CAMPUS ENGLISH
The picture above is actually another group. I just thought it was a cute group picture.
So I hope you read the brief description of Campus English program at the Introduction page.
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On the way to Korea, I felt like Campus English is not going to be all that great, since it might be a really awkward environment; native Koreans are speaking English to each other, and I'm supposed to lead that awkward situation.
However, as soon as I entered the dorm (remember, it is a specially designated dorm for this program), I felt welcomed and excited. It was wrong of me to think that Koreans speaking English to each other creates an awkward environment. The students enrolled in this program were all very enthusiastic, ambitious, and very willing to improve their conversational English. Because they had that common goal, everyone seemed to be fairly comfortable speaking to each other in another language. Besides, you will be surprised at their English speaking level to begin with.
My group, just like other groups did, had 5 members, me, and another leader. Interestingly, my partner leader was a British girl, and you can probably spot her easily in my Campus English photo galleries. In fact, among the leaders, there were two people from U.K. and one person from Australia. It was a very interesting year for both POSTECH and us (the leaders from U.S.).
Our ordinary daily activities on weekdays usually involved either having special-topic discussions or preparing for a certain event. I actually had a good, meaningful time in our discussion times. POSTECH is not a top school for no reason; I was impressed at their insights, ability to come up with ideas and solutions, and the confidence to express all of that in another language. In terms of preparing events, I could never forget our main mid-program event, the skit contest. It was meaningful not only because I had a blast with the members preparing for it, but because we actually won! All four groups prepared very interesting skits, though.
Another important aspect of this program is the weekend field trips. The group was paid about $140 (around $20 per person) every week for this. Balancing the budget and the time, we could choose to go on an overnight trip in place of two one-day trips. The leaders and the students decide where to go, what to do, how to spend money, and etc. The groups go on separate field trips, although it is a good idea to have combined trips/activities time to time.
The compensation you get paid for the whole program is 1,000,000 Won, which converts to about $1,000.
Since this was a very eventful program, I could talk more and more about it. If you have questions on it, feel free to email me or come out to IPENG info sessions on this program. For the web site summary, I'll just stop here and lead you to the gallery. They say that a picture is better than thousand words!