for those who have done it, can you tell me what program you went through and how much was the pay? Im so confused about the whole won system and im thinking about doing this after graduation. Please help me!!

Won, meaning the currency?

yes, the korean currency as opposed to dollars.

just look at the exchange rate to work out the right amount in dollars, according to where ever you're from. The last time I looked, schools are paying approx W3 000 000.. which is something like AUS$2 500 a month. Also note that tax is quite low in Korea - 5% i think, compared to Australia's 30-40% or so anyway, and in some cases if you're school is dodgey they may pay you cash in hand for a portion of the pay.

You should look up 'Daves ESL Cafe'. You'll find a lot of very useful information about teaching overseas in all countries. Theres information about schools, salary, interviews, visa, health cover, accom etc. Basically everything you could ever ask.

Mods - wasn't this a pinned topic before? Perhaps we could make it one again

IF you have a Bachelor's degree you will be able to teach in a 'hokwan' (privately owned afterschool school). MOST pay ONLY 2million won per month (that's BEFORE taxes, pension, insurance, etc.). There are quite a few places that pay even LESS BUT DO NOT GET A JOB AT THOSE. You COULD perhaps get lucky and find a place that pays around 2.5, but that's usually split shifts and Saturdays too.
You could also perhaps find a job in a regular public school, but the pay would be the same, and you'd be working 8-5 (or more) every day but Sunday.

IF you have a Master's Degree, you can work at a university. The pay range varies from 2.4 & up, but the hours are usually better, and of course you don't have to work with kids.

I agree Dave's ESL is a good place to start. There are lots of ways to get a job here. Just make sure you bring your ACTUAL DEGREE (not a copy) WITH YOU. I always estimate the exchange as around $1 = 1,000 won. It makes figuring easier.

wow. props to you. i dont think id have the patience to teach them

^ haha my friend told me she threw a kid outta class and made him cry.

if i can make kids cry then "it's a good thing"

weird.. i was just thinknig about this.. as a career.. xP.. pretty cool!

Well, I taught hs English in the USA for 6 years before coming to Korea. Then I taught little kids at a hokwan (HATED IT!!!! )for a year, young adults at a univ. for 2 years (it was ok - I liked the hours, the work was pretty boring), now I'm really happy at a private prep school/high school. I'm teaching literature again and the students are really smart and fun. PLUS I'm making LOTS more money at this job! ahhahaa!

Taxes? Foreigners are not supposed to be taxed in Korea. Its against the law for a 학원 to be taking money out of your pay check in the form of tax.

Perhaps I meant pension......... LOL - I hate math.

not all hakwons are bad....if you like working with little kids, then go for something like that

if you're like ladymac and prefer older students that actually know when to sit down and do what theyre told, then try to get a job working in a public school.....all of my coworkers agree that public schools are better than hakwons simply because of the hours (8-5pm >9-7pm)

foreigners are taxed depending on the visa....3.3% is what i pay.....and i dont have to pay US income tax cause im working overseas for more than 11 months a year or whatever the time period is....if you go for a hakwon, make sure they pay for rent......one more thing.....upon arriving, find the best place to go for private medical insurance.....the "national" coverage covers next to nothing (unless you like get into some accident)

if you want to try working with kids, do a hakwon for a year....i say year because any less time and you wont get the severence pay...im sticking with mine for 3...even if the hours arent great....one more thing...some hakwons can be very very shady......some are lucky to last more than 1 year......were it legal in korea, you could just freelance private lessons...you'd make more money

if you want nothing to do with kids.....stay in school for like another year and get a masters in education and get a job in a university

^ wait a minute - are you here in Korea too??

<-----taught engrish in korea at a hakwon. saved money, had fun, drank a bit too much, paid off my debt, came back to the USA.


more details after the Eagles game.

yeah...i disclosed my location before the forum had to be rebooted

ask jung what area i'm in =P (since he lived not too far away [when he was a kid] from where I am now)


you can also just look at the "from:" part and you can pretty much tell where I am =P

anybody try CDI?

http://job.cdi.co.kr/

LOL oops! Didn't look at that!! I'm in Cheonho-dong (where the pink & purple lines meet) - want to meet a fellow soompier?? That would be fun!! PM me!!

if you are a gyopo (korean-american) that graduated from a well known school, you have a chance. basically, the more hours you work...the more money you can make w/ CDI. CDI is well known in korea and thus can be competitive among the parents etc...which means more pressure on you etc. granted, most hakwons have this parental pressure on them...but CDI and other hakwons are in it for the $$$$, so what they say...goes.



Well, since the Eagles game is over....
i taught at a small private hakwon in Apkujung. i was paid 2 million with a shared apartment and worked from 2:30-8:30 Monday thru Friday. i worked with students from grade 1 to grade 6. i preferred this to junior students/h.s....less attitude problems, but lots of pressure from parents. i was able to save a decent amount of money to be able to pay off some debt and save some money. i led a pretty fun life there. after work, ate with my friends...who also were teachers there...after that, would go out to a bar etc. overall, depending what i did, i would save about 1/2 of the paycheck and spend the rest. if you don't go out a lot and stuff, you can save a lot more...but i figured, as long as i paid my debt off, why not have a bit of fun.

also, if you are korean-american, canadien etc, you may qualify for an F-4 visa, which gives you greater freedom as to jobs/tutoring etc etc.

^BUT - if you have an 'Asian face' (I'm using their words not mine) they are biased against you, because they ASSUME you can't really speak accentless English. They prefer Caucasian Americans or Canadians. It's total crap, I know, but that's how 99.999999% of the employers here are.

questions for the yunguh sunsaengimdeul..

what do you do to maintain your student's interest, particularly with children?

my friend's working there now.
basically graduate from a 'known' university = cdi teacher...
they seem kinda scary tho...i dunno...

that kyopo visa is bullsh*t. f*ck, gimme a damn freedom visa too azzholes

what if you want to teach english in korea, but for like a two week period? kind of like a voleentary thing? is there such thing? and what site or place organization, whatever, is the best?

YOu could volunteer at orphanages.

are you old enough to post here?

i've got the really little kids (yay for kindergarden....actually, i prefer my kinder classes to all others)....the ways i seem to keep interest is to act out things (using physical comedy)...other times, i'll just do a lot of things to simply make them laugh...like make funny faces, draw (technically i copy) pictures from Maple Story (or draw little things for them), arts and crafts....basically, stuff that was always fun at that age

my kids particularly love these little science projects that we do every week....though i'm waiting for the project where I don't have to do any work other than show them how to make something once...that day will probably come after I move on to another country

as the students get older (kindergarden), they tend to pay attention well, do their work, and tend to be very well behaved (but that's just at my school...dunno how universal that is with the other hakwons...depends on your partner teacher i think)

the youngest ones are hard to keep control over at times (hey, theyre 3 and 4...and what english they do know, they know the korean version of it...so pronounciation is a problem on my end)....but that's mostly the males....from what i've seen, the girls are far better students and will behave....but if there's too many girls in a class, they tend to go off into their own little worlds and start having "nyan" conversations (that's what i call it...they make this sort of baby-talk with some object nearby and just play)

from what ive seen with other teachers, they tend to keep interest by making class enjoyable....i'm still working on that....right now, i'm seen as the teacher "to play with" more than "listen to" ...but hey, if you've never taught before (like me), this sort of thing happens until you find your niche

once they reach 1st grade......you basically have to start ALL OVER again ....i've got a good number of brats who'd rather use my class as time to screw around and destroy things made by the kindergarden class.....some of the older kids behave...but instead of tearing the place apart, they simply talk and talk and talk (but that's in the process of changing)



but this is at my school...cant vouch for all of the other ones

is it still OK to beat children????

really, that's the dividing line between korea and japan. cuz...i want to punch a 5yr old in the face

and extracting money from the kids and drinking soju on the job is still OK right???!!

(I know you're kinda kidding here but)
Unfortunately, corporal punishment is still the norm here in most public schools and hokwans. Some teachers take their seniors out for drinks once they graduate. Money is accepted on the 'down low', it's more common for parents to give gifts - we get food ALL THE TIME at my school

i've been teaching english in korea since i was a high schooler (now in my 3rd year of college). i've done private tutoring and worked in hakwons. for private tutoring you can get a lot more money- i used to get 30,000/hour when i was in highschool. but the bad thing is that tutoring is usually only one or two hours for one or two times a week so the money doesn't really add up to that much, whereas for hakwon you have longer hours and it's consistent so you can save up a lot more. but if you teach at hakwon, i definitely recommend that you get tutoring jobs on the side (even if you're not a korean citizen, you could probably do this by asking some of your hakwon students). you'll really be making some serious money.

and teaching english sounds like it's just an easy job but it really takes a lot of committment. even though i've taught for years, i've never liked it but i just do it because it's a better alternative to serving tables (in korea, working in food services get you 3000won an hour). and i've mostly taught elementary kids. kids are really cute and everything, but they have a very short attention span so it's difficult to teach them. i would try to teach university students if possible- but also the drawback is that grammar is an integral part of university english and most native speakers aren't aware of grammar like learners are. and the questions you get from university students are much more difficult than the questions you get from kids.

when i used to teach privates, i got 50,000 an hour. i did this about 2 times a wekk, so it give me drinking money.

as for teaching younger students, it takes a certain type of person and personality to do it. i found that being loud and over exagerrating your antics and what you say, acting stuff out etc kept their attention. i also found that "tricking" them into learning the lesson also worked. we had a curriculum, but it was just a base for me. as long as the kids knew what they had to know, i went as fast or slow as i wanted to. besides, i focused more on their speaking ability than grammar, hand writing etc...because they will learn all of this at an older age.

HOw do you guys discipline them when they refuse to behave/listen?

That's what teacher training is for.

if theyre kindergarden kids, send em to the korean kindergarden teachers when they misbehave.....if theyre elementary, send em to the korean teacher that scares them the most

if they keep being little brats....discipline wont work because they get a kick out of being the class problem and they know their parents will believe them over the teachers (if it was a public school, things would be different...but in hakwons, what the teacher says isnt as important as what the child says)

If you continue to send the children to others for discipline, they will (rightly) assume that you have no power and your class will still not run smoothly.

Usually, students act out because of bordeom (unless they have special needs or something like that). Do not tolerate any kind of disrespect in your class. If they are disturbing others, remove them & have them wait outside until you have finished the task at hand or the class. Talk to them one on one and find out what the problem is.

Again, getting teacher training is necessary.

Yes. I agree that it is neccesary but not all 학원 offer teacher training......also..... all the teacher training in the world cannot prepare some ppl for Korean kids.

yeah...my hakwon didn't train me. it was sink or swim. the first couple of weeks, i sank...but after learning each classes personality and how they learn...i was able to figure out the discipline aspect. i admit...i fairly relaxed in class. i never reported them to the wonjangnim etc or made them stand outside the door. i usually just threatened them by assigning more homework (which the parents loved) or made up some punishment. if the kid never sat down, i made him stand the whole class etc, so that he wanted to sit down. i dunno, elementary kids were the best because i at least know more than them. haha. i don't think i could teach college kids.

i didnt get any training either....i was thrown to the 4 yr olds 14 hrs after arriving in korea

i know it's not a good thing to always send em to get disciplined...for the most part i dont...unless theyre like rough-housing a little too much....instead, i simply threaten to send them to one of the main kinder teachers (one of which all students fear and respect...they dont want to get on her bad side...she's the ultimate threat to use hehe) and they behave

then there are those who simply dont want to do anything but screw around (well....in one of my kinder classes)....ive learned to ignore them....trying to give them my undivided attention while there are other students who WANT to learn is rather futile....but ive figured out a little trick...they like it when i draw (im not good, but i can do easy-cutsy stuff, and the kids love it)...and to get them to do some workbook assignment, i tell them to let me help them complete it, then i'll draw something for them (90% of this class cannot read yet)

with the older ones....they purposely try to walk all over you (well the ones i have) if you dont know a word of korean.....i know that would be motivation for most people to open a language book and start learning without instruction....but i just cant seem to do it

i need to try that "stay standing" punishment though....i think it would work on some of my youngest kids

Hi! From what I have gathered....the Korean children goes to school from 8 till 5 in the evening.Some even til 7. So when do they go to these'hokwans'?After school? So no time for homework! And the teachers teaching in 'hokwans'.....when do they teach the children? Surely not in the morning nor afternoon...!
Also the teachers' pay of about 2.5million won or something....do they get to enjoy a reasonable life with that? I heard that living in Korea is kinda expensive...Do explain...someone.

TRUE. But having a degree (or at least an TESOL certificate!) in education is what I'm talking about!



Student go to school from 8- 3:30 or 5 up until middle school. High schoolers stay until 10pm or later. Most students (from elementary up through forever it seems) go to hokwons after school hours, so the classes begin from 4ish and continue until midnight or some even later. Some hokwans offer morning classes for little kids.
Living in Korea can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. $1 is about 1,000 won (give or take a bit).

i'm in college right now, and i really want to think about going to korea for a summer and just tutoring and stuff. I read that some of you did this, but how did you get in touch with the people who wanted tutors?

Yes but unfortunately not all English teachers in Korea hold an education degree. Some people don't realize that they want to teach full time until they start private tutoring.

true but I didn't realize that I wanted to be a teacher until I transfer school and the major they offer wasn't the one I was studying in my previous college. So I try for education and after doing field work studies which is usually a requirement in all education classes. Well to do observation, I realize I enjoy working with young children and decide to be a full fledge teacher. I'm almost done with my degree and I don't regret switching majors.

I do have a question about this topic. Ladymac you mention they don't hire people who look asians because they think they have accents. Well I'm guilty of that assumptions I have a slight fobby accent if I were to apply to this program would they even consider me. I'm korean but I speak english for as long as I remember. Hell, my Korean is worse. This is something I would be interested in doing once I get my degree but I don't think from what you people posted in previous topic that it will be possible for me.

^ you can teach english in korea even if you are asian.

a lotta stuff depends on where you go. also, you should be a citizen of a country that's listed as a 'native english speaking' country (like the US, canada, england, etc).

some places that are shady seem to be the ones that look for whites (and sometimes blacks) over asian-americans and others.

reputable places (so i think), are more interested in having native/fluent speakers of english regardless of their looks.

when i went to korea last summer, one of my teachers (krn lady, but not teaching krn lang) set up a group for moms aand their kids and she taught them english.
the ppl that get the $$$ for private tutoring are asians, and korean-americans are often preferred in some schools because (some) are bilingual.

i know that CDI hires asian-americans.
and the place where my friend's older sister works at has 1 'native speaker' (some white guy from texas) and all the rest are koreans that have lived abroad for a long time.

so...there are options out there, if you're really interested check out CDI (even tho they seem scary to me )

I'm not saying they WON'T hire Asians, it's just going to be A LOT harder for you to find a job (a LOT harder), since here they do require a photo w/your application. If they talk to you on the phone & you have an accent..... **shrugs** Getting a degree in education WILL help that maybe.

It's so weird - Koreans here are SO xenophobic, yet they only want WESTERN CAUCASIANS to teach them English! Go figure! **shrugs again**

With all this talk about teaching English in Korea, it's made me wonder if there are any similar programs in which teachers go to the Middle East to teach English. I'm only pondering this for the simple fact that it would be nice to be able to ask for the latest issue of Hustler behind the liquor store counter without having to enunciate my English request to the befuddled liquor store clerk - and then having my seemingly simple purchase for pornagraphy escalate into a series of obscene hand gestures short of an international incident.

as for asians and/or korean-americans etc getting hired. it will just take a bit longer to find some places that hire you. some schools want gyopos that can speak both languages, others want gyopos to pretend they know no korean, others prefer people from australia etc etc. every school is different and you never know until you start looking.

pagoda is another large chain in korea that hires overseas koreans.


as for living expenses in korea....a lot of jobs provide airfare and accomodations. you will have to pay bills for utilities and other stuff, but overall...it depends how much you go out, eat certain food, and where you are located in korea. like i said before, i lived in a very expensive area of seoul, made 2 million won, went out quite a bit, and was still able to save a decent amount of money.

aigooo it just seems so much extra work for those who are applying that are korean-american. Thanks for the info guys. this is something i'll be considering before trying out this program in teh near future. it just seems a nice opportunity to travel to another country and work there.

check out Dave's ESL just to see what types of jobs are available.

http://www.eslcafe.com/jobs/korea/

^ oh yeah, i had a question for you.
you said that you were able to pay off your college debts while in korea, right?

if you don't mind, how much were your debts from school? were you making payments on them before heading to korea?
and if so, how much did you owe when you got to korea?

[ Student go to school from 8- 3:30 or 5 up until middle school. High schoolers stay until 10pm or later. Most students (from elementary up through forever it seems) go to hokwons after school hours, so the classes begin from 4ish and continue until midnight or some even later. Some hokwans offer morning classes for little kids.
Living in Korea can be as expensive or as cheap as you want it to be. $1 is about 1,000 won (give or take a bit).
[/quote]

Wah! The students in Korea are really hardworking! Almost 24 hours of studies!!! Thanks for the explanation, Ladymac.

and you are how old?