Questions

[Mango]

Hi Dan,

My girlfriend and I are Canadians and are seriously considering teaching english in Korea and we have a bunch of questions and concerns that we'd like to clarify before we go any further.

- What is the average salary that we can expect to recieve and do some places pay more for individuals with teaching degrees and/or ESL certification
- Do most schools offer shared accomodations for couples and how easy is it to find teaching jobs for couples in the same school
- If we wanted to leave in August, when would be the best time to apply
- Is every contract for a full year or are there ones available for six months
- We're considering jobs in either Seoul or Busan, would you recommend one or the other in terms of salary expectations, accomodations, job opportunities etc...
- There seems to be quite a number of recruiting sites on the net and we were just wondering why we should use yours in particular.

We thank you very much for any help you can give us and look forward to hearing from you.

Cheers

[Dan Henrickson]

Thank you for the questions. I will do my best to help clarify this process.

Salary - The avg salary for new teachers in Korea, outside of Seoul, with no Education degree, is 2.0 to 2.1 million won. If you work right inside Seoul, or have your B. Ed., there's a chance you can make slightly more, maybe 100,000 or 200,000 won per month. The salaries, and overall contracts are surprisingly consistent across all of Korea.

Accommodations - Most schools that will hire couples, will provide shared housing. Some schools will not hire couples, since they worry if you argue, or break-up, the school will loose 2 teachers at the same time.

Start date - even though schools usually only plan 6-8 weeks in advance, I still suggest applying 3-4 months in advance, so we can sort through requirements, documents, desired locations etc in plenty of time. The E2 visa process also requires you obtain a criminal record check, so I suggest that you order that now, as it will take 2-4 weeks.

Contract length - Yes, virtually all contracts are 1 yr in length.

Location - Seoul and Busan are great choices for places to live in. Both are enormous, so we've had more success with satellite Seoul cities, or medium sized Korean cities (1,500,000 people), but we have schools anywhere you want to work.

Why Teach ESL Korea? - I think the fact that we care deeply about our applicants, have helped over 100 teachers in 10 months, and have never had even a serious complaint about one of our schools should help applicants comfort level. We also host parties for all of our teachers, helping create a team environment, and ensuring you enjoy your Korean experience.

If you have any more questions, feel free to post them here, or email us at teacheslkorea@gmail.com. Our phone numbers are: 204-333-5563 (Canada) or (204) 221-9000.