Special Announcement

Hey everyone,

This is a special announcement.

I’ve decided to leave Korea on August 8th or so. My last day of work will be August 6th. This decision did not come lightly and now I will explain many of the factors involved in coming to this decision.

First on the list is what I want to do with my life. I have been thinking about this since mid-January and knew that when I came here, I would use some of my time to try and discover what I might want to do. Now that I’ve been here and have managed to achieve part of the life experience I was initially gunning for, I’ve been able to narrow it down a little bit. I do enjoy teaching and teaching ESL but it’s not something I could see myself doing for my whole life, let alone a full year. So, initially my thoughts were to make this a six month contract and then leave in November, securing the cost of my airfare here.

However, certain logistical problems have arisen that have made it clear to me that leaving before November is the ideal choice for me. I set up an accurate budget that I can put theoretical and actual numbers into using Excel and have made calculations regarding how much money I will spend, get, and save. I’ve also calculated the percentage of the money I retain by staying for various periods of time. The results were that the percentage of money I retain would be almost the same for each case. Despite the fact that I would obviously have more money by staying longer, I do squander the same amount since I would be going back at the end of August anyway. Going back for good in August does indeed force me to lose money as well. However, I am losing money either way and if I’ve decided that I should only be staying six months then I would basically be wasting too much potential to start something new in Canada. The benefits of leaving in August outweigh the benefits of leaving in November.

There are certain unique advantages to going back in August. I get the time to apartment search there in person and to see if living in an apartment with the people I already want to live with will be feasible or not. The worst would be coming back in September and realizing that one of them may not be able to afford it anymore or have changed their plans. Another unique advantage is that it gives me time to hunt for the jobs I want. Or god forbid, if I am unable to find such a job right away, a job to tide me over until I can. At any rate, I’ve decided to hunt for a certain job and use my connections – I won’t say any details about that in this post. This also lets me decide where I will want to be living and get a more accurate picture of what apartment costs will be per region, as well as job availability.

When I thought about coming to Korea, it was never to make money. I wanted to experience a completely different culture, see how I felt a little later and reserve the option to come home whenever I pleased, despite what anyone else may think of me. I have no debt to speak of, so I’m not losing anything other than the probability of some day returning to work for this company again and some extra money. But, I’ve accepted that. If I choose to return to Korea, it will be with close friends and in a vacation capacity. The country is absolutely awesome and is easily one of the most fun places I have ever been.

However, one cannot deny what the brain and the heart both agree on. Thinking both logically and with my emotions, I’ve come to the conclusion that returning to Canada is best for me as it offers me the vast majority of the things I’m looking for in life and work. Three months in Korea without losing money and having an easy job is an incredible way to earn a life experience that cannot compare to anything else.

I know a lot of you won’t understand. Feel free to draw your own conclusions such as, “That guy can’t commit to anything,” or, “He’s probably just homesick,” or some other comment that could be far worse. And hey, if you support me no matter what, that’s awesome too. The fact of the matter is, is that no one can fully understand another person’s decisions because no one thinks and feels exactly the same as another person might. I’ve explained my reasons and I think a lot of you may be a little disappointed. Even more of you will be super happy. Too many people these days do what they’re supposed to do and not what they want to do because it’s more socially acceptable. Because it doesn’t set anyone off. I said to myself that I would not be like that. If I had a change of heart and decided to come and go as I pleased then it’s my business and my business alone. Sometimes tough decisions have to be made for the greater good. This was one of those tough decisions for me. I’ve had many before in life and will experience many more. Right now, I feel that I have a different calling, in a different place.

Working with Moon Kkang so far has been a blast! All the people are super nice and some kids make every minute of every day worth it. (ie. Clearly, I have a few favourites) The job is super easy and loads of fun. The company, as a whole, is very well organized and makes the ESL teaching experience in Korea very enjoyable. I’ll admit that it does feel weird to “throw away” something that so many people would kill to have. Especially working in a smaller Special branch, where you only teach high level kids and the staff are all super cool. But the decision I made was to go to do something else, not run away from a position. For those of you following this blog, I would highly recommend Moon Kkang to people thinking about teaching ESL in Korea. Especially for the Daegu region.

So that’s that, really. I’ve made my decision. If anyone has any questions about it or my plans, please feel free to ask and I will do my best to honestly answer your question if I know what the answer is.

Thanks for reading this blog too. I very much appreciate it. I will try to post some more whenever something interesting comes up and give everyone an insightful account into the fun things that happen here and even the not-so-fun things that happen here.

Thanks again,

Tyler