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Teaching English in Korea and Questions About Korea
Underdog
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I know there's a thread about teaching in Japan but while there was some mention of Korea in Crapfestival's thread, there wasn't much detail. I'd like to know what people's experiences with it are.
I chose Korea mostly because the pay seems better and I'm told the cost of living is quite inexpensive. I'm prepping my application now and it oughta go out before the week ends (applying for the Sept 2011 school year) and I've got some questions.
1. Iloveesl and footprints are two recruiting agencies that popped up on UofT's career centre website. Anyone hear anything good or bad about them? They seem to recruit mainly for EPIK, "(English Program in Korea) run by the Korean Ministry of Education was established in 1995 with the mandate to improve the English speaking abilities of students and teachers in Korea" Seems legit...
2. Ceres mentioned vetting the organizations and schools but I'm not really sure how to do that.
3. What do you actually do there? Like, do you run classes by yourself? Are you just helping out a local teacher? Basically, what's the work experience like?
For reference, I've got a bachelor's in English (UofT) but I do not have a teaching certificate. Most of my work experience is teaching or tutoring or instructing in one sense or another. This has become an option simply because I'm having a lot of trouble finding work in Toronto.
Edit:
4. Is something like TESOL or TEFL necessary?
I chose Korea mostly because the pay seems better and I'm told the cost of living is quite inexpensive. I'm prepping my application now and it oughta go out before the week ends (applying for the Sept 2011 school year) and I've got some questions.
1. Iloveesl and footprints are two recruiting agencies that popped up on UofT's career centre website. Anyone hear anything good or bad about them? They seem to recruit mainly for EPIK, "(English Program in Korea) run by the Korean Ministry of Education was established in 1995 with the mandate to improve the English speaking abilities of students and teachers in Korea" Seems legit...
2. Ceres mentioned vetting the organizations and schools but I'm not really sure how to do that.
3. What do you actually do there? Like, do you run classes by yourself? Are you just helping out a local teacher? Basically, what's the work experience like?
For reference, I've got a bachelor's in English (UofT) but I do not have a teaching certificate. Most of my work experience is teaching or tutoring or instructing in one sense or another. This has become an option simply because I'm having a lot of trouble finding work in Toronto.
Edit:
4. Is something like TESOL or TEFL necessary?
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they are actually payed pretty well, and one of my friends is using it as a way to save up money because he's going to grad school back in the US next year, and yeah, the cost of living is so inexpensive that even though he goes out every weekend and eats out all the time, he is saving a lot
(neither of them have teaching experience/certificates beyond some tutoring things a bit, one of them not even very much)
hmm i guess i could ask them which companies/organizations they are with
both of them were going to work for the same company in seoul, but then another company offered my friend more money (less per hour, but more hours) so he is going with that
They're not well regulated so there are shady ones everywhere and often pay very little then a "completion bonus" but they'll just kick you out shortly before they have to pay that.
I have multiple friends who had great times in Taiwan though.
That's not to say the good schools aren't out there; they are and people have a great time teaching English there. You really need to make sure you do as much reading on the subject as you can, as well as come up with plans for what you'll do if the worst-case scenario happens.
That is scary. Was it just Korea specifically or is that something that can happen with the teaching abroad thing in general? I wonder if it's any better in smaller cities, which I wouldn't really mind. I'm kind of a homebody anyways.
I'm having a hard time finding testimonials or first hand accounts that aren't on the recruitment sites themselves and those aren't exactly without bias. It's not like they'd throw up a paragraph or two from someone who got royally screwed.
I hadn't really thought of Taiwan, Castle. I don't really trust China in general not to screw me but I guess it'd be less of a culture clash since I'm Cantonese. Do you know if the pay was any good? Did your friends ever say it was cheap to live there or just kinda normal?
Hmm, hearing this stuff about S. Korea is disheartening.
Edit: Is there much difference between teaching at public and private schools? Either one less likely to screw me?
From what I understand that stuff is mostly Korea, although anywhere you go is going to have its pitfalls. That's why you do research. In Taiwan, for example, people don't have air conditioning. You can pretty much expect not to have it and you can also expect to SEE the humidity in the air.
I'm in Japan with a middleman company, and it's very nice. The pay isn't as high as the direct hires, but I have a lot more freedom. Such as not having to stay at school when there aren't any classes.
But for Korea, I'd just recommend finding a way that gets you working at public schools; and be very wary of private schools or study centers.
I know that if you are ethnically asian, you will have a more difficult time than teachers of other ethnic backgrounds in Asia. There is a lot of racism there.
Oh I hadn't thought about actually getting contact info from other teachers. Is it normal for them to give that kind of information? I figure there might be some privacy issues.
Difficult time as in when I'm already there or just more difficulty getting hired because I'm Asian? Or both? I actually expect some level of racism. Koreans and Chinese haven't exactly had a rosy history.
And I think I will go with public schools. The working hours and job security pretty much clinch it.
Hmm, I've been reading around and although I originally thought I'd go with Seoul, I'm not really much for nightlife. And apparently it's really smoggy in Seoul? If I want a balance between quiet and calm but still English friendly, where would you guys suggest?
Contact info wise they'll usually give you an email address, or get them to call you on the phone, i'd go for the phone call so you can be a bit more sure it's an actual native english speaker you're talking to.
As for the difficulty thing, a lot of the job postings do ask for pictures and pretty much hire the most stereotypical caucasian people possible because they think they look better to parents,so it might take you a bit longer to find a job. As for cities, you want the biggest one you can get in to. Aim for Seoul, but I probably wouldn't reccomend anywhere smaller than Incheon, English friendliness drops fast as city size does, and i've heard a *lot* of horror stories from people who settled for smaller cities. That being said you might not be able to get a public school job in seoul as competition can be kind of fierce/they're in the highest demand
edit: it's also pretty polluted/smoggy in pretty much every populated area I saw, unless you end up in the middle of nowhere, where you really don't want to be it's something you just kinda have to deal with/get used to.
1. Anything with the public school system is legit. Its a pretty standard experience with the very very occasional outliers of awesome or crappy. Most jobs are pretty good and you're guaranteed to get paid and vacation etc. Your quality of life at work will depend entirely on your job and theres no way to predict unless its in the most general way. I would say don't come to Korea unless you intend to come through the public school system.
2. With the public schools, you can't do that because you don't get to pick your school, you pick the organization. With private schools, you contact the schools, ask for email addresses from previous teachers, check on internet black lists, etc etc. Be careful though, teachers get paid by the school to recruit friends/random people and may lie.
3. Foreign teachers can be anything from real teachers to baby sitters. It's hard to say but chances are you'll be a mix of the two. In public schools, you'll be in a classroom with 40 students and a coteacher. In hagwons youll be alone with like 8-15 students. believe me its not hard at all, it takes about a month or two to learnt he ropes.
4. yes you should have some sort of certificate if only for your own benefit. But its not necessary. Think on it for a second though, what kind of a place will hire someone with no experience after a short interview and look at your resume. Do you want to work for them?
If you got more questions, I'll be happy to answer them.
On the topic of Korea, Ask a Korean is also an amazing blog to learn about the Korean mindset (to the extent that one can generalize) but is less directly applicable to english teachers.
My experience was that the schools wanted to have a clearly foreign face, basically someone white or black. In China, they probably won't like you much if you are of Japanese descent. I've heard them say some pretty horrible things, although not as much from the younger generation. If you are an American of Chinese descent, they will probably still think of you as Chinese and be weirded out if you don't speak the language. It was obnoxious for the people I knew that fit that category bot not really terrible.
As for the schools, but places I worked at asked me if they could provide my email to people with questions, and I was more than happy to.