Korean Job Discussion Forums

[marathontestdrive]

I looked in the forums about where best to put this topic and chose this one as best option.

I have been working in Korea for several years and really want to get out of here in the next year, and call this experience finished.

I am Canadian, have a BA in English and want to relocate to Vancouver.

My question is, for anyone willing to help with useful information, how to go about doing this.


I am pretty clueless about the esl industry in Vancouver for the most part. I am just wondering if I could get any advice, and lowdown on how easy it is to just transplant myself back to Canada doing Esl to start off with. I know in some ways it wouldn't be easy but generally by now the pros outweigh the cons.

Please share your knowledge and what kind of research I should do. I am guessing I need a 4 week TEFL course, but I am really not opting to do any more than that for something that is not a career path for the future.

thanx for all your inputs. u can email me at [email protected] too

[phic11]

I lived in van. Here is advice. Hope you saved a lot cause Van is expensive. There are a few esl schools such as ECC and YMCA but not a lot, You may end up working as acab driver. You could go back to school and get your ed. degree to teach here. Or you can try the corparate life if you are into it. You can always return or go to Japan or Taiwan or anywehere. No money in China. Sounds like you need abreak. Cheers!

[marathontestdrive]

beautiful. 4 years university along with much more personal study, etc etc. and i come back to work in my own country as a cab driver.

i know you meant well but if that is the case then things are even bleaker than i ever thought.

i have NO interest in being a teacher professionally so paying thousands for school and years more of my life getting stressed out is not the answer for me.

i was thinking of the corporate life but that would be temporary too.

i guess what i am driving at is that if there are esl positions in vancouver then there is no reason i cannot get my foot in the door given my qualifications, since it is by no means a wellpaying or glamourous job.

any other advice/links?

[korea252]

I don't know if it's any help but in the UK after you do your 1 year teaching course your options are not limited to just teaching. You can apply for work anywhere in the education system. Maybe Canada is the same?

[Milwaukiedave]

marathon,

I'm on my way out too. How do you feel about leaving Korea in general?

[happygirl]

I'm not Marathon, but I'm on the way out too. I'm having mixed feelings. Next week is midterms so I'll be off Wednesday through Monday. Not looking forward to the 45 to 50 hour weeks at home.

Thinking it all thru, I know I'm making the right decision, but it's scary.

[Dev]

Here are the hard facts as I've experienced them. I also tried to get a job after teaching in Asia for several years. I tried to re-locate to Toronto. I got some unexpected surprises.

1) The ESL schools are very picky about who they hire because there are so many Canadian teachers who have taught abroad. You will need to go to school and get a TESOL certificate. They won't even look at your resume otherwise. They're smart, so they will expect you to have studied TESOL at a well-known school that has a course that's at least 100 hours. It will cost you roughly $1200 and take 3 months to complete.

2) Then, if you do get a teaching job in an ESL school, consider it a temporary job, not a career. It doesn't pay in Canada. You don't get a monthly salary like here. You're paid by the lesson ($15 ~ $25) and you'll do 4 ~ 5 (6 if you're lucky) lessons a day. After taxes, you're probably clearing ($12 ~ $20 a lesson). Not great, but enough to scrape a living.

The bottom line for Vancouver & Toronto is

1) If you want to teach, you need to get into the public school system. For that, you need a B.ED.

2) If you want to teach in an ESL school, you need a TESOL certificate. You should also plan on getting a new career within a year or two.

The best thing to do (which I didn't do the first time) is to do most of your job hunting (for Canadian jobs) from here in Korea. Think about what kind of job you'd like to do and call up companies in Canada and get as much information as you can.

Good luck to you.

[marathontestdrive]

I think that last message is so right.

The bottomline for us all is that we must be PROACTIVE, well-rounded individuals. It can be really hard but it's the only way. Putting some solid effort into developing your life on a consistent basis is the only way to get somewhere and keep moving towards better opportunities in the future.

However, at the same time I don't believe in wasting so much of my precious money and hours of my life in useless schooling. If a person needs to know something they don't need to learn it in a set amount of time. It's become a scam. That being said ,I will have to find extremely creative ways of making a living. Personally, I want a profession where I can be out in the sunshine and use my body, not stuck in some goddamn cubicle, and I will just forgo all the material bullshits that people think they need.

ths for the advices

[blynch]

[marathontestdrive]

thanx for what?