Callum: United Kingdom: Jan 21, 2019

I am a 23 year old recent graduate currently living in Manchester, England. I have been working, part-time for the past 6 years, and full time for the past 18 months at Lloyds High Street Bank in the centre of Manchester.

Working for this amount of time at Lloyds has hugely developed my people and communication skills. Working in such a large city as Manchester with the diversity of culture and range of different people has given me an insight in to the way to approach and communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds. I have enjoyed the professionalism of working in a high priority bank but am now keen to take a dramatic change in career and move into teaching students overseas.
Studying at Leeds University has again been a great help to me creating relationships with brand new people. Becoming independent and relying on my individual social skills to live in a different city and make new friends has developed me into becoming an open, friendly approachable person.
Since leaving university, completing my TEFL course has been a top priority of mine as I am keen to move abroad and start a new adventure into teaching overseas. My TEFL course, along with shadowing one of my close friends when I am not working myself, who is currently a primary school teacher here in Manchester, has demonstrated to me how challenging but also fulfilling and worthwhile teaching, especially younger students really is. It is something that has absorbed my interest and motivated me to begin a new journey both into a different country and culture and also into a new profession.
The reason for my interest in choosing South Korea and in particular Seoul to begin my teaching career is down to the excitement and anticipation of the complete contrast in culture from the UK that Korea has to offer.
The difference in the public and private educational systems to that of the UK is something that interests me, from in classroom practices to the way in which traditional Korean holidays are celebrated by students and the communities in general. The food and fashion culture especially that expressed in Seoul, along with the vast technological advances draws my attention to teaching and living in the city.
Having always been based in major cities in the UK I am keen to get a taste of a frantic, electrifying Asian capital and offer students and peers an insight into my own culture of living in a northern, UK city. From languages, behaviours, teaching philosophies, sports and games.
I have researched the dramatic climate of Korea and although Seoul is busy and active, Korea still offers unbelievable landscapes and hiking opportunities outside of the city which is something I would be keen to get involved in.