This teaching English in Korea 밤알바 카톡 guide covers everything you need to know, including salaries and benefits for being an English teacher, requirements for teaching English in Korea, the various programs for English teachers in Korea like the EPIK, how to find jobs teaching English in Korea, and much more. The salary for English teachers in South Korea differs depending on the type of job, your qualifications, and the years of experience teaching both inside and outside Korea. Most English teacher jobs in South Korea, including those with the EPIK, Hagwon, and University, offer a signing bonus if you choose to remain in the same school for a second year.
Typically, a college English instructor can expect to be paid a similar salary as public school/hagwon jobs (2.2-2.5 million Korean won), but with less hours taught and more paid vacations. The salary for hagwon teachers can vary greatly, and will depend on ones qualifications, experience, and what types of students one will teach. How you go about finding your job as a teacher will depend on if you want to teach at a public school or a private one, which I explain below in more detail.
If you are applying to teach public schools, such as with the English Programme in Korea (EPIK), you will need to submit an application for six months. For example, if you learn you are placed into a rural public school location in the city while applying for one in central Seoul, then you cannot apply to teach in private schools in Seoul.
Many people teaching English in Korea at public schools are hired via formal government programs, which are heavily region-based. For students attending the top universities in Seoul, including Seoul National University, South Korean University, and Yonsei University (commonly called SKY) Seoul, finding a tutoring position is easier. The higher salary and lower hours might make teaching and tutoring jobs seem worthwhile, but you can get kicked out of Korea if caught teaching illegally, and possibly banned from teaching in Korea ever again. The labor market for teaching English in South Korea is massive (25,000 foreigners teach English there each year), and those who fit standard criteria–native English speakers who have 4 years of education and clean criminal records–can almost always be hired with a Tefl certificate, but there is a process to be followed.
From the day you start taking TEFL classes until you board your plane to Korea, the certification process, finding teaching jobs, and making arrangements for transportation and visas usually takes 4-6 months (2-3 months more for positions at state schools). When you enroll in an TEFL course at the International TEFL Academy, you will get job search guidance that you will need in order to be hired in South Korea and other countries worldwide. Once you have got your documents ready, you will start working with an advisor from International TEFL Academy, who will assist you in connecting with recruiters (International TEFL Academy has relationships with the best recruitment organizations for South Korean teacher positions), reviewing job listings, and researching individual English teacher jobs in South Korea or other locations.
Public School jobs One of the most sought-after types of English teaching jobs in South Korea is the position in a public school. ESL Job Link offers English teacher jobs for passionate individuals looking to live rent-free, earn a great salary, feed their travel passion, and experience another culture for one year. ESL Job Link has personally visited all of the private schools where we are advertising teaching positions, so you can be sure of your decision to teach English overseas.
These jobs are perfect for those who are interested in teaching as a career, or for those looking for an international experience. Public school jobs typically provide for regular work hours of 9-5 (or equivalent), with guaranteed real instructional hours of no more than 22 hours a week. Generally, teaching hours actually do exceed 22 hours a week, and there is less offered in terms of vacation than in Public Schools.
Many jobs in private academies do not care where accreditation is obtained, or whether it is done online, but some jobs in public schools may require that you be available for a specific number of live hours in a physical classroom. Public school jobs do require that the co-teacher attends class with the native English language teacher. Since you may teach in students homes or your own, you may work much more comfortably than in part-time jobs, which can involve longer hours and standing.
The most common part-time jobs are working at stores and restaurants, but these jobs may be difficult to obtain unless you can speak decent Korean. University students who are at or above the TOPIK 3 level can easily get jobs, and can work with no restrictions on their time off. I actually found my job as a 2nd-year college student teaching adult English on part-time basis (an extremely rare finding) via an advertisement on the Korean Craigslist.
These are not just my opinions, these are facts that I learned through 1) teaching at both public and private schools in Korea, 2) EPIK recruiting experience, and 3) 18 years recruiting at private schools. If you are wondering about more intricacies of life in Korea, rather than teaching, then please see this post on What I Do and Do not Miss About Korea. Here, you will find information on schools, costs, how to apply, Korean language, scholarships, working in Korea, and so on.
We suggest that you begin learning Korean if you wish to study in Korea for an extended time, even if you wish to attend an undergraduate course mainly taught in English. Korean students start learning English and mathematics from an early age at school and with private tutoring. Unlike what so-called experts on the Korean English-teaching industry have been saying on Daves ESL Cafe online or on other forums, most private schools are well-run institutions who would never risk their reputations to save some cash by skipping out on a teachers salary.