TEFL/CELTA/CELT answers...

Dionysus wrote: »

You'll get your money back quick enough. The cheaper ones are not worth it, particularly if you want to teach in Ireland. The CELT is ACELS accredited and you will therefore be able to teach EFL in any state school as well.

kraggy wrote: »

Hi guys and gals,

Just wanted to get peoples experiences of living and teaching in either Korea or Japan.

I am a Primary School Teaching Graduate with a little experience but can't find work here. Still applying but no joy yet.

So my questions would be:

1. Would I really need to do a Celta course or would the fact that I have a B.Ed suffice?

no, you don't need one. You will get a job easily enough without one.

2. What's the work situation like in the 2 countries like at the moment?

Japan has always been hard to get a job in, mostly because of the visa situation. It can take up to a year to get one for the JET program. For Korea, there are lots of jobs going, but there are also lots of people searching. It's about making yourself available quickly and being seen as a good candidate.

3. What's the money like and would it be possible to save any at all?

I initially missed this question. so all the pay details are in question number 7. If your goal is to save money and you want to live a quiet life you could live of 400k a month including all bills and expenses.

If your goals is to have fun and relax while also saving money then you could live on 700-800k a month.

If you want to go get drunk always eat western food in restaurants and generally be in a pub drinking foreign beers when you go out then you would prob spend 1.2-1.5 a month.

I estimate that even after a trip to the philippines that I had last month, and enjoying myself for the past 6 months, not worrying about saving and having just bought my g.f a laptop yesterday and general over spending on football boots, running gear etc. I will save about 22million this year. which is just shy of €15,000. so, yeah, it's pretty easy to save.

If you make, lets say 2.2 a month for convenience sake. you will lose 200k on tax/pension/insurance etc. This leaves you with 2million.
The you spend 500k a month, which is really easy for someone to live on if they want to save some money. (I know people living off less than 400k, I just couldn't be bothered) then you will save 1.5mill a month, multiply that by 12 give you 18million for the year, plus you get a bonus months salary for completing a contract. Add that to your savings you will have 20million saved easily.

20 million is €13,500

4. Are paid flight over and back, and accommodation provided, standard perks or just if you're lucky?

For Korea, it's all part of the job, employers must provide them. In japan, some places will help you out, but as far as I know they pay you and you pay your own expenses.

5. Regarding Japan, is it possible to actually teach and not act as an assistant as on the Jet programme?

Don't know. I'd imagine you would have to have some sort of ESL teaching qualification and be able to speak Japanese. The ability to speak the native language is great if you want to explain certain grammatical points.

6. Are contracts offered all year round or at specific times?

In Korea you can get a contract anytime. Private schools are always hiring. Public schools have their main hiring periods to start teaching in September and March so recruiting takes places a few months prior to both inductions.

7. What's the difference between Public sector pay and Private sector pay (and same question re holidays)

It all depends on what school you teach at.

Public schools generally pay less. You would prob be on the 2million won a month pay salary. If you lived away from a big city you would get an extra 200k a month plus you may be able to get overtime and if you have to teach at more than one school you would get a bit more too.

Private schools will generally start at 2.1-2.2 a month. You could prob ask for 2.3 as you have a b.d but most prob won't care as you have no experience teachin over here.
Public schools generally have longer holidays. With my private school this year I have a week off for summer, I will have a week off in 2 weeks for Korean thanksgiving (chuseok) and I will have a few days off over new year. Not sure of my lunar new year holidays yet though. Had a few days off in between for national holidays but most fell on the weekend this year.

Others in private schools next to me only got wed/thrs/fri/sat/sun for summer and will only get tue/wed/thu/ for chuseok.

Public holidays will be slightly longer, one of my mates got 2 weeks for summer and will get a week or 2 over christmas time. But he has to be in school 8:30 - 4:30. I only have to work 3_45 - 9 pn m/w/f and 3:30-7:10 tue/thurs.

These are all for korea, I have no idea on pay for Japan.


8. What's the food like?

Korean is awesome. I didn't think much of the japanese food each time I visited, but I don't like fish

9. Could I choose to teach secondary school even though my qualification is in primary?

Your teaching qualification doesn't get you the job. The fact you have a degree and are from Ireland is what gets you your visa. You don't need any teaching qualifications to teach in a public school, although your B.ed will look good on a c.v if an employer knows what it means.

We don't have secondary schools as such, it's elementary - middle- high school..

10. Can you work for more than a year in either of these countries?

Yes, iin Korea you will just have to extend your visa if you stay at the same school, or if you change schools you will have to get a new one.

I think it's easy enough to stay on when in Japan, I know people who have been there for 3 years now.

11. Overall, how did you rate living in Korea/Japan? Good experience?

That's all I can think of for now.

Thanks in advance for any info you can share

You're welcome

K.

PS Anyone ever teach in South America?

No, I know some people who did, it's difficult to get good jobs and they money is not good at all. If saving is your main worry, then come to korea.

kraggy wrote: »

That's unbelievable information Clones. Thanks a million. Most detailed response I've got in a long time on here!

A few more questions if that's ok?

1. Do the schools pay for your utility bills as well as your rent?

No, you will have to pay for them yourself.

The utility bills you will have to pay are:
Gas
Electricity
Apartment fee (communal clean up, security, recycling, water)
Cable tv (optional)
Phone (optional)
Internet (can’t live without it and it’s so damn fast)

The average cost for everything for the month would be about 80-90k (€60)



2. Do you have to pay for your flight up front and then claim it back or do they look after it for you?

Most schools will pay for them, though some may ask you to buy it yourself and you can get the money back when you go over.

My school didn’t want to book my flight as they knew I could get a better price from my side and that I would book whatever was convenient for me. So they sent me their credit card details through e-mail (I had previously worked at this school so this is very rare). They also wanted me to take a flight from Seoul to Busan and someone would pick me up there. This would have cost an extra €350 on the price of the flight. I refused and said I would take the bus from seoul.

3. Can you book a flight that gets you there a few weeks before your start date to give you time to settle in?

You can. In fact most good schools would have you come over a week before to observe some classes and get settled. However it’s not always possible as sometimes schools lose a teacher and are without one so when you come you will have to start teaching straight away.

Public schools generally won’t be able to accommodate you and you won’t know which one you are being hired for, should you get hired in the block hiring in march / sept. If you go over early then you would have to pay for your own accommodation.

Some private schools may not have anywhere to put you while you observe as they will only have enough apartments to cover teachers in the school so you would most likely end up in a love motel for a short while.

Oh and your visa is only valid for 365 days and your contract is also for that length of time so should you arrive 2 weeks before your contract start date you will have to get your boss to extend your visa so you can finish your contract and leave without over staying.

4. Can you really live on that little amount of money per month in Seoul? Evne the generous amount you stated (800,000), is only 120 euro per week. Even with rent paid, this seems like a very cheap cost of living.

Obviously Seoul can be expensive but yes, it’s very easy to do. If you live in seoul and go for western meals all the time and drink it up in the wealthy areas then no, you won’t save a lot.

However if you are a normal person, like me, then you can easily get buy on 800k.

Here’s an example, I did my weekly shopping tonight with my girlfriend. We bought Australian beef, cream cheese, 12 bagels, imported breakfast cereal, tortillas (which are all waaay more expensive than back home) as well as buying the usual milk, ham, vegetables, Gatorade, orange juice etc etc etc. The total shopping cost was 77,000. Now that’s for two people for a week. So it’s only 38,500 each which is about €25.

That will do us for the week. Obviously we will buy a bit more milk and possibly some bread but not much else. So you would still have at least €90 leftover to do as you pleased for the week.

Some people over here don’t even cook at home because you can get a dinner or lunch in the Korean cafe type restaurants for less than 5,000 (€3). So those living alone will tend to just eat there. Personally I like having some vegetables, fajitas and stuff like that too so I eat at home more often that out (which, if living alone would work out more expensive)


5. Could you tell me the price of the following few goods?

a. Casual bite to eat in non-fancy restaurant as I said, €3 will get you a dinner in a local kim bap nara (cafe type place). You can even get kim bap (rice, vegetable rolls wrapped in sea wees...like cheap sushi) for less than a euro and that would do you for lunch. I hate sea weed so I never eat it.

Even going out to the nice Korean bbq restaurants (galbi, samgyup sal) will cost about 8,000 (5.50) per person for a group of 3 or four people. It’s not expensive to eat out if you eat Korean food and Korean food is awesome (plus the side dishes are never ending)

b. Pack of cigarettes I don’t smoke but I think they are about 2,500 (1.70) a pack. The government recently announced plans to up the rice to 8,000 to cut down on the high number of smokers. I hope they do.

c. Beer Afain, I don’t drink either but from what I’ve seen when out with the lads. 4,000 will get you a pint (€2.70) in most bars, some may be slightly more expensive and some slightly cheaper. Lots of people here drink outside the family mart / 7/11 (convenience stores) as you can get a pitcher of beer (1600ml) for about 4,000 won. Also soju (google it, Koreas answer to vodka) is less than 1,000 for 750ml.

d. Sandwich dream on, you don’t get proper sandwiches here. They just can’t make them. You could get what they call sandwiches (premade, wrapped in plastic and prob containing crab or jam with the meat) for 1,800 won

e. Litre of Milk I buy 2,400 ml (low fat milk, more expensive) for 3,400won. (€2.20) Not sure what a litre of normal milk is.

f. Loaf of Bread (or equivalent) I just buy small loaves (half loaf back home) in the bakeries for 2,000won. You can get the pre packaged bigger loaves of bread in supermarkets but it’s not nice and very sweet...don’t know the price.

g. Cinema ticket 8,000won I go there often, I go often at home too. The cinemas here are much more comfortable. Popcorn, for a medium will cost you about 3,000 (€2) which is much much cheaper than back home.

h. Any other examples you can think of?

Gyms can run anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 for the month. The better ones contain a spa area with steam rooms, sauna, hot baths, cold baths, green tea baths etc.

Shoes are about the same price as back home. I paid 150,000 (€100) for my asics runners over here. I have paid more for running shoes back home so it’s not too bad, plus they were the correct ones for my running form so I was happy to get them.

Clothes are a pain to get the right size for. I generally buy enough clothes to keep me going when I’m at home then I buy some t-shirts other tops out here when I need them.

Meat is expensive and is pretty crap in comparison to back home. You won’t be finding any nice steaks in the supermarket....and I don’t mean at an affordable price, I mean you won’t find them. Also minced beef is expensive, costing about 17,000 (€12 for pre packaged 900g shoddy looking beef)


I tried googling cost of living indices etc but the info was years old in many cases so something up to date from someone in the know would be very helpful.

Thanks again for you response above. Brilliant stuff.

K.