A number of friends have contacted me in order to inquire about what exactly I’m doing in Korea. It looks like I may be somewhat responsible for a few people coming over in the near future. Since I’ve already written a lot of answers to general questions about life and work in Korea, I figured it’d be wise to post that information here as a quick way of directing any other friends who might be considering a teaching position in Korea.
I write this post for those who aren’t really sure about what they think about the prospect of teaching in Korea. If you’re already set on coming over, you should first check out this great FAQ posted by Alex Pollack, especially if you’re interested in teaching in Bundang. Those who have made the decision to come over should read this ten point list created by David Ogles.
Please keep in mind that everything in this post really only applies to Seoul. I can’t really offer much advice about teaching in areas outside of the Seoul metro area.
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Life in Korea: Why Come Over?
Everyone has their own reasons for teaching overseas. But why choose Korea? What’s Korea got that other places lack?
Advantages
• Cash. For about the last ten years, Korea has been able to offer the highest paycheck-to-living expenses ratio for English teachers out of any Asian country. If you want to teach on this side of the world, it can be a financially lucrative option.
• Language: Compared to Chinese or Japanese, Korean’s a pretty easy language to learn. I’ve been remiss in my studies of late, but to give you some sense of perspective, consider this: it’s possible to learn the Korean alphabet in one to two weeks. That’s not to say that learning Korean is a walk in the park, but to be able to pronounce words that you see on a menu or on the subway inside of one month of being in Korea is pretty huge. Those interested in learning the language proper will find ample opportunity to do so.
• Food. Good lord, Korean food is amazing. That said, most Korean foods are considered by foreigners to be spicy, so if that’s not your bag of tea, perhaps you won’t like it so much.
• Wide variety of teaching options. I will go into more detail when I describe the difference between public and private schools below; for now, just know that teachers in Korea have the potential to be very selective about where and whom they teach.
• Transportation. If you’re in Seoul, you’ll probably find that you won’t miss driving at all. Thanks to the excellent subway system, reliable buses, and comparatively (to large American cities, anyway) cheap taxis, it’s easy to get around. In my entire life, I have never been so excited about public transportation. I can literally say I will miss the subway and bus system from Seoul whenever I leave…it’s that awesome.
• Travel opportunities: location, location, location. Korea’s situated in a pretty sweet spot. Japan, China, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and the eastern side of Russia are all fairly accessible. This point isn’t unique to South Korea, but it’s something to consider in general if you are still having a hard time making up your mind.
• The lack of crime. You have to go to pretty far lengths to put yourself in a potentially dangerous situation here. Like any city that’s as massive as Seoul, there are certain places you probably don’t want to be at five in the morning, but for the most part, the potential for running into trouble is pretty slim. I have never felt threatened during my time here. Realistically, drunken fights comprise the most likely source of criminal danger for foreigners, and all the scraps I’ve heard of could have easily been avoided. Whereas I had to take the occasional peek over my shoulder in Charleston, South Carolina for the last four years, I feel as if I could walk backwards through Seoul with a blindfold on and still be safe.
Disadvantages:
• The current economy. When I came to Korea in July of 2008, the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Korean won was 1 U.S. dollar: 1080 Korean won. In mid-January 2009, that ratio currently sits at 1 U.S. dollar: 1390 Korean won. If you think about it (I try not to) I have essentially experienced a thirty percent pay cut in my time here. The last several months have been a really wild ride for the Korean won; the exchange rate has been fluctuating between 1:1150 and 1:1500 for the last several months. Of course, the global economy does have something to do with this; everyone’s hurting. I recommend that anyone considering teaching over here to watch the exchange rate closely in order to be able to make an informed decision about whether or not a teaching venture is financially viable.
• Social conservatism. I love living in Korea. However, there are a few entrenched social values here that are at odds with things that many foreigners hold dear. I could write a whole treatise on this one because I’m a philosophy nut, but I’ll be brief and make a long story short: if you’re not a person who is prepared to try new things and make some compromises, then you’re probably not going to enjoy living here. I have little tolerance for people who get their feathers ruffled over this one, but if you want a more specific look at what I am describing, there’s plenty of disgruntled folks on the forums at Dave’s ESL Café that will tell you…at great length…whether you want to hear it or not…just what kind of problems they have.
• If you want to get around, you have to learn some Korean. Personally, I think this one’s a plus. Plenty of foreigners live in Seoul for a year or two without learning even basic words and phrases, but if you really want to open up Korea, you need to make an attempt to learn basic Korean vocabulary and grammar. Most people are overjoyed if you make a legitimate effort to speak their language.
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Teaching in Korea: Public or Private?
There are two options for teaching in Korea: public and private. Private schools are called academies or, in Korean, hagwons. Basically, after students finish their normal 9-5 public school, they go to hagwons. Music hagwons, math hagwons, sports hagwons…and of course, English instruction hagwons. To become hired at a public school, you generally have to go through a giant recruitment agency like SMOE, EPIK, or GEPIK. SMOE is the recruiter that deals with Seoul. Recruiters exist for those looking to work in a hagwon as well; however, it is possible to contact a hagwon directly and get a job.
Most people go through recruiters to get their positions. I didn’t have to because my friend David is a pretty big deal at my hagwon, and the school accepted his recommendation of me with little argument. As far as recruiters go, my friend Rhett went through SMOE and met a lot of really cool people, and the organization seems to take care of its recruits.
There’s plenty of resources on the web that can help you find jobs over here. If you couldn’t tell already, I’m not the biggest fan of Dave’s ESL Café. That place is filled with people who flame up threads just to moan about how much they hate Korea. I haven’t had to look for another job, but these websites seem to have some pretty helpful resources:
• Hi! Teacher
• ESL Agent
• English Spectrum
If there’s one golden rule I could give to those interested in choosing a school, it is this: when entering into negotiation with schools, always assume that “a better option than this one probably exists,” because one probably does. Demand for teachers in Korea is still incredibly high, which means there’s a huge number of schools all scrounging for a comparatively small amount of teachers. If you ever think a school is being shady about something–maybe a certain part of the contract is unclear or something–draw their attention to it, and see how they react. If they react in an unacceptable way, walk away and start looking for a different school. You’re in charge; even with the unfavorable economy right now, there are plenty of teaching jobs to go around.
Similarly, the timing of entry into Korea can be flexible. If you work for a hagwon, you can come at any time; there’s really no such thing as a “school year” for a hagwon. Whenever there’s an open spot in a hagwon, the administrators find a way to fill it. Public schools are different. You can basically only come over in July or December if you want to work for them. There are exceptions to this, though; sometimes, people break their contracts and leave a void that must be filled. You’d have to talk to a recruiter about this to find out more information.
Here’s a quick description of the general differences between public school work and hagwon work. For the sake of comprehensiveness (but at the risk of being repetitive), I am going to print the advantages and disadvantages for working in public schools and private schools.
Public school advantages:
• Guaranteed work. Your job is backed by the national government of Korea. Assuming you don’t do something really stupid, the contract you sign with a public school is pretty reliable. Your school cannot fire you for something trivial.
• Long vacation periods. Public school teachers have the benefit of enjoying month-long vacation periods at the conclusion of the fall and spring terms.
• Little to no grading. When you work at a public school, you usually have a Korean co-teacher who helps you grade students’ work.
• The school dictates your curriculum. They give you a book, and you teach it to the class. It’s pretty simple and straightforward. Teachers can bring in supplemental materials if they wish.
Public school disadvantages:
• You will probably be the only foreigner at your school. Sometimes this can be hard on new teachers.
• Your class sizes will probably be pretty large. It’s very feasible that, at a public school, you will be responsible for teaching more than six hundred unique students per week. You will have them in groups of fifty or so. Much class time will be spent preserving order.
• Pay is less than hagwon pay. The average public school teacher makes around 200,000 fewer won per month than the average hagwon teacher.
• Since you’re going through a recruiter, you probably have very little say-so in where you will be placed. If you’re looking to live in a specific kind of place, this feature of public school teaching can be a real pain.
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Private school (hagwon) advantages:
• Small class sizes, and students you’ll come to care about. The most students I’ve ever had in a single classroom: 18. I see no more than 100 unique students per week. I know them by name. They know who I am. It’s easy to preserve order in a classroom, and I spend very little time “babysitting.” The students have an impact on me, and I feel like I actually have a tangible influence on their lives. For all those who are skeptical about the value of this one, don’t be—you’d be surprised what this can do for your morale.
• Higher pay. The average hagwon teacher makes about 200,000 more won per month than the average public school teacher.
• Specialized curriculum. At an ideal hagwon, you have the possibility of having some really fun classes. For the past three months, I’ve been teaching the verbal section of the SAT to amazing high school-aged students two to three times a week, and it’s an absolute blast. It definitely beats “See Spot Run” and all that jazz. If you like an intellectual challenge, hagwon work has good potential to keep you interested.
• Sweet hours. When students get out of their public school, they go to hagwons. Thus, most hagwons have working hours in the afternoon, and if you’re lucky, you’ll have several off periods throughout the day. For ten out of the twelve months of the year, the earliest I ever have to go to work is 4 PM, and I leave no later than 11 PM. For someone who just graduated from college, these are most excellent hours. I work for about four hours on Saturday, but this is definitely not the norm; it’s really the only big disadvantage of my particular hagwon.
Private school (hagwon) disadvantages:
• Limited vacation time. Compared to public schools, hagwons offer pretty limited vacation time. Most of the “vacations” at my hagwon consist of four day weekends. “But what about those breaks that students have after the fall and spring semesters?” you might ask. Well, unfortunately…
• …You will probably be teaching more hours in January and July (the public school vacation months). Why? Because many parents like sending their students to hagwons for additional instruction during the supposed “student vacation” months. At my hagwon, we call January and July the “busy season” months. For four weeks, we could potentially be at the hagwon from 9:30 AM until 8:30 PM at night. The nature of busy season varies from hagwon to hagwon.
• Hagwons are private enterprises. The implications of this are manifold. First and foremost, you obviously have less job security at a private operation than a public school. Generally speaking, a contract with a private school doesn’t really amount to much legally. There are plenty of horror stories on the internet that address all the potential harms a hagwon can do to a teacher.
• Paperwork. Again, this varies by hagwon, but most of the time you will be grading whatever assignments the school says you must give your students. At my hagwon, every student has to write at least two essays per month.
• Parents rule. As a hagwon teacher, your goal is keeping the parents happy…no matter how absurd their demands. Depending on the wherewithal of your particular hagwon, you may be faced with a situation where a complaint from a parent of a lone student from a class of fifteen causes you to change a substantial part of the class.
• You may be responsible for creating curriculum. This is something you are going to want to ask each hagwon you’re considering. Hagwons have varying degrees of curriculum management. Some give you very strictly defined schedules for you to stick to, and others require you to create an entire curriculum out of thin air.
Important note: Most of my description of private school work comes from my experience at my particular hagwon. My perception is definitely biased, as I think my hagwon is awesome. Remember, the details vary widely with hagwons. There are really no “general rules” regarding hagwons; they run the gamut from nightmarish, piss-poor businesses only looking to make a quick buck to really high-class institutions of considerable merit. You really have to do your research when scoping out a hagwon. Some of the advantages I described might not even exist at particularly shady hagwons.
That being said, I think private school education in Korea provides the best experience assuming one lands in a good hagwon. Of course, it all depends on what you’re looking for. When I arrived at my hagwon with ten other foreigner teachers, I had a solid network of people whom I could ask for help if necessary. Teaching with other foreigners offers an experience akin to a study abroad program in college; you become pretty tight with your coworkers. The vacation time thing isn’t bothersome; I’ve already visited Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand with the vacation time offered to me. Besides, I’m already in Korea; simply living here is vacation enough for me. As long as you’re a good teacher, you don’t have to worry about complaints from parents. Busy season doesn’t bother me either; I feel the overtime pay you receive for those strenuous hours is pretty sweet compensation. Creating curriculum can be a pain, but depending on the class, it can also be fun. I look forward to preparing for my high-level classes because I know the students genuinely appreciate it.
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A Brief Look at Finances
Pretty much every school covers the cost of your monthly rent while you work in Korea. Utility costs are usually left to the teacher. The usual hagwon monthly gross for first year teachers is between 2.0 million and 2.3 million won per month. First year public school teachers gross somewhere between 1.7 million and 1.9 million won per month.
Mandatory expenses to deduct monthly: utilities, medical insurance, pension, and assorted taxes. For me, these figures total to about 300,000 won. You get all of the money you pay into pension back at the end of your time in Korea. Most people want a cell phone; just like anywhere else, you can pay for a wide variety of services if you want them. 25,000 won a month will get most people just about everything they need as far as cell services go. It’s not uncommon for schools to take some money out of your paycheck as a room deposit for the first few months you are working.
Miscellaneous financial notes:
• When looking for work in Korea, don’t trust any figure that’s given to you in U.S. dollars. Ask how much won you will be grossing per month.
• If you pursue TOEFL or TEFL certification in the United States, you can parlay that certificate into a raise. I hear it is worth about 100,000 extra won per month, but your mileage may vary.
• Did you go to an Ivy League School? That diploma is the mother of all bargaining chips. It doesn’t matter if you barely passed. An Ivy League diploma can be used to request for better classes, higher pay, even a nicer apartment.
• Do not worry about how complicated your taxes are going to look. While other governmental offices are plagued by terribly inefficient bureaucracy, the IRS has developed a pretty streamlined way to take your money; everything you need is easily accessible from their website.
• Different people save different amounts of money. Know that it is quite easy to save money if that’s what you’re looking to do.
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Actually Getting Here
Let’s say you’ve made up your mind: you want to come to Korea. Again, any school worth its salt will agree to pay for your round-trip plane ticket. But what do you need to complete in terms of paperwork? Again, your recruiter or the school who is bringing you over should brief you on all of this, but here is a rough idea of what an American looking to teach in Korea will need:
• A passport. You’ll most likely have to fax a few copies of it to your school.
• A college diploma. Yes, you need the real thing. Schools really want to make sure you graduated from college, and they will require you to send it to them. Don’t bother buying insurance for it when you mail it; paper is paper, and mailing agencies will only insure it for a couple of bucks.
• Criminal background check with your state’s apostille seal. Basically, you need to get a state background check. Call your local police department and see what you need to do to obtain this. Once you get your criminal background check, you must send it to your state’s secretary of state and have an apostille seal put on it to verify that it is legitimate.
• Sealed official college transcript.
• Resume. Of course, you will want to emphasize teaching or tutoring experience if you have it. Less obvious mentions include test scores; if you have high test scores in anything–AP exams, SAT, ACT, graduate school exams, etc, you should list them. The Korean educational system places a lot of emphasis on test scores for its students. If your test scores are short of stellar, don’t sweat it. You’re still going to get the job.
• Several passport-sized photos. I’d recommend you to go ahead and get about 8-12 of these guys taken. Keep them on hand. You will need them for various documents.
• A signed contract. You will be signing a contract with whatever school you’re working with.
• E-2 Health Statement. Korean schools make you fill out this one to two page form that asks you some basic health questions. It takes no more than ten minutes to complete.
• Having all of the above gets you the primary thing you need to teach in Korea: an E-2 visa. Visa rules for South Korea have been changing over the last few years. Before a Korean consulate can give you a visa, you need to have an interview with your region’s consulate. Do not delay on this. Now, there are those who come over on tourist visas and then make a hop over to Japan or somewhere else to apply for their work visa for Korea–it’s called a “visa run.” In this manner, these individuals find a way to fit in a quick vacation to another country…whether you choose to get your visa for South Korea in America or in another country, just know that you must have an E-2 visa before you are allowed to work here. Visit this page to find your region’s South Korean consulate.
These are the basic things you need to know if you want to teach in Korea. Don’t forget to check out these links; Alex and David have done a pretty good job of offering their own perspective of what you will need to know before coming over.
Alex’s Q&A about Teaching in Bundang
David’s Checklist of Things to Bring
