Kevin (ISAC Fall 2019 Intake) is from Bellevue, WA, USA. He is now an English teacher at South China Business College of GDUFS. He has been teaching at the college since Sept. 2019.
“Hi SCBC students! I am so excited to be here! My name is Kevin Kepple, and I am from the United States. I was born and raised in the state of Illinois which is well-known for the Midwest city of Chicago, U.S. presidents Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama, and it’s thriving agriculture industry. When I was young my interests focused mainly on music. I played trumpet all through my secondary school and also taught myself how to play guitar and sing. This lead to me performing in a heavy rock band named ZAIUS for 9 years. We recorded three albums and played many shows. It was so amazing to turn a hobby into a part-time job, but it wasn’t a career.
As for my education, I attended Southern Illinois University and graduated with a B.S. in University Studies and minor in Philosophy and a B.A. in English creative writing. After graduation, I moved to Seattle, Washington and worked for many well-known tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon and Nintendo just to name a few. Though the salary was decent, I still wasn’t fulfilled because the work hours were constrictive and enveloped much of my free time. I knew there was more to life than work.
After ten years in the tech industry, I decided I needed a change. I remembered back to my days at college seeing flyers in the hallway offering teaching abroad opportunities and that always stuck in my mind as something I wanted to do. So, I signed up for TEFL courses online and took classes at night after work. After receiving my certification, I started the task of deciding where to go; Japan was too expensive for living and competitive in the job market; Korea was an option, but I read too many stories about long hours and little pay; China seemed to have the right amount of work-life balance I was looking for.
After a few months of searching, I was contacted by a recruiter offering me an interview with Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics in Nanchang. The contract offered was reasonable and the city itself was relatively the same size as Seattle, so I felt it was a good match for me. I taught at JUFE for two years and made many lifelong friends while learning a great deal about China and myself.
Although, China is a very big country and I felt that I should see and experience as much as I can while I am here. So, I decided to move south and accepted an English teaching position here at SCBC. I am still getting used to the size of Guangzhou, but the campus here is quite beautiful and I’ve been very impressed by the friendliness of everyone here so far. If you see me around campus, don’t be shy and say hello! My favorite food is Mexican. I like sci-fi and horror tv/movies. I like hiking and camping.”
你们好，广外南国的学生们！我很高兴来到这里。
我叫Kevin Kepple，我来自美国。我在伊利诺伊州长大，这里有著名的中西部城市芝加哥，繁荣的农业，还有美国曾经的总统亚伯拉罕·林肯和巴拉克·奥巴马也来自这里。我年轻的时候很喜欢音乐。我整个中学时代都有在吹小号，我还自学了吉他弹唱。这成为了我后来九年在一个名叫ZAIUSZAIUS的重摇滚乐队里表演的前提。我们录了三张专辑和出演了许多场表演。这不是我的事业，但把爱好变成兼职的感觉非常好。
说到我的学业，我于南伊利诺伊学本科毕业，获英语创意写作学士学位，辅修哲学。毕业后我搬到华盛顿州的西雅图市，在一些著名的高科技公司工作，比如微软、亚马逊、任天堂等。虽然工资可观，但是我觉得不满意。因为工作时间紧缩也占有了我很多空闲时间。我觉得生活比工作重要。
在科技行业工作十年后，我决定作出改变。我想起在大学的时候，在走廊看到宣传单上一些国外教学的项目。这件事一直在我脑里而且也是我一直想去做的。所以，我在网上报了教师资格证考试，并且在下班之后去上课。在我拿到教师资格证后，我开始考虑要去哪里教学。去日本的话，物价高生活压力大，职场竞争激烈；也有考虑过韩国，但是我看到太多关于韩国的工时长薪资少的事；中国似乎更能满足我对于工作与生活的平衡的要求。
经过几个月的求职，我收到了来自南昌的江西财经大学的一个面试机会。合同的规定很合理并且南昌这个城市跟西雅图差不多大，所以我觉得很适合我。我在江西财经大学教书两年，认识了很多成为了一辈子朋友的人，也让我对中国和自己有了新的认识。
但是我觉得中国这么大，在我留在这里的时候，我应该去更多的地方走走看看。所以我决定来到南方，来到广外南国当一位英语外教。我还在适应广州这个大城市，但学校很美和这里的人都非常友好。如果你在学校看到我，不用害羞，请跟我打招呼。我喜欢墨西哥菜，喜欢看科幻和恐怖电影或者电视剧，我还喜欢远足和露营。
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