So You Wanna Teach In South Korea?

I get messaged on a regular basis from all sorts of people looking for information about teaching in South Korea so I have decided to compile everything I got into a blog post for people's reference (also so I don't have to type the same thing over and over and over again :P).

Bottom line: I completely recommend teaching abroad but make sure you do your research first, I've heard some horror stories. For everything but TaLK you need a bachelors degree (TaLK only requires two years of college) and you need to be from an English speaking country (USA, Canada, UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand).



I came to Korea through the TaLK program and if you are planning on coming to Korea and dont know anything about teaching it's a great starter program. The contract is only 6 months (everything else is one year minimum) and you only work 3 hours a day. Orientation, rent and fun cultural activities are paid for plus you get 1.5 million won a month ($1400). The TaLK website is http://www.talk.go.kr/

If you are looking for a real job the Epic program is sister to TaLK. It's full time teaching and you get paid much more (I think its around 2.2 million won but not sure). I think it's the same deal as talk (I know rent is paid for and so is orientation) but you're going to have to do your own research on that. The Epik website is http://www.epik.go.kr/

The main source of jobs in Korea for foreigners is Hagwons or private schools. These can pay better than most other programs but the jobs can be less secure. DO YOUR RESEARCH!  EatYourKimich is a great youtube channel about Korean culture from a foreigner's perspective and this is a good video on Hagwons.
If you want to look at Hagwons here is a good place to start. http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/

Although I started with TaLK I was lucky enough to get a University job which is the cream of the crop. Job security, high pay, health insurance and 10 weeks paid vacation all together is unheard of in Korea. More about that Here.

Once you do decide to teach here it would be good to learn the language (you don't have to but it definitely makes life alot easier). I recommend this site http://www.talktomeinkorean.com/ it's free and pretty good.

If you have any question I am more then happy to answer them. Good luck on the searching! <3

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