Oswego High School grad describes life in South Korea amid COVID-19

Oswego High School graduate Ian Greenfield currently is in Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province, South Korea, to teach English to third through fifth graders.

He recently ended a weeklong self-quarantine due to the spread of the coronavirus COVID-19 in the country.

“Life’s going on here,” he said. “It’s lesser than what it would be, but people are still living their lives.”

While he was a junior at Northern Illinois University, Greenfield was told by a friend about a yearlong opportunity to teach English in other countries. So after graduating with a degree in psychology, he made his way to South Korea on Feb. 17.

Upon arrival, he and his fellow teachers went through orientation through their program, English Program In Korea, where they were warned about the risks of COVID-19.

“A lot of it was people were talking, people worried about what was happening and they were telling us they would give us more information as time went on,” Greenfield said.

As the situation worsened in Korea and in Daegu, before he left America, Greenfield and his fellow teachers received an announcement from the Daegu Ministry of Education warning them to keep contact with others to a minimum and not to leave their apartments. They were also told that they could back out of the program with no repercussions.

“I just figured that I had put too much on hold to go home now,” he said.

Before he arrived, he was told that he would need to undergo a weeklong self-quarantine in his apartment upon arrival.

“It was more so I think, not for my health, but for the health of other people, making sure I was okay because they didn’t know where I was traveling beforehand,” he said.

So instead of teaching, Greenfield has been finding other ways to fill his days.

The school Greenfield is supposed to teach at is set to resume classes March 23. Once in class, he and a Korean instructor will be co-teaching third through fifth graders in English, without using or speaking Korean.

“Everyone’s situation is different. ... it’s based off of textbooks, so it’s based off of that curriculum, but besides that, it’s completely up to me to decide what goes into a lesson plan, how I teach it, and what kind of games we play,” Greenfield said.

“It’s kind of hard to lesson plan super-far in advance without knowing the skill levels of the kids that I’ll be working with,” he admitted.

Until then, Greenfield cleans, does laundry, reads or plays video games. His self-quarantine has ended, and now he can meet up with friends; he can explore the city or go hiking.

“If I play [video games] during the day, I can still tap my friends who are playing it later at night back in the U.S., and then I also have a friend who is in Korea, so we play at night,” he said.

Truthfully, Greenfield said, “It’s been pretty boring.”

While in America, stores are being drained of their stocks of hand sanitizer and toilet paper, Greenfield said that things in Daegu are “pretty low.”

“I actually went to a stationary store yesterday, and they were selling masks at the front desk,” he said. Most convenience stores are sold out of masks and hand sanitizer, but Greenfield had packed a supply before his flight. The government, he added, is regulating the dates that citizens can buy masks based on their birthday.

Despite low supplies, numbers are dropping, and Greenfield is optimistic.

“I know it keeps getting worse, but I think the Korean government is being very proactive, probably the best in the world, just looking at numbers,” he said. “I’m still not in any fear of getting the coronavirus.”

“People are taking it very seriously,” he said, adding that citizens are wearing masks, hand sanitizer is found in every store, restaurant and bus.

“The misconception is that they’re not doing very much about it,” he said. “I can’t speak for any other country, but it seems like they’re taking it very seriously.”

As of March 9, the country had 7,513 reported cases and 54 deaths, as cases in Europe and around the world continue to rise, and the Korea Centres for Disease Control have reported a decline in the amount of new cases.

Even if he does get the virus, Greenfield said he wouldn’t expect it to be a fatal case.

“I don’t think it ever really crossed my mind, going home,” he added. “My mom obviously was not too keen on it, but at the end of the day, I think I had to make my own decision.”

As of now, Greenfield said he’s unsure if he wants to extend his contract with EPIK beyond the first year. “I haven’t taught yet,” he pointed out, but as far as living in Korea, he said he’s loving it.