Korvia, with the help of the wonderful Mike’s Cabin Hongdae bar & pub, welcomed all its new teachers for a night of fun, new friendships, and fun activities. Korvia holds three parties a year for its recruits; one in the spring, summer, and fall. This marks the 2nd time Korvia has hosted a teachers party in Hongdae at Mike’s Cabin. We can honestly say that this was one of the biggest and best parties Korvia has ever had.
The party started off with a hollywood-style entrance to the venue with a photo-wall for recruits and their friends to snap a photo in front of. Korvia along with its sister expat-concierge site SayKimchi sponsored the photo-wall.
“It’s kind of cool to finally have a place where recruits and their friends can take pictures and remember years later what event they were actually at” laughed Korvia’s head of public relations Stephen Hattersley.
After taking photos with their friends, recruits were signed into the party list and given name tag badges to identify what city or area in Korea they resided in. This allowed other attendees an easy way to strike up a conversation for those that were new to the country and looking to meet people in their area. New Korvia teachers also received a free drink voucher to use at Mike’s Cabin that night.
Once inside, recruits were able to meet other teachers and their recruiters as well as enjoy food and refreshments. For some, this was the first time to meet their recruiter in person after half a year of constant communication back and forth in preparation to come to Korea to teach English.
“It’s always fun to finally meet recruits. You feel like you’ve known them for such a long time, but to finally shake their hand or give them a hug feels like you’re meeting them for the first time” said assistant division manager and recruiter Ciena Bahk.
The events for the night kicked off with an opening introduction and comedy routine by MC for the night Stephen Hattersley. The introduction was followed with a warmup game of Korean-city bingo, where attendees were given 24 Korean cities and had to fill out a 4×4 bingo sheet. Participants were given a special limited edition Korvia pen that they could hold onto to after the event.
After the bingo event, Stephen welcomed Korvia recruiters onto the stage and the audience heard a special welcoming message from one of Korvia’s managing recruiters Ashley Ahn. Ahn thanked all the attendees for coming and offered words of encouragement for those that had just started their journey in South Korea.
Afterwards, participants heard from another speaker, Korvia GEPIK teacher Amanda Padilla about the common experiences, challenges, and excitement shared by those coming to Korea to teach.
The final speech of the night was from GEPIK mentor Matt Burnett (see GEPIK Teachers: Behind the Lens), who spoke about keeping a positive outlook on teaching and to network with others to become a better than average teacher.
The final event of the night was the highly anticipated Dart Competition where 3 participants were chosen from the audience to compete against eachother for a 문화상품권, which is a Korean gift certificate good at almost every large franchise business in Korea. The certificate is a popular gift for young students and is often used as an alternative to providing students with cash.
The competition was comprised of 3 rounds where participants were allowed 3 darts each. Teachers were then able to “bet” on a certain player, who if won, would win the betters a smaller prize. The event was simultaneously broadcast for all the party attendees to see via Korvia volunteer Marichelle Crick who operated a live camera feed. Stephen was joined by co-host Nick Desmond who commentated the event. After three intense rounds, the winner of the competition was Stephen Guy, a GEPIK teacher, who out-threw his competition Jeff Ferguson and Erica Lynn.
All in all, the party was a success and allowed Korvia recruits as well as other teachers to get a taste of what being a Korvian is all about. We look forward to the next party, which will be an outdoor summer BBQ get-together.
Korvia holds three parties for its recruits; one in the spring, summer, and fall. The goal of the parties are to bring Korvians together to make new friends and celebrate fellowship with teachers from different programs and nationalities.
For more photos from the Korvia Teachers Party in Hongdae visit Korvia’s Official Flickr Page.
Thanks Korvia!
It was a cracking night that was enjoyed by all!
See you at the next party!
Matt.