Ahn-yan-ha-say-yo (Hello in Korean),

Welcome to an opportunity to teach English and live in South Korea. Because of the high monthly salaries, free inbound flight fare and free living accomodation offered to English teachers, South Korea has become one of the more popular teaching destinations for English teachers travelling and teaching around the world. I taught English for one year in South Korea.

The most common and popular teaching position is working at a private English language institute. The owners of these institutes provide, in the majority of situations, free living accommodations for their English teachers. As is common in private English language institutes in other countries, teachers work teaching several classes in the morning and several classes in the evening. Teachers usually attend to personal business, shopping, or touring during the time between classes. As is usually the case, teachers do not have student homework to correct. The English teacher can expect to teach a variety of student groups including university students, domestic and international companies. Sometimes the English teacher will take a bus to outside teaching assignments, those located at universities, domestic and international businesses. The bus rides provide an additional opportunity to explore and learn about the country. South Korea is a frequent English language teaching destination for many adventurers and teachers many of whom will venture to Thailand, Japan, China or Europe on the next leg of their travels teaching abroad. Teachers with some experience teaching and those with a TEFL certification can expect to make more money than people without experience or a TEFL certification.

Both land and air transportation (domestic and international) is very well developed so if on holidays a teacher wishes to travel to other cities within South Korea, or nearby countries, the teacher has the ability to do so. The Philippines, Japan, Viet Nam, China, Taiwan, and Thailand are but a hop, skip and jump away by air. Both quality medical care and dental care are available in Korea. In the major South Korean cities there is a proliferation of bars for expats and during the day endless opportunities are available to explore the rich and historical culture of South Korea and night life options are readily available.

English teachers, both experienced and non experienced, are sorely needed in South Korea. South Korea is another Asian business tiger competing for its survival against Japan, China, Vietnam, and Thailand. The English language is the language of use for international business correspondence, negotiation, and trade. As one of my students in South Korea said, "For us (the survival of our company), learning English is life or death." If you are looking for a good way to spend your gap year or are currently unemployed at home, there is a job waiting for you teaching English in South Korea. Many employers of English teachers in Korea provide free inbound flight fare, a monthly end of year financial bonus equalling one month of pay (between US$1200 to 1500 or more), as well as health care coverage, fifty percent paid by the employer.

A number of my students, particularly university students, invited me out for dinner and also to meet their parents whom also provided fine meals. If you decide to teach in Korea you will probably experience the same as I. The Korean people are very friendly and helpful as well. In fact, when I first arrived in Korea, not able to read or speak the Korean language, a young man and woman walked four city blocks out of their way to help me get to my destination.

I met a number of English teachers from North America, Canada, and Britain who had married with Korean women. None expected to marry when they came to Korea, but expect the unexpected when you teach English abroad. This is especially true of Thailand which probably has one of the highest rates of Thai and native English speaking teachers cross cultural marriage rates world wide.

To sum up, South Korea has many fine English teaching job opportunities most of which pay well enabling a teacher to live comfortably, learn about a foreign culture by first hand experience, and save a good amount of money for the next destination teaching English abroad.

As an alternatiave to teaching English in Korea you might want to check out my web site about my experience teaching English and living in Thailand http://hubpages.com/hub/Teach-English-in-Thailand