Dominique Arsenault Bulmer

After graduating high school in 2000, I decided to enroll for a year-long volunteer teaching stint in an orphanage in Honduras, South America. That first experience of teaching and traveling was eye-opening and gratifying on so many levels that when I returned home I vowed that I would do it all over again once I had graduated university. So that’s what I did. After obtaining my B.A in Canadian Studies from the University of Manitoba in 2005, I started looking for a teaching job abroad. Through extensive on-line research and word-of-mouth from friends I quickly found that Asia, particularly Korea, was the most appealing option for someone looking to work abroad as an English teacher and save enough money to repay a student loan or travel after the end of the contract. I decided to find a job on the net myself, and replied to a dozen on-line want ads for teachers in Asia. Within a few weeks, I had signed a contract with a school in Korea and was on my way over there.

But after a few weeks at my new job, I realized I had made a bad mistake. Although I had gone through a number of phone interviews with the school’s directors and foreign teachers, and had cross-checked this school on the internet’s “blacklist” of Korean schools, I had managed to rope myself into signing a contract with a bad school. The school had a horrible reputation with the other expat teachers in town. My training was inadequate and I was rushed into a job I hadn’t been prepared for. The only other foreign teacher at the school was fired just a few days after my arrival and I was given all of his responsibilities without warning. All my co-workers seemed unhappy. I knew I had to get out or my year would be a disaster.

So I called Jamie, who I knew through a mutual friend. All I knew about him was that he  was a very good recruiter and that he would always help a foreign teacher in need. I called him and a few days later, he had found me a fantastic job right in his city. He even picked me up at the bus station and put me up in his apartment until I got my own. And he had never met me before in his life.

I ended up having a great time at my new school, which was in complete contrast to my first school. The teaching was laid back, there was no excessive paperwork, and I wasn’t required to stay at the office after teaching hours were done. I got along very well with my boss, and there were no communication problems at all. I couldn’t have asked for more.

In the year that followed, I had a fantastic experience. Jamie helped me through pretty much all of it, he showed me around the country, taught me the language and the culture and introduced me to many people. We became such close friends that we decided to go into business together once I got back to Canada. I would recruit people who wanted to teach and travel in Korea, and he would find them good schools and take care of them once they got to Korea, like he had done with me. We both felt that there would be a big demand for this kind of service. Like me, most people just want to make sure they have a good job waiting for them and someone looking out for their interests before they commit to going to work in Asia for a year.

In my time there, I worked pretty well every type of teaching gig in Korea. I conducted classes in private hagwons (language institutes) and in public high schools. I taught all types of English students, from kindergarten kids, schoolchildren and teenagers to housewives, judges, lawyers and TV producers. I had the experience of working for a fantastic school as well as, unfortunately, that of working for a terrible school. I know what a difference your work environment can make in your quality of life, especially when you’re living abroad. It is this knowledge which drives us to only deal with the best schools and ensure that everyone we place is taken care of.

Dom

cell p: (514) 578-9422

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