Qualified and talented young people are leaving South Africa in droves in search of greener pastures due to the obscenely high unemployment rate.
One of them is Thobeka Funeka, 25, who grew up in KwaDumisa, KwaZulu Natal. In July last year, she packed up and left her family and loved ones behind to pursue a job teaching English in South Korea.
This occurred after she found herself without a job and was forced to expand her horizons and look beyond the South African job market.
Funeka is now based in the Gyeongsangnam-do province in the small city of Changwon.
With a loving family and lots of support, Funeka said that when she was younger, she faced some tough times as she and her twin brother were raised by a single mother.
As a quiet, focused and determined individual, she used her faith to fuel her ambitions.
‘’I grew up in a Catholic environment, so I was taught to always believe in God and respect everyone around me. My family prayed every day together at the same time and went to church every Sunday. I appreciate this a lot because it has shaped me into the person I am today,’’ said Funeka.
As a child, she dreamed of studying to become a teacher. She achieved this goal when she graduated with a Bachelor of Education degree from the University of KwaZulu Natal. However, in her first year, she did not access financial aid and relied on her mother to pay the tuition.
‘’She paid my fees, rent, study material and groceries. This was very hard for her because she also had to financially support my brother.’’ Funeka said this motivated her to study harder and she excelled academically.
Due to this, when she applied for financial aid again, she was successful, which brought a huge sigh of relief from her mother.
Her mother is her biggest inspiration because she is a wise and strong woman without whom she could not have achieved her dreams.
After studying, Funeka worked as a substitute teacher in Illovo. When her contract ended, she was unemployed for a year. ‘’I went to two other provinces to look for a job and unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky. I started to see more young South Africans living and working abroad so I got interested in it.
‘’I did more research about Asia and decided to go to China, but I encountered some problems, so I had to look for another country that needed English teachers.’’
Funeka pivoted to South Korea and researched all the requirements and documents needed to teach in the country.
In her exploration, she decided to upload her CV to Dave’s ESL Café, a website people use to find jobs. Following this, she received emails from recruiters.
‘’Leaving my family and my home country was one of the most difficult decisions I have had to make but it was necessary.’’
The Asian country has treated her well so far and the school she teaches at welcomed her with open arms. The area where she lives has few foreigners however, which made it difficult for her to adjust.
‘’I experienced a culture shock when I first arrived here as there are a lot of things that are different from my home country, like the transport system and how they do things in general,’’ she said.
Funeka teaches English to kindergarten students (five to seven years old ) and elementary students (eight to 11 years). ‘’When I first arrived, they were shy and asked me a lot of questions about my skin colour and hair because they had never seen a black South African person before. As time went on, they warmed up to me.’’
She said she would recommend this job to other young South Africans because it is an amazing opportunity to learn, travel and grow.
Outside of teaching Funeka has experienced the challenge of finding friends and added that it can get lonely and depressing if you do not have friends to spend your weekends and holidays with.
‘’I overcame this challenge by joining Facebook groups and going out more often.’’
IOL Business