Tefl in South Korea

cloneslad

I'm happy it's working out for you.


I sail off into the sunset in 2 and a half weeks. I'm done!

livinginkorea

Great to hear everything is working out so well LimerickJoe and that they want more teachers. To be honest I am not so sure if it is really about the 'accent' that they don't want teachers from England or Australia. Could be the work ethic from you too or bad past experiences with teachers from those countries. There are a few hagwons and schools out there that only want to hire Irish believe it or not, we must be doing something right! Great to hear about the jobs. Hope somebody here will snap them up.

What are you planning to do next Cloneslad? I think you said going to take a course right? Vacation first or straight into study?

livinginkorea

virmilitaris wrote: »

Indeed, it's about 500,000 won as far as I know.

Koreans can do private tutoring without a cert but they must pay tax. If they wish to set up a small business where they offer one-to-one tutoring or small classes then they must prove they have an English qualification to their local tax office in order to get the business license.

There's no restriction regarding the age of the students.

+1 but I would say that if you do teach privates to teach adults. In my experience it's much more likely to be safe than if you were to teach kids.

Good to hear. I heard that it was a cert. before but that could easily have meant 'registering' for tax or something like that years ago. I think the small 'study room' is another popular way too these days for one-to-one tutoring for some Koreans to start. Don't care much about this but there are ways around everything as usual.

Totally agree on teaching adults. They are less likely to blab about it to others. I've taught a good few privates in my time and always felt safer when teaching adults. The only problem is that they are more likely to cancel class on you than kids 'cas of work, meetings, etc.

cloneslad

livinginkorea wrote: »

What are you planning to do next Cloneslad? I think you said going to take a course right? Vacation first or straight into study?

Ihad put great consideration into doing a PGCE or a PGDE and becoming a secondary school teacher, with about 99% of my thought on doing the PGDE in the U.K and then working there but I've had a change of heart.

Going to travel around S.E Asia and India for 6 weeks, would have preferred to have done 12 weeks but I have to be back for my mates wedding at the end of April as I'm best man and I wouldn't miss it for the world.

I'm going to head over to London with my G.F and try get some work there in the area I've spent so much time and effort studying and getting my masters in (marketing), or at the very least, just getting some sort of decent job that can build up my experience and help me find a better one a few years down the line in Ireland and then move back there (to Sligo if possible).

It's not all set in stone, if I see any good jobs in Ireland then I will apply for them too, but I don't fancy staying in Ireland and I do like London so that would be good to spend a few years there. I will hopefully have something by June or so, fingers crossed.

livinginkorea

Sounds good and sure if the job market isn't as good as you wanted there is always teaching again! :P

cloneslad

livinginkorea wrote: »

Sounds good and sure if the job market isn't as good as you wanted there is always teaching again! :P

I've always got a job waiting for me out here with my hagwon, should I need it. It would just involve waiting until the contract expired of whoever was teach there at the time.

That being said, I don't think I'll be back.

I'll be 27 in June, and although not very old, I want to start doing something more than teaching kids (something I don't want a career) and farting about on weekends with the lads, especially as the people on the island all move off after a short time so keeping a consistent stream of friends is pretty much impossible.

That being said, out of the 4 teachers that are leaving my school in March, (1 american, 1 english and me and my gf) we are all most likely going to be living in London from autumn time, as both the lads are doing their masters degrees there.

Almanac

Should post this here. Don't know if this feedback was posted already.

As for professional ESL teachers, work in a country that takes ESL seriously. The language schools in Korea are just trying to make a fast buck and the public schools and universities are not prepared or organized for ESL teaching. There are plenty of more interesting places to go where ESL teachers are genuinely valued.

I just ask you to weigh the evidence. The sheer volume of negative feedback about Korea on this web site and on the Internet in general should tell you something. If you notice, other countries do not have this level of negative feedback. Also, the U.S. State Department has not issued an official warning for any other major ESL market other than Korea (there is no serious warning for Japan and none for Taiwan). How do all of Korea's defenders explain this?

During the time I was working in Korea, the exchange rate was excellent and outside work was plentiful. If you were working freelance on a tourist visa, it was worth enduring the problems of living in Korea if you really needed to save a lot of money (tax-free) in a short period of time. Now, however, due to the reduced value of the Korean currency vs. the US and Canadian dollars, the incredible amount of latitude Korean immigration has for arresting English teachers, and the continuing struggle teachers have to go through just to get paid, I would recommend not teaching English in Korea.

http://blacklist.tokyojon.com/dont_teach_in_korea.html

(a particularly detailed and informative blog piece) from this website:

http://blacklist.tokyojon.com/

The person appears to have no other agenda other than to inform people about potential unforeseen and serious problems related to working in South Korea. It seems that many people have extremely negative experiences teaching in South Korea say as compared with Taiwan or Japan. The owner of the original website even goes as far as saying that none of the recruiters should be trusted.

cloneslad

Almanac wrote: »

Should post this here. Don't know if this feedback was posted already.



http://blacklist.tokyojon.com/dont_teach_in_korea.html

(a particularly detailed and informative blog piece) from this website:

http://blacklist.tokyojon.com/

The person appears to have no other agenda other than to inform people about potential unforeseen and serious problems related to working in South Korea. It seems that many people have extremely negative experiences teaching in South Korea say as compared with Taiwan or Japan. The owner of the original website even goes as far as saying that none of the recruiters should be trusted.

Every country has its downsides, I think ireland has more than Korea if I'm honest.

As for this

the incredible amount of latitude Korean immigration has for arresting English teachers

you can only get arrested for doing something illegal. Obey the rules and you'll be fine. Heck just don't flaunt the fact that you are not confroming 100% and you'll be okay. If you decide to take / sell drugs in Korea or any other country then you deserve to be deported, why should you be allowed to make money by corrupting (helping to corrupt) others?

I have no time for all the begrudgers. I like Korea, it's not my home but I've been made fell very welcome and people are always nice to me and very helpful.

If you don't like the country, then leave. These people want to come and make money and then take it all home with them. They have the cheek to complain when the currency loses value to their own, how do they think the massive companies employing millions of people feel when the won is too strong to allow businesses in other countries to purchase their products at an affordable level?

yes, there are some crappy jobs, some bad bosses. You get that in your own country, I know I've had a fair few. the only difference is that you can leave your job back home without the whole worry about visas. People who go to Ireland, America, or any other country and are sponsored by an employer face the same situations as in Korea. These people giving out about a bad job they once had in Korea need to do more research before jumping headfirst into a job thousands of miles away from home.

*** I didn't read the blog, only the quote***

LimerickJoe

LimerickJoe wrote: »

Ok guys ,

I just talked to my boss right now. There is an excellent opportunity at my school for anyone who is looking for a job at the moment. We have 2 positions available here. You will need to be ready to start work here on March 7th.
So that means you should have your documents gathered or get them in the next few days. We are looking for 1 guy and 1 girl. He will take Irish applicants which is great. Because he wont take British or Australian for some reason to do with accents.

I am working here 4 months now and is a really nice job. I will be staying at this school a second year most likely. It's a public school which means 20 days + vacation. Loads of desk warming days when you don't teach. Half the teaching time you do at hagwons. Average of around 17 -18 hours. We have overtime opportunities. You can earn up to 2.5 milllion a month here. Class sizes are nice and small too.

Ok now for the negatives. There not really an issue for me but they might be for you.
1. It's not Seoul!! but were 30 mins away from Daegu on the train which is the 3rd biggest city.
2. It's a rural area but it's still a city with loads of restaurants and pubs. You get an extra 100 k a month for that. You also get an extra 100 on top of that for a taxi allowance which takes you too and from work.

It's an English town which means most days except Wednesday you teach situational English. i.e each room in the school is set up like a real life place, we have an airport, a clinic etc.. It's really cool. Negative side , it can get monotonous but we change rooms as often as possible and there is 12/13 different topics.
So you teach 10 - 11 year old kids 4th - 5th grade elementary.
And we have adult classes every Wednesday so it's a nice mix.

We have agreed to teach an extra class every wednesday evening, which I personally think is awesome as it is handy overtime, and 1 saturday morning a month. We are getting paid good overtime for all of that bringing my wages up to 2.520,000 kw a month, consider the cost of living is so cheap and your accommodation is free.

One other negative. we do have to be in school from 8.30am - 5.30pm , 4.30pm on fridays. However the bulk of that time is desk warming and chilling out.

Minimal lesson planning required , Great money, I think it's an awesome job for anyone lucky enough to snap it up out there. Contact me ASAP and I will tell you anything you need to know. I'd only love to help an Irish person or two get these positions! It's a really sweet gig guys.

My details are joseph_barry@hotmail.com thats the underscore symbol . My skype is josephbarry331952. Get in touch and I'll be delighted to help.

Hey Guys, my boss said he could push the starting date back a week to the middle of March. Still a tight timeline. We would want you to start teaching Monday March 15th. If your interested in the job. Get in touch soon as public school jobs normally get snapped up pretty quickly.

kraggy

Anyone know anything about Pyeongtaek? Agency has a couple of jobs there.

virmilitaris

kraggy wrote: »

Anyone know anything about Pyeongtaek? Agency has a couple of jobs there.

My brother in law lives there. Much cheaper accommodation wise than other parts of Gyeonggi-do although that won't really matter to you.

It's a relatively new city and the Americans have one of their main bases there which will be getting much bigger in the coming years as they are moving the base from Seoul down there as well.

You are also not that far from Seoul (1 & 1/2 hours to central Seoul) and only 10 stops (20 minutes) from Suwon. All in all I'd say it's a good place to be.

You'll probably have a lot of western style entertainment because of the Americans too if that's what you are into.

Check out http://pyeongtaek.tumblr.com/

virmilitaris

Almanac wrote: »

The person appears to have no other agenda other than to inform people about potential unforeseen and serious problems related to working in South Korea. It seems that many people have extremely negative experiences teaching in South Korea say as compared with Taiwan or Japan. The owner of the original website even goes as far as saying that none of the recruiters should be trusted.

Many people do have extremely negative experiences teaching in Korea as well as in Taiwan and Japan.

It's no worse than anywhere else and regardless of the article you linked to, Korea is still the best place to go financially. Japan pays better but does not provide free accommodation.

One thing I would say though is that Korea is not really foreigner friendly yet. By that I mean that when you try to do basic services like use a bank or get a phone, order food or get a haircut, it can be extraordinarily difficult.

Let me tell you a short story which might explain it to you. I love spicy food and as such when I go to a Korean restaurant I ofttimes order spicy food. For some reason that still alludes me Koreans think all foreigners hate spicy food. I think it has to do with the Americans the majority of whom in my experience here don't like spicy food.

Often when I order spicy food the waitress refuses to give it to me without a 5 minute argument regardless of the fact I can explain myself relatively well in Korean.

Me: Give me bibim naengmyeon (비빔 냉면) please.
Her: It's spicy.
Me: I know. It's okay.
Her: No, it's very spicy. Foreigners don't like spicy food.
Me: I do. Give it to me.
... etc.

In the Korean language and in the culture as a whole they group people as follows. You have Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Korean-Chinese, Korean-Japanese, Korean-Americans etc. And then you have everyone else.

It makes no difference whether you are Spanish, French, English, Irish, German, American, Canadian, African, Australian etc. You are a waygookin (외국인) and as such are seen to have a particular set of attributes most of which are wrong.

Saying all that, it is changing and young people are generally much more open minded.

As for that blog, sure it has some points that are correct but everywhere has it's bad points. He sounds like someone who had a bad time here and is just venting.

I think Korea is actually one of the best places I've ever lived and I'll include most of Europe in that.

cavanmaniac

I do not experience the difficulties that a lot of these serial internet malcontents say they experience. More importantly, none of the legions of foreigners I meet over here experience them either, and only a small handful tell me they have bad bosses or have endured problems with pay and so on. The fact is, the internet is a release valve for people with axes to grind...my job, for instance, is going well, but I haven't felt the need to go on the web and write a glowing report about it. If it had turned out all crappy, then I most likely would have, so it's easy to see that internet accounts of Korea are probably skewed heavily in favour of the unhappy and to my mind give a very false picture as a result.
Yes, there can be language difficulties and yes, the Korean mentality is odd at times but that's part of the charm and the challenge of the place for me. By and large, I, and 99% of the people I know, really like it here or at the least, are quite content. There's not many places in the world will throw you a job like this at the moment, with all the incentives, simply for being a westerner with a degree and a voice box. So count your blessings.
And as Cloneslad says, there's always the door if you don't like it. I really don't understand some people bitching and moaning about cultural differences like the whole of Korea should bend over and change their entire way of life just because some waygookin can't get into step with it. That's an absolutely ridiculous perspective, and these people need to ask that if Korean people came to our country and predictably were very challenged by the way we do things, would we make fundamental alterations to our culture and behaviour, just to suit them? We all know the answer to that.

cavanmaniac

Oh and Cloneslad, best of luck on your travels! It's almost 6 months since I was one of these nippers on here picking your brain for help too. Thanks to you and others, I have a good situation for myself here and am truly enjoying it. Very grateful for all the help from you and others.

I hope everything works out well for you, even if you are from Monaghan.:D

Cool Running

Just to add what everyone is saying in relation to the negative article posted, I'm having a great time here.

Have had plenty of language barrier moments but sure what else do ya expect.

Really looking forward to the Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in Seoul.

Best of luck in your last few weeks cloneslad

Are you on Jeju or one of the other islands?

I was in Jeju over Solnal and it's pretty cool

cloneslad

Cool Running wrote: »

Just to add what everyone is saying in relation to the negative article posted, I'm having a great time here.

Have had plenty of language barrier moments but sure what else do ya expect.

Really looking forward to the Saint Patrick's Day celebrations in Seoul.

Best of luck in your last few weeks cloneslad

Are you on Jeju or one of the other islands?

I was in Jeju over Solnal and it's pretty cool

Thanks. I'm Not in Jeju, I'm on Geoje Island. It's about 4 hours from seoul by bus.

Jeju is pretty nice too, I spent a summer vacation there in 2007. It was nice and warm but I thought the beaches were too crowded (as most Korean beaches are during 'beach season')

Paddy's day is good fun in Seoul, guinness usually have a tent at the parade where they give out free pints to everyone. Be sure to find yourself there and I'm sure you'll have a good time.

Cool Running

cloneslad wrote: »

Thanks. I'm Not in Jeju, I'm on Geoje Island. It's about 4 hours from seoul by bus.

Jeju is pretty nice too, I spent a summer vacation there in 2007. It was nice and warm but I thought the beaches were too crowded (as most Korean beaches are during 'beach season')

Paddy's day is good fun in Seoul, guinness usually have a tent at the parade where they give out free pints to everyone. Be sure to find yourself there and I'm sure you'll have a good time.

Oh cool ya I taught you said before it was an Island close enough to Jeju. Jeju seems like a cool island, got to climb Mount Hallasan and visited Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum. Everyone was saying it was a bad time to go as it wasnt summer but it was great hiking up the mountain in the snow.

Ya cant wait till Paddy's day. Will try to get a good few of the other teachers of different nationalities from the school to come into Seoul for it. Free Guinness sounds nice, it's so expensive here compared to Cass and Hite

Undercover Brother

Hi everyone
I've been offered a job at a hagwon in Dongtan and am now ready to send over all my docs. However, I am confused as to what is required by immigration re my degree. I was originally told immi no longer accepted degree certs and you had to give an original apostilled letter from your uni verifying your degree. I have this. I also had an apostilled copy of my original degree cert which I sent to EPIK (I was rejected) and they havn't returned. The director of the hagwon I am going to seems to think that I still need the copy of degree cert for immigration, but I think she may be misinformed. She is going to double check. I just don't want to have to pay for another apostille stamp considering how much I've spent and been messed about over the last few months. Below is a copy and paste from an email I received from a recruiter last year, can someone please confirm if my apostilled university letter is sufficient for immigration! The below seems fairly obvious but nobody seems to be able to give me a definitive answer. If anyone has started at a hagwon in the last few months their info would probably be most relevant. Thanks

The visa documents we require if planning on starting work after 1st September 2010 are as follows:



1. Copy of your passport
2. From September 1st on, Korean Immigration will no longer require or accept Original Degree scrolls/certificates. Instead you must send one of these following options;
1. University letter verifying your degree with Apostille Stamp (letter of intention to graduate will not be accepted, you must have gradated), or
2. If you’re a Canadian, you need to submit your University Letter to the Korean embassy for notarization/authentication instead of an Apostille Stamp
3. 4 Colour passport photos
4. Medical History form (Attached with this email)
5. Police Check + Apostille stamp (Please ensure it has an Apostille stamp on it / for Canadians please get it notarized/authenticated by the Korean Embassy)

If you have any problems with any of these documents, please let me know. There is further information on our website and the attachments to this email.

conbob

Undercover Brother wrote: »

Hi everyone
I've been offered a job at a hagwon in Dongtan and am now ready to send over all my docs. However, I am confused as to what is required by immigration re my degree. I was originally told immi no longer accepted degree certs and you had to give an original apostilled letter from your uni verifying your degree. I have this. I also had an apostilled copy of my original degree cert which I sent to EPIK (I was rejected) and they havn't returned. The director of the hagwon I am going to seems to think that I still need the copy of degree cert for immigration, but I think she may be misinformed. She is going to double check. I just don't want to have to pay for another apostille stamp considering how much I've spent and been messed about over the last few months. Below is a copy and paste from an email I received from a recruiter last year, can someone please confirm if my apostilled university letter is sufficient for immigration! The below seems fairly obvious but nobody seems to be able to give me a definitive answer. If anyone has started at a hagwon in the last few months their info would probably be most relevant. Thanks

The visa documents we require if planning on starting work after 1st September 2010 are as follows:



1. Copy of your passport
2. From September 1st on, Korean Immigration will no longer require or accept Original Degree scrolls/certificates. Instead you must send one of these following options;
1. University letter verifying your degree with Apostille Stamp (letter of intention to graduate will not be accepted, you must have gradated), or
2. If you’re a Canadian, you need to submit your University Letter to the Korean embassy for notarization/authentication instead of an Apostille Stamp
3. 4 Colour passport photos
4. Medical History form (Attached with this email)
5. Police Check + Apostille stamp (Please ensure it has an Apostille stamp on it / for Canadians please get it notarized/authenticated by the Korean Embassy)

If you have any problems with any of these documents, please let me know. There is further information on our website and the attachments to this email.

just curious did EPIK say why you were unsuccessful?

Undercover Brother

Na no reason given. I passed the interview in November, sent in all the docs in good time and the docs were approved and then I was rejected in the middle of January. I'm still hassling the recruiter I was using to get them back but I'm sure he's not interested now. The thing is it turns out there are also plenty of public school jobs available outside EPIK, I'm sure I could have got 1 now if I was a bit more patient and I could def get one in a rural area, I've had a couple of school boards ringing in me the last couple weeks. But I would advise anyone not to go through EPIK, the hassle you have to go through to apply is unreal, in my case I was accepted then rejected at the last minute with no reason given and now it looks like they're not sending the docs back. I just cannot for the life of me see how they think they have the right to keep my stuff when they're not offering a position and they know I'll need that stuff to apply elsewhere. You can imagine theres a lot I'd like to say about EPIK but a public forum is not the place lol. Complete joke.

ekevosu

Undercover Brother wrote: »

Hi everyone
However, I am confused as to what is required by immigration re my degree. I was originally told immi no longer accepted degree certs and you had to give an original apostilled letter from your uni verifying your degree. I have this. I also had an apostilled copy of my original degree cert which I sent to EPIK (I was rejected) and they havn't returned. The director of the hagwon I am going to seems to think that I still need the copy of degree cert for immigration, but I think she may be misinformed. She is going to double check. I just don't want to have to pay for another apostille stamp considering how much I've spent and been messed about over the last few months.

From Korean Immigration website

http://www.immigration.go.kr/HP/IMM80/index.do

1. Select "VISA"
2. At the top of the page, select "Visa Issuance Guide - stay of status"
3. Under the heading, "Employment Visa," select "Foreign Language Instructor (E2)."


Degree certificates
- Got Apostille or verified from the Korean embassy in foreigner's home country ‘confirmation certificate from the university’ or ‘graduation certificate including degree achievement facts’ or ‘diploma or degree copy’
- If a foreigner hands in a degree certificate for the visa issuance application, and comes to Korea after getting the conversation teacher(E-2) visa, if the document is made as data in the immigration system the degree certificate is able to be omitted when the foreigner wants to move to another workplace through a new visa issuance application.

What I always thought from reading here and other places was that the requirement was that you needed to get a notarised photocopy of your degree certificate and have it apostilled along with your criminal record check which is automatically notarised by the guards. I haven't heard of getting a letter from university notarised being a requirement before but from the above wording which isnt 100% clear, it looks like it might be acceptable instead of the degree copy but the apostilled degree copy is acceptable. One or the other in other words. Did you ring the embassy? That might clear it up as regards the letter and its validity.

SpatialPlanning

Undercover Brother wrote: »

Na no reason given. I passed the interview in November, sent in all the docs in good time and the docs were approved and then I was rejected in the middle of January. I'm still hassling the recruiter I was using to get them back but I'm sure he's not interested now. The thing is it turns out there are also plenty of public school jobs available outside EPIK, I'm sure I could have got 1 now if I was a bit more patient and I could def get one in a rural area, I've had a couple of school boards ringing in me the last couple weeks. But I would advise anyone not to go through EPIK, the hassle you have to go through to apply is unreal, in my case I was accepted then rejected at the last minute with no reason given and now it looks like they're not sending the docs back. I just cannot for the life of me see how they think they have the right to keep my stuff when they're not offering a position and they know I'll need that stuff to apply elsewhere. You can imagine theres a lot I'd like to say about EPIK but a public forum is not the place lol. Complete joke.

That bad?? When I applied I had no trouble at all with them. Your situation does sound a bit odd. You were accepted and then rejected?? Jesus, that's bad form on their part! I have heard of a few people who have had trouble getting their docs returned..

virmilitaris

Undercover Brother wrote: »

Na no reason given. I passed the interview in November, sent in all the docs in good time and the docs were approved and then I was rejected in the middle of January. I'm still hassling the recruiter I was using to get them back but I'm sure he's not interested now.

I can guess the reason quite easily. They purposely got too many applicants for the number of jobs they have because if someone pulled out at the last minute, as people ofttimes do, they had you and others to fill in.

I've seen this a lot here especially with public school positions run by private firms, they always have at least 2 people for the same job months in advance in case someone pulls out. I've also seen them telling people to wait for a few weeks for a job that has already been filled in case the teacher they hired does a runner and they can get you in ASAP because they already have your documents processed.

Undercover Brother

Thanks for that ekevosu, altho its quite ambiguous so I'm still not sure. I did ring the Korean embassy in Dublin, they hadn't a clue, they only deal with visas once the visa number has been issued from Korea. Nobody seems to know for sure.

Choccie Lover

In response to Undercover Brother, I’ve just recently got my visa documents processed for a hagwon position. In fact, I’m getting my visa today from the Korean embassy, just in the nick of time too J. I don’t really know what to advise you regarding getting a letter of graduation instead of the diploma copy. Perhaps it will be accepted, but most positions seem to advertise that they want the diploma copy. I had a lot of trouble myself getting straight answers, so I was very frustrated like you. In the end, I got a photocopy of my degree, got it signed and stamped by a notary public and then got the apostille stamp. Also, you should note that the embassy say that it can now take between five and seven days to process the visa from their end in Dublin. They say that is due to the busy time of year. Having said that, I got mine in four.

By the way, thanks to Clones Lad for giving me the feedback on eyecare in Korea. Duly noted J And good luck with your travels!

Undercover Brother

Thanks for the reply Choccie Lover. I just decided to send the degree copy off for the stamp yesterday. Not worth the trouble sending the letter although I still think its acceptable. I was just raging having to do this as EPIK have my apostilled degree copy and because they won't return it I have to fork out another £35. I think over the last few months I've paid for an extension on someone's house in that office the amount I've had to hand over for apostilles, between getting the wrong thing stamped, police cert going out of date etc. Anyway this will def be the last thing. I just hope the director of my hagwon doesn't get sick of waiting for the docs and hire someone else, as I assured her at interview I had everything ready to go, but I think she'll be ok, she should have everything by the end of next week or the start of the week after. It seems to me that it would be very easy for Korean immigration to make things clear and have every recruiter and school singing off the same hymm sheet but what can you do.

Choccie Lover

Heading off to Korea tomorrow. Thanks to all who have contributed on the thread. It's been very helpful with making the move .

Good luck with the visa Undercover Brother. I'm sure it will work out ok.

red_bairn

Choccie Lover wrote: »

Heading off to Korea tomorrow. Thanks to all who have contributed on the thread. It's been very helpful with making the move .

Good luck with the visa Undercover Brother. I'm sure it will work out ok.

Do you know what town/city you are teaching in?

LimerickJoe

Congratulations! You must be so excited. Where will you be living? We should get in touch over here. Talk to ya soon!

red_bairn

Anybody here in Chungnam?

livinginkorea

Choccie Lover wrote: »

Heading off to Korea tomorrow. Thanks to all who have contributed on the thread. It's been very helpful with making the move .

Good luck with the visa Undercover Brother. I'm sure it will work out ok.

Congrats man, delighted for you.

Undercover Brother

Choccie Lover wrote: »

Heading off to Korea tomorrow. Thanks to all who have contributed on the thread. It's been very helpful with making the move .

Good luck with the visa Undercover Brother. I'm sure it will work out ok.

Thanks Choccie Lover, good luck out there. Hopefully I'll be out in 2-3 weeks

kraggy

Anyone know what Osan is like? Another agency has a job there.

LimerickJoe

Hello everyone,

There is still a very nice public school job available for a girl at my school in Yeongcheon city, which is very close to Daegu. I've been working here 4 months and would highly recommend anyone interested to apply for the job.

Again we want a girl with their documents ready or who could have their documents ready in the next few days.

Contact me at joseph_barry@hotmail.com

panda100

Hey, great advice on this thread and just wanted to ask a few questions.

Is there any places that will take people without degree's in Korea?
I know Its needed for the visa,but just wondering If theres anyway around this. I studied medicine in UCD for four and half years, and dropped out due to personal circumstances. I've been working for the last four years in the disability sector, but jobs have gone non-existent now, and I'm raging at myself I didn't finish my degree, especially a medical degree! I have exam transcripts and can get documentation from UCD medical school, as I have done in the past, do you think these will be any good?


Also, I grew up in London, and so I have an English accent. Is it true they don't hire people with English accents??

dapto1

Got an appointment with a notary public on Friday, does anyone know if I need to get anything other than the photocopy of my degree notarised?

Those of you who posted your documents to the Department of Foreign Affairs, did it take long for them to arrive back with the apostilles?

Thanks!

LimerickJoe

Hey guys the jobs at my school are now gone!!! Best of luck to everybody job hunting.

livinginkorea

panda100 wrote: »

Hey, great advice on this thread and just wanted to ask a few questions.

Is there any places that will take people without degree's in Korea?
I know Its needed for the visa,but just wondering If theres anyway around this. I studied medicine in UCD for four and half years, and dropped out due to personal circumstances. I've been working for the last four years in the disability sector, but jobs have gone non-existent now, and I'm raging at myself I didn't finish my degree, especially a medical degree! I have exam transcripts and can get documentation from UCD medical school, as I have done in the past, do you think these will be any good?


Also, I grew up in London, and so I have an English accent. Is it true they don't hire people with English accents??

There is the TALK program but that is for students who haven't graduated yet. You would have to be in university for that. Other than that it is illegal to teach in Korea without a degree.

About the English accent, where did you hear that? There are thousands of English people out here (luckily I don't work with any of them! :P )

You need a degree at least.

Cool Running

dapto1 wrote: »

Got an appointment with a notary public on Friday, does anyone know if I need to get anything other than the photocopy of my degree notarised?

Those of you who posted your documents to the Department of Foreign Affairs, did it take long for them to arrive back with the apostilles?

Thanks!

No you dont need anything else notarised besides the degree but you do need your criminal background check apostilled.

When you post off documents with the postal order for payment you should have them back within a week. If you call up to the office in Stephens Green it usually takes around 20 or 30 minutes.

Oh ya just make sure when ya post off the documents that you state that it is for South Korea

Choccie Lover

red_bairn wrote: »

Do you know what town/city you are teaching in?

Hey there. I'm in Seoul. Just arrived yesterday, so am exhausted and bewildered at the moment:) On the plus side, have a nice apartment (think I'm it's first occupant) and the staff at the school seem lovely.

Choccie Lover

LimerickJoe wrote: »

Congratulations! You must be so excited. Where will you be living? We should get in touch over here. Talk to ya soon!

Thanks a million. As said in my previous post, I'm living in Seoul and it's going well so far, all 24 hours of it! Am all set up with my cable TV and internet in my cute little apartment and am heading into the school shortly to do some observations etc. I see you are in Daegu, but if you are ever coming to Seoul, feel free to drop me a PM. I'm doing this whole thing solo, so am looking forward to meeting new people.

By the way, are there any other girls on this forum who have come over here alone? Just curious, because from what I can gather, it seems to be the guys that take the plunge alone.

Finally, does anyone have any good recommendations for Korean language classes in Seoul? Am keen to get cracking with that.

dapto1

Cool Running wrote: »

No you dont need anything else notarised besides the degree but you do need your criminal background check apostilled.

When you post off documents with the postal order for payment you should have them back within a week. If you call up to the office in Stephens Green it usually takes around 20 or 30 minutes.

Oh ya just make sure when ya post off the documents that you state that it is for South Korea

Cheers that's very helpful, thank you. That's great about getting it back in a week or so as I won't be able to get up to Dublin due to work.

conbob

Hi. Anyone know the website to apply for GEPIK? I'm trying to use this one http://cge.ken.go.kr/contents/m_online_application_eng/main_regist.asp but question 6, the availability question is broken. You can't choose a year. Maybe this is the site for years ago and isn't used now?

cloneslad

LimerickJoe wrote: »

We are looking for 2 native teachers who can work in Kangwon-do, Teaback-si

I've been there, it's not a bad place. It is pretty small though. I only stayed in it for about 2 hours and spent most of that time eating fried chicken as I had been driving for about 10 hours without food.

The mountains in the surrounding area are awesome though, not so awesome if it's very foggy, you have about a 30cm view of the road ahead and you accidently turn off the lights in the car going around a very sharp corner at the top of a mountain......I still get earache for that error

livinginkorea

A three day weekend, that is decent. Pay looks good too. I am always of the opinion that if I can work harder for a shorter working week then take it!

Toto Wolfcastle

Job ad moved to job thread here.

virmilitaris

Finally, does anyone have any good recommendations for Korean language classes in Seoul? Am keen to get cracking with that.

Sogang university have the best course by far.for.learning to communicate. The others all focus on grammar and korean grammar is a bottomless pit of confusion and madness.

Where in seoul.are you living.? I've been all over.so.can probably recommend a uni close tp you. Oh or the local authorities usually give free classes but to be honest they aren't great.

For a very good beginners book check out 'korean made easy'. Can't remember the author but its pretty popular so u should be able.to get it straight away.

virmilitaris

panda100 wrote: »

Hey, great advice on this thread and just wanted to ask a few questions.

Is there any places that will take people without degree's in Korea?
I know Its needed for the visa,but just wondering If theres anyway around this. I studied medicine in UCD for four and half years, and dropped out due to personal circumstances. I've been working for the last four years in the disability sector, but jobs have gone non-existent now, and I'm raging at myself I didn't finish my degree, especially a medical degree! I have exam transcripts and can get documentation from UCD medical school, as I have done in the past, do you think these will be any good?

You can work for one of the government programs if you have completed at least two years of a degree course. Ill find the specifics later and post them here. Don't have the link at the mo.

edit: Here you go. http://www.talk.go.kr/

Go to about the program, program details eligibility. Didn't read it fully myself but I think you could get into this program.

Also, I grew up in London, and so I have an English accent. Is it true they don't hire people with English accents??

Some places only will take certain nationalities and races and genders.

You'll see advertisements saying no blacks or no men or no aussies and then you have ads asking specifically for blacks, men,aussies etc

The most desired teacher is a blonde blue eyed white canadian young woman.

Many places want teachers for appearance more than they want them for their teachong ability. Many people here find out they are been paid to be a clown not a teacher.

cloneslad

virmilitaris wrote: »

The others all focus on grammar and korean grammar is a bottomless pit of confusion and madness.

I ended up leaving the one I was doing for this reason. It was pointless as I was never going to fully understand it. Also the first 6 weeks (4hours a day, once a week) was spent mostly looking at pictures and saying the word. I can't learn stuff like that.

Memorising in your mid 20s is not easy. I can't retain information like that. I can mostly only remember vocabulary through conversation or if I needed it once before.

Undercover Brother

Hey guys
I will be sending my docs to Korea on Monday and waiting for them to give me my visa number which I will then go to the embassy in Dublin with. I'm presuming it could be close to 2 weeks before I get the visa number, by the time the docs arrive in Korea and go thru immigration over there. My director wants me out around the 16th, and of course I would like to book a flight asap but I don't want to book it without having everything sorted first. I heard the Korean embassy in Dublin when they do the interview they take your passport and return it to you within a week. Is this the case? It would be so much easier for me if I could get the passport back on the same day. Any of the guys who went to Korea in the last couple of months can you let me know how long it took for the embassy to process your visa and passport? Thanks