Originally, I came here in July 1995, one month after graduating from the University of Guelph. I taught English in Seoul at a school called Universal Language Institute. ULI, which is in Yangjae-dong (southern Seoul), serves mostly adult students.
Many people come to Korea and end up becoming very negative about this country. In my case, my first roommates were the worst possible people to get stuck with upon first arriving here. A married couple, they hated virtually everything about Korea - especially the people. For three months I had to put up with their constant complaining, and it made me want to leave. However, the day they left was one of the best days of my life because about a half-ton (inside joke) of negativity was removed from my life.
In July 1996, I went home to Canada for a few months. While there, my new Korean girlfriend (Heather) came to visit and met my family. They seemed to like her, but nobody liked her more than I did. So in December 1996, back I went to Korea.
Chapter 2 - "It felt so nice, I tried it twice."
I did some part-time illegal jobs for a few months. I worked one month at ULI again, then I got a pair of jobs, one at a kindergarten, another at some new place called Open Language Institute. OLI was operated by a former colleague at ULI. Basically, if you have heard any of the infamous Korean horror stories, this was one of them.
The owner fired another teacher upon hiring me (because he thought I was "better qualified"). He promised me fulltime work, but for the first month I had one morning class. Luckily I had the kindergarten classes as well. Anyway, all the while, he said he was going to get me a work visa. To make a long story short, I discovered that he did not have a license to offer English classes at his school, thus making it impossible for him to sponsor me for a visa. I quit, but it took me more than a month (and countless visits back to the school, including a rather heated argument) to get paid for the time I did teach there.
Soon after, I walked into a school in Seoul to apply for a job. Global Language Institute, which is located in the heart of Kangnam, was a great school. Full-time work was 4.5 hours a day. I met some great teachers and made many friends there. And when the economic crisis hit in 1997, Global was the only school that I knew of in the Kangnam area to offer raises to its teachers to help offset the substantial loss in the exchange rate. I worked at Global for 13 months, from April 1 1997 to April 30 1998.
During this time, my girlfriend became my fiance (during a wonderful trip to Hong Kong), and then we got married in Seoul on March 7 1998.
Interlude
After my contract at Global ended, we moved back to Canada. I had two jobs in Toronto. My full-time job was with an Internet-based employment service called Campus WorkLink. My part-time job was at Seneca College where I taught ESL in the Faculty of Continuing Education.
Another experience I had while in Canada was volunteering for an organization called Adventure Place. Acting as a Special Friend, I spent one year working with a young boy named Ali and his mother, Rashida. Sometimes a challenge, but mostly a pleasure, it was definitely a worthwhile experience.
What happened next?
To find out what I've been doing since May 2000, click here.