Teaching English, yes, but more specifically, I am working for a hagwon, which is for-profit private institution that kids attend after public school: after-school school. Hagwons are very popular, and a lot of foreign teachers end up working for them. Foreigners can work for public schools, but these programs (most commonly EPIK and GEPIK) are run through the Korean Ministry of Education. Each position has its advantages and disadvantages. Public school positions run on a regular school day schedule, are stable, and generally have more vacation time. On the downside, classes are larger and there are very few foreign teachers. Hagwons run on an afternoon-evening schedule (good or bad depending on personal preference), have smaller classes, employ more foreign teachers (anywhere from 3-6 per campus), and have a curriculum provided by the school (minimal lesson planning!). On the downside, the quality of management can vary because they are privately owned and operated, and even different campuses run by the same company can have a different feel depending on the supervisor. Working for a hagwon, one may also feel slightly guilty for being part of the crazy intense cram school culture. I remember how shocked my parents were that my contract said my hours would be 2 pm to 10 pm for teaching elementary-aged kids! But you have to accept that it’s the way of life here, and I personally think it will be a very interesting glimpse into that world. The elementary school range is also a little older here than it is in the states, and the oldest kids at our campus, who are about 13 years old, are the ones that have the latest classes.

A long flight on Singapore Air, which, let me tell you, is the swankiest airline I’ve ever been on. They gave us socks, a toothbrush, and toothpaste, steaming hot hand towels to wash up, and two full meals.

Okay, enough about Singapore Air and onto how to get a job teaching in South Korea. Work with a recruiter, someone who acts as a liaison between you and Korean employers and helps you find a job that will be legitimate and a good fit. I used Adventure Teaching, and I cannot recommend them highly enough. I applied, and after a short phone interview, they said they were interested. Then I had to get all of my paperwork together to send to the Korean embassy, and this was the longest part of the process as it takes 4-6 weeks to process federal background checks. Then, that background check and a copy of your diploma have to be notarized and sent to D.C. to get a federal level apostille (another kind of authentication). It takes a while, even if it all goes perfectly, and it’s also pretty expensive.

While I was doing this, Adventure Teaching sent out my resume and profile to employers who were hiring, and I ended up interviewing first for a job at a SLP school in Uijeongbu. Then, feeling unsure about being that far outside of Seoul, I interviewed for a job with Avalon English, which has a lot of campuses in and around Seoul and offers you a location as they offer you your contract. First I had a Skype interview with Avalon, and then I had to write a short essay and upload a teaching sample video (suuuuper awkward) before they made the decision to hire me.

The nice thing about interviewing for teaching jobs in Korea is that you literally know the next day whether they want to hire you or not. There’s none of the weeks or even months of hearing nothing that you have in the US. When my Korean paperwork situation was looking bleak, I applied for a job at UPenn on February 14th, and I didn’t hear anything about whether they wanted to interview me (and they did!) until April 4th. Finally my paperwork came through. By that time, I had lost my original position because I couldn’t arrive in time, but Avalon put me in its reserves and said that it would probably be able to place me when more positions opened up in May. After my paperwork was approved by the Korean embassy (took about 2 weeks), my recruiter emailed me my VIN (Visa Issuance Number), and then I could get my E2 work visa at the closest Korean embassy in the US. For me, this was New York. That took only a couple of days, and then I was ready to go! I was originally supposed to arrive mid-May, but at the beginning of April my recruiter emailed me asking if I would be interested in arriving early as Avalon was interested in having me come early so that I could train and sub a bit. At first I freaked out because I still had so much organizing and packing to do, but I realized that it was still a few weeks off and thought it would be nice to have a longer adjustment period, so I said yes.



And finally…

I think the answer to this question begins in Minnesota. After graduating from St. Olaf, I spent a year in Minneapolis interning for two publishing houses, a small study abroad company and a non-profit network newsletter. I especially liked interning for the publishers — Milkweed Editions and Graywolf Press — but even though there was a lot I loved and still love about that world, I didn’t really want to move to New York (where most of the jobs are). But I still wanted to move back east and get a job that would be more intellectually engaging. Not that publishing jobs are just paper-pushing, and the people who gravitate toward them are some of the more interesting people you will meet. But I was still yearning for some means of delving deep into intellectual problems and working more directly with people. Also, like many millennial 20-somethings, I wanted to get in my share of seeing the world before I settled down to something more permanent. I decided it was time to look into teaching English abroad.

I stubbornly wanted to go to France, even though I knew that it was more difficult to get a job there than in many other places. I had wanted to learn French for what seemed like forever; in retrospect I think I ended up studying Spanish because I fell so in love with language learning in general and couldn’t bear to abandon the progress I’d made once I started (Spanish was offered to us before other languages). I had a friend that was going to be doing a postdoc in Montpellier for two years, and learning of that made me realize that I could actually go for it. It wasn’t just some pipe dream. So I enrolled in a TEFL course in Montpellier, hoping that I would be able to network well enough to find employment in France or in another part of Europe afterwards.

That obviously didn’t work out, essentially because long-term visas are really difficult to obtain for Americans looking to stay in Europe. If I decided to go for it, I would have to commit to staying before I had secure a job (due to the visa process), and I wasn’t sure if I would be able to make ends meet. I was tired of not being able to support myself and didn’t want that pressure, so I looked into South Korea instead. In addition to being one of the countries with the highest demand for English teachers and best benefits (flight and apartment both paid for), I knew a couple of people teaching in Korea already, and I knew that South Korea had the best lindy hop scene in Asia. If I was going to teach in Asia, there was no question that it was going to be in South Korea. At first I fretted about whether I would really dislike the high-tech, beauty-focused aspects of the culture, but the more I learned about broader Korean culture and what it was really like to live in Korea, the more excited I became.