The KOTESOL International Conference

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I didn’t update my blog for a week. No thanks to a very hectic schedule that occupied even my weekends. I was down with a cold last week that I was only able to attend the Sunday session of the KOTESOL International Conference. There I finally met Nhemskie who traveled all the way from Busan. “Incheonites” Jehan and Anne brought a friend, a Filipina Professor in one of the universities here, from whom I learned a lot.
It was a very productive Sunday as we didn’t only enjoy the lectures from Prof. Tim Murphey and Marc Helgesen (author of English Firsthand), but we also “hoarded” free stuff – books, pens, folders – from different book publishers. Costco was there to provide coffee, cakes and chocolates. A few overseas universities also provided information on their TESOL courses. How I wish there were business plan consultants for people who’re interested in having their own hagwons.
I was quite surprised to see a number of Filipino attendees at the conference. Most were at the YL sessions. I was also at those sessions since I thought I needed to learn more about teaching YLs, since the TESOL course I took last year is more applicable for teaching YAs and adults. My companions took the time to have their pictures taken with Prof. Murphey and Hegelsen 🙂 They also “hoarded” the books at Language World and Longman’s. Jehan and Anne both had three bags of ESL stuff, while I only had six YL books to bring home.
Next Saturday, there will be a symposium on Extensive Reading and it will be held at Sookmyung University’s Injeguan Building. You can find more info on this at KOTESOL’s website.