To whom it may concern,
I would like to express my interest in this advertised role.
I am currently living in Korea and have recently just completed my Instructor and Curriculum Developer role at YBM Adult Institute in Seoul. I currently work as a freelancer, teaching business and conversational English at GCS Institute in Seoul. Also, I was an elementary school teacher at Anyang Elementary School (안양초등학교) in Gyeonggi Province. Initially, I applied through EPIK (English Program in Korea run by the Korean Ministry of Education) and was successful for a previous teaching role with Aron Elementary School (어론초등학교) in Gangwon Province (which I commenced from August 2013 and finished August 2014).
I am a native speaker of Australian English; I was born in Darwin, Australia and raised in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. I have been educated in primary, secondary, and tertiary schools located in Melbourne – please refer to my CV for more information. Aside from my years of experience teaching ESL English geared towards elementary school students as well as adults, my past work experiences have allowed me to develop and maintain a professional demeanor, attitude, appearance, and ability to conduct oneself in a manner befitting the environment.
As I have completed undergraduate tertiary studies – a Bachelor of Arts majoring in the criminology field (alongside my other major – sociology), I have been provided with analytical skills in relation to designing and conducting criminological research; particularly when it comes to researching specific case studies and then applying those studies alongside critical thinking to formulate arguments in order to relate them to criminological issues such as crime prevention (whether it would be in the social or environmental preventative framework), explaining causes of criminality (whether it would relate to sociological and/or psychological theories), the discussion of prisons and the concepts of imprisonment as a criminal deterrent, and issues of transnational law enforcement.
I believe interpersonal skills, particularly the ability to construct rapport amongst other individuals, are paramount when it comes to organizing and producing high-quality results. I believe education and other work/life experiences have certainly developed my “active listening” skills, thus I have achieved consistent and high grades/results. This achievement required a great understanding of developing written communication skills in order to support critical and analytical thinking for the development of arguments.
One of many academic assessments involved criminological psychology research in relation to critical thinking and the formation of arguments in relation to offenders in prison – whether prisoners should receive rehabilitation or punitive punishment. Many steps were undertaken to ensure my written piece was properly done; including the development of researching skills, responding to key arguments, and enhancing academic writing and correspondence – using clear, concise and understandable language.
My past experiences in the security industry made me develop and improve my verbal communication skills, particularly for utilizing customer service abilities to patrons. Aside from security duties conducted, we are seen as ‘walking concierge desks’ – an expectation to deliver quality and efficient information to patrons in need of location whereabouts and general inquiries.
As I mentioned in the resume, I was a former instructor of ESL (English as a second language) to non-English speakers and also developed curricula at YBM, a renowned adult-geared ESL education company and institute in Seoul, Korea. During my current employment there, I gained professional experience in terms of helping Korean adult English-speakers here improve, refine, and implement confidence in themselves to engage in spoken English during classes. This is a stark contrast to when I was teaching English in elementary/primary schools, where it was more about classroom management, discipline, and simply trying to make English a fun experience for the students.
ESL teaching, specifically Adult-based teaching, provides a platform to express different cultural barriers between Western and Korean/Asian culture – although I already had a high understanding of the Korean culture and language prior to coming to Korea. Many adult students were interested in my background; especially since I am an Australian or Vietnamese heritage, and some were even curious to know how and why I can speak Korean. Because of this, I felt it was a rewarding professional achievement in terms of connecting and establishing great rapport/communication – which is highly pertinent in any teaching job over actual English grammatical corrections and/or learning about English expressions. Similarly, my primary/elementary ESL teaching experiences involved a lot of communication with the children not only just professionally, but also on a personal level as well. It felt very rewarding because it was almost like babysitting and allowed me to develop better relationships with children (something I wasn’t really great at before coming to Korea).
My overall experiences in verbal communication, as well as experiences in written communication which developed my problem-solving and analytical/critical thinking abilities, have all given me a high understanding of communicating and working effectively with other people – particularly building rapport, cooperating and communicating effectively within a team; and to achieve driven, committed, and specific planning and goals – which I believe will be fundamental to the duties of providing assistance, teamwork contribution amongst colleagues, as well as an adaptation to various responsibilities required in this role I’m applying for.
Please carefully consider my application.
Regards,
Thy (Tyson) Q Linh
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