EpiK Orientation

Epik orientation was fun, a little intense, but a lot of fun.

Unlike most people, who met at the airport, and made their way to the orientation venue via a coach provided by Epik, I made my own way to the orientation venue from Sai’s flat, after clearing that it was ok with my co-ordinator. Our orientation was in Chungnam, Daejeon.

My Shared room

I was the first to arrive and quickly made conversation with the…head leader woman in charge of the whole orientation, who handed me a load of free stuff and then showed me to my room. By the time I’d claimed my bed and unpacked, it didn’t take long for people to start arriving. The rest of the first day was pretty much a write off as people were arriving at all times, up until 23:00, there was nothing other than dinner that could be arranged for those who were arriving in time for it. Naturally though I didn’t sit in my room, exploring and networking was pretty much the only thing to be done.

Orientation campus

orientation campus

The next day people were arranged into their groups, and were each assigned a time to go to the gym for a medical exam. Not the most fun thing in the world I must say. They took out 50,000KWR and each of us joined the conveyer belt of tests. I was fine until it came to having blood taken. I’d never had blood taken before up onto this point and I started to freak out a little. The comforting words of a fellow Epik teacher in front of me in the line did help, but then when I sat down and I realized there was a film crew recording me having my blood taken, I really wasn’t impressed.  We were then all appeased with food straight after and a tour of the campus, followed by our orientation intro ceremony. There was your generic speeches by some important people and some cool traditional performances. There was a gayageum performance, taepyeongmu (Folk Dance) and another performance which I don’t know the name of because on all my photos, there is lighting glare over the name of the performance. >.>

 The rest of our week was filled with lectures on the different aspects of teaching, the history and culture of Korea and Korean lessons, starting at 9am and finishing at 8pm each day. One of the good things about the long days was that not only did we get all the information we needed quickly, but we were with our groups all day and got to form some close relationships.There was also the odd surprise where instead of a lecture we would do taekwon-do or dress up in hanbok.

At the weekend we were treated to a trip to a “traditional Korean village”. The village was set up in the manor of a real Korean village but a large proportion of the village itself was reconstructed to replicate an authentic village. The whole facility was almost like a theme park without the cheesiness and with a lot more respect and order. Initially we were taken to a few performances in the village including an outdoor version of that one performance I don’t know the name of, a man who looked older than both my grandparents doing type-rope-walking, and a really cool martial arts performance which included the use of horses, sword and bows and arrows. 

We then had lunch and were taken on a guided tour of the village by a very talented high school English student, who was adorable.When the tour was over we were guided to a hall where we made traditional masks and learnt how to do a dance to go with them. This was a lot of fun, even if I did feel silly.

The dance which I don't know the name of...

The last few week days of our orientation, we were given time to prepare a lesson plan in groups of 2 or three and  at the end of the orientation we had to do our lesson, which was judged by an external English teacher who already had several years experience as an EFL teacher. Naturally my group got an award for the best lesson plan and delivery ^^. Although, I have yet to open it because the box is really pretty, I don’t want to unwrap it. I know what’s in it though since my co-teacher ripped it open straight away. It’s a really ornate book mark which again, is too pretty to ever be put to use. xD

And thus, our orientation came to an end. All that was left was to have a great last night out in
Daejeon as obnoxious foreigners and then say our goodbyes. The following morning, most of the groups got on their coaches off to their prospective provinces and schools. Since my group was already in their province, we were all picked up by our co-teachers or a representative. Naturally, since I was the first there. I was the last to leave too. My co-teacher didn’t come and pick me up herself, but another teacher who could speak English came to get me. He was lovely and very apologetic for being late. He got lost on his way, but that didn’t bother me.

Last goodbyes

Food at our orientation

During our orientation, I must say though, our co-ordinators were all completely lovely. They were so kind, funny and cute, and a complete pleasure to be around. I think literally the only thing that I had an issue with actually during the orientation was some of the foreigners. A lot of the Americans and South Africans, (who made the majority of the teachers) hadn’t done any research what so ever into Korean before arriving. They did a lot of complaining whether it be about the weather or the food.  A lot hadn’t made any effort to learn any of the language, liked creating unnecessary drama  and even mocked the Korean coordinators for their accents. Such ignorance always makes my blood boil.

In contrast, I didn’t limit myself to making friends with the teachers at the orientation, Through the magic of smart phone apps, and free wifi in Korea, I got talking to a fare few local people, and in the evenings I after classes, most nights I would beet them and go out into Daejeon. It was a great way to get to make some Korean friends, who are willing to meet me whenever I visit Daejeon again.