Philip Bowman
HR Coordinator for South Korea
Philip smiles for the camera
I think I have never felt so much as if I belonged and was free as the year I spent as a foreigner in Korea. There is something about being so obviously strange and out of place that makes me feel less strange, or at least more okay with being strange.
Things did not go as planned when my wife and I arrived. We had missed a flight due to weather, delaying our arrival time by more than 12 hours. It was pre-dawn, and the fog and darkness prevented me from seeing the country I had been anticipating anxiously for months. The taxi driver didn’t speak English, and dropped us off at a tiny room in a 7-story building, barely big enough for a bed and a desk. My wife and I exchanged worried glances before realizing that this room could not be our apartment. It didn’t have a kitchen.
We were brought into work later that day, not knowing if we were going to be expected to teach that day after no sleep and without even another set of clothes to change into. We walked into the office where the other five foreign and six Korean teachers looked at us, seemingly confused at our presence or maybe sizing us up. The man who brought us in announced “These are the new teachers,” and immediately each of the foreigners sprang up, excited, to greet us.
I find myself telling that anecdote a lot when I talk about Korea. All of these people were also strange and out of place, and throughout my year in Korea, I grew very close to them because of this. We all got to be strange together, combine our collective language and cultural knowledge to help each other along the way. For the first few days, maybe the first few weeks, my wife and I followed this group around like children, going where they went and eating what they suggested we eat, until we became comfortable enough to make our own decisions, branch out, and though we did those things, the friends I met in Korea were a defining aspect of the experience, and it couldn’t have happened anywhere else.
We chose Korea, honestly, because the pay was better than Japan. We didn’t know much about the country, and had only tasted Korean food once or twice, but came to love just about everything about the place. We stayed at Buddhist temples, studied Taekwondo and the Korean language, went to Everland, and had many nights out complete with Noraebang, Soju, and street food.
And that is to say nothing of the job. Without a doubt, and by a large margin, teaching in Korea was the best job I’ve ever had, and the only job that made me regret taking a day off. Though at times it was challenging to live in Korea, and teaching was challenging as well, my students always made the whole thing seem worth it, no matter how wound up or unfocused they were.
It was exciting and eye-opening, an environment that inspired me to play music, write a novel, get out and have new experiences, meet new people, and get to know myself better. It made me change what I wanted out of life, made me want to see everything there is to see in the world, and made me want to teach. Going to Korea was one of the best decisions I ever made, and I can’t wait to go back.