Marco Bombino

“What is your preference of choice?” I was asked in my initial EPIK interview. “Incheon, because it’s a larger city and known as the transportation hub of Korea and I’d love to see as much of the country as possible with my time here.” Overpopulated cities, busy streets, loud noises, and the feeling of being completely engulfed in the constant hustle & bustle of Asian culture. At least this was my perception of my life in Korea. Oh, how I was wrong. It is quite the opposite in fact. Fast forward to the last day of EPIK orientation. My recruiter has informed me prior that I would be placed in Pohang, the opposite side of the country. That is okay, Pohang is still a fair size with around a half-million people. I open the contract sitting in front of me to see I was actually placed in Gyeongju. “Gyeongju?” I thought. After a quick google search I found out historically it was once called Seorabeol and it was the capital of Korea during the Silla Kingdom (57 BC – 935 AD).



However, much to my surprise, the population (260,000) is once again half the size of what I was anticipating before coming here. Little did I know, Gyeongju is actually quite large geographically… Fast forward again to my arrival in Gyeongju, so I thought. I was picked up by two teachers from my school. “This is Gyeongju” they said… followed by “Only 35 more minutes”. Five minutes later we had driven past the city and hit the highway once again. Finally, we arrived in the town of Gampo. It turns out that even though Gampo is 26km east of Gyeongju city (or for my sake, 1 hour by bus) it is still technically part of “Gyeongju”. The population of Gampo is around 5,800 people. Needless to say, it is much, much smaller than my original perception of life in Korea. Initially, was I happy about this? No. In life however, there are always two ways to look at things; pessimistically or optimistically. After an adjustment period of a few weeks I chose to look at my situation from an optimistic perspective.

I grew up in a town of a similar size so Gampo has a bit of a nostalgic feel to it. Also, my experience will be somewhat unique as I am the only native English speaker living in the entire town. On top of that, I can count the number of English speakers on one hand. I am lucky to find anyone within 15 years of my age as Gampo primarily has a much older demographic. I definitely stand out in town but even that adds to the experience. For example, I cut my finger and had to go to a medical clinic. The doctor (1 of 3 English speakers I have met in 10 months living there) was fascinated with me being a foreigner and being able to finally use his English. He finished bandaging my finger but continued to ask me many questions about Canada while the waiting room filled with people. Before I left the clinic, he asked me “Can I take you for dinner to meet my family?” I cannot say I have ever had someone ask me this before that I just met but I gladly accepted his invitation. After all, I did anticipate my experience would be unique. We went for dinner and I met his daughter (English speaker 2 of 3) and unfortunately his wife had to work late that evening, so we did not get a chance to meet. Regardless, we had a great time and even to this day he calls occasionally to ask how I am doing and to check up on me. With a pessimistic perspective I would have turned down that unique offer from the doctor. Why am I telling you this story? How does it relate to teaching during COVID-19? Well, just like teaching during a pandemic, things will not go as planned. How you look at the situation at hand will determine in part the outcome you receive from it.

What a time to start off your new career! Teaching during corona has been an interesting experience to say the least. The first month of my contract was spent not working (재미없었어요!) as Korea had spiked with new COVID cases and went into lockdown. This followed a period of learning to teach online which for many was a first and had most teachers scrambling to figure out. Luckily, I had that optimistic perspective I mentioned earlier. Challenge accepted! Teaching online only lasted a little while and then students were already back in school. To be honest, I thought it was way to soon for students to be coming back for in class lessons. To my surprise, corona cases did not spike after this decision as I thought they would have. My biggest challenge teaching during this pandemic lies with wearing a mask while I teach. I wear glasses so they constantly fog up, this gets annoying quite quickly. Our school set new procedures in place as preventative measures for COVID-19. I teach in Gampo at Korea Global Business Meister High School (KGBM) and we were actually in the news for conducting the corona test on campus for the entirety of the school. Every single student and staff member got tested in one afternoon. My role was to record everyone’s temperatures.

The best part was taking videos of the students watching the corona test being done or even their reactions after they just had the test. This made for a great slideshow presentation that our school shared in the later weeks. My school is in a slightly different situation than most as all the students live on campus in the dormitory attached to the school. Students live together, I’m sure you can imagine the outcome if only one of them caught the virus. Even till this day, all the students and staff have their temperatures checked on a daily basis before classes start in the morning. Although, this is a procedure I hope every school follows daily. Thinking about the era of Corona there has actually been several positives that have come out of it. First of all, it has made people more hygienic and conscious of spreading germs. I personally have never used more hand sanitizer in my entire life than I have in the last 9 months. Secondly, since we cannot fly to other countries it allows us foreign teachers to really get to know the areas around us and truly explore the beautiful country of Korea. Finally, it gives me a chance to really get to know the teachers in my office. However, I may not have realized all these benefits if I was stuck in a pessimistic outlook as I know some people still are during this global pandemic. My co-teacher and I have grown closer from this whole crazy situation. We have had our ups and downs as every pair does, but I would say we are in a better spot than most. We have even thrown each other birthday parties in the office. Another great way to share a moment with the ones you spend most of your time with during the week. I mean, who doesn’t love cake?! Don’t worry, we still wore masks and sat two meters apart! We just did it in style with party hats, funky glasses, exploding streamers, colorful balloons, and elegant décor to set the mood.



My favorite memory as a foreign teacher so far has been the events that followed my purchase of a 50cc Daelim scooter. One afternoon, the teachers that I share an office with (there are only 5 of us in total) said “Let’s go outside”. Then they asked me to bring my scooter around to the back of the school. Without knowing why, I went to grab my scooter. I drove it to where they had asked only to be surprised. There was an array of objects setup on a green mat including a watermelon, a fish, choco-pies, grapes, and “makgeolli” (막걸리). I could tell they had done some pre-planning to put the whole display together. The next 10 minutes involved bowing, money offerings, the fish, and pouring 막걸리 on my new bike. The ritual finished with the consumption of the fruit and choco-pies. They told me this was also part of the ritual but knowing how much they like to snack I’m not sure if that is the truth or not. This ancient Korean folk ritual is referred to as “Go-sa” (고사). They educated me that 고사 is done to bless the new vehicle for safety and to prevent any future calamities. I shared this experience with a few friends and some of them thought it was weird. I don’t think it’s weird, I think it is a unique experience and a cool story to share with others. Personally, I am grateful to have experienced the old tradition. I appreciate my teachers for going out of their way to share their culture with me. I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share an office with and I gladly renewed my contract for another year, even in my tiny town of only 5,800 people. Don’t worry, my Korean is slowly getting a bit better… 안녕히게세요!