Korean Job Discussion Forums

[StefandeLeng]

Hello everyone, I hope you can help out! I'm a 26 year old guy from the Netherlands. I've got a bachelor degree in Communication Science, a 40 hour online TEFL certificate and 2 years of ESL experience teaching at a language school in Turkey. At the moment I'm back in the Netherlands but dying to get out again

I'm considering teaching in Korea because of the good money and all the other benefits. However it seems like Korea only gives teaching visa's to "real" native speakers (7 countries at the moment if I'm correct)

Is the information I found on this toppic correct?

Can I teach without an official teaching Visa, and do you recommend it?

Hope you guys can shed some light on the matter, if you need any additional information please ask!

Stefan

[Skippy]

I pretty sure you as you commented have to be from/citizen from one of 7 countries to teach ENGLISH here. Canada, USA, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. I think the request is pretty much also that your University degree has to be from a English speaking University too based in one of those countries.

Thru there has been talk of letting Indians and Filipinos in and other from English speaking countries. Yet those people have to have relevant degrees to teach here aka English, Education and Linguistics. Sorry I do not think Netherlands will count. Even then they are not in big demand or hired in large numbers. There is a level of racism and views to who the Koreans want. Even of the seven countries allowed most Koreans would prefer from US, Canada and England. The other 4 sometimes can be discriminated against a little.

You can always come here and try to work illegally but you would likely not get the benefits you are looking for and stability would be very low.

[ttompatz]

[ssuprnova]

[furtakk]

No unless you find a school that is teaching Dutch.

However, there are a lot of internships for Europeans at various Korean companies for whatever reason. If you're interested check out:
http://www.kopra.org/index.php

[NohopeSeriously]

You can always count on cram schools (hagweon). The public education here is an absolute mess that is waiting to collapse. I would recommend you to get a job at a hagweon.

[StefandeLeng]

Thanks for the replies everyone, it seems I will have a hard time making Korea work for me.

I'll look into Vietnam and I'm open to other suggestions as well, what's the story with the middle east, good money and perks there perhaps and what are the downsides??

@ssuprnova: Last time I checked my passport it said "the Netherlands" Sure salaries are okay here but living here is expensive too, I wouldn't be able to save half of my salary like many are doing in Korea, plus it's more fun living abroad isn't it

@NohopeSeriously: Wouldn't working at a hagweon present me with the same visa problem?

[Setaro]

I know a Dutch man who works part-time teaching Dutch at a Busan University.

He's on a spouse's Visa (F4 or whatever it is), but it is possible to get a job teaching in Korea as a dutch national.

[ThingsComeAround]

[StefandeLeng]

Thanks for all the replies guys, I'm looking into some other countries to teach now. The main factors being a good salary so I can save some and housing provided. Any suggestions are welcome!

[Saudiman]

Saudi Arabia offers the best salaries, and a low cost of living compared to the salary, enabling one to save quite a bit. Saudi tends to want teachers from the same 7 countries as Korea, but where I teach there are a LOT of Syrians and Egyptians teaching English but their level of fluency is terrible. If they can teach here you certainly should be able to.

[Chalmers]