Keen For Korea

Lately, a number of people have been asking about how to go about applying to teach in Korea and what to expect. Here are a few questions people have asked along the way. If you have any others please feel free to comment below or email me privately.

Q: I would like to know how to apply to teach in Korea?

"Basically, there are two routes for teaching in Korea. A Hagwon (private academy) or government post. The pay is relatively the same. However, because Hagwons are after school, the hours tend to be in the afternoon and evening (ie 2pm-10pm). Whereas public school job are typically more 9-5.

I have a government post and work at an actual school (high school) - my hours are 8:20- 4pm with an hour lunch break to do whatever I need etc. Many of the teachers think that government posts are better because they are required by law to uphold the contract that you sign at the beginning of your year. For example, you never have to worry about being paid late or a discrepancy in your contract. There are many very good and reputable Hagwons but there are also some bad ones that change/add hours and dont pay on time.

I personally would suggest that you go for a government post if possible (EPIK, GRPIK, GOE, SMOE). Although I do have a number of friends who really love their Hagwon jobs as well. My sister has recently taken a Hagwon job and loved it -I think it is just the luck of the draw. If you do not like the uncertainty of where you will be placed a hagwon job may be a better option for you.

Q: Who did you apply with?

The people I went through are a South African company called 'Teach Korea' (Golden Key). They are a couple named Cliff and Yunok who live in Cape Town. They only do public school recruiting and therefore do not charge anything to place you. I would always suggest this to people who are considering the move, as you do not loose out on money if you decided to change your mind. Here is their site: Golden Key

I went through something called the EPIK programme (English Program in Korea). In a nutshell, they have both an August and a February intake. This means they have giant orientations with about 500 new teachers at a university campus to show you how to be a teacher and how to speak a little Korean etc. It's a good way to ease into things because they fetch you from the airport, pay for you to stay in college dorms and feed interesting Korean food you for 10 days. The fly over is a culture shock - even for the most adventurous traveler- having this kind of help is fantastic in the early days of your adventure. They also did cool things like take the teachers to visit temples and teach Taekwondo. Considering we got a whole 10 days for free it was pretty amazing. For me it was a great way to meet other new English teachers.
*A warning the EPIK application is very long and tedious... but stick with it, it's worth it in the end.*"

Here is a link to the EPIK page: EPIK

Q:In terms of the application..how early should it be in?

"My opinion is that you should be starting the process of getting your information together about 6-8 months before you plan to leave. Believe me - it is a long process of getting various documentation apostiled and sent all the way to Korea. For instance, you are required to have a criminal background check (Police Clearance Certificate in SA) before you are eligible to even be considered for a job. In South Africa this can take up to 3 months to process and return.

Q: What sort of things do they look for?

"EPIK looks for a number of things, like a university degree (a teaching degree is not a requirement), some basic teaching or child care experience. When I first applied, I used my volunteer and aupairing experience as a basis for the questions they asked.

The second thing you will need is a TESOL/TEFL course. I did mine in Cape Town. I was quite pricy but it is a highly regarded one that has 120 hour of in class teaching.(The in class teaching is something that they look for when narrowing down their applicants). However, if you are applying to a hagwon, an online TESOL/TEFL is totally fine.

        Here's where I did it: TESOL (Claremont, Cape Town)

For your application - you must have Application form
Reference letters (x2) hand signed, with an offical letterhead
                                                               Studio Portrait Passport size photo in colour (x2)
                                                             Passport scan
                                                               Background checks (Police Clearance)
Sealed and stamped transcripts from your uni (x2)
Notarized an Apostiled degree certificate

If you are in SA you will also need a letter from your junior school, high school and university saying that all schooling was conducted in English.

The paperwork is a nightmare to organise but it is totally worth the extra work. Ask your recruiter - they should have a template application and reference letters for you."

Q: What is the average pay and is your housing and transport included?

"I am at the bottom of the pay scale as a newbie teacher and my salary works out at roughly $2300 /R 26 - 28 000 a month (not too bad right? Depending on the strength of the Rand and the area you teach in). I can easily send home half my paycheck a month which is great for saving. For every year that you decide to renew, your salary goes up according to a pay scale. You are also entitled to a 13th paycheck for completing your contract.

Housing is included, as well as the cost of the flight to and from Korea. However, the housing will most likely be a 'one-room' apartment, meaning your kitchen and bed are in the same room. I honestly have never really had much of a problem with it - especially as there is a culture of eating out in Korea.

The school covers half of your medical care (Their medical system is amazing I paid about 4000 won/ $4 / R45 rand for a specialist doctors visit and two types of antibiotics).

The only thing that you really have to pay for is your utility bills and general entertainment.
Finally full school lunches (more than you would eat at dinner) are included at a hugely subsidized monthly price. Basically, you only have to cover dinner and breakfast. Although the lunches are a little interesting at times ( bean sprout soup and boiled fish broth).

There is no transportation fee. However, if you are placed in a very rural area or at 2 or more schools you will be given an additional 100 000 won per school (about R1300) for the inconvenience."

Q: What age group do you teach and how is their daily plan?

"I ended up teaching high school boys. I didn't know that was what I would get until I arrived over here. This is part of the deal with the EPIK program - you do not know where you will end up and what age group you will be teaching until you arrive.

Most new teachers will probably end up teaching elementary school. This is about the ages of 6 to 12. Teaching High school has actually worked out quite well for my personal situation.

My main focus is to teach them conversation as they already have a Korean English teacher to teach them grammar and spelling etc. I have varying levels of students. Some of my boys cannot spell their names in English while others can have political debates in class. The nice thing is that they stream the classes so that you can teach the different levels separately. Basically, I see each class once a week. At the moment I am teaching 16 hours a week and the rest of the time is left for planning and marking etc (it's pretty relaxed). A big plus to teaching in Korea is that you are supposed to always have a co-teacher in the class with you... this is a teacher who can translate between Korean and English for the classes understanding. They also help a lot with discipline etc."

*Although a teacher is assigned to you - they often never come to class*

Q: What are the children and the parents like, are they easy to communicate with?

"In all honesty, Korea is not very English friendly this why they employ us. In the bigger cities you can get around but in the smaller cities most people cannot speak English.. This is why cities like mine tend to have a very tight-knit foreigner community. Ie an expats bar. It is still easy to get around the country and the government has made quite a few adjustments for foreigners. I.e. there is a foreigner helpline you can phone and the person on the line can translate directly for you. Having said that.. I am useless at Korean and I get by just fine. Plus, because Korea is so small I can get into a big city in about an hour and a half."

Q: Did you find it difficult to make friends?

"Leaving for Korea - this was one of my biggest concerns. What if I was in the middle of no where and I would end up having no one to spend time with? I was placed in a pretty small city with about 30 other foreigners around and I can in all confidence say I have yet to feel very lonely. Because there is such a large language barrier I find that expats tend to stick together. I found, whether this is a good or a bad thing, that I have made more expat friends than I have Korean ones. For me, one of the huge selling points of joining the EPIK program is that I have formed bonds with people from all over the world. For instance, England, Ireland, USA, Aus etc."

Q: What happens if you don't get offered a job right away?

"This has happend to a number of my friends. It is important to remember that there is quite a bit of competition for jobs in Korea. Remember - you have people from 7 different countries applying for these jobs - that is quite a large scope of people. My opinion is try, try and try again with different recruiters and jobs- the perfect one will come along!"

A quick update on my time in Korea.

I have offically signed on for another year in Korea and in the city of Yeongju. However, I will be making the move from a boys high school down to a nearby elementary school. I am pretty excited for the change of pace, beginnning September 1st 2014. As much as I will be very sad to say goodbye to some of my boys, I am looking foward to teaching some cuties in the younger grades.

My current high school, where I will be finnishing up my contract over the next couple of weeks.

Another development is that I have finally mannaged to book tickets for vacation. Over the last few weeks I have been focusing on saving money for my big trip home on the 19 of July for 3 weeks. I CANNOT wait to go home and see everybody! I miss so much about South Africa.

A view of my home, Cape Town and Table Mountain.

Life in Yeongju is much the same, however last week was my birthday and I was incredibly spoilt by all of Yeongju! I am finaly starting to feel quite old at 24. A bunch of the expats threw me a 'Pretty in Pink' party and decorated an entire bar in pink ballons and table cloths!

Karina and I at clown bar. She personally hand made the Happy Birthday sign.

My apartment front door decorated by Lindsay on the morning of my birthday.

Heres to my last couple of weeks as a high school teacher and to another year laughing in Korea.

Recently a few of the teachers from my town took a trip to Dangyang. It is a small town about half an hour outside of Yeongju. Out of the many places I have visited in Korea, I will say that Dangyang is the most picturesque. The town is built on the side of a mountain, running along the Namhan river. As it was the middle of spring, vibrant purple and yellow flowers lined the sidewalks while new greens leaves blanketed the previously bare mountains.

Our original intention was to take a trip for the day to see a temple in the area for its lanterns. However, on arrival we were told that it would potentially require a further 2 hour wait, as the connecting bus was delayed from Seoul. We decided instead to make the most of our trip out there and go and see the the Cosu caves about 3km away from the bus station.

The Cosu caves can be found about 3km over the bridge from the bus station and is relatively easy to access. About half a Kilometer away from the bus station (over the bridge) is a tourist information centre that can help with directions.

I had originally thought that the caves would be a quick, 10 minute affair but was surprised to find myself climbing up into different chambers of the caves about an hour and half later. The Cosu caves were discovered as late as the 1970’s, along with a number of stone work tools in the entrance of the cave that suggested it was an early human shelter.

A bridge over Han-nam river. Far in the distance is the tourist information centre.

The walk along to Cosu cave.

Anita and the Wisteria flowers.. We both remembered the name.. purely because it was in Desperate Housewives.

Considering we visited the caves at the last minute, it really was quite impressive for 5000 won (R50/ $5). The caves, which are estimated to be about 450 million years old, weave in and out of the mountain side in between pools of water and limestone rock formations.

Much of the cave has been excavated to allow tourists to visit it. As the cave becomes deeper, there are more and more spiraling stair cases that allow visitors to reach the cave ceiling and move between the different chambers. Of course no attraction would be complete in Korea without an official photo booth, with a fake backdrop and a hiking stick props. One does wonder why you would need a fake backdrop, as the photo is taken already inside the cave. But hey, I suppose getting a good, photoshoped picture is important.

Entrance to the Cosu Cave

Inside the caves.

The stair cases up and down the cave.

We ended off the day, drinking beer and eating Donkas (a type of pork schnitzel/ cutlet) at a restaurant along the river side. I would definitely recommend Dangyang to any visitors to the area looking to visit temples, para-glide or even go paint balling.

For more information please visit http://wikitravel.org/en/Danyang

Dangyang train station

Heather and Anita waiting for the train.

A few weeks ago Norah and I took the day off and went one town over to Andong on the train. The ideas was to spend some time together before she returned back home to Canada.

Andong train station.

We had been told about the soju museum (alcoholic Korean rice wine) by a few people and figured we'd take the bus about 10 minutes outside of the city to see what it was all about. After 20 minutes of being on the bus, we politely pushed the button so that we could be dropped off at the up coming stop. However, as we pinged the button, the bus driver abruptly slammed on the breaks and dumped us on the side of the highway with the greatest sense of urgency I have ever seen. I think he was hoping that if we got off quickly he wouldn't have to try and decipher our English.

Norah and I exchanged panicked looks... now what? We were on the side of a highway somewhere outside of Andong...with not a whisper of human activity, well except for a completely silent lumber yard and two very confused waygooks. Realistically even if we could find someone to help... how would they understand us? At this point I was starting to think that some calming soju might be quite bloody nice. We must have stood on the side of the road for a good 10 minutes, just hoping, ever so ridiculously, that a magic taxi man speaking perfect English would just happen to feel like driving around a rural forest area of Andong on a casual Thursday afternoon. Slim chance.

Eventually, after a minor internal panic on my part and the definite brains behind the operation on Norah's part, we managed to walk a while down the highway until we came across a petrol station. The poor petrol attendants were totally flabbergasted when two little foreigners appeared (practically out of nowhere) at their stop, like a pair of mythical creatures crawling out of the woods.
"Ooohhhh heeello" said the aged attendant sitting in the office of the station. The two of us, including a small family may have been his only customers for the day. I must definitely commend Norah for making the best of her google translate, and getting him to order a taxi for us. 10 minutes later we were at the soju museum (putting the highway ordeal behind us).

Norah at the petrol station using google translate to get us un-lost.

Finally got a taxi!

The Soju Museum

It turns out we had passed the soju museum on the bus long before we had actually stopped (oops). If anyone decides to visit it, I suggest that you just direct a taxi from Andong train station and pay up the 5000 won. Its not worth being a cheapskate and being dumped next to a lumber yard hahaha.

Success! At the soju museum

The museum itself was incredibly interesting. The guide, who speaks near perfect English, showed us how the soju is traditionally distilled in big urns with rice, wheat and barley as well as how this has changed to sweet potato and tapioca during the Korean depression to cut costs.

wiki image (They wont let you take photos inside)

The museum also had some interesting pieces of Korean history. For instance, when a child is born, parents prepare a table with an number of objects like money, books and a sword. The future of the child is supposed to depend very heavily on the object that he/she picks up. For instance a child who picks up money, is likely to be wealthy as an adult. I was especially happy with the complimentary shot of traditional Andong soju at the end of the tour. Sitting at 36% pure alcohol, I felt totally buzzed after a single shot. I think you may end up in hospital after a full bottle.

A bottle of traditional Andong Soju we bought.

Drinking from a giant distillery urn at the museum.

Getting lost was stressful - I needed it!

Andong food

After our museum adventure, we headed to downtown Andong for traditional Jjimdak. It is a dish that Andong is famous for with clear sweet potato noodles (Jap che) and spicy chicken. It is one of my favourite Korean dishes. It was delicious.

Andong Jjimdak: Jap che noodles, chicken, cabbage, carrots and potatoes.

We ended off the day going to Mammoth Bakery. I would definitely suggest this to anyone in Yeongju or Andong looking for fantastic baked goods or delicate cakes.
All in all, we got pretty lost but hey, the day ended with good food, booze and cake!

Norahs cake: Chocolate sponge and mousse layers, with raspberry glaze.

My cake: sponge cake layers with white chocolate mousse, earl grey tea mousse, raspberry jelly and strawberries.

In Phuket Robyn and I stayed in Patong and Karon.

Phuket was more touristy than anywhere else we stayed and honestly I would probably not recommend the area to anyone looking to go to Thailand. It felt like I was on a never ending spring break holiday (or Plett rage). There were half naked, overly tanned people everywhere, wearing neon colors and drinking at 11 in the morning. I am aware that I sound like a granny whining about crowds and partying at the ripe old age of 23 but still... there was something a little seedy about the area. Probably our worst accomodation was the oh-so-lovley "Happy guest house" that we stayed in just off the main Phuket strip. Robyn and I offically named it the Crack shack.

The Crack Shack!!

We dont know what went wrong, the online reviews were good, the price the same as any of the others and it was in a decent location. Yet somehow, we ended up in what looked like a ghetto dwelling.

We politely waited for our check in guy to leave the room before bursting into laughter and looking around the room concerned at the blood stain on the curtain and the damp, smokey smell seeping out of the walls. We sat on the bed wondering whether there would be anything undesirable to be found in between the sheets and considered sleeping above the duvet. There were even a couple of buttered crackers that had been left on the balcony from the previous inhabitants. At one point we both felt inexplicably itchy and weren't sure why. It was frankly a totally dump hahha.

But all was not lost! On our first full day we went to Phi Phi island! We walked around Phuket and asked a few tour companies about their prices. Each time they would say something outrageous like 3 or 4 thousand Bhat before promptly dropping down to just over a 1000 Bhat (R350/ $35) when we began to walk away. Visiting Phi Phi island was a fantastic experience. A speedboat took us out for the day to a number of islands in the bay, fed us a full buffet lunch and dropped us back at our hotel at the end of the day. We got to spend the day snorkeling, eating tropical fruit and tanning on the beach, this was definitely the kind of day you imagine when visiting a tropical paradise.

After a dirty day or two in Patong, we moved a town over to Karon and stayed at a much more pleasant German guesthouse with a huge balcony. The beach was a thousand times nicer as was the general feel of the town. In fact we even got to see luminescent plankton in the water on our last night. Weirdly enough, Karon seems to have a ton of Russian tourists everywhere. In fact some of the menus at restaurants and bars are written completely in Russian. I would definitely go back to Karon again if only to get a better look at the outdoor market!

The main road in Karon.. filled with laid back bars and restaurants.

Our giant balcony

All in all a fantastic holiday away with a pretty awesome buddy! I would hugely recommend Thailand to anyone! Lastly here is a look at some of the Thai food that we ate along the way: