|
Teaching in South
Korea
Hi my name is Tim Eisner. I decided to
teach in South Korea because I had no real knowledge of Korea. I
found my job by looking on Dave's ESL cafe. I was pretty selective of
where I wanted to go and and careful to check that my school was
legit. Upon arriving in Korea I was given a few scares, my apartment
being very small in comparison, and my boss being a little impersonal.
But after a few weeks it
was easy to settle into the routine. I worked at Dream Kids English
School
teaching children aged 4 to 13. Working with kids was great in that
they make you smile and you can really see them progress in the
language but I missed being able to have conversations with my class.
The majority of the jobs in South Korea are at 'Hagwons' or private
institutions. While my school did work hard to teach English and all
the teachers did their best, the feeling I got from the bosses was
that it was all about money. That being said I still learned a lot
about teaching and working with children and had a great time as well.
Living in Korea was nice. My job which had a lower pay than most gave
me about $1500 a month plus housing which was very reasonable. I was
able to save almost $1000 a month and live very comfortably. The
Korean people are extremely friendly and easy to get along with. In
all my time there were only two people who ever gave me trouble for
being an American. And the amount of people that treated me with
respect and friendship was far greater. I lived in Suwon which is a
satellite city to Seoul. Suwon itself was rather ugly and grey but
there are many mountains nearby and it is really easy to ride the
subway into Seoul. I highly recommend teaching in Korea if you are
interested in learning about another culture and having an adventure.
I met a lot of foreigners who liked to complain a lot but it was only
because they couldn't accept the differences in culture. Also the food
in Korea is delicious but there is a high amount of meat in their diet
and I would not suggest Korea if you are a vegetarian.
Good luck to all of you and if you have any questions or want
advice about where to teach feel free to email me at
timothy@thoughtdreams.net
|
