Korean Job Discussion Forums

[mtfirefly]

I'm currently in the process of trying to get a job in Korea and have been looking into getting the certification before I go. I wanted to see what advice I can get from people who are already in Korea or have been. Do the school really care if you have this type of certification? Is one better than the other? Do most schools accept certifications that were done online?

[RMNC]

TESL and TESOL are names for the same thing. TEFL is a group that provides TESOL training and certificates both online and in classes.

Public Schools in Seoul now require that any teacher who has less than one full year of teaching experience in Korea have a TESOL certificate to apply, from a class that was a minimum of 100 hours.

The benefits of a TESOL certificate are that usually you'll earn 100k more won per hour than a teacher without it, that's generally the standard.

The TESOL classes are better, since they get you actual face time with ESL students, but they're costly, anywhere from 500 to 1500 dollars.

The online courses are much cheaper, but lack the teaching you do in the real classes, and their certificates are shady in general.

Most schools don't care where you get one from, as long as you just have one. I just found the cheapest online course I could and got that one, and it hasn't seemed to make me a better teacher compared to those who did get one in a class, or even had previous experience.

[oldtactics]

[edwardcatflap]

[DosEquisXX]

If you're a newbie teacher with no experience, a TEFL is very beneficial. I'd highly recommend one.

Even if you are a teacher who did not do particularly well in his/her first year, then a TEFL is also useful.

Don't go to the in-class TEFL course. They're evaluated the same way as an online one and are way more expensive.

[SteveSteve]

A very good question. I think that most schools don't mind or even care if you have no certification, but having one will certainly help improve the quality of your lessons. There are a lot of online courses that you can take. I can't vouch for any of them, but if you can commit the time and money, the CELTA (Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults) is extremely helpful for new teachers. It is a very practical course and is designed for both rookie and veteran teachers. This program prepares you to teach under the Communicative Teaching Method paradigm, and despite its name, you can use the skills from the CELTA for both adults and children in either an EFL or ESL environment.

But if you're unsure about enrolling in a course, you should buy Jim Scrivener's Learning Teaching. It's written in really plain English with no lofty theoretical concepts. Extremely practical and covers nearly all important topics. Plus there are tons of photocopiable activities in the back.

Good luck!