Now the long wait....

Just had an email from my agency saying that my documents seem fine and they have passed them on to EPIK, Yay!!! They gave me a list of the stages my documents will go through before I hear off EPIK:-

-          EPIK receives your documents, they review them.

-          EPIK sends your documents to the province/city of your choice space permitting.

-          The provincial or city education office reviews your documents.

-          The provincial or city education office issues you a Notice of Appointment.

-          Your Notice of Appointment is sent back to the EPIK office.

-          Your Notice of Appointment is couriered to you. 

They said it could be up to 2 months until I hear anything and no news is good news. Now the long long wait....

My dog Willow :)

I passed my Interview!!

13.10.10
I've got accepted!! WOOHOO!!! I'm missing some forms to fill out, so I'm just waiting for them and then I'll send all of my documents out!! :) Trying to get everything done as soon as possible so I can get my first choice. So happy, excited and nervous!

14.10.10All of my documents sent via DHL. Cost me £32!!!! Managed to fit them all in to a small envelope otherwise it would of cost me £50 :o I hope all my documents are okay, as I don't want to pay that much out again or miss out on my first choice. Now the wait........

18.10.104 months!!..

 

25.10.10
My documents arrived in Korea last Sunday night (16.10.10) and I'm slightly worried as my agency 'Footprints' told me it should take around 4 days until I hear if they are okay to pass onto EPIK. It's now 7 days and I haven't heard a thing. I hope it hasn't been delivered to some random person...... Or maybe my documents are all wrong...Or maybe the envelope has gone missing!!! Has anyone else with an agency heard anything back?? I can't help but worry as I really really really want this job (as you can tell by the amount of times I wrote really!). I'm sure it's fine but I am a worrier and the ladies in the DHL office couldn't fit the agency name on to the envelope. I've asked my agency to confirm they received the documents and some random person somewhere in Korea hasn't got them instead, so hopefully I'll hear back tomorrow.

On another note... I noticed a few people were looking at my previous blog 'EPIK interview', so if you are going to the March 2011 EPIK, let me know as it would be great to talk to others going beforehand :)

EPIK Interview

08.10.10

I've just had a email from footprints saying I've got an interview on Monday at 2.50am!! I've so nervous!! This weekend I'm going to prepare possible interview questions and practice speaking clearly. Fingers crossed ^-^

11.10.10
Had my interview last night at 2.50am! I thought they might ring late but the phone rang not one second past 2.50am!! After a quick dash to the phone, I heard a kind sounding Korean lady on the other end. I was so nervous throughout the whole interview and couldn't stop shaking >-< She asked me a few questions about my application (be prepared to say yes and no a lot!). Here are a few examples of the questions:

What do you know about the Korean Culture?
Why do you want to teach in Korea?
What do you know about EPIK?
Would you be happy co-teaching?
Why did you submit a lesson plan for this grade (I applied for SMOE)?
Questions about my private teaching in Japan (I made sure they knew it was legal!)
Cultural differences I had experienced in the past.
Cultural differences between Korea and the UK.

Some of the questions I had prepared, but for some of the questions my mind went blank. I did my best 'Queen's English' accent but one or two times my Midlands accent came through, but there is nothing I can do now. If I don't get hired because I'm not American there is nothing I can do but go to a hag-won. Be positive!!! :)

EPIK Application

I finally finished my application form for SMOE/EPIK and got it approved by my agency, footprints recruiting. It took me 7-8 hours without lunch to complete as I kept changing my lesson plan for the SMOE application and then my agency sent it back 3 times, as I forgot some details. I don't know if I'll get an interview or get accepted as I heard Korea prefers the North American accent and my accent is a mixture of Stoke/Wolverhampton dialect. When I went to Japan they expected me to speak the Queens English but only 5% of the population of England speak the Queens English!! I can only speak clearly on the phone, if I get an interview, and pray! Fingers Crossed!! If I don't get a job with EPIK I will apply for private schools so I am not worrying too much but I would prefer to work for EPIK.

At the moment I am trying to learn some Korean so I can communicate with the locals when I go to Korea. I am not a great language learner, nothing seems to go into my head and I get bored easy, but I will try my best. I have just ordered Pimsleurs Korean beginner 1 so I am waiting for that to arrive. At the moment I am sticking post-its to everything and reading a book about Korean Grammar (I am on page 3 and my head already hurts!).

Fighting!!!