Beobwon

When I first decided to spend a year teaching English in Korea, I had no idea where I would be placed.  I had requested being close to a major city, but it wasn’t until I landed in Beobwon that I found out that I was actually placed at a rural school.  Now, the term rural is subjective as the town was still large enough to have 2 elementary schools and it wasn’t like everyone in town knew each other.  I don’t know what the population of Beobwon is, but I’d guess it is upwards of 5000 or so. 

I was the only Native English Teacher who taught and lived in Beobwon.  The other teachers who taught in Beobwon all commuted from Geumchon, a larger town about 30 minutes away.  I soon learned that the definitions of towns, regions and cities were somewhat different than in Canada.  The city I lived in is called Paju, and Paju is separated into many different regions where people clustered together to form smaller towns.  To me, (And perhaps from a Canadian standpoint), each of these regions should be standalone towns, but in Korea, the government of Paju has enveloped all these regions under its jurisdiction, to make one larger city, that consisted of many different regions. 

Looking back, I feel fortunate to have had the chance to live in Beobwon.  All of the other Native English Teachers would only come in for work and then leave and never got a chance to explore it.  Sure, I was often jealous that everyone else lived much closer to Seoul and had many more of the conveniences of the bigger city, but truthfully, during the week, I would rather be closer to work and save on the commute time anyways.  Plus, teaching at a rural school meant I was eligible for a bonus of 100,000KRW more per month, which was nice.

For more pictures, please see my Photo Gallery of Beobwon.