What is GEPIK? Is it any good?

It’s Gyeonggi-do English Program in Korea. Pretty simple right? It is similar to EPIK (English Program in Korea) but slightly different.

GEPIK/EPIK/SMOE?

 GEPIK is ONLY in the Gyeonggi-do which is the province that surrounds Seoul. EPIK on the other hand deals with Seoul and other areas around Korea such as Busan and Jeju. They are down south, 3+ hours from Seoul, so you can be placed almost anywhere in the country including the deep rural areas of Korea.

To get into Seoul you have to also go through SMOE which is like sub-tier of EPIK, it’s complicated…kind of, but it is more difficult because everyone, well almost everyone wants to be in Seoul. I’ll admit it I do too a bit, but I’m like 50-60 minutes from Seoul in general not to shabby. Plus, I might end up loving my city, never know. It will be good to be in a new area.

Now all these programs are public schools and funding comes from the Korean government. For EPIK and SMOE, the officials are hiring you and then you are sent into different areas where find out your school later. That’s how it normally works. GEPIK on the other hand, the schools hire you directly most of the time.

Which is better?

 I’m not going to be biased and say which one is better. It seems with GEPIK you can have more say in where you are going to be placed since you are applying to certain schools compared to EPIK where you might be near Seoul or you can be placed in Busan or Jeju. Those places are really nice too!. With GEPIK (maybe EPIK too) some schools in very rural areas of Korea want English teachers and some recruiters might try to pressure you into them like Yeoncheon….

It’s seriously the middle of nowhere with North Korea being some pretty close neighbors. I was tempted to take it but I know my mom would freak out while I’m still home let alone over there and everyone would be like “WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT?!“ I’ve HEARD of North Korea taking English teachers that are close to the border and basically making them permanent citizens of North Korea…

Is it true?

Now is this true?  I don’t know. Probably not. I remember reading it a few times online but who knows. Things get blown out of proportion all the time. I remember hearing about it when I was studying there last year but coming to think of it…the professor wanted to go to North Korea and the media twisted it. If anything be careful of what the media says.

The North didn’t kidnap them in the middle of the night. I feel like that might be similar to mission impossible. There has been quite a lot of people that have gone to the North in the past for various reasons. For some odd reason a good bit of Americans have. I was shocked learning that when I took the class dealing with the relations between North and South Korea. I always asked why they would do that but they have reasons. So yeah.

Don’t claim I said they will take you! I doubt they would know you are even there. I have been to the DMZ and inside North Korea so probably not. Though the N. Koreans know you are there at the DMZ and in their country which makes sense because you are basically in front of them. It’s highly guarded and I didn’t feel nervous with North Koreans staring less than 100 feet away. But I don’t know Korean that well in general so it might be an issue with hardly anyone understanding English in a really rural area. On the other hand by the end I would probably know Korean pretty well after a year. Maybe. We’ll see.