In many ways, DukeEngage Korea was what I had expected, but my expectations were very high. Before leaving, I had anticipated Seoul to be a bustling city filled with culture and excitement. I expected a challenge teaching students but also thought it would be fun and fulfilling. I was also confident that this DukeEngage group, working as team, could be very successful teaching and getting the students excited about learning English. Looking back, I feel that those expectations were either met or exceeded. 

Seoul was as cool of a city that I’ve ever been to! There was so much to see and do, the culture was rich, and the food was delicious. I had so much fun getting to practice the Korean I had learned in a classroom at Duke and each new Korean phrase I learned in Seoul felt like a new accomplishment. Since my Korean is at an elementary level, I was very fortunate to be able to spent a lot of time speaking with elementary age students. Learning about another country’s customs was very eye opening because it made me think about what it means to be an American in a global environment. Additionally, observing Korean culture gave me a new perspective on my own culture.

Teaching the elementary school students at Jiguchon was at many times exhausting. It took a lot of energy to try to maintain the attention of students that are so easily distracted and sometimes seemed determined to not learn.  The difficulty of that challenge might have been underestimated but I knew teaching students at the elementary age wouldn’t be easy. Moreover, the time and effort it takes to develop a lesson plan and implement it successfully makes the feeling of seeing a student who has mastered a vocabulary word or grammatical structure that much more gratifying. Moving on to the Wooriduel School, relative to Jiguchon, teaching at Wooriduel was a breeze. The students I taught there were much older (17-25) and were eager to learn.  Of course they weren’t as vivacious as the Jiguchon students, but the Wooriduel students asked good questions and paid close attention to my lessons.  As I explained in my last post, I felt very fulfilled teaching the two students assigned to me for English class because they had an important college admissions exam coming up where English would be tested. 

Before traveling across the world, I imagined a wonderful experience in Korea. Now that I’m back in the US, I can safely say that my time in Korea went beyond my imagination. I feel so lucky to have been chosen to be part of this DukeEngage team. Together we spoke 4 languages and I felt that we all offered something different that made us effective. Since we all got along well, I believe we were able to cooperate as a group that was greater than the sum of its parts. I thank DukeEngage, my site coordinator, and my director for giving me a chance to have my most gratifying and exciting Duke experience yet.