Filipino English Teachers in Korea

I attended a Christmas party today and there I saw someone I met a few moons ago at a meet-up I organized for “Filipino English Teachers in Korea”. I was reminded that I have not posted anything about the event.
On October 18th, I and other Filipino English teachers gathered at the Hana Darin Multicultural Center for a meet-up and a presentation. About 30 people said that they will come, but only half really attended. No surprise there 🙂
We covered two topics that day: setting up your own English study room and tips and tricks in teaching young learners. I facilitated the first topic while friend Myla Hong did the second part. Myla and I do not have degrees in Education or in English. We first met attending a free English Teacher Training in Nowon-gu back in 2011. I was impressed by Myla’s presentation on the book “Go Away, Big Green Monster”. I’ve kept a recording of that but I don’t have her permission to post it 🙂

Since I did not have any experience teaching English in the Philippines, I enrolled in a TESOL Class at Sookmyung Women’s University in the fall of 2008. After that, I was employed full-time at a branch of Lee Bo Young Talking Club, then at Yoon’s English Forest and YBM Ingloo. I started operating my own “kongbubang” or study room in 2012 and I opened a “kyosupso” or a small private academy early this year.
Myla worked at a bank in the Philippines, but she was also tutoring Korean students as a part-time job. When she and her Korean husband decided to live in Korea, she worked as an English teacher at kindergarten schools. She is quite competent at her work and this was very obvious when she did the presentation last October.

I would consider the first meet-up in October 18th a success. We were able to meet other Filipino English teachers in Korea and everyone was hooked on Myla’s bag of tricks and all her teaching tips. Everyone was friendly and willing to share their ideas and experiences. The atmosphere was very relaxed and we shared a lot of laughs. After the presentation, we moved to another place for coffee.
We have a Facebook group called “Filipino English Teachers in Korea”. It has been active since 2012 with over 500 members but we decided this year to limit membership to those who are living in Korea and have the legal capacity to teach (i.e., F-2, F-5, F-6 visa and Korean citizens). While we only had one event this 2016, we hope to be a lot more active in the coming year.