[retTreftowhexm]

The only reason to go as an ESL teacher is to have sex with young Korean girls. Unless your wife is ok with that, I'd suggest looking for more respectable work.

[Calluffence]

I don't think English speaking teachers are used in introductory classes. I think they use them first of all to practice oral skills like conversation.

[F1grandprix]

The point is supposedly TOTAL immersion. I'm told that speaking Korean is actually forbidden in the classroom. EPIK, at least, partners you with a native Korean teacher. I'm waiting to hear more from acquaintances and relations who have actually done it, though.

[ëàìèíàò]

I gotta be me.

[jisee]

I'd appreciate it if you did; BTW, what's a "gyopo"?

So as to only have one me thread active at a time, I may as well announce here that as of Monday I will no longer be a pizza drone. Instead, I will be a census-bureau drone for four to eight weeks. Hooray.

[Chooriwrocaxz]

Ah. Grazie.

[lh88gFzI]

Now this is something I know about

I've been teaching in Korea since August of 2003.

For a newbie in Korea a public school is your best bet, for a lot of the reasons that you say (also more free time generally). There ARE good hagwons but most won't want to hire some random person who's never even been to Korea sight unseen unless you've got some kind of qualifications such as graduating from a school that's high up in some ranking, having an Ed degree (even an English degree helps in some places), teaching experience, etc. etc.

HOWEVER, you can probably do better than EPIK. If you go with EPIK you'll make crap money and you'll have NO idea where you'll end up and you really really don't want to end up in a farming town where the average age is 50.

If you're coming as a couple you'll be more sought after since they can hire the pair of you and save $$$'s on housing, (and married couples are seen as more stable and less likely to do weird **** or randomly leave) so you've got bargaining power that way. Your best bet is probably GEPIK, they pay more and they place you in schools in Gyeonggido (the donut-shaped province surrounding Seoul), or a public or private elementary school hiring independently. Also watch out for after school programs, some of those can be sketchy. If you're not going with one of the big groups, PM me the contract terms to look over.

I've had enough of this ****ing pizza. You want corn and sweet potato pizza instead then?

Don't you have to at least know some of the students' language though? Or do you just point to pictures and say stuff? In the public schools you have a co-teacher. In any case if you're teaching a language you really shouldn't be speaking virtually ANY of the student's native language, even if you speak it fluently.

In any cases the class sizes in Korean public schools are much too large to accomplish much real language instruction. Sticking foreigners in them once a week or so (in most of the public schools) is mostly for show.

I don't think English speaking teachers are used in introductory classes. I think they use them first of all to practice oral skills like conversation. That would make sense. English instruction in Korea seldom makes sense. English teachers are used for all kinds of bizarre things from teaching kids who can barely talk Korean to being townsfolk in bizarre mock "English villages."

Job posting websites to take a look at, you might find something that really catches you eye:
www.worknplay.co.kr (my favorite, usually the more high end jobs)
www.englishspectrum.com (not many jobs, but some fairly decent ones)
www.eslcafe.com (lots and lots of jobs, most of them really crappy ones, there are a decent newbie gigs and some public schools and unis post there)

Er, I never taught English in Korea. Largely because, you know. I'm a gyopo, so there's a bias against me. This is very very untrue as long as you have an F-4 visa. Ever since they tightened up the E-2 visa restrictions, having an F-series visa has been pure gold. The bulk of the higher paying work (especially corporate classes) are largely staffed by gyopos.

[LasTins]

You should definitely try Sum Yung Gai while in Korea. It's the #1 tourist attraction.

[rootoronpunty]

You're probably thinking of sam gyeob sal, although that is pig belly rather than unsmoked bacon. Its not bad.

You might also want to look into getting some kind of TEFL certification (TESOL or CELTA) if you've got the time, most places will give you $100/month more if you have one and they won't hurt when it comes to looking for jobs.

But basically just look at those three sites and stuff will come up, there's no reason to wait for the next big hiring push when jobs open up randomly all the time. Of course its a bit harder for you since you have to go through all the E-2 paperwork, but it doesn't hurt to look for something better than EPIK.

[bestgenpower]

This is very very untrue as long as you have an F-4 visa. Ever since they tightened up the E-2 visa restrictions, having an F-series visa has been pure gold. The bulk of the higher paying work (especially corporate classes) are largely staffed by gyopos.

Oh reeeeeallly?

Hrm. My relatives told me that about the English thing, perhaps because they kept wanting me to sign up with Samsung or whomever instead...

[illetrygrargo]

Look at Q^3. He was a nice, normal, well-adjusted NASCAR fan until he went to Korea. He tasted Sum Yung Gai and now he's an artistic homosexual.

[ionitiesk]

Look at Q^3. He was a nice, normal, well-adjusted NASCAR fan until he went to Korea. He tasted Sum Yung Gai and now he's an artistic homosexual.

No, no, no, no. You have it backwards.

I was a nice, normal, well-adjusted Korean-American immigrant who had been told that there were no homosexuals or serial killers in Korea by a very reliable source.

And then I moved to a den of iniquity, known as Chicago, and now I'm an artistic homosexual. And it was Americanized Sum Yung Gai, too.

[FalHaitle]

Elok: also take a look at the Seoul Craig's List. A lot of crap gets posted there, but the volume is high.

Oh reeeeeallly?

Hrm. My relatives told me that about the English thing, perhaps because they kept wanting me to sign up with Samsung or whomever instead...

The run of the mill kiddie hagwons prefer white faces, but nobody sane wants to teach at those ANYWAY and a lot of the SAT test-prep places and adult places prefer gyopos. And then after some Canuck who had been teaching English in Korea got caught with his pants down with a kid in Thailand,they really tightened up the E-2 (standard English teacher visa) regulations, requiring criminal background checks and whatnot, which is really time consuming. And since in Korean businesses they generally want everything done yesterday, people with F-series visas (mostly F-4, which is the gyopo visa, and F-2, the spouse visa) became pure gold. There's lots and lots of good jobs that only hire people with F-visas, especially the part-time gigs.

To get an F-4 visa you need a copy of a cancelled Korean family registry form or other evidence of cancelled citizenship, either in your name or your parents' name(s) and you're golden.

What I'd recommend is either:

1. Get an afterschool gig at a Seoul public school (they advertize on worknplay periodically and are usually afternoon only and want F-visa people and that way you don't have to deal with the Seoul Ministery of Education directly) that provides housing and get some part-time jobs either before or after that job to make more money.

2. Get a regular public school job in a big/rich enough city to have lots of part-time around (Suwon, Bundang, Busan, etc.) and do part time work after hours.

3. Take care of your own housing and string together a few part time jobs into a sane schedule. With my current schedule, I'm making about 2.4 million/month at my morning and lunchtime jobs, finishing at 1 PM, not even counting my afternoon and evening stuff. This'd be harder to do as a newbie, but very possible especially if you have some way to get your hands on a few tutoring gigs (relative, etc.). For this to work you'd need to be within commuting distance of a place with lots of part-time jobs (such as southern Seoul).

F-4 visas are gold. If you can't get one (for example if your parents never surrendered their Korean citizenship and you never were a Korean citizen) you'd be screwed a bit, but you could still get a decent enough public school gig anywhere besides Seoul (the Seoul Ministry of Education has enough applicants that it doesn't usually hire people without experience/BEds/certification).

[caseferter]

Was it a white boy?

Well, I did enter one course of study simply because of the professor, which I suppose bridges the cultural gap between Korea and America.