Greetings,
My name is Telisa Bryant and I am a professor at Woosong University in Daejeon South Korea. First let me say, this is an excellent project you all have put together, and I thank Professor Vargas for the opportunity to show how Covid-19 has had an effect internationally. I am even more excited to participate, because both of my parents attended Tennessee State, and now my niece is a student at the university.
South Korea was one of the first countries affected by coronavirus in January 2020. At first, I will be honest and say I did not take it too seriously. I have lived in South Korea since November 2008, and I have been here through Swine Flu (2009) and MERS (2015). Covid-19 differed because almost everything stopped. We have been living under Social Distancing since January, even though it is letting up, life is still not normal. The city of Daejeon is the fifth-largest city in the country, with a population greater than 1.5 million people. To date (May 25, 2020), we have had 45 people diagnosed with Covid-19. The country as a whole has had 11,206 confirmed cases and 267 deaths.
The school year in South Korea begins in March. My freshman students just graduated from high school in February. They were looking forward to starting their college life. At first, the school year was delayed by two weeks, then we were told to conduct classes via Zoom (for the first two weeks of actual classes). These students did not get to move into the dormitories and have all the fun and freedoms being a college student allows. To date, I have never met them face to face. In order to get their submissions for this blog, I had to coordinate with them through Zoom and email.
As a professor, this has taken a toll on me. Online teaching is very new to me, and some of the advancements in technology I have had to try to learn very quickly. Of course there are days when there are so many people on Zoom (around the world) and connections get bad. My biggest concern has to be if I am doing a good job. I wonder many days, what I could have done better in each class. Or how to adjust my curriculum for online teaching since I am so used to being in a classroom.
In closing, as you read the stories of my students, please remember English is not their first language. But their lives have been equally affected by this pandemic. Their stories have been touching and I hope you appreciate them.
Take care of yourselves,
Telisa J. Bryant
