I taught ESL in South Korea for a year at a cram school. And taught online for a Chinese company for about 5 months before that, while doing my TEFL at the same time.
I used The TEFL Academy which costs more than other online cert mills (they have in person options as well). I think I did their level 5 course which requires you to log some teaching hours to complete. I chose them because they are highly rated and offer a job board, resume help, and assistance with finding a job. I think it was worth the cost but in the end I don’t think it mattered to recruiters or my employer what “level” of TEFL I did, they just wanted me to have it. This was all in 2017/18 btw. My impression was that the schools that look for TEFL have slightly higher standards, so pay may be better, but more importantly - the curriculum and staff will be better. The most important requirement is still going to be having a bachelors from an accredited university.
The course was actually pretty useful and prepared me to teach more effectively, especially managing a room of kids. Whether the jobs you are looking at require it or not, I still suggest that you do some kind of training. It’ll help you understand if this is going to be for you, and you may learn something useful! I think it pays for itself just because makes you eligible for more and better jobs.
I also recommend trying the online teaching route for a bit to get your feet wet. The work was really boring and repetitive and working with the kids online is way less fun than in person (the noise and tech issues), but it was also super flexible, paid ok for what it was, and working from home was cool.
I ended up getting my job through a recruiter I found on Dave’s ESL cafe, not TEFL academy. Here’s my take on working in the Korean cram school industry: -new teachers get the worst jobs (lowest pay and most teaching hours).The best jobs are found in your personal network in country. The very best are probably public school jobs or owning your own academy. -I made about $1,800/mo (low for the amount of work I did). My apartment was paid for by the school, and it was a decent studio but I had to bus to work (only 15 mins). I saved around ) $1k/mo and spent pretty indiscriminately.
- I taught 7-7.5 hrs a day 5 days a week for most of the year ( 6-8 classes a day, 30-120mins a class depending on age, grades K-9). It was exhausting talking all day and managing the little kids. The middle schoolers were great and had much better comprehension so when they arrived in the evenings I was able to regain some sanity. Things are quite different at a public school but you will probably need a teaching license/cert and experience from your home country to do that.
- the owners were pretty chill for the most part. A bit disorganized and very concerned with appearances (more than education). But they treated me well and were very helpful in getting me oriented.
- what is life like doing this? Same as anything else, you get out what you put in. Socializing is easy with other foreigners because everyone is in the same boat, but people come and go a lot too, so lasting friendships can be hard to come by. I was in a somewhat rural location (Jeju) so I ran into the same people a lot more than someone in Seoul might. Koreans were for the most part very kind, welcoming, friendly, and helpful - but it felt hard for me to break in to their inner social circles (I did not speak much Korean which didn’t help). -I think my experience was pretty average. I met foreign teachers that had way better deals than me ( like 15hrs teaching a week for the same salary, bigger apartment in more desirable area etc). And teachers that worked for schools that sounded like hell, but this was rare (crazy owners, bad hiring so more crazy colleagues, more hours and surprise weekend work, slumlord apartments). You’re always free to leave the contracts which are usually for a year at a time, but your visa is directly tied to your job so you need to have a new job lined up or leave the country pretty quick.
In the end I left after my one year contract ended. I could’ve stayed at the same school for more pay or gone to another with hopefully fewer hours but I left because it was just too far from my family and close friends in the states. I would do it again for sure. The people I met that had made a career out of doing this were happy and able to save money and start families. You won’t get rich doing it, but it’s fulfilling work if you like kids (if you don’t, don’t bother), and a great opportunity to travel and experience a new culture more than you would by just visiting.
No, they’re taking a picture of the screen with their phone.