From China to South Korea - an exciting (and real) TEFL tale!

Sophie Roberts travelled to China on the 2010 Internship, then moved on to South Korea to get more teaching experience, and she was also teetering on the edge of moving to Argentina! We’ve put together juicy chunks of her journey in this easy-to-read timeline for you!

February 2nd 2010 – 3 weeks until lift off to China!

“3 weeks from today I will be setting foot into a world where carbohydrates are the main food group (make sure to get your 5 a day), using a knife and fork is frowned upon and your fate is determined, oh yes, through a cookie. But hey ho like all you intrepid explorers out there, I too, am seeking an adventure and China seems a pretty appropriate place to go looking for one.”

Come and read Sophie's first exciting blog here

March 3rd 2010 – it’s -22 degrees in China and Sophie’s still smiling

I haven’t had any internet access all week so haven't had a chance to write on here! It’s been a crazy week and this is a CRAZY place - especially the people! I arrived last Tuesday with another 116 people!
Me and 9 others all set off to Harbin, we endured a 10 hour over night train journey which was actually fantastic as we all had actual horizontal beds! And even though the ceiling was on our noses and there was no ladder to get up to the third bunk I managed to get a pretty decent kip. Then we woke up to a beautiful sunrise over our snow covered destination. We were met by about 5 Chinese students, who took us around Harbin and out for lunch. They are so lovely and have devoted so much time to us! The main guy, Angus said to me "you beautiful, you look film star" haha - I can assure you, after a disgusting hangover and 10 hour train journey I definitely did NOT look like a film star.
 
In summary it’s been a good experience so far, however, this may all change tomorrow when I have 60 pairs of eyes staring up at me! I’ll keep you posted!

Read the rest of the blog here

March 5th 2010 – A British lesson for Sophie’s students

So its day six of Harbin and I’m currently sitting in the teacher’s office at my school, preparing for my second lesson of the week.

Even after only one lesson I have learnt quite a bit and already some of the myths about Chinese students have been eradicated. Firstly, the idea that they are quiet, obedient and are not used to an interactive lesson appears to be, with my first class anyway, completely false.

As I was showing the class props from England, Terry was attempting to stab Maggie with an England flag, Jay and Tom where fighting over a postcard of Tower Bridge, Jade was chomping her way through a picture of the Queen and Moon seemed to be entertaining the others with his air guitar to the Beatles music.

Check out the full story here!

March 31st - Sophie starts working as a Kindergarten teacher!

So there I was, nervously waiting for them to finish so that I could crack on with my first lesson. Baby class. Ten minutes of "O is for Ox" and "P is for Pig." Now you'd think that would go pretty quickly, fly by in fact, but you'd think wrong. It was the longest ten minutes of my life. As I was frantically searching my brain for something fun to do about Ox's and Pig's I began to panic. And the more I panicked the more my brain shut down. "For god's sake brain, why now!?" Silence. " Eventually the assistants  decided the step in. They started a game whilst I stood in the background, sort of watching, sort of trying to help.

Will Sophie sink or swim? Read on here

April 6th 2010 – Lady Gaga and Avatar!

Monday morning was an early start as some of us attended English Corner. Talk about yourself for half an hour? Check. Free Breakfast? Check. Free taxi there? Check. It didn't take much to persuade me, especially as I'm a morning person anyway. So we were each assigned a group of university students to chat to for half an hour about well, anything we liked really. Although the topic of conversation just kept coming back to the same things. However hard I tried to steer the conversation away from Avatar and Lady Gaga they just kept creeping back in. "So Roger, you live with you Mother and Father?" "Yes they like Avatar very much, they went to the cinema to watch it with me". "Right... Okay, and Susan do you play any sports?" "Yes, Karaoke, I like to sing Lady Gaga." A country that counts Karaoke as a sport? My kind of country.

Read the full blog here

May 4th 20101 - Chinese chat up lines

Yesterday was lovely. On Walking Street huge structures have been erected and transformed into open beer and food tents. We got there mid-afternoon and sat in the glorious sunshine eating and drinking Harbin beer. We also made a friend who decided to sit with us for five hours and feed us sweets although he didn't really speak any English and we don't really speak any Chinese (it’s a work in progress). When we left however he whispered five words into Mary's ear, words that had such an effect they left her speechless; "I've.Got.A.Double.Bed". What a charmer! I guess he must have just learnt that one English phrase to woo all the ladies with - but unfortunately he was left disappointed as Mary said goodbye.

Read on for more weekend shenanigans

May 13th 2010 – The Sun has got it’s his hat on in China!

Finally summer is here, and it seems that in Harbin they go all out. It's pretty much like a constant fun fair here now the sun is out - probably making up for the ridiculously long winter. Everyone is flying kites and eating candyfloss and blowing bubbles and painting and playing music. This afternoon I visited the local park which is about a 4 minute walk from my apartment. There are leaves and blossom on the trees and ACTUAL grass - something I haven't seen for a good few months now. I had such an urge to sprawl out on it and roll over it soaking up its smell and feel but I didn't. Might have looked slightly odd.

The full shining story is here

October 6th – Sophie moves to South Korea to continue her TEFL adventure!

So first things first. You'll be glad to know that after teaching Kindergarten for 6 months I actually fell in love with the little un's and made a conscious decision to continue teaching Kindergarten whilst in South Korea. What can I say? They stole my heart. What started off as a nightmare turned into a lovely happy ending…

Read on for more Korea related fun in this post

November 2nd – Sophie’s coming home for Christmas!

So I made a decision. I'm flying home for christmas. And actually, I can't wait. I was a bit hesitant at first, however, when I actually thought about it I realised I have so much time to explore the rest of Asia and that I have such a good life here OF COURSE I will want to return. I told my Mother last night whilst stuffing my face with pasta over Skype. She bawled her eyes out. Hopefully they were tears of joy but you never can be sure. Perhaps the thought of my return along with untidiness and an empty fridge caused her to break down. Hopefully not.

Read more tidings of joy here

December 12th 2010 – No more blogging for Sophie

She just has this to say:
DO TEFL
GO AND EXPLORE
HAVE A BLAST
 
These have been the best ten months of my life!!

March 4th 2011 – Happy Anniversary to you Sophie!

Yep, that’s right, it’s been a full year of teaching abroad; 52 weeks, 365 days, 8765.8127 hours and 525 948.766 minutes (you might be surprised to learn that actually I don't just go around with all this knowledge in my head, I definitely googled it).

She’s still a newbie at heart though – read this

April 19th 2011 – Korea or Argentina? That is a tough choice to make…

Sophie has a tough decision to make in either staying in Korea or looking further afield, Argentina is calling!

Did Sophie make a decision? What happened next? Read the final chapter here

Wow - quite a journey wouldn't you say?

Sophie - we applaude you, thanks for sharing your stories with us! :)