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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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 Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 2:49 am Post subject: Woman earns Fulbright to teach English in S. Korea |
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Does this sound on the level?
http://www.concordmonitor.com/community/town-by-town/bow/6908095-95/woman-earns-fulbright-to-teach-english-in-s-korea
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Saturday, June 8, 2013
(Published in print: Saturday, June 8, 2013)
Marissa Lynn adores East Asian cuisine, runs constantly and knows at least one Korean greeting: �Annyeonghaseyo,� which means �hello.�
Those attributes should prove handy come July, when the 22-year-old Bow native and Dartmouth College senior travels to Seoul, South Korea, to start a yearlong Fulbright fellowship teaching English in a Korean high school.
Lynn, who is graduating tomorrow as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in biology and a minor in Asian and Middle Eastern studies, will be among about 80 English teaching assistants working in primary and secondary schools across South Korea. She has yet to be assigned a post but knows it will likely be outside the capital, in an area with limited exposure to western language and culture.
Reached earlier this week by phone in San Francisco, where she has been interning at a health care consultancy focused on diabetes and obesity prevention, Lynn said she is thrilled about the trip.
�I chose to teach English because I had taught it before, and because I feel language is really important,� she said.
Besides English instruction, Lynn hopes to start a running club for students, and in so doing inject more physical activity into Korean school life than she understands there to be.
�I know physical education is very overlooked in Korean schools,� she said, noting accounts from former teaching assistants and her own research.
She also plans to travel extensively throughout South Korea and the region, and is interested in volunteering with North Korean defectors, an activity in which she has heard past assistants have been involved.
South Korea houses one of Fulbright�s largest and most well-known teaching assistant programs. Fellows spend an initial six weeks in intensive Korean language study, then they are placed in homestays and classrooms with up to 40 students and a strict, rote educational tradition.
�I thought it�d be interesting,� Lynn said. �You hear about Korean schools being so rigid, and I was interested in seeing how much of that is truth.�
Assistants work closely with teachers, devoting
20 hours per week to classroom instruction and the
rest to running study groups and extracurricular
activities.
Lynn said she began applying for the grant a year ago. Applicants are first screened by personal statements, essay responses and academic credentials. They are then interviewed and eventually selected by a Korean delegation.
When Lynn learned in March that she had been chosen for the program, she said she turned on Korean pop music and blared it throughout her parents� house.
�I was very excited,� she said.
The fellowship is a noteworthy accomplishment, but it�s just one of several Lynn has racked up during her college tenure.
In addition to studying abroad on three occasions � in Barcelona, Morocco and Nepal � she also won a Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship for her biomedical research on therapeutic remedies for pancreatic cancer, and completed summer internships at Harvard and Northwestern universities. She ran her first marathon last October in Chicago, and qualified for this year�s Boston Marathon, which she couldn�t attend because she was in San Francisco.
Lynn said she�s interested in attending medical school at some point, possibly as an entry point to one day working on global health policy.
�I�m not really interested in the traditional clinical path,� she said.
Of her Dartmouth tenure, Lynn noted school traditions and friends as among her fondest memories.
�Just being part of a school with such culture and traditions was really great,� she said
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newchamp
Joined: 09 Mar 2013
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:05 am Post subject: |
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| So basically the Fulbright funds will be used to save the Korean government some money and reduce the number of NET teaching jobs available. How noble. |
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ren546
Joined: 17 Dec 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:10 am Post subject: |
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This is not new. We had a Fulbright TA "volunteer" at our university over the winter. Apparently they're given a list of different places that they can choose to go to, but Korea's one of the easier ones to get.
As far as I know, I think they're given homestay instead of their own apartment. |
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dairyairy
Joined: 17 May 2012
Location: South Korea
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 3:49 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| 80 English teaching assistants working in primary and secondary schools across South Korea |
They're all over the place. |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:06 am Post subject: |
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| I've met two, it's real. |
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javis
Joined: 28 Feb 2013
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:52 am Post subject: |
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She sounds way overqualified for that gig.  |
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Died By Bear
Joined: 13 Jul 2010
Location: On the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 9:30 am Post subject: |
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| javis wrote: |
| She sounds way overqualified for that gig. |
It keeps getting curiousier and curiousier all the time........
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:31 pm Post subject: |
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| She actually makes me laugh. I mean all that trouble to teach here? Wouldn't it just be easier to go for EPIK? She'll be in for a shock when she finds out it isn't that strict at school? I'd say she's getting a raw deal. Ignorance is bliss, I guess. |
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Moondoggy
Joined: 07 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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| javis wrote: |
| She sounds way overqualified for that gig. |
she's not overqualified. a few friends of mine who graduated from top-tier universities moved to korea to teach english. |
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Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 6:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Moondoggy wrote: |
| javis wrote: |
| She sounds way overqualified for that gig. |
she's not overqualified. a few friends of mine who graduated from top-tier universities moved to korea to teach english. |
Economy that bad, I guess? Even top tier unis can't find jobs? |
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Moondoggy
Joined: 07 Jun 2011
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Moondoggy wrote: |
| javis wrote: |
| She sounds way overqualified for that gig. |
she's not overqualified. a few friends of mine who graduated from top-tier universities moved to korea to teach english. |
Economy that bad, I guess? Even top tier unis can't find jobs? |
it's not about the money. they love all things korean. unlike the dave�s cafe trolls (who graduated from stupid 3rd tier universities) they actually take in the korean culture which teaches them a lot of values. |
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hogwonguy1979
Joined: 22 Dec 2003
Location: the racoon den
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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| they've been here for decades, in fact one long time former poster here was did a lot of fullbright training for people here while she was here doing her dissertation research a couple of years ago |
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Leon
Joined: 31 May 2010
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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| The two I meet, I met at a meeting for people going to an elite graduate school program who lived in Seoul. They were doing it for a year, yet unlike most of us, their experience will actually look good on a resume. My time in Korea helped me get into the program as well. If you do this for a year or two, and you are going into a school or job where you need foreign experience, it's really not the dead end people make it out to be. |
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PRagic
Joined: 24 Feb 2006
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 8:46 pm Post subject: |
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Kind of a joke. Wonder what they think once they get here and meet the myriad waygook over here doing the same job with better perks (who the heck wants a homestay at 22?) and less hastles.
Guess that it makes doing a year of teaching a bit rosier on the ol' CV if it's backed up by a name brand 'grant', though. To each their own. |
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chrisinkorea2011
Joined: 16 Jan 2011
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 9:14 pm Post subject: |
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| Moondoggy wrote: |
| Weigookin74 wrote: |
| Moondoggy wrote: |
| javis wrote: |
| She sounds way overqualified for that gig. |
she's not overqualified. a few friends of mine who graduated from top-tier universities moved to korea to teach english. |
Economy that bad, I guess? Even top tier unis can't find jobs? |
it's not about the money. they love all things korean. unlike the dave�s cafe trolls (who graduated from stupid 3rd tier universities) they actually take in the korean culture which teaches them a lot of values. |
Well if that isnt the pot calling the kettle black, then I dont know what is. |
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