Hey! Maybe you’re here because you’re thinking of escaping the chaos of Covid in your home country by teaching abroad in a country that’s better handled the pandemic, or maybe you’re just here to mentally escape 2020 for a few minutes while you scroll on through. No matter the reason, I’m glad you’re here! I wasn’t sure exactly where to start in my South Korea series, so it seemed to make sense to just start from the beginning - what did we need to do to make this happen?

The first thing we did was what I’m sure anyone does - we hit up Google. Now, you don’t need an Education degree to teach abroad, but it should be noted that most countries require you to have a Bachelors degree. If you’ve got that, onto the next step. We searched a lot of sites and came up with the general consensus that no matter where you intend to teach, step one is get TEFL or TESOL certified.

TEFL and TESOL Certification

TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and TESOL (Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages) are both programs that certify to teach English abroad, and either one is completely fine and basically interchangeable. After a lot more googling and review checking, we went with TEFL Academy. They seemed like a really reputable company and the promise for help with placement once we were certified was what finally sold us. The course was really in-depth - too in-depth for us if I’m really being honest. It was a nine-week course and took an enormous amount of time to complete. And if I’m being really honest, none of it really felt like it prepared me for teaching ESL students. Granted, I’m used to lesson planning, but Andrew didn’t feel much more prepared by the end of it either. I guess I was hoping for access to more strategies and resources, which was not the case. Here’s the real kicker though, we each spent $1400 on this course. Was it worth it? For us, absolutely not. We spent countless hours on this course, determined to finish with As, and in the end, it didn’t even matter. We listed the course on our resumes, but no one ever asked for the certificate or a grade. Keep in mind, we’re Hagwon teachers (private school), and I believe public schools are more rigid about certification, so there is that. In retrospect, I still would have done the course, but I probably would have just taken one of the online courses for $200-300 and saved A THOUSAND DOLLARS. They might not have the same reputation, but for us, I don’t think it would have made a difference. Plus think of all the things I could be spending money on in Korea with that extra thousand dollars. Souvenirs, local travel, Shake Shack. I could be eating so much Shake Shack (Yes, they have it here and yes, it’s just as good as it is in New York). And as for the after-certification help? Unnecessary. Our recruiters did everything we could have possibly needed. FOR FREE. Which leads us to step 2. Recruiters.

Recruiters

Our recruiters were, and continue to be, amazing. Like the courses, there are a massive amount of options. Unlike the courses, I feel like this one really has the potential to drastically affect your experience, for better or for worse. If you plan on teaching public, there are only a few recruiters who can place you: EPIK (English Program in Korea), SMOE (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education), GEPIK (Gyeonggi English Program in Korea), and TALK (Teach and Learn in Korea). It’s my understanding that if you want to work in a public school, you need to apply through one of these programs. As far as I know, which one you should apply to depends on where you want to teach. My knowledge of these programs is fairly limited to the friends I have teaching in the public system. I am however, familiar with the private process.

It’s a good idea to apply to multiple recruiters to find a fit that feels right to you. We did. We applied to Gone2Korea, ESLstarter, Reach to Teach, Teacher Tech, and Adventure Teaching. They all have you send along your resume and teaching preferences, and some will start the job search from there, while others want to interview you first before sending out your resume. Personally, I prefer having the extra step of the interview process. It means that you get a better feel for the recruiters, and they get a better feel for you and can make more informed decisions when matching you with a school. Even though we applied through multiple recruiters and had several job emails come in, we ultimately made the decision to go solely through Adventure Teaching. They’re a Vancouver-based company, and their staff is super friendly and responsive. They spend time in Korea getting to know the schools they work with and the directors. We felt like they were able to know what was likely to be a good fit for us. They went to bat for us whenever we needed them to, and we felt like they cared about getting us the best contract, not just making a quick buck by having us sign. Even since being in Korea, they’ve responded to any questions we’ve had and have advocated on our behalf when it came to the coronavirus. They also let us take over their Instagram when we first got here, which was fun (except for the part where Andrew kept referring to himself as influencer for the first few weeks after). While I’m sure there are other great recruiters out there, I would happily recommend them to anyone thinking of teaching in Korea (or China, or Vietnam, or Thailand). If you’ve done any research on teaching in Korea, you’ve probably seen some horror stories when it comes to hagwons, and trust me they’re true. But not all schools and directors are like that, which is why it’s so important to work with recruiters who know their schools. So yeah, step 2 is to apply to recruiters, and start preparing for job interviews. While you’re doing that, start step 3 - get your documents together.

Documents

This is really like step 2.5, because truthfully you should start gathering these documents as soon as you’re ready to start the process of getting a job abroad. Some of them take weeks (we’re talking up to 6 weeks here) to receive and can delay the process if you don’t have them. Technically speaking, you’re supposed to start gathering these documents as soon as you start talking to recruiters, or potentially even before that. We actually started gathering them after we accepted our job offer, and it did end up delaying our departure for a few days in the end (but at least we made it?) Seriously though, with the pandemic, it appears many documents are taking even longer to receive so it really is important to hop on this as soon as you can. You can’t actually do anything with them until you’re hired, but at least you’ll be ready once that happens. My documents (Canadian documents) were slightly different than some of Andrew’s (American documents), but the gist of it was the same. There are what are referred to as red documents, as well as blue documents.

Red documents, will be sent to your school in Korea as soon as you accept your job (assuming you’re more organized than us). I like to think they call them red documents because they are important, and because your school will see red if you don’t have them (or at least be mildly annoyed, as I’m sure ours were). They are as follows:

• An original Criminal Record Check, verified by the Korean Consulate, with fingerprints and current within 6 months

• A notarized copy of your diploma, also verified by the Korean Consulate

• A photocopy of your passport

• 6 passport photos

• A set of sealed university transcripts

• Your resume

• E-2 Health Statement

Once you’ve sent these off to your school, they will apply for a Visa Issuance Number for you, and once you’ve received that, you’re ready to roll with the blue docs.

Blue documents are submitted to the Korean Consulate in your own country, and if you don’t have them in time then YOU will be blue when your departure date gets delayed, like us. (Okay it was really the red documents that delayed us because these are easy to gather, but just bear with me). Here’s what you need:

• A valid passport

• E2 Visa application (on the Korean Consulate’s website)

• An official passport photo

• A money order, payable to the Korean Consulate.

The cost of the money order depends on the length of the visa and how many entries you need. You also need to use specific carrier services when dealing with the Consulate, but you need to use the one closest to you (for me, it’s in Vancouver), and they all have different regulations. Just make sure you check the website to see how yours works! Our recruiters were also super helpful with all document related questions and problems, which is another reason why having a solid recruiter is a major stress-reliever.

Side note: We were lucky to have taken off right before the pandemic did, so there have been some changes since we’ve submitted our documents. You’re now also required to submit Health and Quarantine related documents, as well.

If you’ve made it this far, YOU ROCK.

I know that’s a lot of information, especially if you’re only here because you’ve already binge-watched every decent show on Netflix and reading this was more appealing than starting yet another DIY project. If you’re here because really do want to teach abroad, I hope this was helpful in giving you an idea of what you need. This has been a crazy year for MANY reasons, but we’re so lucky to have the opportunities we’ve had in 2020, thanks to teaching abroad.

Now that that’s out of the way, I can’t wait to get started on talking about life in Korea. As always, if you have any questions, drop me a line in the ABOUT section! I’m just going to leave you with photographic evidence of our 5 minutes of influencer fame (in lower resolution until I figure out how to properly resize images). Enjoy!