This year has certainly been filled with change, not just personally but also professionally. However, a huge thanks to Peter Clements for his inspiring post on his year in review. Where to start? Well, let’s begin at the beginning of 2023.

January 2023: Starting a Jazz Group

It was a few years in the making, with apprehension during rehearsals as we were still suffering from lockdowns until December 2021, yet I was asked to join fellow musicians, with the aspiration that we would get a few gigs in the South East once lockdowns were removed. We had rehearsed sporadically over the years and had a set list for the last quarter of 2022. We had our first proper concert in Lewes at a quaint quintessentially British pub entitled The Snowdrop Inn in January 2022.

Side note, this pub suffered an avalanche and was covered with snow – hence the name. We all performed wonderfully and managed to secure regular performances at the pub. From my knowledge, the group are still doing well and have regular concerts at the pub – not that I added much to the group with my rather questionable performance on saxophone.

February 2023: “Academic Writing” by Paul Murphy

I was asked to review a book titled “Academic Writing: Mastering Citation and Referencing”, written by Paul Murphy. It was gracious to receive a review copy of the book – both by PDF as well as a physical copy. As part of the review, I decided to use some of the activities from the book as part of my academic development course with my home and international students at the University of Sussex. They responded positively to the material and I gave a favourable review and I have found the book to be incredibly resourceful for those students who find in-text citation and generating a reference list challenging.

March 2023: Oxford DPhil Research Printed

My wife ordered her research to be printed and received six copies in March. It was surprising to see the research printed in person as it is so different to being available on a computer screen. The amount of effort, time, and money that my wife put into her self-funded research was commendable and I was incredibly proud to see her graduating last year.

April 2023: Visiting London

Not much happened in April as I was working and decided to visit London with my wife. We spent time wandering around the streets and decorations were still up marking the Lunar New Year in Soho. It was jam packed with visitors and tourists – a complete difference from a few years ago when people had to socially distance and wear masks all the time. It was a great chance to visit the capital knowing that it may have been the last time visiting London for many years.

May 2023: Get Healthy

I was starting to pile on the pounds – perhaps a result of the lockdowns and liberal behaviour that this encouraged – so I decided to lose weight and get healthy. I look at photos of me around this time of year and am shocked how chubby I looked. So I made a decision to ditch alcohol for three months and go walking everyday with my wife. We continued our walking over the coming months and I wanted to improve my overall fitness. I never looked back and set about changing my lifestyle.

June 2023: Selling My Car

It was time to say goodbye to my little MINI One. We bought this car around September 2022 but with our family’s sights set on moving to Korea, we knew we had to sell the car in order to finance our shipping of goods from the UK to South Korea. We had this car for a short time and we sold it within a month. It was sad to say goodbye to the car as I used it during 2023 to get me to work or to concerts. It was the first MINI that I had owned and I look forward to getting a new car in the future.

July 2023: Health Update and Meeting Peter Clements

After starting my regular walks and a break from alcohol, I started to lose weight and felt healthier than I had been in a number of years. I also felt less chubby and tired during the day.

One of my highlights of 2023 was actually meeting Pete Clements, from ELT Planning, and pleading him to sign one of his books which I conveniently brought along for the occasion. It was wonderful to share our achievements since working together back in the mid-2010s. We met in Brighton where I decided to have a celebratory beer with him.

I shared with him my decision to return to South Korea and was attempting to find employment – nothing was confirmed by this point and was keeping an eye on the employment opportunities for universities. I was starting to realise that most positions were to be at a private English institute (hagwon 학원) which was not so desirable but would get me into the country and then possibly get a position at a University after 12 months. It was great to share my struggles and challenges with someone who could provide some perspective and feedback.

Soon after meeting with Pete, my interview with a University in Korea was successful and I was soon offered a contract. I signed this almost immediately and everything started to fall into place. This was incredibly lucky as I had bought my flight tickets to Korea a few months prior and our family were moving regardless whether a job was confirmed or not. Thankfully, everything worked out.

August 2023: Goodbye England

August was probably the most stressful periods of the entire year, and the most exciting. We had a lot to organise in the final month in England and the first step was to get our things shipped to South Korea. All this took a lot of planning and preparation. We received the boxes to pack our things two days prior to the company coming along to take our goods. The people arrived in the early morning and they were there until late afternoon. There were three of them and they were very quick at organised. We kept them happy by feeding them, and they were Korean residents from New Malden – my wife had arranged the original shipping company that we had used when we first moved to Korea back in 2005 and we used them again. However, it would take a long time for our goods to finally arrive in Korea due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

We moved into temporary accommodation for a week with before we were due to fly to Korea – our cat was joining us so this presented some additional challenges for us. I had to get an official veterinarian to produce a export health certificate 48 hours before our flight, to allow my cat to fly to Korea. Our local vets decided that all official veterinarians would go on holiday during that week, so I was stuck. I contacted a company who specialised in getting pets exported abroad and they recommended an official veterinarian. I called him and he agreed to come down from London to Eastbourne to provide all the necessary documentation – it proved cheaper than my local vets! So that was done two days prior to my flight and there were no issues.

One day before we were leaving, we hosted a final get together with friends and family, and surprisingly many people turned up. We wanted to say goodbye to all those that we held closest to our hearts and it was incredibly touching to see those make the effort to see us before our flight. We left the UK and arrived in Korea on 21 August 2023, with my work visa in hand ready to start my new job for September.

I shared a new YouTube video sharing my plan and move to Korea. It is a long video but it gives a better idea about what was needed when planning our relocation.

After a few days of arriving in Korea and settling in our new family home, I was starting a new job at a Korean University in Daejeon. We had never lived nor visited Daejeon before, so we were keen to get to know our newly adopted city. I had to attend some mandatory training and inductions to ensure that I was prepared to start the Fall Autumn Term for 1 September 2023.

September 2023: Starting a New Job

I started my new job and was provided with five courses – three were the same course but repeated three times in a day with different groups of students. I had to create the course from scratch as well as the assessment guidelines and rubrics. It was a steep learning curve but I soon settled into the new work environment and felt better integrated after a few weeks. Despite work, I dived deep into the local culture and started exploring more of the city as well as the various eateries in this unique and quiet city of South Korea.

By the end of September, I decided that I wanted to network a little more and joined as a member of the Korean TESOL Association. In my excitement, I submitted a proposal to give a workshop at the local events.

October 2023: Conference Proposal Approved

In October, I decided focus on my work – it was quite busy each day as I had to prepare the slides for my lessons from scratch as well as all the assessments and rubrics. There was not much time to relax but I did manage to unwind by attending a culture event which students at the university involved with, so they were able to share their own unique culture where they were from. There is certainly a lot more international students studying in South Korea compared to 15 years ago.

Anyhow, one good news was my proposal that I had submitted the previous month was finally approved and was given the chance to be the closing speaker of the conference. I was surprised that I had been chosen and had to spend a few days organising my slides. The rest of the month was visiting more places in Daejeon and took more photos. I finally met up with the Korean TESOL Association committee in late October and had a really nice iced americano.

November 2023: Attendance to KOTESOL Conference

There were many things happening in November, much like the previous months. The first was my 45th birthday which came and went. I received a few cards through the post from family which was lovely and my wife and son got a cake from a local patisserie. The following day, I returned to work and was in the middle of my courses.

One of the highlights from the Fall Autumn Term was receiving a note from one of my international students sharing her appreciation of my teaching during one of the courses. It was very touching and unexpected, but certainly placed a smile on my face and gave validation that what I was doing indeed was working.

After a week, our goods that had been shipped from the UK had passed Korean Customs and was to be delivered to our address in Korea. Much like those individuals who had worked hard during early August, these delivery men worked throughout the day hoisting up our stuff using a specialised truck. It was so nice to see our things arrive and the people who delivered our goods put our furniture back together. They even placed down cardboard to ensure that the flooring was not damaged. Before we knew it, our flat felt more like home and we had all our things arranged just as we wanted.

On Saturday 25 November 2023, I went to the KOTESOL Conference – my first face-to-face conference in over five years. It was so nice to meet with fellow professionals and to listen to the opening talk as well as the various other workshops. My talk was at the end as the closing speaker and I tried to share three practical tips for incorporating culture in the classroom. Anyhow, we were all fed and watered and there was a Thanksgiving dinner post-conference.

December 2023: End of the Year

I could not believe how quick the year had flown by. Christmas was nearing and the cold weather was starting to take hold in Korea. One day in December, the temperature had dropped to minus ten degrees – I had to wrap up warm on my commute to walk while simultaneously being careful of the ice. It was a pleasant reminder at how rapidly the weather changes in South Korea, with the summer nearing high 30 degrees and the winter being down to as low as -20 degrees.

I had a few weeks off before the Winter Intensive course that I was to start teaching in late December, so our family visited friends in Korea and we also welcomed our friends to our humble abode. We had a variety of Korean food such as stews and soups to keep us warm during the cold season, while at home I was able to cook a substantial Christmas meal (without the turkey and pigs in blankets).

Towards the end of the year, I started a new three week course with a small group of students and am set to continue this course until mid-January 2024.

Moving Forward in 2024

What does the future hold for our family in South Korea? Where are we heading? Well much of that is unknown, but there are a number of things that I would like to achieve in 2024. The first that I would like is to become a member of the Korean British Society (KBS) and attend some Anglo-Korean events and network with other likeminded individuals who reside in Korea.

The next is related to my YouTube Channel which went through a bit of a rebranding process along with my previous website. It was sad to say goodbye to my previous website but I want to also focus more on creating content more about South Korea and the culture of this uniquely fascinating country. I will also be sharing more content on this website, so if you have not joined my website as a follower, please do. I am also hoping to do more regular vlogs in 2024, sharing the local atmosphere of my newly adopted city. I did my first vlog in public a few weeks ago and was pleased with the result.

Anyhow, how was 2023 for you and what are your plans for 2024? Feel free to share your experiences as a blog post or as a comment.