what i know of english teaching opportunities in korea

There seem to be four different general options available for teaching English here:Hagwon (after-school academy), Public school, University and Business-related.

I know the most about Hagwon, since that's the stream that we ended up in. Hagwons tend to vary most in job quality as they are privately owned businesses that set their own standards for teaching requirements and practices. Generally these academies will pay 2,000,000 won ($2450 canadian) per month for 12 month contracts, pay for arriving/returning airfare and give one month's severence at the end of contract. Our employer negotiated to pay all bills, taxes, utilities and health care in exchange for not receiving the last month's severence pay. There have been some problems with poor employer/employee communication and getting used to the teaching styles expected here, but from what I've heard from others our situation seems to be the average hagwon experience. Schedules fluctuate and I have worked from 1:40-8:45 at times with an hour break in the middle and right now I work 3:40-9:55 with only the fifteen minute breaks between classes. You write/mark tests and plan lessons on your own time. Some hagwon jobs seem to have lighter loads (4 hours is the lightest ive heard) and in others the financial instability of the business can make it a nightmare trying to get paid. Most hogwan jobs are somewhere inbetween these extremes. The worst part of hogwan jobs is the lack of significant vacation time. We've got what seems to be the average minimum vacation time in these places at a week-long vacation in both the winter and the summer.

Public schools have been suggested to us as a much better job opportunity than hagwons by those people teaching in them. Everyone that I've met in these situations have come through an employment agency known as "Canadian Connections" (dont have their contact info). These jobs are from as early as 8:00am until as late as 5:00, but generally a lot of this time isn't spent teaching classes and you tend to have more stability and are not expected to be as flexible in these positions. The pay in general seems to be equivalent with hagwon jobs, but the biggest benefits are the 2-3 months of vacation that you get throughout the year. Working in the morning as opposed to the evening, you also have your nights free to eat at restaurants and maintain some sort of social life; whereas with hagwons you tend to stay up late after you get off work and then wake up in the afternoon and spend your time preparing for work.

I don't know as much about working for a university or a business. I know that people generally try to land university jobs because of the substantial pay increase, but I don't think there are standard schedules for these types of jobs. Some people that I've talked to work normal school hours and others work longer hours 4 random days of the week with three days off sporadically. I don't know what if any extra qualifications are necessary above the bachelors (or 4 year) degree required by the government for getting a Visa as an English teacher. I know even less about those people who work for big businesses like Samsung, LG, etc, giving English lessons to businessmen. I don't know what level of salary they get or what types of schedules are normal for them, only that this is part of the market for English teachers.

In general, there are as many jobs as there are English teachers available to fill them here. This might not be true with a specific school, but in general one can expect that most hagwons will be actively pursuing the employment of new teachers for the near future. I ended up working in a small town about an hour outside the nearest large city and 3-4 hours away from Seoul. This has meant that I don't have as active of a social life, which has made things more boring in general but has made it very easy to save money. In larger cities, generally people say that it is harder to save as much money because they find more ways that they want to spend it. Also, all sorts of public transportation such as busses, trains and taxis in Korea are much cheaper (by 4-8x) than in North America and run on much more convenient schedules. I think there are benefits and costs to any situation as an English teacher in Korea, but my biggest area of dissatisfaction with my position is having no significant vacation time. If you come to teach English in Korea with the expectation of doing any traveling in the rest of Asia, you might want to consider taking a job with a public school or another institution that will provide you at 3-4 week period(s) during which you will be able to do this. You generally don't have the money to travel beforehand and if you try to travel afterward you will be dragged down by a year's worth of accumulated stuff and a desire to just get home.

I have acquired some contact information for various different opportunities, mostly around the Gwangju area but some that span throughout Korea. If you are interested in any specific information, drop a comment or e-mail me at popelithium@gmail.com