February Check-In

Since I haven’t been doing the weekly Week-in-Review posts (since there’s nothing interesting going on to review!), I thought I’d just give a high overhead catch-up update of what’s going on with me.

SOUTH KOREA ADVENTURE

I’m going to say it out-loud here so then I guess it has to be a thing. Ugh. I’ve decided (reluctantly) to push the South Korea Adventure back six months. Ugh.

I say UGH a lot whenever I think about this.

Some new information came to light about the starting dates of the different school sessions and pushing back six months to start later will result in several good (very good) financial aspects to the trip. Which sounds good, right? But. Ugh. Ha. There are almost as many cons to pushing back as there are to going with the original plan.

#1: I DON’T WANNA. Ha. I don’t WANNA wait any longer than I already am. I just have sort of a…bad feeling…about going later. And I’m trying to figure out of it’s just my foot stamp BUT I WANT WHAT I WANT mindset vs a legit intuition. I don’t have to make any decision immediately so I can sit with it for a while before I act on the decision.

One “pro” of pushing back is it takes a LOT of pressure of me. And I’ve been putting a LOT of pressure on myself the past 4-6 months, trying to wrap my entire life up in a neat little bow in record time. Now I have an extra six months. Which is good AND bad. I do work best with a firm, rapidly approaching deadline. But I’m going to try and keep up at least 75% of the pace I’ve been going at. There’s no down side to being ready AHEAD OF TIME (ha ha ha is that even really a thing??).

In fact, it’s even danced around the perimeter of my brain that…if I could rid of all this STUFF in the next 6 months-ish, then I could go to a cheaper apt for the remainder of my days here and bank the difference in rent. But that sounds like a lot of work and UGH.

I’m still as excited and eager as ever to go. But if I spend a little more time on this end, things will be better on THAT end.

TEFL

I Hit The Wall. And not in a good way.

Ha ha. Is there a good way to hit the wall?

I got through the grammar section (which was surprisingly difficult) and moved onto the Teaching Methodology section…going along, reading lessons, watching videos, feeling like yeah okay I’m following.

And then came THE QUIZ. The assignment was to write a lesson plan to teach the present continuous tense, assuming the students had never been introduced to this before (ha ha duh that’s what teaching IS), but there were these parameters you had to work within: max word count, breakdown of lesson by segment (that seemed a little nebulous to me from the videos), and the most challenging part “elicit the target language from the students without teaching it.” Uhm. Huh?

I’m no stranger to “eliciting behavior” from my dog and horse training days…but that’s VERY DIFFERENT than expecting a HUMAN is going to use words in a certain way that have never been taught to them.

It took me three days to even submit it, after reading about this on different websites, watching videos and tutorials…finally got something on “paper” (that still didn’t seem right to me) and clicked “submit.”

And failed.

Ooh.

I didn’t like THAT much. It sorta shut me down for a couple days. The “tutor” gave a BIT of information as to what I did that was WRONG, but gave no direction as to how to do it RIGHT.

I guess he’s trying to ELICIT not teach. Ha. Ugh.

Anyway. I’ve given myself a nice little break…and tomorrow I’ll tackle it again. Not really sure that my next plan is going to be an different, but. You can take it up to three times before k-k-k-k-k.

And I’m feeling Way Behind. It’s a 120-hour course that you have 6 months (literally, to the minute) to complete, or you don’t get the certification. So I’ve asked a couple times how many hours into the coursework am I? So I can pace myself the remainder of the time (I have to finish by like 4:26pm July 1). Am I halfway through? Am I a third of the way through? I have no way of being able to tell this. And they just keep answering, “you have until July 1.” I KNOW THAT. I want to know…am I 60 hours in? Am I only 30 hours in? With this information I can assess if I need to increase my time spent each week/day.

Other people on the forums are wondering the same thing and are getting the same sort of useless answer. That’s annoying.

So…hopefully after my little breather I can start up again this week feeling a little more positive and confident and refreshed. Cuz the past two weeks have really taken the wind out of my sails.

EBAY

Ebay is so different than when I used to do it like full-time. Values of almost everything are lower, shipping costs are MUCH higher.

That said, I’m plugging along with good weeks and bad weeks. The frustrating thing (as always) is you put in as much time and effort on the “bad” weeks as the good ones. You just never know which it’s going to be til it’s over.

Saturday has become ebay day. If I can pictures done during the week, that helps, so I’m not doing pictures, editing, measuring, postage calculating, and listing all in one day. Taking and editing the pictures is the most time-consuming part so if I can get to Saturday and that part is already done, I’m many hours ahead. But it’s hard to make time for pictures when weekdays are already filled with tiktok/blog video/pictures, TEFL study, Korean study, uhm maybe eat something…

Anyway, the 6-month pushback means I can slow down on the ebay a little bit if I need to. So it’s good to have that in the back of my mind.

KOREAN STUDY

Speaking of Korean study…since I started TEFL, this has decreased down to almost nothing. Well, TEFL and my tutor moving back to Seoul. I still spend most of my workday lunchtime using the couple of language apps I like so I’m still increasing my vocabulary and memorizing commonly-used phrases, but my grammar, sentence structure and pronunciation have hit the skids.

BUT YAY HELP IS ON THE WAY. My access to Bangtan Academy starts within the next two weeks. They’re sending out the orientation and tour invitations this week…hopefully I’m not scheduled for when I’m in California, but I’ll make it work if I am.

This seems like SUCH a great resource…and they really hold you accountable. If you don’t turn in monthly assignments, you’re OUT. I won’t let that happen.

I’m excited!

Plus, I have plenty of “language immersion” time every day: watching kdramas, listening to Korean music and podcasts, watching YT videos in Korean without subtitles. Do I know what they’re saying? NOPE ha ha. But I continue to get more familiar with the sound of common phrases, sentence structure, intonation and pronunciation, and I can recognize more and more words as time goes by. Even when I’m not actively studying, I’m still learning.

BTS

So Much BTS News! They’re doing a concert in Seoul in March.

No, I’m not going. I’m not THAT out of control…and right now, almost every penny is going into the MOVING to Korea fund, I can’t afford to VISIT.

BUT…they’re going to screen the March 12 concert at theaters around the world, and I’m going to THAT, right here on Long Island. Just me and theaterful of Army 🙂  The theater is sold out (as it sounds like many are) so maybe I can meet SOMEONE to be BTS friends with!

They’re going to be going to the Grammys in April cuz they’re nominated again. Fingers crossed…not cuz I care about the award, but cuz I want them to have more recognition.

For the second year, they were named as the WORLD’S BEST SELLIING MUSIC ARTISTS. Beating out well-known artists like Drake, Adele, and all those other people you hear on the radio All The Time. And still, most people I know have either never heard of them, or recognize the name but would not recognize a song of theirs.

I do feel it’s my personal mission to at least INTRODUCE them to people. You don’t have to LIKE them…but at least take a listen before making a judgment. I’m not talking about YOU guys. I think most of you have probably listened to SOMETHING since I’ve been beating you over the head with it for like 16 months 🙂

The Grammys are in Las Vegas this year, so as long as they’re going to be back in the states, they’ve scheduled four more concert dates for Las Vegas in the weeks following the Grammys. And no, I’m not going to THAT, EITHER (oh the self-control)….I just like knowing they’re HERE, ha ha. I enjoy their Instagrams from the US so much. Seeing them in places where I’ve been?? Some kind of indefinable thrill.

Plus, maybe I can see them in concert when I’m IN Seoul! That would be kind of amazing 🙂