Korean Job Discussion Forums

djthomps · Joined: 09 May 2009 Location: Florida, USA

Hello all! My husband and I have just started our journey in the world of teaching English in Korea. We have chosen a recruiting company that we really like, but would like some advice from experienced teachers. We would really appreciate any help you can offer!

1) We aren't really interested in Seoul; it seems to be too large a city for us. Any advice on great medium-sized cities to look into? I've heard great things about Gwangju.

2) Can anybody explain exactly what GEPIK is. Is it a recruiting company? Do they only service schools in the Seoul area? I've asked around but haven't really gotten a clear-cut answer.

3) My husband and I are both certified teachers in the States and have 2+ years teaching experience. Neither of us are TEFL certified. What kind of pay should we expect from public schools?

Again, we would appreciate any advice or tips anybody with Korean teaching experience can offer. Thank you!

lifeinkorea · Joined: 24 Jan 2009 Location: somewhere in China

SMOE is Seoul, GEPIK is the area surrounding Seoul (Gyeonggi-do area), and everything else is EPIK.

Those are organizations that if you go directly through will assign you to a school, but you got to take what they give you. If you go through a recruiter you have a better chance of getting the location you want.

As far as pay, you'll get more in GEPIK and EPIK because the demand is not there, and it fluctuates depending on how far from the city you want to be. Expect more than 2.0, but nothing more than 2.3 for first year teaching.

sinsanri · Joined: 20 Apr 2009

dporter · Joined: 26 Apr 2009

If you are interested in public school teaching this page has a lot of good info;

http://www.gone2korea.com/public-school-korea.html

Kikomom · Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 4:48 pm Post subject:

Bring your reference letters with you, degrees and extra transcripts.

Find a 'couples' job in a hagwon for your ticket over. After you get your feet wet, start looking into international schools where they hire certified teachers and pay well.

See this thread for more info. It says they do their hiring between December and February and do interviews in person. If you have six months at a hagwon, you won't have to pay back the airfare.

Fishead soup · Joined: 24 Jun 2007 Location: Korea

If you're working in a public school classes usually have at least 40 students. You should be paired off with a Korean co-teacher who will do lots of Exam prep using Grammar Translation teaching. It's not unusual for the Korean teacher to only use the target language when quoting from the textbook. Korean co-teachers are a mixed bag. They range from friendly and helpful. While some are backstabbing and nasty. It's the luck of the draw.

Your ability to get along with people, and adapt will be more important than your teaching ability. There are two possibilities The Korean teacher will use you as a substitute for the tape recorder, or you'll be given total freedom to teach however you want. You may be given the option of teaching alone. Some teachers like this more. However if you do plan to teach alone you will seriously need to develope strong classroom management skillls.