Hello everyone (and by that I mean absolutely no one, this is the first post),
I am getting ready for my biggest adventure yet so have decided to get a blog up and going for all the fam, friends, and people curious about ESL like me.
For a quick introduction, my name is Kyle Doel, I am 22 years old and Canadian born. I studied in political science, not just because I didn't know what to do, politics as well as general human nature does interest me a great deal, probably why I like to travel and why love to absorb other perspectives.
I will be heading off to South Korea soon to teach English abroad. There is some chaos in regards to tight deadlines with my visa and expected arrival date for Korea, but at worst it will only see a brief delay. I am expected to start work on the 26th of this month (february), and I could receive my passport back from the Korean consulate as late as the 26th!
Ah well, as per usual I'll just see how things pan out, I figure worst comes to worst I'll just redo the process. Teaching abroad, and in a country, as well as region, im genuinely fascinated by is way too good of an opportunity to give up.
The Future of This Blog
I really just segued into a new topic with a bold and underlined title strictly for the sake of looking at it when I do eventually click publish, I have absolutely no clue how any of this will look.
In truth, I may not be sticking with blogger, I may not go with anything, I could just end up making videos and posting them on youtube. I have a love for writing, and can be funny on the odd occasion, but writing does take time, especially when it isnt a rushed first post on something you're not even sure you'll be keeping.
In other words, if I make my decision to write and stick with a blog like this, it means I will probably need to find the appropriate downtimes to work on it. I suppose I'll figure out all that as it comes.
I do 100% plan to post videos, in fact that may end up becoming more of a thing then my writing, who knows. Likely the videos will be taken from a samsung galaxy (I intend to buy in Korea), but may also buy a go-pro far down the line if I feel like Im going to stick around on the other side of the world.
There are countless informative ESL bloggers out there, and by countless I mean a lot, like a few hundred or something. I will 100% help anyone who needs it but I also do not intend this blog to be a hotline for those who want to know about the ins and outs of ESL, but I will try to be informative. I am really here to just document my experience, and should I stick with it, maybe I'll try to forge a real identity for the blog, get a domain, get a routine going.
Who knows. Thats far away and I like to make vague distant plans and then stumble on them in my near future, its worked well for my life so far, also makes me capable to adapt to change. So we'll see if it happens or not.
An ESL Informative Conclusion To My First Post
If you want to do ESL, the first thing to keep in mind is that every country is different and none of the requirements/income/cost of living/culture would be universal. Look up specifics for the country(ies) YOU want.
For Korea you need no teaching certificate to teach, but I am fairly sure in the majority of countries where ESL is a thing, teaching certificates are required. Then there is the whole quagmire of discussion about what certification is better, and is one really that much worse then the other... yadda yadda yadda.
Truth is, if you know what search engines are and can spell, you should find fairly credible information for just about anything you are looking for in this field. There are many message boards dedicated for ESL teachers across the globe. Korea having one of the larger ESL communities in the world is definitely one that is the easiest to find information for.
One site I recommend for even those not interested in Korea specifically, although korea is its specialization, is Dave's ESL Cafe (www.eslcafe.com) ... look it up see what you can find. Very clutch site.
If you are specifically in love with the idea of going to the Hermit Kingdom (thats korea) then I would also suggest going on www.eatyourkimchi.com; watch the TLDR segments, they are very good. The entire site is good, no message boards though, so you would be doing it strictly for the vblogs. Simon and Martina are hilarious and great at getting the culture of Korea across to the viewer.
Kpops not really my thing (although the indie playlists are astounding for korea), but they also have a Korean music segments, technically thats their thing, don't let the site name mislead you.
Anyways, I am going to post this and see how it looks, and probably just stare at my computer for 20 minutes to try and delicately, in no significant way, flesh out that vague future I was talking about earlier, in my head.
