Victoria Hepler



Imagine this. You have just decided to make the move across the world to a country called South Korea. You do not know the language with only minimal exposure to the culture and the people. You are excited, but nervous at the same time. You spend the next 24 hours packing, traveling, and settling into your new home in rural South Korea. You mentally prepare yourself for your first day as an English teacher to elementary school-aged Korean children. You practice your Korean to be as respectful as you can be to the other staff and teachers. You walk in through the front doors of your new workplace for the next two years and are greeted by smiles, hugs, and excitement from the other teachers and the children who will now forever impact your life. You don’t know it, but this experience and journey may change your life forever. You have just visualized my exact experience at Songgan Elementary School in Buyeo, Chungnam, South Korea. All of the fears and anxious feelings I had quickly disappeared and are now filled with excitement, happiness, and joyous feelings.

The TaLK Program in South Korea has been an experience of a lifetime that I will never forget. As a TaLK Scholar, I have connected with South Korean adults and children in a way that I have never before. I have been treated with the highest level of respect and the greatest amount of care. While I had originally thought adjusting to my new life would be difficult, this was not the case at all. I was welcomed into my new “Korean Family” almost instantaneously. The transition from being a stranger to another one of the teachers was smooth and seamless. Before coming to South Korea, I believed that the areas I would struggle the most in would be learning the language and connecting to the Korean students and teachers. I quickly realized that I was wrong and that this would not be the case. I dedicated the time and effort to learn the language and fall in love with it just like I did with South Korea. Here I am not two years later on my road to being fluent in a language that I never had imagined being successful at. I believe this is the area of my Korean experience that I value the most. By placing my priorities on learning the language, I have connected with more people and immersed myself more in the Korean culture in a way that I would have never been able to if I did not know the Korean language. My students feel more comfortable around me, and I have formed bonds with Koreans in my school and my personal life.



I had hoped going into this experience that I would be the English teacher my students deserved, and I was focused on obtaining the necessary skills and tools to do this. I found the most beneficial skill to learn was creating a relationship with my students as a teacher and as a friend. This included learning all of my students’ names, following a routine and reward system, and creating a safe environment for us to learn together. This was a new learning experience for me as well as for my students, and I needed to ensure that we all felt comfortable making mistakes and evolving with one another. Since I enacted this concept early into my time here in South Korea, my students knew what to expect going into English class every day. I constantly reminded them that I was there to help them in the difficult process of learning English.

Every TaLK experience is different, and what may work for one scholar may not work for another in terms of teaching, forming relationships, and gaining comfort within your placement. The biggest advice that I can provide that I know will benefit every individual who reads this is to enter this process with a positive mindset that allows you to be open and willing to fully immerse yourself into the Korean culture. This experience is everything you make it, and being open and willing to learn the language and the culture will provide the foundation for an incredible experience that one never forgets.