Reggie Paculba Tibunsay III

Introduction
The main reason why I wanted to teach in another country, particularly Korea, was to experience another culture differently from my upbringing in the United States. I chose Korea because I am a fan of their mini-series drama. When I watched those TV shows, I got drawn into the different places of locations I see on the TV screen, its social customs, the traditional clothing, human interaction in displaying a different mannerism of communication, and the history itself. When I received the good news from EPIK, I was happy to be accepted to teach in Korea. Now that I am here teaching Korean students English is an experience like no other before because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, I will be sharing my experience of what it is like to teach in the era of COVID-19. Specifically, my focus will be my reflection on co-teaching, adapting to life in Korea, and exploring Korean culture. I hope you will find my experience insightful and inspire you to teach in Korea, too.

Co-teaching
When I arrived at my EPIK orientation earlier in the year in the Month of February. The spread of COVID-19 was an alarming concern across Korea, so all of us new teachers arriving at our orientation venue were in the midst of this shocking outbreak cultivating the region. Once EPIK orientation concluded, one of my co-teachers came to get me from the host venue to my school placement in Gyeonggi-do province. Pyeongtaek was my assigned area to teach in Anjung Middle School. I have two co-teachers who alternate with me as I teach English class. Unfortunately, the school year was not a normal traditional classroom environment. Korea implemented a five level social distancing ruling depending on the number of infected cases of COVID-19. As it turned out, the first semester of the school year was on lockdown resulting schools to go from offline to online learning. The sudden change forced teachers and students alike to adjust to the new platform of learning. My co-teachers and I worked together on what is the best approach to teach students online as if they were in the classroom with us. I would prepare my lesson planning and share them with my co-teachers. In this way, none of us are going ahead or behind on the textbook topic. Then, our goal is to bring the same classroom experience onto online learning. The co-teaching approach we used for me to teach English online was for us to adapt the “one teach, one assist” method since online schooling was new for all of us. The “one teach, one assist'' method helped us co-teachers work together effectively right away. I thought there would be miscommunication between us co-teachers because of the age gap of me being so young compared to their age group. Thankfully, it did not matter and we were able to get along immediately by following this co-teaching model. The medium platform we used to teach online is called Microsoft Teams. I would present my online lesson on a PowerPoint presentation and share my computer screen with the students. As I give instructions, my co-teacher would interject to give clarifications in Korean feeding off of each other’s rhythm and momentum to make it easier for students to understand what was presented to them. My co-teachers number of experiences working with native teachers along with the advance knowledge in age compliments my expertise and instructional knowledge. In the beginning there was a panic because of the drastic change in scenery, but in the end it worked out just right to help students overcome their learning disabilities or inexperience that can hinder them from progressing learning online. My students did not have too many difficulties adapting to online learning. All thanks to the calibration of co-teaching leading to excellent communication with students. Again, this year was not a normal year to enjoy life in Korea, but adapting to the COVID-19 life in Korea was something new for all of us.

Adapting to life in Korea
When I arrived in Korea, I said to myself to keep an open mind and be considerate of the culture since I am representing my home country of the U.S. Importantly, I needed to learn some basic words or expressions to get by or along with others like a simple hello in Korean. I think it is important to make new friends in the local area through social meetings, popular gatherings, and key events to help immerse myself to live in Korea. Unfortunately, I was not able to do a lot of them this year because of the pandemic outbreak. Instead of adapting to life in Korea, it was more of adapting to life in COVID-19. My daily routine and hobby had to be adjusted to the social level distancing guideline implemented by the local region since region to region differ in number of infected cases. Therefore, most of my eating diet came from takeout delivery when ordering my meals online or over the phone. I was able to adapt to the Korean apps on my phone and navigate my way to find things even though I cannot read Korean. If I had questions on how to use the app on my phone, I would have one of my co-teachers help me out. Since I do not have a car and driving license, I had to quickly learn how to use the local buses as my means of transportation. I was very scared of getting lost using the bus in the beginning, but the more I got myself riding the bus, the more I got myself comfortable knowing many bus stops, routes, and time schedules. My home placement is located in a rural area, so the best transportation I can use is the bus and taxi service since there is no subway and train station nearby. My biggest change I had to adapt to in Korea was no McDonalds to go to near my home placement. Even so, it did not stop me from exploring the Korean culture.

Exploring Korean culture
Since I am limited to travel from place to place in Korea did not stop me from exploring Korean culture. So, the next best thing for me was to dive into the Korean culture and try out traditional Korean foods. Food is my best friend, so trying out the different Korean foods can help me understand the culture from its eating perspective. When eating out, I notice immediately the mannerism and practice when dining out with a group of people. The young person in the group would set up the table and serve water for each one in the table. There were several traditional Korean foods I have tried like kimchi, ramen noodle, tteokbokki, samgyetang, gimbap, but my favorite of them all is bibimbap. I love eating bibimbap because of the red sauce to add flavor when mixing the rice and vegetables together. Importantly, it is a very healthy meal and made me eat my vegetables more than usual. The best bibimbap comes in a stone pot. The heat underneath the stone pot gives it a crunchiness texture making the moment enjoyable to eat without worries about life. When the social distance level went down to level one with infected cases below one hundred. I was excited to finally visit Seoul for the first time this year. I finally got to eat out in a Korea barbecue restaurant in the Capital City. I am a beef lover and enjoyed every bit frying up the meat on the grill, so I can eat it freshly cooked. Also, I learned how to eat a Korean barbecue correctly the Korean way. It is like making your own sandwich. I would get a green leaf, then add rice, more vegetables, and pour different sauce flavors on it. Lastly, add the beef to place the final touch then wrap them all with one large green leaf. The Korean barbecue was my best experience this year.

Summary
My co-teaching experience during this unprecedented time in the COVID-19 era elevated my teaching skills. I have noticed my teaching techniques have sharpened and improved greatly through the learning trials teaching online. I had no prior teaching experience online the same as my co-teachers, but this year’s unique challenges improved my relationship with my co-teachers and students alike. Teaching online classes also helped me recognize student learning behavior and understanding curves because I can see each student’s progress from an online and offline point of view. Therefore, I was able to explore different teaching methods that I have not applied in prior teaching experiences. Finally, my life in Korea was limited due to the pandemic concerns in allowing me to explore more of its culture and beauty. Thankfully, Korea has state-of-the-art high-speed Internet technology where I can expand my knowledge about the rich history of this country.