A Beginner’s Guide to Teaching English in South Korea in 2024

Sharing is caring!

Introduction to Teaching English in South Korea

Have you ever considered teaching English in South Korea? Or any foreign country for that matter?

Many people dream of a life on the road, far from home enjoying foreign cultures, away from the high living costs and mundane feel of life in the west.

How do people find a job in a foreign country? There are many ways, but one of the most common is to teach English abroad. The qualifications needed are minimal (see below).

Demand for teachers normally outweighs supply, particularly at hagwons (private schools). Therefore your chances of finding a job are pretty high. Although be aware that pay is practically minimum wage (by western standards) and you may have to work outside of contracted hours, sometimes without extra pay. More on that later.

As someone teaching English in South Korea in 2023 and 2024, I have decided to write this guide to help anyone who may be seeking to head down the same path. I hope to update this with new and relevant information as time goes on. Please comment at the bottom if you have any questions. I’ve also written a separate post focusing purely on the requirements to teach English in South Korea.

This post was originally written in October 2023. It was updated at the turn of the year with new sections and up-to-date information to make it relevant for 2024.

What do you Need to Teach English in South Korea?

1. An E2 Visa: You can obtain this if you meet the criteria specified here. More details in the next section.
2. Be a native speaker: You must come from one of the “big 7” English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa). Some private academies (Hagwons) accept non-native speakers, but this is the exception.
3. A Bachelor’s degree (or higher): This needs to be at least 4 years long in the USA or 3 years in the other countries.
4. A clean criminal record: You need to be able to prove you do not have a criminal record if you wish to teach in South Korea.
5. A TEFL certificate: Teaching jobs in South Korea require a TEFL certificate. The industry standard is 120+ hours. I purchased the 120 Hour TEFL Course Online : Advanced & Accredited Training (premiertefl.com)with Premier TEFL.

You do NOT generally need any teaching experience, or a degree specific to education. Your degree can be in any subject.

The E2 Visa Process

You will need to have the following to apply for the E2 visa:

• Apostilled criminal background check (original) and Bachelor’s degree (copy)
• Passport photocopy (of the photo and information page)
• A passport-sized photo
• A copy of your CV
• Visa issuance number (VIN) – once you have had a job offer accepted, your school will be able to help with this

You will also need to fill out a health statement. Once you are in South Korea you will have to go for a compulsory health check which costs roughly £33 ($40).

Once this has been sorted you will require an appointment at a Korean embassy. At your appointment you will need the following:

• Completed visa form (your school/recruiter would have sent you this)
• Visa issuance number (VIN) (again sent by your school/recruiter)
• Passport photocopy
• Passport-sized photos
• Visa fee of £150 ($182)

The time taken to receive your E2 visa varies based on a number of factors. This includes the time taken for the notary to apostille your documents, and the time between booking and attending your visa appointment. It took 3 weeks to wait for my appointment which took place at the Korean embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I would recommend starting the visa process at least 4 months before you are due to start work.

Costs of Obtaining the E2 Visa

• Apostilles for criminal background check and Bachelor’s degree: £210 ($255)
• Criminal background check £18 ($22)
• Visa fee £150 ($182)
• Total: £378 ($460) (Excludes £33/$40 health check required after arrival in South Korea)

All costs rounded to the nearest £/$1.

How to Find a Job

Online Job Boards

Online job boards are one of the best ways to find work teaching English in South Korea. Google “TEFL jobs in South Korea” and you will be greeted with many helpful results. Some of the most popular sites include Dave’s ESL Cafe, ESLBase, and Teast, the latter being where I was successful in replying to an advert from a recruiter.

Contacting Schools

Another popular method to finding English teaching jobs in South Korea is to make contact with schools directly. This is usually an effective approach with hagwons. You bypass the middleman (recruiter) which saves the school from paying fees. Although you cannot do this with EPIK as you need to apply directly through their own recruitment processes.

Hagwons are known for seeking to maximise profits. As a result, this method can give you the edge in your job search. It also displays initiative and a can-do attitude which is never a bad thing.

Government-Sponsored Programs

The most popular of these is called the English Program in Korea, or EPIK. EPIK will place you in a public school. They generally have two main staff intake periods during the year: one in February and another in August. EPIK employees will have longer holidays and many other benefits which will be covered just below.

Another popular program is called GEPIK. This is similar to EPIK, but covers only the Gyeonggi (Greater Seoul) region, whereas EPIK covers the rest of the country. GEPIK may have stricter criteria in terms of qualifications from anyone looking to teach English in South Korea. Although differences between the two are generally minimal.

Please note than from Spring 2024, you will require a bare minimum of a Bachelors degree in any subject and a TEFL certificate (or just a degree in education) to get a job with EPIK. Previously the minimum requirement was a degree in any subject.

What is a Hagwon?

A hagwon is a private academy that parents pay a lot of money towards in order for their children to learn English. Hagwons generally cost around 300,000 Korean Won per month (£183/$222). Many parents will send their children to multiple hagwons. This means the costs rack up fast.

Here they will learn a wide range of subjects. English is most popular, but academies for maths, Chinese, science, arts and more are becoming increasingly popular. A lot of older students will generally attend school in the morning and a hagwon in the afternoon/evening.

If you are reading this article and end up getting a hagwon job, you will most likely be on an E2 visa teaching conversational English.

EPIK vs Hagwons: The Two Main School Types for Anyone Teaching English in South Korea

Which should you apply for if coming to South Korea as an English teacher? Let’s review the pros and cons of each below:

Pros of Working in a Hagwon

• Can pick up jobs year round: Hagwons are always looking for TEFL-qualified English teachers. EPIK on the other hand only recruits teachers for February and August starts.
• Higher pay potential: EPIK salaries peak at 2.8m won (£1,712/$2,074) monthly with maximum qualifications and experience, whereas some hagwons can offer more
• Smaller class sizes: EPIK classes can have over 30 students per class. Hagwons on the other hand have less than half this. My classes all have from 2-12 children in them.

Cons of Working in a Hagwon

• Mistreatment of staff: Some hagwons are notorious for mistreatment of staff. So much so, that a “Hagwon blacklist” website has even been set up detailing the worst ones
• Lack of job security: Hagwons have been known to often shut down at little to no notice leaving staff unemployed
• Pay problems: A lot of hagwons have been known to underpay staff, or withhold money from them for dubious reasons. Whilst this is illegal, many will still do this under the assumption that they won’t be caught

Pros of Working for EPIK

• More holidays: You can get up to 20 days of paid holidays for EPIK vs 10 or 11 in a hagwon (first year of your contract). There may also be options for unpaid leave on top
• Job security: There is no chance that EPIK will release you from your contract without a very good reason (gross misconduct for example)
• Support network: EPIK will help you with housing, bureaucracy and any issues you may face in South Korea. With hagwons, there is no guarantee you will get any support

Cons of Working for EPIK

• Tricky application process: Not only is the process long-winded and involving a lot more work than hagwon applications, but you can be rejected for minor technicalities. I was unable to get in because my most recent employer could not provide a reference on an official letterhead. EPIK would not let me continue without this
• Limited pay options: EPIK generally pays at the lower end of the scale, whereas hagwons have much higher earning potential, if you’re able to find the right place (some hagwons keep expenses as low as possible)
• Placement arrangements: EPIK says you can apply for jobs with a friend or partner in the same place, but they also say there is no guarantee you will be successful with this. Also, there is no guarantee they will be able to accommodate your location preference

Overall, both hagwons and EPIK have their pros and cons. However, as someone working in a hagwon and having a relatively good experience to date, I would opt for EPIK given the choice. The holiday and stability seem like favourable outcomes for a first year English teacher in South Korea.

What is the Salary for Teaching English in South Korea?

The salary varies depending on whether you work for (G)EPIK or a hagwon. If you want to know how much English teachers make in South Korea then please read on.

Salary for EPIK Employees

As of spring 2024, the pay scale for EPIK ranges from 2.1m-2.8m won per month (£1,275-£1,700 or $1,620-$2,150), depending on qualifications and experience. As a beginner to teaching English in South Korea, your monthly salary will most likely be 2.1m. If you have a master’s degree, expect to start from 2.2m (£1,340/$1,700) instead.

In Seoul only, the pay can be as high as 3m won (£1,825/$2,320) per month. Although this is only true for anyone with 7+ years of English teaching experience, and advanced qualifications including a master’s degree in TEFL or English education.

Salary for Hagwon Employees

The salary for hagwon workers is a lot more variable than it is for EPIK employees. Hagwon teachers could earn more or less than an EPIK teacher, it varies a lot from school to school. The salaries earned are in addition to the benefits outlined in the next section.

With no pay scale structure similar to EPIK, it is impossible to provide exact figures for hagwon salaries. In some extreme cases you could receive either a very low or very high starting salary.

However a rough average would be around 2.3m-2.6m won (£1,400-£1,580 or $1,800-$2,000) per month. Don’t be surprised to see hagwon salaries under 2m won (£1,215/$1,550) or over 3m won (£1,820/$2,320) per month however.

Needless to say, the jobs offering 3m won each month are more competitive. Either that, or they pay extra instead of offering free housing. See the section below for more information.

Hagwon Contracts

Contracts will usually be for one year, although exceptions do exist if you look hard enough. Contracts can often be extended on a year-by-year basis.

Contracted hours vary, but it is typical to have to teach for 30 hours in a week. However, this is purely teaching time. It does not include lesson preparation time or lunch, during which you are generally expected to supervise the children. Therefore this is not really a break.

You are also expected to work unpaid at certain events such as open days on the weekends and graduation among others. Unfortunately, this is normally completely legal. Unless you have 40 hours of working (not preparation/break) hours in the week. In that case you qualify for overtime.

If you work for 52 hours in a week then it is illegal to work for longer. Contracts will often offer overtime. However, it is rare for schools to give you any work which qualifies for overtime payments.

Benefits and Vacation in a Hagwon Contract

The specifics will vary from one hagwon to another. However they will all loosely follow the same sort of structure which will be similar to that below:

Flight Allowance

A standard perk when teaching English in South Korea is that your school will pay for your flights both to and from the country. However, if you leave your contract early then they generally will not pay for your flight home and will often insist that you pay for the “free” flight out. They are entitled to do this, so think carefully if you wish to leave your contract early.

Medical and Pension

The employee and employer will pay 50% each into both the Korean National Pension Corporation, and medical insurance. This is compulsory. The pension payments are 4.5% of your monthly income (9% including your employer’s contribution).

The pension and medical insurance are tied to each other. Therefore if you don’t have one, then you won’t have the other. Do not let your employer trick you into believing you can “earn more” by not contributing to medical and pension payments.

If you are from South Africa, then you are exempt from paying pension contributions. Americans and Canadians are entitled to a refund. Unfortunately us Brits are not, and will only qualify for a (small) pension by staying in South Korea for 10+ years.

Medical payments and pension contributions are part of the “4 insurances” alongside employment insurance and worker’s compensation insurance. Be sure to contact the authorities if your employer has not signed you up for payments to these. Otherwise you could be hit with a very large bill later down the line.

Severance Pay

If you work for one year or more (which the majority of workers will) then you will qualify for severance pay. This means you will receive an additional one month’s wages for completing a one-year contract. If you work at the same place for over a year then you are entitled to severance pay prorated. For example, if you work at a place for 1.5 years then your severance package will be equal to what you earn in 1.5 months.

Housing

You will generally be offered either free accommodation for the year whilst working at a hagwon, or a housing allowance that you can spend on your own choice of accommodation. Whilst you will not always get a choice, I highly recommend taking the free accommodation if you do. As a new teacher in South Korea unfamiliar with the language and culture, this will make things a lot easier for you.

The housing is generally quite reasonable. Not luxury, but not bad either. It is usually a 10-20 minute walk from the school. And the school will sort issues such as bills and maintenance for you.

You will have to pay for bills, however the school will act as the middleman meaning you do not have to contact a Korean company to pay, and risk language barrier issues. This ensures everything will run smoothly and saves you a lot of hassle.

Maintenance issues will generally be paid for by the landlord if it is something out of your control. For example, the boiler stops working for no apparent reason. It will be your expense however if the issue is deemed to be caused by your actions.

Beware the Keypad Issue

I was stung with a small cost for an unexpected issue.

Apartments in Korea do not generally come with keys. Instead you will access them with a digital keypad. Type in the 4-digit code and press a button to gain access.

I was recently locked out because the battery ran out meaning the code did not work. Apparently, the keypad makes a different noise whenever the battery is low. Yet I never experienced this.

Without warning, the door would not open and I spent two hours locked out, communicating with my school’s director to resolve the issue. Eventually maintenance were called to solve the issue.

This set me back 30,000 won (£18/$22) to fix. Hardly lifechanging, but certainly annoying.

I later found out this is a fairly common issue. Just beware of this and listen out for unusual noises from your keypad in South Korea.

Hopefully this will help you avoid the same problem. You may be able to open the door with a 9V battery, although this doesn’t always work.

Vacation Days

In your first year, you are entitled to 11 days of paid leave (rising to 15 days in the second). You have the legal right to choose when to take these. Legally, schools cannot force you to take your vacation on red days (national holidays). However, in practice it does not work like this for hagwons.

Many will offer you 10 days of paid leave. And some will force you to take red days as paid leave. They will also generally have a 1-week winter vacation and a 1-week summer vacation in which the school shuts down and you are forced to take your paid leave.

Is this legal? No. Is it worth kicking up a fuss about? That’s up to you. Some hagwon owners will make life very difficult for you if you complain. And if you do go down the legal route, will the benefits outweigh the costs?

It is fairly common practice for hagwons to bend the laws on vacation days. Just consider if this is something that bothers you before applying to work in one.

Your options are to put up with it, be prepared for a (potentially nasty) fight, or to just join EPIK and avoid these situations to begin with.

Taxes

Some hagwons may ask if you wish to pay less tax (and be registered as a freelancer) or more (and be registered as an employee).

This is a trap!

As an E2 visa holder you should be paying 5% tax per month. If you are offered the “opportunity” to pay 3.3% instead, run. This is what a freelancer pays. On an E2 visa you are legally an employee. If you are caught by the tax office paying the lower rate then you could be stung by bills of several million won. If you’re lucky, it will “only” be a few hundred thousand. For reference, 1m won is around £610/$740.

Punishments for paying the wrong tax amount include possible deportation, entry bans into South Korea and most commonly, visas not being renewed if you wish to stay for over a year.

Responsibilities and Staff

If you are teaching English in South Korea, you will notice some differences compared to teaching back in your home country.

For starters every foreign teacher will work with a Korean coteacher. The purpose of the foreign teacher is to teach conversational English. Teaching anything other than conversational English on an E2 visa is illegal.

The coteacher will focus on improving students in areas other than conversational English. They will also set homework for the students which is something foreign teachers have little to do with.

Perhaps the biggest asset of a Korean coteacher is discipline. Only your very best students will be able to understand almost all of what you say. Which means when students misbehave, it is hard to tell them off because they won’t understand exactly what you’re saying, giving less meaning to your words.

When Korean teachers are able to relay the message in their native language, it sinks in harder and has a bigger impact on students. Korean teachers are also able to communicate with their parents. Threatening to call parents is one of the best tactics for getting naughty students to behave.

Cultural Differences Whilst Teaching English in South Korea

One key cultural difference you may find whilst teaching English in South Korea is the language teaching methodology difference. In western schools, they will generally operate in the home country’s language. Learning a language normally means exposure to that language only during lessons for it.

In South Korea, ESL teachers work in schools where English is the spoken language. Korean is only spoken to convey important messages and instill discipline when needed. In fact, the students are banned from speaking Korean in class and will be subject to minor disciplinary measures for ignoring this rule. For example, younger children receive stickers as rewards for positive behaviours. Yet have them removed for minor infractions of the rules.

Other cultural differences you may notice are as follows:

Short Term Changes

Plans will change at short notice in Korean schools. This is common across the whole country. Perhaps you will hear about an event just minutes before it begins. Or you will turn up to a scheduled class only to be told you’re teaching something completely different.

Advanced notice is the exception rather than the rule.

One example of when I was unaware of a change involved finding out about a Monday off late on Friday afternoon. Just on the day of publishing this article, my last class of the day was cancelled and I found out five minutes before.

Sometimes unexpected changes can work in your favour!

Dress Code

For EPIK, the dress code is professional. Dress as if you’re going to the office and you will be fine.

For hagwons it varies much more. Some hagwons expect professional dress. Others will let you go in casual clothes.

I took a suit and many smart shirts to South Korea, only to end up wearing shorts and a t-shirt every day! At least in the summer. The time of year will determine whether you are dressed for a hot Korean summer or a frigid winter.

Korean schools frown upon tattoos and will often ask you to declare any with photos during the application process. However this often isn’t a dealbreaker if you can cover them up. Any abnormal piercings may also hamper your chances of teaching English in South Korea.

Again however, hagwons can be more relaxed. In mine, half of the six foreign teachers had visible tattoos.

Lunch Routine

Lunch is not always a breaktime in Korean schools. Instead teachers can be expected to supervise the children as they eat.

Teachers are expected to ensure the students behave, eat the majority of their food, and clear away at the end.

After lunch students will scrape their leftovers into a bowl, return their trays to the kitchen, then brush their teeth before being allowed to play. This is the routine in my school, however similar routines are practiced across the country.

Children are taught from a young age to clear up after themselves. Just like in nearby Japan, Koreans have a reputation for being respectful. That is because these sorts of behaviours become routine from a very young age.

Lesson Planning

If you are lucky, lessons will already be planned for you. For EPIK however, you will often have to plan your own. For hagwons, the rules vary.

Whether this is a pro or con depends on how much you enjoy lesson planning and creating your own content.

Must admit that as a travel enthusiast, a conversation class on countries and continents was far more enjoyable to teach than generic textbook content.

Resources

Whether resources are provided or not often varies from school to school. There is no set rule here. Many schools will at least provide a fair range of textbooks to help. Although the quality of these can range from very useful to… dreadful.

If you do not have resources provided, then you will need to look for some or make them yourself. One of the most popular lesson content sources is Waygook. This a forum well-known amongst those teaching English in South Korea, used by a significant number of TEFL instructors.

Another option is ChatGPT. But this will only work well if your input is clear. For those who do not know, ChatGPT is the major AI program which has soared in popularity this year. Below I will provide examples of how you should and should not use ChatGPT to plan lessons:

Should NOT: Type in “a 50 minute TEFL lesson plan”. This tells the AI nothing about the age/ability level of the children you are teaching. It also tells it nothing about the curriculum and what the children are meant to be learning.

Should: “a 50 minute TEFL lesson plan for a class of eight-year-olds. Their English level is almost zero and the lesson needs to be on different types of sports. Make it fun and engaging.” This gives more specific information suited to each class. Of course, it is possible to add much more detail than this. For example, you may have some preferences for a particular activity to be included within the lesson.

ChatGPT is as good as the old IT saying suggests: garbage in, garbage out. In other words, the quality of plan it creates will be directly linked to the quality of input you enter.

Time Taken to Plan Lessons

This varies wildly. Although as a general rule, expect to take around 10 minutes to find the resources you need for a single lesson. Of course, it is possible to spend hours planning if you wish to finetune the lesson to your specific tastes. This is not necessary however. The school will be happy as long as you have content relevant to the curriculum which is able to keep students busy for 40-60 minutes.

Controlling the Classroom

Perhaps one of the biggest frustrations whilst teaching English in South Korea. Many students like to mess around in classes. It is inevitable that foreign teachers with a 30+ hour weekly contract will encounter problem students at some point. The class clown, the one who loves to fight classmates, the one who defiantly refuses to work… they’re all common characters you will meet on the job.

The first tactic is to set clear boundaries from the beginning. If you are clear as to what is acceptable or not, and you strictly enforce rules from day one, you should be able to steady the ship.

Threatening students with punishments helps a lot. Tell them you will contact their parents with continuing behavioural infractions, and they will get back into line in no time.

The other weapon in your arsenal is your coteacher. As previously mentioned, they are the ones who should deal with the majority of behaviour issues. The shared Korean language fluency gives them a major advantage here.

If Things go Wrong

Things can and probably will go wrong at some point during your stint teaching English in South Korea. There are two types of issue you could face. Issues with the school, and issues outside of the school. Let’s have a look at what you can do to solve your problems.

Issues Outside of School

For any issue with your accommodation, or anything that happens outside of school, your director or headteacher are your best options. Contact them to act as a middleman between yourself and whatever issues you may face.

You can of course use translation apps to try and solve problems, but a native Korean speaker is your best bet.

I wrote a detailed article on how to overcome language barriers with Google Translate. This app certainly has its uses, although the Korean translations are pretty poor. Perhaps the better option would be South Korea’s preferred translation app: Papago. Although this is also very far from perfect. This is why a native speaker will be a far better option for translations.

Minor Issues in School

For issues with your school, how you deal with them depends on the severity of the incident. Normally these can be solved internally by speaking to your director. Example problems include issues lesson planning, delivering the content, controlling behaviour and more.

Legal Problems With Your School

This point is more relevant for Hagwon teachers. Maybe your school will underpay you, mistreat you, or force you to do something illegal.

There is one major resource that can help you out here. This one is incredibly useful. It is a Facebook group called LOFT: Legal Office for Foreign Teachers. It is a popular group with several posts a day, and a series of experts who comment regularly on legal issues. There are also a series of FAQs covering common legal infractions that foreigners can experience whilst teaching English in South Korea. Many of these are relevant to E2 visa holders.

Tax issues and underpayment are amongst the most common issues to come up. One thing I have learnt about here is the “eleventh month firing” which happens a lot more often than it should. This (illegal) move occurs when your hagwon tries to fire you a month before you complete a year-long contract.

It is an attempt to get out of paying severance when you leave. Some schools will give you a resignation letter and tell you that you have to sign it. They claim it is a legal requirement to sign it. You should NEVER do this. You will be signing your rights away and no longer qualify for severance.

If you have any legal issues, your best port of call would be the Ministry of Employment and Labour (MOEL). Many LOFT recommendations suggest contacting MOEL to resolve varying issues. LOFT should be the first place to check however.

The Last Resort

If your experience at a school (usually hagwon) is awful and you feel there is no other option, do a midnight run.

What is this? It means leaving the country without telling anyone, with no intention of coming back. Is it a breach of contract? Yes. Will your school send lawyers after you to recoup costs? Almost certainly not, as the benefits of them doing so would not outweigh the costs.

They would lose out firstly in having to pay someone else to replace you temporarily whilst looking for your permanant replacement. But also because contractually you are repaid your flight allowance on the condition you will complete a year-long contract. Plus they will be paying for your (unoccupied) apartment still.

Why do a midnight run rather than handing in your notice? Because many hagwon owners will deploy several nasty tricks upon leavers who quit early. This can include withholding pay, or kicking you out of your apartment leaving you homeless. They often won’t play fair. Therefore your best option is to wait until payday to carry out your midnight run.

Pros and Cons of Teaching English in Korea

To summarise, what are the main plus and minus points for anyone looking to teach English in South Korea? Let’s have a look here:

Pros

• Great opportunity to save money: With accommodation, flights, half your insurance/pension costs covered and maybe even a free lunch, your expenses will be low. Transport around South Korea is cheap, only your food bill will be a little on the high side
• Fantastic chance to experience a different culture: A year is more than enough time to immerse yourself in the culture. You can experience Korean traditions, wear a hanbok, go for a Korean barbecue, drink soju, sing the night away in a noraebang (karaoke room), head to one of the many popular selfie rooms, watch K-dramas, listen to K-pop and much more
• It’s very safe: South Korea is one of the safest countries in the world. English teachers here will not have to worry about crime here. Violent crime is virtually non-existent and petty theft is incredibly rare

Cons

• It can be tricky to navigate: Unless you are fluent in Korean, this is not the easiest country to get around. With the likes of Google Maps and Google Translate pretty shaky here, you will need to become familiar with local equivalents such as Naver/Kakao Maps and Papago.
• It can be hard work: You may only be contracted to work for 30 hours a week. But once time between lessons, lesson planning and additional classes/events are factored in, your spare time is limited
• Expensive for fruit and meat lovers: If you love meat, then you’re looking at £3/$4 a day for the cheapest stuff. Easily a lot more for anything else. Fruit costs twice that for just about anything (grapes, strawberries and more). A single apple will set you back around £1 ($1.30). These prices apply to both major supermarkets and street stalls.

Important Apps to Help you Adjust to Life in South Korea

South Korea does not use the same popular applications as western countries. In fact some of them have limited or no use here. Google Maps for example does not allow you to work out walking directions. Nor does it let you use offline maps. Here are some of the most useful apps to download before coming to South Korea:

Navigation: Kakao/Naver Map

As mentioned, Google Maps has limited functionality in South Korea. There are two local equivalents you should consider using instead. These are Naver Map, and Kakao Map.

Both are a little tricky to navigate if you don’t understand Korean. There is some limited English functionality on both apps, however they can be a little painful to use.

On the plus side, they do offer features such as offline maps, and time estimations if you plan a route from A to B. Therefore they are worth getting. After a little practice, you should be able to get to grips with them.

Translation: Papago

If you try to translate Korean words to English words, or vice-versa, you’re going to have a few issues whilst using Google Translate in South Korea.

Quite frankly, the translations aren’t very good and come up with some very odd words and sentences, often not even closely related to the actual meaning.

The South Korean translation app of choice is called Papago. In all honesty, this also comes up with some pretty dodgy translations. It just happens to do this on a less frequent basis than Google Translate. It is also the translation app which all Koreans know and are familiar with. Most of them don’t know Google Translate. Or Google at all for that matter (Naver is the preferred search engine and email service provider in South Korea).

Therefore Papago is the best of a bad bunch when it comes to translation apps here. The only effective translation methods are to become fluent in Korean, or to have a bilingual Korean and English speaker with you at all times.

Transport: Kakao T

Unlike other major western brands, Uber is still a powerful tool in South Korea. However it still plays second fiddle to South Korea’s preferred online transport app.

Kakao T covers a much wider range of towns and cities than Uber does. Plus there are far more Kakao T drivers in South Korea, making it much quicker to find a driver here than with Uber.

You can set up an account without a Korean mobile number, however you will only be able to pay with cash should you do this. If you have a Korean number, you can pay directly through the app with the money coming straight from your bank account.

Communication: KakaoTalk

KakaoTalk is the South Korean version of WhatsApp. Whilst WhatsApp is functional out here, few Koreans use it. Instead KakaoTalk is the place to be. Make any Korean friends, or communicate with colleagues, and you will most likely be using KakaoTalk to talk to them.

The major features of KakaoTalk are pretty much the same as those in WhatsApp: Unlimited messaging, audio notes and video calls. The only major difference is that KakaoTalk is much more widely used in South Korea.

Online Shopping: Coupang

Once again, your favourite western apps are out of favour in South Korea, with a local equivalent becoming the application of choice. In all honesty, the Coupang website is better than the app. This is the Amazon of South Korea.

In fact, Coupang is streets ahead of Amazon here. It is the number one online shop in the country, with Amazon only the 15th-most popular shop.

Unfortunately, Coupang can be tricky to use if you don’t speak Korean. It has no English translation option. You can bypass this to some extent by using a web browser which provides the option to translate pages such as Chrome or Safari. However, Coupang is king when it comes to online shopping apps out here.

Daiso and Lotte Mart: Why you Need to Visit These Two Stores When You First Arrive in South Korea

When you arrive to teach English in South Korea, there are inevitably a few things you will need to buy for your apartment. Chances are, the previous foreign teacher who lived in what is now your apartment left a few things behind. However there will still be some missing items, and these are the places to go to find them.

Lotte Mart

The biggest supermarket in South Korea. This is the equivalent of Walmart or Tesco for example. Albeit with almost everything you could need. First and foremost, it is a place to do your weekly shopping.

Just about every food item you could want can be found here. They also have a large household goods section. This includes essentials such as irons, vacuums, fans, heaters and more.

Unfortunately some of these larger items are expensive in South Korea, but Lotte Mart is still cheaper than other big-name stores. However, for the smaller items…

Daiso

…Daiso is king. Known as “the dollar store” in South Korea, Daiso is the perfect place to get cheap household goods. You won’t find many large items here. However everything else required to spruce up your apartment can be found here. Cheap fans, heaters, bins and washing racks are amongst the larger items. Pots and pans, soaps, kitchen towel, toilet rolls and so much more can be purchased in Daiso. This is by far the cheapest place to get what you need, so make Daiso your first port of call if you need to buy anything in South Korea.

Conclusions and Personal Thoughts From Experience on Teaching English in Korea

Overall, would I recommend teaching English in South Korea to anyone considering pursuing this path?

Yes.

South Korea is a great country to settle down in, where you can save a lot of money if you wish. Or do as I did and take several solo trips around Korea (or trips with friends if you prefer).

The wages make South Korea one of the best countries in the world to work as an ESL teacher. Only the Middle East and a couple of outliers (Brunei and Singapore) offer better financial incentives than the Far East.

Japan is much harder to get a job in, China is known for restrictions on freedom, and Taiwan has political threats constantly looming over it.

Pretty much all of the better-paying countries require experience. Therefore South Korea is the perfect option.

You can spend your weekends exploring awesome places that make South Korea so unique. Some of my favourites include Gyeongbokgung Palace in Seoul, nearby Ikseon-dong Hanok Village, and Beopjusa Temple in the country’s centre. In fact I have done several day trips to Seoul and enjoy the city more and more every time.

And don’t forget to visit the DMZ which is one of the world’s most fascinating border regions.

One piece of advice I would give is to apply for EPIK/GEPIK rather than a hagwon. Whilst my own hagwon experience has been a positive one so far, the public school programs offer far more in terms of perks and stability.

The biggest downside of hagwon life is the inability to leave the country other than a short 2-4 day trip during either summer or winter vacation. This means that you most likely won’t be able to go home during your contract.

Although if you can find a good hagwon (and it really is a lottery), then coming to teach in South Korea will be more than worthwhile.

FAQs

Sharing is caring!