r/teachinginkorea

I've managed to get a first interview for a school and just would like some tips and tricks to landing the job also what to expect from an interview. Just as this is my first time interviewing for a teaching role and would like to go in as prepared as possible.

For some background i'm a 32 year old woman from England this will be my first time in a full time teaching job however i've had some freelance teaching experience with lecturing in universities and also workshops teaching 6/7 year olds about music and instruments. I also worked for 3 years in a childrens museum in England but this 10 years ago before i went in to a marketing job role.

Hello, I have a schedule interview next week for DUX Pyeongchon in Anyang and was wondering if anyone has any insight on the school. I know they are supposedly a franchise and each location varies, but I’d really appreciate hearing anything I can about this specific school! Thank you in advance!

so I've been offered a job in korea, but they aren't paying for my flight.

The contract says I will get a 1million won bonus on top of severance pay (3.5million total) after 12months.

It sounds good but I'm worried they wont end up paying me. Does anyone have experience with this? do they actually pay bonuses like that or is it a scam lol

I tried to comment on throw away acc but it got flagged..

What’s reasonable to ask for at a 3rd year contract renewal?
ETA - I’m on 2.7 with deductions of around 400-450k a month

&gt;_< I’m not an assertive person and It’s causing my a lot of anxiety hahah

What do yall think about Kaylee Hagwon in Cheonan? I have an interview tonight, and it’s gonna be my first year as a teacher. My recruiter really hyped it up and even sent me a short video tour of the Hagwon, but they get paid by the school, so I don’t always trust them. She even said it’s an excellent Hagwon. I want to get opinions from those of you who have actually worked there or know someone who has worked there. My recruiter also said the lady I would replace was there for 4 years and is leaving. I guess 4 years is considered good for a Hagwon.

help! i am reviewing offers in bundang and pyeongchon and can’t decide. they both pay about the same (bundang is 100,000 krw more.) i know that bundang is more expensive but have heard that maybe it might be a little more fun? i’m in the my 20s, don’t speak korean, and don’t have friends in korea so im looking for a place that would be good socially. also walkability and good transit is important to me.
for people living in bundang, does it require more budgeting or are you able to comfortably enjoy the city on a teachers salary? does pyeongchon have a good social scene? honestly any recs and opinions would be great!

Hello! I recently posted on here about reporting my company through the MOEL office. This is a bit of a follow-up to that.

For a bit of context, I have a current contract spanning from June 2025-June 2026. In Feb 2026, I signed an extending contract that goes from June 2026-Feb 2027. However, after recent events, I informed them that I will be concluding my employment as per the initial contract and withdrawing from the second one that has not started yet.

I just transitioned to an F-2-7 visa about two weeks ago. The day after I received the approval, I let my hagwon's headquarters company know that I will not be continuing onto the next contract. They informed me that in order to pay me severance on time, I need to sign their proprietary resignation form internally. I emphasized that this was not a resignation, as I would be completing a full contract and simply withdrawing consent from a contract that has not started. After some back and forth, they sent me the template for this form, and they acquiesced to some of my contentions, such as not calling it a "resignation", including the definitive pay date of my severance in the form, etc. However, attached on this form is a very lengthy NDA that gives me pause. It mentions several things, such as returning all material, expanding to recordings and files, back to the academy and removing them from my possession indefinitely. This would, in theory, include the evidence and audio files I have against them from my MOEL case. It also states that I cannot show anything in regard to internal materials to a third party. In the event I ever wanted to sue them civilly, I would be giving up my right to show an attorney my evidence. The whole thing seems odd; I don't see why an NDA has to be attached to my resignation in this way. I'm almost half tempted to put it into Microsoft Word and remove the NDA and only sign the actual form they want.

So what do you guys think of all this? Let me know your thoughts.

For a multitude of reasons, I am leaving my hagwon after only a few weeks. There have been breaches of contract and the administration is highly abusive, and I just do not care to endure it longer. I am planning to go to Japan for a week, then return to Korea for a month as a tourist to enjoy my time before going home. I don’t yet have my ARC, so as far as I can understand, this would work fine and be fairly simple (correct me if I'm wrong).

My question is: should I midnight run and leave without telling them or inform them 24-48hrs prior? I don't want to make things more difficult for the other foreign teachers struggling through working there because they're all so nice.

EDIT: Does anyone have any information about whether it would indeed be possible to leave to Japan and return to Korea as a tourist? I have not had my immigration appointment yet to apply for my ARC.

I was going to use Accurate Biometrics to get my criminal background check while I was visiting Korea. I was a little confused about some of the process so I called to ask and the person I spoke to said that they can only process background checks for people who are in the US.

I was really hoping to get all this done while I was here and then secure a job quickly once I was back in the US but that's thrown a big wrench in my plans. Is there any other method or channeler I could use or do no channelers process background checks for people who are outside the US?

Thanks in advance all.

So, through a vegetable themed recruitment agency I applied for a F6 kindy job 3 weeks ago that was scheduled to start this week.
I completed my interview and mock class very well, and they seemed very impressed with me and offered me the position.

To begin with, I received an acceptance email to be part of the team and instructions to download the app. But, the classes I applied for weren't on the app.

I send a text message asking about it, but receive no reply.
Not wanting to be pushy, I waited patiently for a week before sending a second text message, but still no reply.
So I send an email, and get a reply apologizing for the lateness and said they would get back to me later in the afternoon with confirmation of the schedule....but that didn't come...

So, again I wait a bit patiently but with one week left until the schedule start and still no information barring the location of said classes, I send a message to again get no reply.

Today, I send a message, I phone (no answer), then send an email.

Then I get a reply saying the schedule has been moved to days in which I told them I wasn't available.

All these delays and lack of communication caused inconveniences in other plans that I had been needing to make, too.

By posting this, I kinda wanna know if this is normal of them?
Also, possibly give a heads up to other people who are applying to work with them.
And finally just to vent a bit about it because it really has frustrated me! lol

Hello I want to go to South Korea for 2 reasons. I want to teach English to get the experience as well as to attend graduate school. I know Korea offers scholarships, so I am wondering if I should find a job 1st then apply to a graduate program scholarship. Or if I should just apply for the scholarship and later find a job teaching. I am a little confused here as I want to do both. What would you recommend and if anyone has had experience, it would be great to hear. Thank you!

I’m about to finish my course and receive my certificate but I have cml cancer which can be treated orally with meds. My doctor says I can go overseas but I wanna know if I will be rejected or if this will hinder my chances . Also can I get my meds here ?

I’d like to know how it’s been for you ? The honest truth. If it’s been good please share and if it’s been bad then let me know what it was that has made it difficult. Is it worth it to go for a year or so to gain some experience living abroad independently.

Hello, I just want some advice as i've just started applying to recruiters for first time teaching jobs and so far i've had 4 recruiters respond all positive wanting to go forward with my application however one of them said to me 'a school is asking if you would be willing to dye your hair dark' I'm very aware i have bright orange hair and have been dying it ginger/orange for most my life.

It feels a bit odd me dying my hair a dark colour so i just wanted some advice if people have got jobs with bright orange hair or even ginger hair as i would defiantly go back to a more natural orange colour. Will my orange hair massively put off schools in this application process as only 1 out of the 4 recruiters has mentioned it to me so far.

So I have this plan.. but im completely unsure where to start. I have an understanding for most but I need help to fully understand all the details to go about this.

1. Can a community college (2 year) bachelor degree be considered valid for teaching in korea? Or does it need to be from a university?

2. Can you share your experience with moving and finding a teaching job there?

3. What are all the qualifications that Korea will need? Bachelors degree (at least), 120-hour TEFL, TESOL, or CELTA certification, visa ..?

I feel paralyzed and lost in life right now. I have some desire to teach english in Korea for 1-2 years, but would this be a bad move for me?

I'm a 23F US citizen and half-Korean for reference. I have visited before, but only briefly, and I really enjoyed it.

Why I want to go:

- just graduated last Dec
- I'm having trouble finding a job in the states
- this would be my only chance to experience Korea before I start a real career
- I want to experience the culture
- I want to learn Korean
- I want LASIK in Korea
- I feel like the experience would improve me or help me find a direction in life

Reasons I feel I shouldn't go:

- I'm worried it will make getting a job later more difficult, and it feels like a career setback
- poor pay, and I would like to make some money
- I don't speak Korean (although I can understand some)
- I wouldn't move back and begin my first full time job until I'm 24/25

Other Misc. Questions:
- how would I get my prescriptions in Korea or ahead of time?
- Could I start during the second semester of the school year (in August), or would I would I have to wait til March?

My dad died within the same couple of weeks as my graduation, and I've been depressed and my twiddling my thumbs since then, half-heatedly applying to jobs in the states (without luck). I have this unbearable feeling in my chest that my life is slipping away, and I'm rotting alone at home with no friends or social life.

I have a shitty degree so I likely couldn't find a very well paying job in the states, but it would still be marginally better than what I'd make in Korea as a teacher, and I could probably move up in a company to make more over time. I'd be giving up that money and experience that would probably make my future easier.

I know the process to applying for teaching jobs is not that difficult (like getting a TEFL cert, resume photo, etc.) but my depression is making everything hard. Once I have structure (like a job), I can do it everyday and be functional. But having nothing that I actively need to do really demoralizes me from doing anything.

(I am on the F2 visa)

Hello! I am hoping that someone could give me some insight into this. After I handed in my resignation letters (both in English and Korean), my boss said to me on the following day that I need to sign and fill in a company made registration form. She showed me the ones with the old format, saying that all Korean teachers have signed it before they left. She then said that there would be one with a new format, show it to me briefly (it was all in Korean) and stated that I could take a picture of it after I was done signing it. Of course, I did not sign it.

Anyway, my questions are, if my resignation was accepted, is it legal for them to make me sign it? Do I have to sign it? Is there any hard proof that I can show her to prove that I don't have to sign it?

So I'm looking for some advice for how anyone may approach teaching middle school kids.

As the foreign teacher I'm expected to teach them listening, speaking and writing. There is a book we use for the listening but for SP + WR I design my own lesson materials.

I'm expected to design my speaking + writing lessons from the Junior Times newspaper. Any of you done that before? Mostly I have the students write summaries or opinion pieces about articles we read.

However, I've been struggling teaching them. They seem really disengaged, bored, and uninterested with the material. And they absolutely hate speaking English which makes the classes difficult to conduct. I think they view my class as being unimportant compared to the Korean teacher's class.

Any tips would be appreciated!

So my academy just informed us that if we arrive late to school, it will be deducted from our pay. I usually arrive way early to prep but that's just me and another person mostly so it doesn't apply. However, A few things to note:

- it does not say anywhere in any of our contracts (E2) that we have to arrive at a certain time, just that school begins a bit half past 9am.

- our director has not informed us just how much would be deducted from our pay, when, how it would be totaled, etc.

- this is all supposed to be starting tomorrow

One of the teachers was noted as being 'late' because she clocked in 34 seconds after the certain time.

I don't know how this will actually go; if my director will back down or have us all sign new contracts or what but this feels...sketchy. I've worked in Korea for 2 years and never had anything like this. It has to be illegal right? Or at least worth a pushback?