EPIK Orientation: The Best Way To Start Teaching in Korea?
The week-long EPIK orientation is a great experiences and helps you with the process of arriving and getting started teaching in Korea.
The English Program in Korea brings in about 700 or so new teachers per intake to get their kids talking the language. Just pulling that off is pretty damn impressive.
What’s most impressive is exactly how they do it. Not only are you shipped over, all expenses covered, but they also make the process really enjoyable.
So let’s take a look at what the EPIK orientation or, as I like to call it, the “Prevent Foreigners From Freaking Out” week, does for you.
The Benefits
To start off EPIK picks you and all your fellow teachers up from the airport, and sends your off on a bus to the EPIK orientation venue. Straight away this makes you feel all warm and fuzzy on the inside because of the EPIK staff being so nice, the opposite of how you’d feel if you arrived all alone and had to figure out where to go.
Then there’s the venue, which for us was the Jeonju University campus. Their moto “a place for superstars” is way cooler than some obnoxious sounding Latin line in my opinion. We were set up in double rooms with another teacher.
Opening Ceremony
The opening ceremony was awesome. Check out the video for the highlights of the Taekwondo performance. There was also a good talk by some guy who’s been living in Korea forever who seemed to know his stuff.
The EPIK team
The EPIK team that they brought in for us were just so damn good. They’re the people waving at the end of the video. Friendly, fun and helpful, and they took really good care of us.
The lecturers were teachers who’ve been living and working in Korea for a good few years, and gave top notch talks on everything from teaching methodologies to how best to adapt to Korean life.
One of my favorite’s was a description of the “Korean Surprise”: A moment when the weird and wonderful ways of Korea and it’s people will leave you dumbfounded. Dealing with it is best achieved by picturing confetti and fireworks and thinking “Surprise!” instead of letting it get to you. This has turned out to be a useful strategy so far.
Field Trip
We were also sent off on a really cool field trip to the famous Jeonju Hanok traditional Korean village. Weirdly shaped icecream cones, fried silkworm larvae and delicious Bibimbap (a famous Korean rice dish) were some of the food stuffs we tried out.
We also sort of crashed a wedding, walked around the village and saw some oldschool paper-making techniques. A very cool experience that you’ll be able to get a taste of in the video.
Other Cool Stuff
Not only do they organize everything from the signing of your contract and your medical checkup (which is compulsory for any teacher in Korea), they really give you all the information you need to know, such as what exactly your salary does and doesn’t cover.
The food is really good, especially considering they’re catering for a few hundred 
teachers. The last night there was a massive buffet feast served.
There was also a Taekwondo class and Korean lessons which were really helpful.
The amount of money they must have put into the EPIK orientation is mind blowing. A few hundred teachers, for over a week, with loads of extras. Koreans clearly have a lot of money to spend on education.
The Most Important Thing You Get
Most importantly, I think, is the support system that you get out of the week. Not only do you get eased into life in Korea but you’re meeting hundreds of teachers from in and around the area you’re going to be living in.
Meeting the other teachers was definitely the best part of the whole experience for me. These are the people you’re going to be good friends with for the next year or more, and the EPIK orientation gives you an opportunity to get to know and bond with them. At the very least you’ve got a whole bunch of Facebook contacts you can share your experiences with or ask for help.
Alright, so here’s the video I made on the EPIK orientation week. It’s got a bunch of highlights including the Taekwondo opening ceremony performance, Korean food, field trip to the traditional Hanok village, much soju drinking, and more. It should give you a good sense of what the whole experience is like… So check it out!
LOVE LOVE LOVE it!! especially those ice cream cones- and the Taekwondo- amazing! 🙂
So thankful I never taught in EPIK. I have a feeling the entire orientation would have me face-palming.
Really? I guess not everyone feels how I do about it but I think the majority of people there wouldn’t have done it any other way.
Nooo, @Steve! I did EPIK. It was all cute stuff. Felt nice to be cradled through the process. haha.
Nice video Alex! This is making me feel nostalgic. I enjoyed the entire orientation.
Your orientation looked like so much fun! That taekwondo show was amazing! I love it when they break the boards. My orientation wasn’t as good as that, our field trips were lame (we went to a steel mill) and we didn’t get to do any fun cultural classes. They’ve really stepped up their game.
Yeah I loved it, everything about it was cool and it was an awesome baby step into the real work of life in Korea
The first time I came to Korea, I had to find my way to the city I was working in and meet my boss. The next morning, I started teaching. It took two weeks before I met another foreigner. The whole thing was a challenging experience, but one I wouldn’t trade for anything. I think I learn best by being thrown into the fire, haha.
That said, having a support system in place would’ve been great for my ‘peace of mind’. It’s stressful moving to a new country, seems like the EPIK staff really went out of their way to make it a smooth transition for you 🙂
Yeah, I know what you mean. I love being pushed out of my comfort zone like that. I think everyone gets that to a degree, EPIK or no, I think the orientation just helps you realize you’re not alone in the weird experiences that come your way
For that, I would’ve really appreciated it! There were points in those first few weeks I felt pretty overwhelmed.
I really like how they introduced you to all the cultural things, though. I think that’s a great way to make someone feel comfortable in a country!
Glad you had a great experience! Like Meagan said, they’ve really stepped up their game in the last few years. I went bizarrely in my 2nd year of teaching ( I taught my first year in a hagwon), and it was nice to be off work and have a free week in seoul, but it was pretty useless to me. I’m personally glad I taught my first year at a hagwon and figured everything out on my own, and knew absolutely no one when I showed up.
I think the EPIK orientation is good in a lot of ways, but I thought of sooo many important things they didn’t tell the new teachers, or noticed that some of the things they said were misleading. That’s why I started my “Say What?” series on our youtube channel, to kind of address some of those things. I also think having a built in group of friends from Day 1 can be a handicap to the experience. But it all depends on your personality and what you’re here for! 🙂
I’m glad youre liking it so far, and look forward to hearing more from you!
I know how you feel. I had an orientation with the other GEPIK teachers when I worked in Sanbon, a small city south of Seoul next to Anyang. It’s different for every place you work (like right now I work for GEPIK in Paju and before I worked for GEPIK in Ilsan where we weren’t connected to other teachders) but when I worked there, every teacher in the city had to do orientations and winter and summer camps together. It was one of the best experiences of my working life. I am still friends with people from that group and you totally nailed it when you said you get a warm fuzzy feeling at the orientation.
But it’s different for orientations in other cities where they make you go to them in the middle of the year and even if you’ve been here forever like I have. Then it’s not so fun. But for newbies like I was then (relatively new, to GEPIK anyway) it’s very valuable and I’m glad you liked it.
The video was cool. I could watch a mash up of those kids busting wooden boards for a good hour. That was awesome! Thanks!
Forgot to add, my first year in 2000 was at a hogwon (private school) and they also eased me in with a week of observing classes. And the coworkers there were really cool, too.
This is one of the things about EPIK that makes me jealous. With a hagwon, you just arrive and are thrown in the next day. Sounds fun!
lol. I’m the some guy who’s been living in Korea forever and who seemingly knows his stuff.
Glad you enjoyed my talk.
Oh hi 🙂
Thanks for the cool talk haha. Feels like a long time ago already.