I'm coming up on six
months in Japan in two weeks, and that means my renewal meeting is
imminent. I didn't expect it to feel so stressful, but it is because
I'm planning on teaching in Seoul next year to spend time with a very
close friend there. I had hoped to be able to move directly from Japan
to South Korea, but I only very recently found out that I basically have
to go back to the US to get an FBI criminal record check, fingerprints,
Korean work visa, etc. I could maybe do that here, but I wouldn't be
able to apply for private schools, and my AEON timeline is completely
mismatched for public schools (semesters start on March 1 and September
1, and I leave AEON on April 18.) Now I'm faced with what feels like
one of the most difficult decisions of my life: do I renew my contract
here or not? If I do renew, for how long?
As far as I can tell from my research, I have basically three options, and none of them are ideal:
Don't renew my contract and come home at the end of April. The application process for EPIK (The Korean equivalent of JET) starts in April and would have me leaving again in late August, giving me about four months. I could also use this time to apply to private schools to maximize my chances of finding a position as soon as possible. Apparently I can get a TEFL certificate in as few as four weeks if I work on it full-time, so I would have time to do that as well. Of course, I'd also have to live off my savings for four months, since the odds of my finding another job while I'm home is next to nothing. Best case scenario, I'm in Korea 10 months from now.
Renew my contract for three months. This would delay my final contract meeting to January 18 (assuming they offered me anything else) and give me time to visit Seoul during my winter vacation to see if I might like it there. I would, however, miss the window of opportunity for EPIK, unless I somehow managed to get all the required documents here in Japan. Not going back to the US would shut me out of all private schools, though, and I'd be pinning all my hopes on EPIK hiring me. I'd still have to worry about where to stay until EPIK started, among other things. If I went back to the US then, I wouldn't be able to apply for EPIK or any other public school, and would only be able to apply for private schools.
Renew my contract for six months. It would delay my final contract meeting to April 18, I could see Seoul, then go back to the US and apply for the full gamut of schools. Of course, this also delays Soee and I getting together for over a year, since I'd be coming home in October 2012 and probably going to Korea in March 2013. We've been wanting to get together since we met in San Francisco in December last year; 14 more months feels like an eternity. Soee's already expressed concerns about my long-term health while staying here (even though I've done my best to reassure her,) and she'd really like me to come to Seoul as soon as possible.
So that's my dilemma. Add to that the fact that I half feel like I'm letting my Japanese students down by leaving so soon and I have two weeks to make some kind of decision, and I have a real struggle on my hands.
As far as I can tell from my research, I have basically three options, and none of them are ideal:
Don't renew my contract and come home at the end of April. The application process for EPIK (The Korean equivalent of JET) starts in April and would have me leaving again in late August, giving me about four months. I could also use this time to apply to private schools to maximize my chances of finding a position as soon as possible. Apparently I can get a TEFL certificate in as few as four weeks if I work on it full-time, so I would have time to do that as well. Of course, I'd also have to live off my savings for four months, since the odds of my finding another job while I'm home is next to nothing. Best case scenario, I'm in Korea 10 months from now.
Renew my contract for three months. This would delay my final contract meeting to January 18 (assuming they offered me anything else) and give me time to visit Seoul during my winter vacation to see if I might like it there. I would, however, miss the window of opportunity for EPIK, unless I somehow managed to get all the required documents here in Japan. Not going back to the US would shut me out of all private schools, though, and I'd be pinning all my hopes on EPIK hiring me. I'd still have to worry about where to stay until EPIK started, among other things. If I went back to the US then, I wouldn't be able to apply for EPIK or any other public school, and would only be able to apply for private schools.
Renew my contract for six months. It would delay my final contract meeting to April 18, I could see Seoul, then go back to the US and apply for the full gamut of schools. Of course, this also delays Soee and I getting together for over a year, since I'd be coming home in October 2012 and probably going to Korea in March 2013. We've been wanting to get together since we met in San Francisco in December last year; 14 more months feels like an eternity. Soee's already expressed concerns about my long-term health while staying here (even though I've done my best to reassure her,) and she'd really like me to come to Seoul as soon as possible.
So that's my dilemma. Add to that the fact that I half feel like I'm letting my Japanese students down by leaving so soon and I have two weeks to make some kind of decision, and I have a real struggle on my hands.
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