PUSAN BOUND (APRIL 14TH, 2015)
I've always wanted to Blog, and after reading Desta Old's WordPress Blog last night, I thought about all of the long emails I have written and thought, hey, I can copy-paste a few of those here to share with you. This one is an email I wrote about moving to Korea. Note that this email was written on April 14, 2015, while in Mongolia, so excuse some errors, R.E.: information and knowledge.
Dear Friends and Family,
Big news awaits us. Grab your iPad, as this is going to be a lovely sit-down or lie-down read.
We tried really hard (and are still trying), to earn our Canadian Provincial teaching license, kinda like the "lawyer's 'bar'" for teachers. Well, that process, starting in December, has had it's fair share of bureaucratic bumps, so to speak. From asking me to prove that I am a native speaker of English, to Carol having to return to Taiwan to get documents, to her having to take an English exam in May, all things are headed towards this: we will not be licensed by the Ontario College of Teachers (OCT) by September. As it is, interviews for substitute relief teaching are in May and June. You cannot even apply until you are OCT licensed. According to my cousin, Heather Nimmo, Joel next-door-neighbour of Neil, Bruce and Joanne, and other experts in the field, we have to first be on the supply teacher's list for a good 3-6 months (read several years in reality) before we can apply and hopefully interview for job openings that come up once or twice a year. Furthermore, we'll be completing with nearly 300-700 other teachers on the supply list for these positions, so chances are slim to none that we will be able to secure full-time employment in the near or distant future in Ottawa. Carol could also apply to work in a daycare center for under the poverty line wages. Therefore, we applied to Labrador, Cree communities in the James Bay region, Sasaskewan, and all three territories. We both got replies, such as: "If there will be openings, we will contact you in May for an interview, or the typical replies, such as, "We'll keep your resume on file for 6 months...." We even applied to Teach Canada or some program like that and were rejected because we were too experienced and educated. Fresh graduates can get paid less... We did not want a repeat of the Spring/Summer of 2011, when and where we spent nearly 1/4 of our savings in Ottawa, got frustrated at the futility of the situation, and went to Singapore. Therefore, we looked over our options long and hard and here is what we decided:
We applied to some international schools and universities, which are/were very close to Taiwan. Taiwan in and of itself is not really an option, because the salaries are dismal and Taiwan also requires a teaching license from a Western country, which I will only get in the Fall. Carol, as a local Taiwanese, would be paid a 5th of what she could earn overseas. We chose countries or cities, such as Korea, Macau, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and The Philippines, (NOT CHINA) because shorter vacations and long-weekend trips to Taiwan and vice-versa for her family would be easier, and then for the longer winter and summer vacations, we can spend them in North America or fly family members over to Asia. We were offered a nice job in Jakarta, at the Netherlands International School, but after a few days, I realised that my heart just was not into this. Sure, we had lived in Jakarta before, and as an Expat, it's sweet as cake to live there. They interviewed me as PE (gym) teacher, so for about two weeks, I was watching videos on how to teach primary PE, I was asking my PE teacher friends questions and I was all gung-ho, thinking, man, I'm gonna get paid to stay in shape and play games; what a dream job!! Plus, they advertised the positions as having a competitive salary. To us, that meant big bucks. Then came the offer. They offered us less than what we earn now, which in Mongolia is already a bit of a pay cut compared to what were are used to, and they offered me an ESL and year 5/6 co-teacher's position. I started feeling homesick already, knowing that my vacations to Taiwan and Canada would be far and few between, because of the way that the holidays were set up and our somewhat lowered salaries.
Then a Canadian early childhood vice principal at the Jakarta International School was illegally sentenced to 10 years. As someone who used to live in Jakarta and as an overseas teacher in general, this was a case we were following for some time. Essentially, some screwed up parents wanted to sue the school for several million dollars and corrupt governments officials wanted bribes. Sentencing this poor innocent administrator/teacher now allows for the graft and sueing to commence. The Canadian Embassy wouldn't even intervene on his behalf. There was the first initial case where several cleaners were found guilty. Some even killed themselves. It was later revealed that the police tortured the confessions out of them! Would we want to live and work in a country that does such things? This would always be in the back of our minds, let alone the stress and worry that it would cause to loved ones back home...
Fast forward two weeks and...
We knew that Carol had an interview coming up at BIFS, so I suggested that she still interview and hold out for this option. Worst case scenario, they do not hire her and at least we could still begrudgingly go to Jakarta, or worse, a school in China. She interviewed last week, for a second time, and after a few references immediately got back to the school, they hired her!! Looking at the contract, we soon realised that this was Carol's best offer! She will be teaching the PYP Curriculum, the best for overseas schools. The city government invested 40 million USD into the school and it was truly invested and not siphoned off. The grounds are state of the art, which consist of three buildings, one for the early childhood dept, one for primary and another for middle/high school. Indoor and outdoor sports facilities, a cafeteria run by a former 5 star hotel chef and kitchen staff, and an administrative team with decades of overseas international experience. This is THE BEST international school in the country. Any others are just language schools, Korean boarding schools or religious schools with fancy names. BIFS is in the countryside, like the St. Lazare of Pusan, so it's away from the traffic, and hustle and bustle of the city, but only minutes from the sea and mountains. Carol is even offered a yearly one month bonus, guaranteed by Korean law, a more than one month yearly pension fund, a 1000$ R&R bonus, paid in August to join a gym or spend as she wishes, international medical, professional development (PD) towards internal and/or online courses, external university courses, workshops, and seminars, 14 weeks paid vacations, and a tax free USD salary!! Korea follows the same holidays as the Taiwanese, so we can go to Taiwan for the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival in the Fall, The Lunar New Year, and she even gets one to two weeks off every Fall and Easter for mid-term breaks. She will also get three weeks at Christmas and over two months in the summer.
Now, this may have crossed your mind: "Michael, what are you going to do?" As a Canadian with 18 years of English language experience, two master degrees in linguistics and ESL education, and a bachelor's of education to boot, my position in the greater Pusan community is not in question. I still have about 15 contacts with whom I am still in touch with on a regular basis, who all work at colleges and universities in Pusan. Even though it is not yet the hiring season, I have already sent out, and they are keeping a close ear out for any leads and openings. Keir from Dongseo University, where I used to work, is now the head of the Foreign Professors, so I sent him my formal application, along with various documents. Hany, who works on the same campus, at KIT, is also going to help me apply to his school, which offers a better contract. Julian, my Kiwi friend, whom I met in 2007 and reconnected with last summer, is the editor in chief of the Korean Teacher's of English as Second or Other Language (KOTESOL) magazine, which is Korea's top magazine and organization for research, conferences, seminars, and calls for papers in the country. I am already published once in this journal, and I have an administrative position in the organization. I will also pay a yearly membership fee and do presentations and enter papers in their quarterly conferences around Korea and in other countries, nearby, such as Vietnam, Japan, Indonesia, and Thailand. This is most likely an unpaid position, but it will be one which can help me advance beyond that of an ESL teacher at a university, to potentially move me into a position of an assistant or visiting professor in Pusan. Some university positions come up with a Sept. 1st start date, but most have start dates as March 1st. In the unlikely event that I do not start working at a university Sept. 1st, I will work at a public school near BIFS for six months and then get into a university on March 1st, 2016. As I will be in the country, it will be more likely that I will able to interview and seen as more stable. If the departments are run by foreigners, they are more open to telephone or Skype interviews, but the departments run by Koreans are a different case. Koreans are more traditional and require face to face interviews. I have also put the word out there that I am looking for public school jobs for six months near BIFS, but these openings normally begin to spring up in June-July, so we'll just wait, Plan C is to work at language school for six months and do extra legal private work in the area.
Asides from the guy getting jailed, here is another reason we also chose Pusan over Jakarta: vacations. Our short and more so, longer holidays, will coincide. As a university educator, here are my two holiday schedule options:
A) December 15 to February 28th off, and June 15 to August 30th, off. (12/1-12/14 and 06/01-06/14 are essentially off as well, as we only go to the university to invigilate exams two or three times a week).
B) Same as option A, except that in February and August, I will be required to work M-W-F, an hour a day, at the university's language center, to teach kids for extra pay.
So, with these two options in mind, here is what Carol and I are going to do:
1) Fly over our parents and/or other family members from USA, Canada and Taiwan, once a year, either in the winter or summer. They can stay at our place or a hotel nearby, for a week or two, before our vacation begins. This can be a time for them to get over jet lag, recover from the rather long "non-United Airlines" flight, (United is not a good airline) and explore Pusan a bit on their own or with us when we are not working. Then we can take them to a different country for a few weeks to a month, such as Cambodia, Bali, or Taiwan. Then in the second month, we can return to Korea, where I am going to either be 100% off or working three hours a week at the university, and perhaps a few extra hours here and there. During these extra hours I am working, our family can walk around the mountains near the university, relax at a Korean spa, or sleep back at their lodging, as we learned that nap time is important on these kinds of trips. Then when we are not working, we can explore Pusan and other short trip destinations nearby, such as Daegu City, Jinju Castle, Kojae Island, Kyung-Ju (the ancient capital), various mountains, Seoul, the Korean DMZ, Cheju Island, traditional Andong Town, or the Annual Boryeong (spelling??) Mud Festival! In the city of Pusan itself, there are world famous beaches, lovely mountains, temples, bustling city centers, my friends (Korean and foreign), nightlife, summer fairs, the UN Memorial Cemetery, the Pusan International Film Festival, Korean Wrestling, pro baseball games, shopping centers, traditional markets, parks, and OMG, THE FOOD! Korea and Pusan in particular, is a foodie's paradise. From coffee, tea, beer/soju, Korean drinks, street food, soups, seafood, beef, goat, fish, chicken and pork BBQ, to hot and cold rice and noodle dishes, Pusan has it all.
2) In either vacation time, we will also fly home to North American, but since these vacations will be longer than normal, we will extend them into visiting other places, such as Florida, Japan, Europe, the Maldives, Ethiopia, as well as Latin America. It would be amazing if you could join us for week long excursions into the heart of Havana, the ruins of the Aztecs, Incas or Mayans, check out old Viking ruins in Norway, settle into some Greek food on a Crete or Greek Island, or visit ancestral homelands of Belfast, Dublin and Cork, Ireland.
Here are some links I highly recommend you visit, for more information on Carol's school, and on our new home, as of mid August, Pusan (respelt as Busan). Some of the video only require a short listen, while others will require you to watch. They are all good videos, which I have chosen especially for you.
SCHOOL SITE
YOUTUBE
IDEAL HOME IN SEASIDE VILLAGE (use the streetview tools to see the agricultural neighbors and harbour within a minutes walk). It's always been a dream of our's to live in a small one story home, with a courtyard, surrounded by three small, but separate homes/buildings. This village, by taxi, from which we can arrange a daily morning pick-up arranged taxi service, will take about 10 minutes. By public transport, it's a 16 minute walk and a 14 minute bus ride, to BIFS. See the following link for an example of these homes:
EXAMPLE HOME. Naturally, our home may or may not look exactly like this, but something of this nature will come to mind when we are looking for a place. We may only have the main building, or something somewhat smaller. An advantage of renting one of these homes: if we rented a high rise apartment, we would have to pay a very very large deposit, somewhere in the range of 15 to 30,000USD, even 100,000USD, or if we stayed in a yogwon, or Korean hotel, it would be fully serviced, but no kitchen.
Maybe you're thinking: "but Michael, you did not like Pusan, or Korea, when you lived there." Well, yes, I admit, this part is true, but the key word in this thought is "WHEN". When is referring to 1997-1999, and 2007, when I was younger, as was Pusan. Pusan today is ultra modern and ultra international. I am also older, maybe a little wiser, and definitely more experienced. Here are a few expressions that come to mind: "Live and learn", and "You don't know how good something is until it's gone". I am going to use the word "I", because Carol is much more adaptable and happier in general wherever she is then me (except she did not like Singapore). Life in Korea, Taiwan, Australia, and more recently in Indonesia, Singapore and Mongolia has taught me that there are good places to live and bad places to live. As an older (not old, though) and wiser Michael, I can see what I may have used to see as bad and now I can just let it go, concentrate on the good and realise that this situation is going to be very ideal indeed. If we are going to be working in the best schools and universities of our lives, have mega holiday schedules, in which our families came enjoy with us, live in our dream home, and hang out with new and old friends, who in their right mind would have an ounce's worth to complain about?
Carol can also use time overseas towards her Canadian Permanent Residency (PR). It's right there, in black and white, on the Canadian Government site, that as long as she is with me, as her sponsor and said sponsor is working overseas, then this time counts towards her PR status. All I need to do is show a lease, a work contract and/or passport stamps to prove that we are/were together overseas for this time period.
We'd love to hear back from you on this, our newest and latest adventure. Please reply in length. Moreover, please do not tell Uncle Bruce yet. I will call him this week to break the news to him.
Love Mike and Carol
RELIGION AND CAROL THE DRAGON!
DUSIL, WHERE IT ALL BEGAN IN 1997
HISTORICAL NORTH GATE OF GUEM-JEONG SAN MOUNTAIN 금정산 북문
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