Do What You Love - Love What You Do

I feel like we’re slowly settling into our life here in Gangneung. The last few weeks have been wonderful. We have now met all of our students for the semester. They are your typical youthful, energetic college kids. Campus is buzzing with vitality. Clubs are beginning and new relationships are forming everywhere. Often when walking across campus between classes, my thoughts are interrupted as I hear a student shout my name (Professor Rebecca). When I turn and look, they wave at me with abundant excitement. It makes me smile and sometimes laugh. Sometimes, they run up to me with some food or just to say hello. Usually, they bow. It’s weird. What a vibrant and refreshing place to spend my time.

Next week will be our first full week teaching all of our classes. I’m looking forward to getting into a groove with my schedule. So far, I love my job. I love my students, I love my co-workers, and I love my work environment. I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this. It just doesn’t feel like work to me. I wake up each day excited to go to school. Just when I start to feel tired and worn out, I’ve got a three-day weekend to rest and play.

My superiors treat me with respect and credibility and I am given a lot of responsibility. Distinguished Korean professors treat me as a peer. I’m incredibly honored to be associated with these individuals. Don’t they know I’m just a silly girl inside merely playing the role of professor? What do I know? I guess part of me feels as though I’m not a real professor. But I am. I just haven’t had to work so hard to get to this level. I am an expert at speaking English and I grew up in America. I have the ‘right’ accent and come from the ‘right’ place. It’s an attribute that so happens to be in high demand here and is given extreme admiration. I’m unworthy.

At the start of the semester we are given textbooks for our classes but are allowed to determine for ourselves how to utilize them. We can work at whatever pace we want as long as our students feel like they’re learning English. Virtually, I have unlimited freedom to be creative. Courses with foreign English professors are very focused on conversation and speaking skills so classes tend to be very social and interactive. This allows me to have a lot of fun with my students. At the end of the day I come home tired, but with a deep sense of satisfaction knowing that my work matters. I’m so fortunate to have been blessed with this opportunity and responsibility.

My co-workers are all awesome. I love the kinds of people that academia attracts. There is such diversity among us yet we are all like-minded in many ways. There are 18 or so foreign English professors. They all seem intellectual in some form or another. Some are clever and witty, some are highly intelligent, all are educated, and I would say most are scholarly. All of them seem to enjoy life in Korea. Living here isn’t so much about the money or the time off. It’s ironic: we make more money and receive more time off than most foreigners who are in Korea specifically for those reasons. Regardless, I feel like I am in good company. My co-workers seem quite satisfied and at peace with their lives’ here. Many of them have been here for years. Many of them are married to a Korean and plan to stay here permanently. All of them seem to have good things to say about working for Kwandong University.

There is so much more I could write about but this seems to be a good stopping point for tonight. It’s late. Dusty is snoring next to me and I’m really sleepy. I suppose this will have to be enough for one night.