Teaching advice South Korea

Hi there,

I've been in Korea almost 4 years now. I don't have time to write a huge response, but I'll see what I can do . . .

First off, I don't know of anyone who has gone through Teach Away. I personally went through Footprints, and I know quite a few people who went through Ask Now. Of course, you are bound to find complainers everywhere, including those who complain about FP and AN, but my experience is that these are two of the best recruiters. I haven't heard of many problems.

You didn't mention about your qualifications or when you plan to come to Korea, but I always recommend that people try for public school jobs. There are some good hagwon (academy) jobs, but they are few and far between. If you want to try for a public school job, you should apply this fall for the spring semester (in Korea the school year begins in March). Also, Seoul is great, but you'll have much better luck if you are willing to work outside of Seoul. Try the EPIK program or for example, the DMOE (Daegu). I've lived in the countryside for nearly 2 years now and it's not so bad. The people are great, the air is cleaner, and you're never further than a 2 hour bus ride to a major city.

Anyway, you are hardly the first or the last person to have a million questions before coming to Korea. My advice is just to get connected with one of those recruiters, apply for public school jobs, and head on over.

Korea is a surprisingly easy place to transition to. I don't think I've ever met anyone who has regretted coming to Korea. I do know a few who were seriously ready to leave after a year. But then there's people like me who just keep staying year after year after year . . .

Good luck!

Brilliant, thanks so much good little gypsy! This was really helpful,

I haven't heard of these two companies so I will look into those now. I don;t have an official teaching qualification though I have a bachelors and a Masters degree and also an 140 hour online TEFL qualification from i-i so I am hoping that is enough.

In all honesty I am not limiting my options with regards location, I think I would quite like to be away from the city.

I had been told that private schools were the best though? I am English though, so don't have that American accent that I think the schools prefer from past experience so again, I won't limit my options.

Thanks again.
Natalie

"Private schools" is kind of a vague term actually. Some people use it to mean international schools, which are at the top of the school hierarchy, but you typically need a teaching certification, B.Ed., and teaching experience to get one of those jobs (and they have their own entirely different recruiting system). Sometimes people also translate hagwon as "private school," and like I said above, some hagwon jobs are great, many are not.

There are a handful of religious, college prep, etc. "private schools," but they tend to recruit from the same pool of applicants as the public schools (ie. you usually can't apply for those jobs directly).

Also, your qualifications should be fine. Most ESL teachers in Korea don't have a teaching certification. These days, some schools aren't taking online TESOL certifications into consideration . . . but still, most do. Your TESOL cert. + Master's will get you an extra 1-200,000 won/month

Hope that helps!

It most certainly does help. thanks so much!

I have looked at the application process and think I should get a head start! :)

Thanks for all your help.
Natalie

Rather than go into a lengthy post here about it, I'll refer you to a lengthy post on my website about the whole process. I did 2.5 years in South Korea and have a fair bit of experience in looking for (and finding) good jobs.

http://www.aussieontheroad.com/the-road-to-south-korea/

Happy hunting!

Hi,

I've found two teaching jobs through KoreaRecruiting.com http://www.korearecruiting.com/. They place teachers all over Korea and they have great ongoing support for teachers once they are in Korea. There is no fee for English teachers - they are paid by schools to find teachers for them, which is great. I highly recommend them!