Teaching ESL IN Korea
Spencer had the pleasure of teaching ESL in Daegu and Busan, South Korea for 4 years. Busan is where he met his wife, Yunjung (who also was an ESL teacher at the time). Their first child (Iris), was born in South Korea, and he is always grateful for all the experiences he had with his family there.
I learned this through small, daily actions. I helped them settle in each morning. I zipped their jackets. I got their lunch trays ready. I supported the Korean teachers in these moments.
That is how I built trust and earned respect.
Grateful for My Mother-in law
(장모님 )
I have always felt grateful for my relationship with my mother-in-law (장모님). She is one of the hardest working people I know, and she supports our family in every way she can. She has traveled to the United States to spend time with us, and in Korea she filled our days with home-cooked meals that brought us together.
What stands out most is how deeply she values her role as a grandmother. She cherishes every moment with her grandchildren and shows it through her care and attention. She also made sure we slowed down and enjoyed where we were. She would take us to peaceful places like this waterfront walk, where we could sit, breathe, and feel close to nature.
Cherry blossoms play an intrinsic role in a handful of my poems. Something about their bright white and pink hue, and the way they seem to follow you as you walk beneath them, made me feel they were more than flowers. They felt like quiet companions—drifting, lingering, and reminding you that even the most fleeting moments can leave a lasting mark.
Buy Poems from south korea
Poems From South Korea is a lyrical collection by Spencer Shaak, capturing four years of life woven through Korean markets, kitchens, holidays, and the quiet rooms where family stories take shape. These poems move between Busan’s steaming food stalls, Jeju’s volcanic shores, ancestral hills during Chuseok, and the small domestic rituals that define belonging.
Across the book, the speaker learns Korea through the people who shape him: an old man named Shim who teaches ping pong and patience; haenyeo divers who rise from the sea with history in their hands; aunties who pass down tradition through dough, steam, and expectation; and a daughter who becomes the bridge between languages, cultures, and generations.
Themes of motherhood, lineage, grief, migration, and cross‑cultural love echo throughout. The poems explore what it means to carry memory across oceans, to raise a daughter between worlds, and to honor the quiet lessons of elders—both living and gone.
