About
My background:
My wife and I have a combined 40+ years experience teaching EFL, specifically catering to Korean elementary and middle school students. Until very recently my wife and I lived in Ilsan where, as a team, we ran a popular private tutoring business out of our home (a.k.a. gongbubang in the Korean language) in Ilsan.
Over the 16 years we spent working from that home, we built a reputation as teachers who focused on communication rather than the typical rote memorization of vocab and grammar rules. That said, in Korea, we had to cater to those needs as well, and having an excellent knowldge of English grammar (far better than most native English speakers) that was the role my wife took.
I don't have the attitude that the teacher's job is to teach. Rather, I believe the teacher's job is to guide the student and, maybe more importantly, facilitate a student's curiosity. For it is only through our own curiosity that we really learn. My wife, on the other hand excells at explaining rules of grammar and how to use them. As a tem, we filled the all the needs of our students
Though we differ in our specific teaching methodologies, our overall goal was to always make learning fun, never to push, to be spark for the student's curiosity flame. For that, we became well-known, sought-after teachers, some students even coming from as far away as Seoul and Paju.
Now, living in America, I want to help Korean students adjust to their life here, to help them feel comfortable in their new environment, and to help that happen, in part, by growing their confidence in their own language abilities and knowledge in their school subjects.
Kids are great. They have that spirit of wonder about them that we lose as adults. To be a part of the process of exploration for my students is, in itself, a reward, but the moment when a child has that 'a-ha' moment? Where something has clicked and you can see that they have learned something? That is probably the most enjoyable part of teaching.