안녕하세요! My name is Emily Potosky and when I started this blog I had received a 2010 – 2011 F*lbright grant to teach English in South Korea.  I then decided to apply to renew my grant, so I am now staying in Korea until July 2012. This blog is not an official F*lbright Program blog, and the views expressed are my own and not those of the F*lbright Program, the U.S. Department of State or any of its partner organizations.

I graduated from the University of Mary Washington with a degree in Philosophy Pre-Law and Classical Civilizations, and found myself 3 months later teaching English at Sapgyo High School.  The town that I taught in, Sapgyo, is a small town of 12,000 people, an ”읍” (eup) rather than a “시” (shi – city), and though it was sometimes hard teaching in such a small town I really enjoyed the unique experience of being the first foreign teacher Sapgyo had ever had. I lived in Yesan county (예산군) which is significantly bigger (40,000 people) but is also considered rural by Korean standards.

During my second grant period (2011-2012) I decided to chang schools and I currently teach at Changpyeong High School which is located in Changpyeong-ri, Damyang County (담양군), Jeollanamdo. Changpyeong-ri, by the way, is much smaller than even Sapgyo was.

This blog is meant to serve as a reflection not only of being a Foreign English teacher in Korea, but also of living as a foreigner in rural Korea.