Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
If you're interested in teaching legitimately, there are a few options—universities, in-
house corporate classes, public schools, and
hagwon
(private institutes), with the latter gen-
erally doing the most hiring. All carry on a substantial amount of recruitment abroad, and
contracts typically include airfare to and from the teacher's country of origin and accom-
modations, as well as a salary of around 2 million won per month. As housing is taken care
of, many teachers find it easy to save a good chunk of each pay packet.
The qualifications required for English teaching positions vary, but a bachelor's degree
and a passport from a native English-speaking country are the bare minimum, and the best
university and corporate positions often require master's degrees and years of experience.
After a few well-publicized incidents of foreign instructors violating local laws, authorities
have become more rigorous about background checks, and they now require most new hires
to undergo health evaluations and to produce clean criminal records from their home coun-
tries. Any reputable employer should be familiar with current visa procedures (they change
with alarming regularity) and be able to help you negotiate them.
Once you do get started, the average
hagwon
position will involve around 30 hours of
teaching time per week, with a few additional hours for planning or administrative work.
Some institutes run split shifts—early morning and late evening—to accommodate the typ-
ical student groups: schoolchildren and office workers. Class sizes are usually around a
dozen students, and while almost all institutes employ Korean English teachers to instruct
genuine beginners, foreign hires can expect to teach students of a wide range of English
abilities largely on their own.
Co-teaching is more common in the university and public school environments, where
class sizes are far larger and strict curricula often have to be followed. By far the greatest ad-
vantage of these positions for most is the substantial vacation time: Teachers often enjoy the
same lengthy summer and winter breaks as their students. There are also fewer classroom
hours than at private academies, especially in universities where some foreign professors
teach only six or seven hours per week. Needless to say there's some heated competition
for these posts.
Most foreign teachers enjoy their Korean experience, but some fall prey to bad employ-
ers, particularly in the
hagwon
industry, which is massive and virtually unregulated. Sub-
standard housing, unpaid overtime, and the early termination of contracts, usually to avoid
paying employees incentives agreed on when the contract was completed, are among the
more common complaints.
Even if they're halfway around the world during the hiring process, the onus is on the
teachers-to-be to check out any prospective employer as carefully as possible. If you're con-