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TEFL in S.Korea / Japan / China, any advice?

Posted: 12 Apr 2007, 00:20
by Mossy17
Hi there,


I am considering going to do tefl in S.Korea/Japan/China for 6-9 months, basically I am travelling around the world and will be leaving Australia in September pretty broke so unfortunately one of my main motivations for doing it is money so that I can continue my travels and I was just looking for some advice. I have a degree in Marketing and I did an online tefl certificate with i-to-I and I just have a few queries:

Is it difficult to get a job in S.Korea /Japan / China?
Does anyone know any good areas in either country to go teach in?
What pay should I expect?
Could I survive with none or very little basic understanding of the local language?
I am travelling with a mate, do you think someone would hire both of us?
Should I organise it before I arrive in the country or just turn up and see what happens?
Does anyone have any good contacts?
Will I have to take a year contract and break it if I want to leave?

I really am quite clueless about it so any help at all would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Maurice

Posted: 15 Apr 2007, 04:51
by Comenius
I can't speak for Japan, but it's dead easy to get work in China and Korea. If you're presentable and don't come off as a "backpacker" you'll probably have no problem finding something in a few days.

I would start with the major cities, pick up a copy of the local English newspaper, and start hitting up schools. Have clean, well written CV's/resumes without typos. Get a local cell phone and give it to the schools.

You and your friend may be able to find work at the same school, but it's more likely you'll get jobs at different spots.

You definitely don't need to know the native language. If you're teaching super young kids, the schools will usually provide a local assistant to keep things from going too crazy.

You can probably do a 6 month contract. Just be up front.

The pay will enable you to live well by local standards, and if you're reasonably smart with your money you'll save a good bit in Korea (not so in China).