill my request to match me with a Korean speaker so I could practice Korean while helping them with English. That began my weekly meetings with my language exchange partner.

Despite an obvious language barrier, we became fast friends. We were both equally interested in each other's culture and language. Each week we would meet for 2 hours to discuss language and when to use certain phrases and words.

While being in that program and working full-time as a writer, I still dreamed of adventures abroad and using the language I had learned. I had wanted to get a corporate job abroad, but I was becoming impatient. I felt like my youth was passing me by (dramatic? a bit...). Then, at Thanksgiving 2023, my mom suggested that if I couldn't wait, I should just go now.

I remembered the emails in my inbox from the English in Action program coordinator about teaching English abroad. I had never taught a day in my life and had never seen myself as a teacher, but I thought I'd give it a chance.

As I took the teaching lessons, it occurred to me how much teaching resonated with me. As someone who loves language and words with a passion for gaining perspective, suddenly teaching English seemed to make a lot of sense.

For 7 months, I worked to get into the English Program in Korea. As this program was officially part of the South Korean government, it was not easy to get into. 120 hours of classwork, 3 essays, and a six-page questionnaire were only the application. Then there was the interview, mock lesson plan, and collecting the documents. I was fingerprinted seven times and learned what an apostille is. If you also know what that is, I'm so sorry.

But now, here we are. I was accepted into the program and placed in Busan, the second-largest city in the country, next to the ocean. So here I go, off to start my adventure. Wish me luck!