About Sophia

Hi! My name is Sophia and I'm a 26-year-old Minnesotan girl. I never moved outside of Minnesota until I moved to Korea. Never studied abroad or anything either. I learned German in high school. I also took some Norwegian and Hmong in university.

I have always loved learning languages. I feel like it was this love for languages that made me realize I wanted to become an English as a Second Language teacher; there aren't a lot of jobs for linguists. I mean, I could have done translating or some other language-related job, sure, but I felt that rooted me to only one language or MAYBE two. Instead, I wanted the chance to keep learning more about my own language and also allow myself to learn other languages. I really love being an ESL teacher.

I work as a hagwon teacher here, like most other foreigners. My passion is teaching and learning how languages work, their history, and how the people who speak it evolve it into something new.

I came to South Korea after tutoring and making Korean friends in my home university in Mankato, MN. I was already considering moving out of the country to teach English, and Korea came at me like a country that I almost forgot existed. I knew it was there from school, obviously, but Minnesota's Korean population isn't big, so I didn't really interact with any one from there until I met my friends. I don't know if it was luck or fate, but MAN am I glad I met them. I don't know how happy I'd be if I weren't living in this country right now.

Don't get me wrong, there isn't a Utopia on Earth, but I hope I can spend the rest of my days here.

Korea has a lot of new things for me, but I feel more at home here than I ever did in the U.S.A. I'm also more curious about my surroundings and try to discover new things about my new residence all the time. Even if they are small and simple, I like learning new things about South Korea. I hope the things I share here are relevant to you as well.