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Teacher Placement Korea South Korea offers some of the best ESL teaching opportunities in the world. Do you need to save money, pay off student loans or build for the future? If so, Korea is the place for you.
Take your time and have a look at the wealth of information we have about teaching and living in South Korea. All Teacher Placement reps have been English teachers, many of whom taught and lived in Korea for several years. We have over a dozen teaching positions in private language schools in Korea EVERY MONTH. In these private language schools, also called Hagwons or Hakwons, you can teach all ages of students. We have some private language schools that are focused on teaching kindergarten aged students and others that only teach adults. Most of these schools teach elementary to high school aged students and some offer classes to all students K-adult (K being kindergarten). If you've got teaching experience or an Education degree, Teacher Placement is a steady recruiter for public school positions around Korea. Korean public school teaching jobs generally start in August and March each year but due to the incredible demand for teachers for public schools we are placing teachers EVERY month in these positions. These are great programs for teachers to add incredible international teaching experience to their portfolio. IS SOUTH KOREA SAFE? Teachers heading to South Korea are often unaware that North and South Korea are technically still at war. But outside of the Demilitarized Zone that cuts the country in half, there is no real military peril to be seen or think about. In a recent article in the Korean Herald the national news agency reports that North Korea is demonstrating that they are looking to restart the stalled multilateral talks aimed at ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and that they are aiming to create better relations with South Korea and the United States. One of the key indications that the North Korean regime is moving toward better relations this year is the New Year's message from the North directly calling for the need to "open the path for improving relations between the two Koreas". This could be in part as a result of the smoother relations between the USA and North Korea which often leads to better relations between the North and South Koreas. Whether this is a new year's resolution for the mighty Kim Jong-Il or whether this is a result of new sanctions by the UN after the last nuclear missile test that have crippled the North's economy and decreased the aid they continue to receive monthly or whether this is a regime realizing their closest ally is fully embracing capitalism and they are losing relevance, this year could be a significant year in warmed relations between the two Koreas. Whatever the reason, the North is stepping forward with a fresh face and a new approach to the New Year that could mean South Korea may yet win back a long lost friend. The bottom line is, you’re safe in South Korea than you are in New York City. CAN I BRING THE KIDS? Schools are often not too keen to hire teachers who have non-working spouses or children accompanying them because of a number of factors but probably most important to them is the pressure and stress of acclimation and acculturation that can lead you to breaking your contract and heading home - leaving the school without a teacher and in serious chaos. Other challenges come with the housing that the school supplies for you. Teaching contracts in Korea generally state that the school will provide housing for the teacher. This regularly comes in the form of single housing (either one bedroom or bachelor type apartments) or shared housing (two bedroom apartments shared with another teacher). It is likely that neither of these situations would be suitable for someone living with a child or a spouse who is not working at the school. OPTIONS For Teachers Travelling with Families
The second difficulty lies in schooling and the adjustment of the child to life in a different country and culture. International schools (i.e. schools that teach in English) are extraordinarily expensive and it likely wouldn’t be feasible based on the salary you will be making. If you were going over with someone else then home schooling would be an option but unfortunately as a single parent this would be a very difficult undertaking. There is also the issue of getting the appropriate legal documentation for your dependent(s) (i.e. Dependent visa(s) for the child/children). This is something that you would have to research and take care of on your own. Some schools will offer a payout instead of a provided apartment thus allowing the teacher to find their own housing. The other option would be schools that offer home stays instead of a provided apartment. It is feasible to bring your family, but can be very complicated. These and more should be considered when thinking about bringing your kid's with you to Korea. CAN KITTY COME TO KOREA? It is challenging to bring pets to Korea and is not usually recommended. Pet transport is relatively easy to Korea. If you are bringing pets please notify them as soon as possible. The pet transport process may take up to one month delaying your employee's start date. Key steps to transporting pets are: DOCUMENTS: Obtain specific (USDA) health certifications, documents, and vaccinations (such as rabies) for your pet. AIRLINE: Contact your airline. Ask if they allow pet transport in the cabin or cargo area, reserve a spot for your pet (they fill up), and give the airline your pet profile including weight in pounds (there is a weight limit), and cage size and dimensions (there is a limit). DESTINATION: Contact the country you will arrive in. Make sure your pet will not be taken from you once you get there. The National Animal Quarantine Service can help you with this information which is on the attached flier. CONFIRMATION: Sometimes you deal with people who don't really know what they're doing and will say anything to get you off the phone. Double check and keep records of whom you spoke to so they can be held accountable. Ultimately, you are accountable for yourself and your pet. Double checking can save time and possible disappointment. Points to Consider - To Bring or Not to BringFirst, a pet will limit your freedom. By that I mean if you want to travel within the country you will be restricted by your pet. Also, if you're interested in exploring travel possibilities in other countries you will also face some problems with who will take care of the animal (there are limited boarding facilities). Remember that in many cases, your colleagues will have time off at the SAME time as you and they’ll have the same ideas about traveling and exploring the country. Secondly, the apartments, while there are nice, are also quite small. Schools are hesitant to allow pets in their housing as, ultimately, any damage will be their responsibility. There is very little green space unless you go to parks or are interested in hiking. If you've given this some thought and you can't part with your pet for a year here is some additional information to help you out:
OVERTIME IN KOREA First, it should be known that most teaching jobs are NOT 9 to 5. If you're in a public school, you're looking at 8 or 9 in the morning to 3 or 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Teaching hours and working hours are different. Teaching hours or class-time hours are the hours you are contracted to spend in the classroom teaching. Most contracts also have a provision for "working hours" which is often teaching hours plus prep hours or office hours. Often this is an extra 5 to 15 hours per week. Some schools require you to be there 40 hours a week even though you are only required to teach 30 hours a week. The extra 10 hours is for planning and administration. It could also be for calling parents or helping with an advertising campaign. One other important consideration is that virtually all teachers take planning or marking or some form of work home with them. At some point in your career as a teacher you will do this. Some teachers will do this every day. It's important to realize that this is the type of profession you are choosing and that there is a strong element of personal dedication required to be successful. Most contracts will state that you are required to teach a set number of hours per week, usually 25-30. For any additional scheduled teaching hours you will be paid overtime- usually Korean Won 15,000 to 20,000 per hour. Most contracts will state that the school cannot force you to work more than a certain number of hours per week including overtime (usually 35-40). Your overtime will be added to your monthly pay check, and taxed at the same rate. Public schools and private schools handle overtime differently. In a public school it can be really difficult to get overtime. Often there is no budget for it and even if they want you to work an extra class the administrator may not be able to sort out a way to pay you for it. If you are keen to earn more than your base pay, private language schools or hogwans are your best bet for additional income. Most schools will be happy to provide you with extra classes if you wish. However, we suggest that you don’t let dollar signs blind you during your first few months in Korea - give yourself some time to adjust to living in a new culture, teaching ESL and eating kimchi (fermented cabbage) for breakfast before teaching 60 hours a week. Years down the road, you will remember the experiences you had and people you met abroad, not the amount of money you earned in a given month. Overtime conditions vary from school to school, depending on the season, the reliability of your co-workers, and the intensity of the school owner's desire to make money. August and January are the two months when Korean public schools are closed and are always the busiest months for hakwons in Korea. Most schools schedule extra classes or special programs. Overtime is almost inevitable during these two months. KOREA: BEAU COUP BUCKS. Here is one teacher’s take on what you can do with your ample salary – When it comes to saving up a nest egg for a down payment on a house or car or if you just need to save to pay down loans, debt or credit cards, Korea is the place to go. Consider what your expenses are now...
Now think about Korea Here is a breakdown of my expenses.
All up, line items from the budget sometimes run over but for the most part I usually have excess. My salary is 2,000,000 and I reckon most months I am saving around 800,000. I would NEVER be able to bank that much back home and live so well. KOREAN FOOD Here is one teacher’s take on food, glorious food, Korean style -- Breakfast is at home though I always get a vending machine instant coffee for the wee bits of change in my pocket. For those more in tune with breakfast, there are loads of breakfast cereals and toast and spread and fruit selections available. Traditional Korean breakfast is seaweed soup with turnip and often fish, served with rice and kimchi. You can do noodles or deep fried squid even cheaper. Dinner is often a Korean BBQ house for me or a Chicken Hof (pub). I love the Korean chicken. The sauces are AMAZING. Do try. The bbq houses are also something to behold. Dinner there can be as cheap as 5000Won for one. Best to dine with a partner and get a couple orders. It will be served together, you cook together, you use scissors to cut the meat, you lay it on a lettuce leaf or catnip leaf and put on your special favorites to dress it, that could be kimchi or garlic or garlic cooked in seasame oil or bean sprouts or any number of combinations from the "pancheon" that is set on your table and constantly refilled each time a side dish plate empties. Korean food is quite distinct from Japanese or Chinese cuisine. Short grain sticky rice is the staple food of the Korean diet, and virtually every meal is served with kimchi, a fermented cabbage, garlic and pepper dish (think sauerkraut with hot sauce). Some people develop quite an affinity for it and other people can’t stand it, but face it, if you choose to live in Korea you will be eating it a lot. Kimchi, the national dish, is served with breakfast, lunch and dinner and if you don't like it when you first get there, you may find yourself craving it only months after and upon your return home you might even drive 30 minutes out of your way just to get "good" kimchi. Korea also has a fantastic array of soups and stews, including naengmyon- cold buckwheat noodles- perfect on a hot summer day, kalbi tang, or beef soup, tubu chigae, tofu soup, samgyetang, ginseng chicken soup and kong kuk su, a noodle dish made in a soy milk broth. There is also a vast array of seafood dishes in Korea, including raw fish, or sashimi.Generally before a meal in Korea you will be given a hot, wet towel to wash your face and hands with. Koreans eat their rice with a spoon and everything else with chopsticks- if you don’t know how to use chopsticks you will learn. The degree of difficulty is ratcheted up in Korea because they use slick metal chopsticks rather than bamboo or wooden ones. Personally I love this concept because they are recycled. This is one of the few environmentally friendly practises you will see in Korea - a country where cookies are INDIVIDUALLY wrapped inside a box of cookies... a genuine source of frustration for any person concerned about our environment. SPENDING YOUR HARD-WON WON Pay day is fun - especially for those of you who are going to be paid in cash... remember that the highest bill denonmination is 10,000.... how many does it take to get you 1,000,000.... Love it! When I made my first million in Korea... All bills are pretty much equal. It can be good to have a collection of 1000 Won notes for making exact change. 5000 Won notes seem to be less common than the others, but still aren't exactly rare, and the 10000 Won notes will be the green that fuels your life. Use them all well, or at least entertainingly. Coins come in denominations of 10, 50, 100, and 500 Won, which basically translate into pennies, nickels, dimes, and 50 cent pieces, respectively. Chances are, like at home, you will end up with a collection of coins scattered about your place (or, if you're an organized sort, a jar or cup full of coins). Coins, however, are most certainly not useless.
On a side note regarding change, you may have noticed there is no 1 won coin. I have never seen one and I highly doubt they bother minting them and if they do, they certainly don't bother distributing them. They are so worthless, in fact, that banks tend to round up to the nearest 10 won figure when exchanging cash (which can produce some odd money numbers). All in all, coins are still a bit of a pain, but much easier to get rid of than at home. One might think that as an alternative to cash, one could use a debit card. Well, you can't. Even once you get a Korean bank account opened up, debit cards are not accepted anywhere other than bank machines. Another possibility that may have occurred to you is using your credit card. That can be problematic. Sometimes, foreign issued cards are accepted, sometimes they are not. It's usually no problem at larger hotels, chain restaurants (like Bennigan's or TGIFriday's), or at some department stores, but they certainly aren't universally accepted. Ordering items online to be delivered to you - if you can figure out the address - is generally not a problem, unless it is through a Korean website in which case you will need a Korean credit card and/or a Korean to process the transaction for you. Even then, you may still need to bring the cash to the bank or post office along with an order sheet to finalize the transaction. Definitely bring your card for such things as ordering books or CD's online or for travelling within or outside Korea (plane tickets, hotels, etc.), but you’ll hardly use it while you're here. YES, YOU GOTTA PAY TAX . . . Local income taxes will be deducted from your paycheck on a monthly basis. Here is a breakdown of how much tax is assessed:
In many cases employers will only deduct around 4-7% from your total salary and will exclude deductions for the national pension plan. Find out what is happening and how the tax breakdown unfolds for you. This helps ensure you have medical coverage in Korea. You don’t have to file a tax return in Korea. Some teachers can get their national pension back, but the paperwork can be dauntinGETTING AROUND IN KOREA Korea is one of the easiest countries to get around in, YES, even as a foreigner. Despite English not being widely spoken, you can always find someone to help you get on the right bus or train and these buses, trains, planes and taxis will take you ANYWHERE in South Korea - AND - this is the kicker - they will do it VERY cheap. Here is a list of the various modes of transport in South Korea:
Air Transportation in South KoreaThere are two national/international carriers in South Korea, Asiana and Korean Air. Both are about the same in terms of price and reliability though some argue that the service is better on Asiana... having flown both, I have no opinion with respect to which is better. My bags got to where I wanted them to go on both and the meals were equally bad. The drinks were the same and the prices were almost identical too. Both airlines fly to most destinations in Korea and domestic flights are very cheap. The domestic airport in Seoul is Kimpo while the international terminal is on an island off Incheon. They are relatively close and are connected by public transport. Trains in KoreaIn Seoul, the main train terminal is located at Seoul Station on the red line of the subway line. Trains connect all the major cities in Korea and the cost is similar to bus travel. Both are fast, safe and efficient. There are different classes of tickets and there are different types of trains that you can take. The high-speed train that whisks travelers from Busan to Seoul and various stops in between is amazingly fast and cheap. A weekend ticket costs around 70,000 Won. Subways in KoreaThere are currently two subway systems in Korea, one in Seoul and one in Busan. Both are simple to navigate, the signs are in both English and Korean as are the announcements (though they can be hard to understand). If you're worried about getting lost in the maze you need only put a relatively stunned look on your face and someone will ask if he or she can help out. If you plan on using the system a lot we suggest you get a 10,000 Won ticket, the cost per ride is contingent on how far you ride but it usually won't cost you more than a dollar. The Seoul Subway system has one of the best maps of Seoul I have ever seen. It's a lot of fun. Check it out at: www.seoulmetro.co.kr The Busan Subway system is much more simple. At present there are only three lines. Check out a map and the Busan Subway website at: www.subway.busan.kr Buses in KoreaTo give you an idea of how cheap travel is in Korea, the bus from Seoul to Busan, about the longest trip you can take in the country, costs less than USD $20. About the most annoying thing about bus travel in Korea is some long distance buses are equipped with karaoke machines- hard to sleep through strobe lights and crooning eighty year olds but this is a must for everyone at least once. Local buses are always very prevalent as well. There are several different types. There are village buses, there are community buses, there are express buses and probably about 5 other types. Talk to other teachers and find out what buses go where, for how much and find out how long it takes. Most times this is the cheapest and fastest form of transportation. Drivers often get paid by how many laps they can do on their circuit not how many passengers they pick up. If you don't hold on there is a good chance you'll be on your butt before too long. Taxis in KoreaThere are two different kinds of cabs in Korea. cheap cabs and luxury cabs (black). The cheap cabs will get you there fast and cheap. The black luxury cabs are also fast but you won't be quite as scared. The cheap cabs are really inexpensive and late at night or on long runs the driver is open to negotiating the fare. Don't get too upset if a cab driver goes past you when you're flagging him down. Even though he may not have a fare he might not be able to speak English or there could be a multitude of other reasons that he might fly by you and stop a block away to pick someone else up. Don't take it personally. Take a deep breath and try for the next one. You do need to be wary when taking a cab. The odd driver has been known to take you on the milk route. That's often why negotiating a fare in advance on a long run is often a good idea. A good way to prevent any troubles is to be obvious about making sure the ID picture of the driver matches the person driving the cab and make sure they realize that you made a mental note of their number. Realize that this happens all over the world and again try not to take it too personally. Buying a Car in KoreaCars are plentiful and used cars are incredibly cheap. Unless you are planning on staying in Korea long term, it is not recommended that you buy a car. If you plan on staying in Korea for a stretch it's not a bad idea to think about purchasing a car. It does give you freedom to explore but realize also that driving is very different over there and that the public transportation system is amazing. Also consider that gas is expensive, parking is non-existent and the whole country is a traffic jam. However if you do buy a car, used cars are very cheap in Korea, and it is relatively easy to get an international driver’s license- just apply at your embassy. Bicycles in KoreaOddly enough bikes aren't big in Korea. In fact you would be hard-pressed to find a bike rack if you rode your bike to the local store. There are loads of places to ride and mountain biking is becoming more and more popular but it is really important to remember that the streets are not bike friendly or at least that they have little or no bike awareness. Some teachers have made REALLY good money bringing bikes in to Korea and selling them in Korea before they head out. This is definitely something to consider if you are an enthusiast. Motorbikes and Mopeds in KoreaMotorbikes and mopeds are not as common as one might think. Often motorbikes are only used by couriers and mopeds by delivery people. Both are great ways to get around but realize that bikes are not allowed on highways and that driving in Korea is an adventure. Sometimes it's nice to have some steel around you and even better, a driver. Speaking of steal, in a different sense. DO BE CAREFUL. Often Foreigners are sold stolen motorbikes and mopeds in a scam that goes so far as to make you believe that you are buying the bike, the registration, the insurance and so forth when in reality you are simply buying an unregistered, uninsured stolen bike. If you are buying one, bring a Korean friend and ensure you register the bike on your own. If you are buying it privately, get a copy of the resident card of the person you are buying it from. If you aren't near a photocopier, take your camera and take a picture of the card. KOREA: WHITHER THE WEATHER? South Korea is temperate with rainfall heavier in summer than in winter. There is a wet monsoon season in the middle of the year and a dry, cold winter from November to March. During the winter, winds pick up speed and are carried from the northwest. The coldest month is January. The average winter temperature is around -5C, and begins to warm up in March. Weather from September to November is beautiful and sunny, with mild temperatures and little rain. The spring season, during April and May is also very pleasant, but more prone to rain than autumn. Temperatures will fall between 15-27C and 10-15C at night. Temperatures are cooler in the mountains. The summer is particularly hot, muggy and prone to typhoons. The prevailing winds in the summer are southwest. The majority of typhoons usually strike from late June to September. The warmest month of the year is August. Temperatures fall between 28-37C and lows of 15-27C. Annual precipitation is around 1500mm in the southern part of Korea, and 1300mm in the central part. Precipitation during the winter accounts for less than 10% of total. More than half the annual rainfall occurs during changma season (monsoon season) when a stationary front hangs over the peninsula for about a month in the summer. Changma is the word used for the summer Asian monsoon system that starts in the southern area of Korea and proceeds northward. Changma continues for 30 days with frequent heavy rain falls and flash floods, which can result in great national disasters. Two or three of 28 generated typhoons annually affect the peninsula from June to October. Don't leave home without your umbrella! Humidity peaks in July to about 70-80% across the peninsula. The lowest humidity (30-40%) occurs in January and April. Humidity from September to October is pleasant, helping contribute to a healthy harvest. Although Korea is a small country, weather across the peninsula can be quite diverse. Precipitation levels are higher in Daegu and a little lower in Seoul and Gwanju. Temperatures in Seoul are slightly lower than in Daegu and Gwanju. KOREA: VISA REQUIREMENTS Your visa requirements will vary, depending on your country of passport, your level of education, and the time remaining on your passport before it expires. Since the visa requirements are constantly changing, Teacher Placement suggests you check with them before going to your own consulate for advice on the proper procedure to apply for a visa. We’ll make it less time-consuming; but be aware, the Koreans like to see foreigners jump through hoops in order to come and work in their country! Get Started Now |