Tefl in South Korea

Does everyone apply for EPIK through a recruiter? Or can you just do it by yourself?

kraggy wrote: »

Hey guys,

Heading to Seoul in about 2 weeks.

Who did ye fly with? Etihad seem to be the cheapest but their luggage allowance is only 23kg.

What weight did ye carry over for a year?

Also, anyone stay in a dorm for orientation with Epik? What sort of accommodation is it? Decent?

Thanks.

I flew with Emirates, with stopovers in London and Dubai. They give you 30kg (the 1st leg of the flight is with Aer lingus and they honour the 30kg allowance, providing you don't book the flights seperately through each website or something like that ..I booked on expedia so it was the one ticket).

You can also take a carry on suitcase and a laptop bag, so you could easily bring over 40-45kg, depending what you squeeze into your hand luggage.

Don't bring over too much stuff, you won't need dvds or anything like that. I'd limit the amount of books I'd bring too as you'll be able to get more than enough of them in seoul.

trickydave wrote: »

Bit of a strange one.

But Im going to SK in July and I am just wondering about the community, socially, I have heard that its quite good but my question is this;

I come from a small town in Limerick, and two other people have gone to South Korea from this town, theyre nice guys and all, but I dont want to go to SK just to hang out with these guys,

theyre in Busan, probably where Ill end up, so im wondering how small is the community, the population is like 3 million ,but I imagine the TEFL network is a lot smaller and would we be constantly bumping in to each other?

Should I change my chosen city to enrich my 'new' experience and truly have something or just go to Busan, as I hear its great , has the beach n all, and do i have anything to consider at all?

[some very poor english was used in this post. Maybe I should reconsider the whole idea :P]

It's big enough to avoid them. There are thousands of ESL teachers in Busan, though there are only a few areas in which they tend to go out in, there are lots of pubs in each area to choose from. I'm sure if you go to the wolfhound in Haeundae (irish bar) you will run into them a bit though.

Don't change your city because ou don't want to socialise with people from back home. I come from a town of about 2,000 people in
Monaghan, and I am able to avoid people I don't want to socialise with when I'm home. An acknowledging hello, how are you, you enjoying it? 5 minute chat here and there will be enough to keep them sweet, keep you in the loop should anything fun happen that they may be able to get you in on while also allowing you to make new friends.

shanem152 wrote: »

Thats disappointing to hear, but a great insight!

Skiing is probably as expensive an endeavor as it is over here so , i mgiht only get to try that once!

Cheers buddy

It can be expensive but you can also get good day trip deals.

for example, I was able to get a bus to and from my bus station (which I live across the road from...it also picked up people at different locations around the island) brought to the ski resort in Muju (just over 2 hours away), got my snowboard and boots, a day's ski pass and a return bus home for 80,000won (about €50) It would have been slightly cheaper to do the trip but ski instead of snowboard.

However, if you just wanted to go by yourself for the weekend it can get expensive. Ski passes are 65,000 for the day time another 60,000 or so for night time skiing, then you'd have to pay 10-20,000 for boots and skis/board, pay for accomodation, food and transport.

Just went on to daves to check who replied to you and it was Ttompatz. He used to work in the foreign help centre so he knows what he's talking about. I guess you'll have to wait the 90 days out.

But I'd still question it to the relevant offices to confirm it. There's no harm in trying.

Twixaroo wrote: »

Hi there.. Lookin for some advice.

I'm guessing you haven't done any research when you've asked all those questions. Most have been answered in this thread (though it's quite long now). I'll help you anyway

I'm in the final year of my degree and very much interested in travelling to South Korea to do the TEFL as have heard good things about it and want to travel anyway. Should I do one of the TEFL courses before I travel?

It depends if you feel you need to do one or not. If you're going to a public school then it will improve your pay level, if you are going to a private school it MAY help your chances of finding a job.

It can help out with grammar you may have forgotten or never knew existed (this will happen quite regularly when you start teaching), it will also give you an idea of how to teach English as a second / foreign language.

As an aside, you won't get to do a lot of travel to other countries during your contract, so if you think you are coming to Korea to teach a few hours during the week but fly away to Thailand / Vietnam / Indonesia etc at the weekend or on the vast amount of holidays you'll receive as a teacher then you might want to think again. You work in Korea and get very few holidays, if you're in a private school (hagwon) you will be lucky to get 2 weeks off a year and even luckier if they are spaced out at a week at a time. Public schools generally get about 21 days vacation a year, these can be taken during the school's vacation time (jan-feb and July -Aug) with prior consent of the principal

How does the actual teaching work? s in I don't speak any Korean, how do I explain myself to the students?

I get asked this a lot, and all I can say is "in English". You build up their vocabulary so that they are able to communicate with you. It's not as hard as you think it will be. However, if you are honestly lost by how to do it then I'd suggest doing a good TEFL or CELTA course to help you through it.

Though speaking in Korean to the kids is not recommended by most schools, knowing the Korean name of a piece of vocabulary you are teaching or a grammar point (verb, idiom, adjective etc) can make explaining it much quicker. Then you can get them to give you examples of the grammar point of a synonmym of the word you've just taught them to ensure they understand.

How long does it take for the visa to come through?

Once you have been accepted for a job and have all your documents gathered, it takes about 2 days to send them to Korea, 1 week to get your visa number. Arrange an interview with the embassy in Ireland (they only interview 2 days a week) then it takes 5 working days to get the visa back from them.

If you don't know what documents you need, then that's a whole other question, but again, I'll answer it.

Degree scroll (Only a photcopy is needed and accepted since September 2010) this must be notarised by a commissioner of oathes and apostilled by the dept of foreign affairs.

Garda background check - This takes about 1-2 weeks to get. You only want the free check to say you haven't committed any crimes, you do not want the one that requires you to pay 6-7 euro for to apply to Thurles that states you can work with kids.

Health form (signed by you) - this can be downloaded from the internet

Passport photos - this doesn't need explaining

A copy of the information page of your passport

Transcripts of your results for every year in University - Since Sept 2010 these are no longer required by immigration to obtain a visa, however, some schools are still requesting them. When they were complusory to get a visa, they had to be placed in a sealed envelope with the stamp of your college / university placed over the seal.

When you get to korea you'll have to do a medical check and drugs test. If you have HIV / Hepatitis B (i think it's then you will not be allowed to teach. If you fail the drugs test, you will not be allowed to teach. You will also be asked to leave the country on your own expense.

I should have my exam results around the start of July, would I need to apply straight away if I wished to head off in September say?

you need your degree scroll. If you don't have that then I think you can get a letter from the university saying you have passed the course etc etc, but these can be a pain to obtain. If you are in an I.T. and are doing an add on honours degree (to an original bachelors degree) then you can use the ordinary bachelors degree to get a job.

Have all your documents ready to go before you start applying for joba, or at least be in the process of getting them, Koreans hire when they want someone yesterday, so they don't want to wait for you to get your documents which will mean 1 month for them to get a teacher.

What would one be looking at as regards pay roughly?

Depends on your qualifications, public / private school, the location of the school, the hours you teach, how generous the school feels, what you can haggle.

In general, for someone like you who will only be holding a degree, no TEFL, CELTA, no masters, no experience then a public school job will offer you in the region of 1.8 million per month as you will be on the lowest rung of the ladder (if you can get on the ladder at all).

Private schools (hagwons) pay more than public schools but you have the potential risk of having a crap boss, being overworked, not gettin paid on time or at all and then getting fired towards the end of your contract to avoid paying your airfare home and severance (this doesn't happen often, but it does occur). Hagwons will pay anywhere between 2.0-2.4 million for someone with your qualifications, though to be honest if you get offered anything more than 2.2 you'll be doing well.

Is there any particular areas to avoid when looking at jobs?

That all depends on you, if you like cities, avoid the country and vice-versa. You generally won't be applying to an area, rather to a recruiter so they will try place you somewhere and it's up for you to decide (through research) whether or not you want to go there.

What's the best way to go about finding a job, if you know of someone out there would you be better off trying to go through them or through a recruiter?

Does the person you know have any jobs they can get you? If they do, and the job is good, then use them. If the person you know has no contacts, no potential jobs etc then they are of no use to you. Most people use recruiters as it's recruiters who advertise most jobs online, but some apply directly to ads that have been placed by schools.

Look on Daves esl's jobs pages. / Craigslist and anywhere else jobs are advertised to find one.

I think you could honestly do with looking more into this and deciding if it's really what you want. It's good to ask questions and get them answered, and most of us in here are only to happy to do it, but most of your questions could have been answered with an hour or two of reading through this thread / daves esl or to make it easier, through a google search to bring up the page of this thread or a thread on daves esl that would answer your questions.

I think most of the basic questions you need answering have now been answered, so if you have anymore questions, feel free to ask.