Teaching in Korea: Grades

I often get questions regarding what kind of degree or grades one needs to teach English in Korea. I thought I'd address that today.

First, if you're a foreigner, you need to be from a country that considers English to be the native tongue. After that, you simply need a bachelor's degree. It doesn't matter what field, as long as it is a bachelor's. With the economy in the tanks abroad, there are more people looking to teach here, so overall GPA is starting to come more into play, so the better your college GPA is, the higher the probability that you'll be selected for a job.

If you're of Korean descent and living abroad, you might be eligible to come to Korea on an F-class visa. This enables you to pretty much get any kind of job. However, to teach, you'll still need that bachelor's degree. The better your English skills are (i.e., bilingual and without an accent), the more likely you'll get a good teaching job, regardless of your GPA.

Music by Kevin Macleod, used with permission.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• qiranger
• teaching
• job
• educaiton
• esl
• tefl
• korea
• south

[RanterJaeUK]

i searched about teaching in Korea and a few websites say you don't need a BA but can do courses like TESOL..

[qiranger]

@RanterJaeUK to qualify for an E-2 Visa, you must have a Bachelor's degree.

[VirtuallyAddicted]

I would agree with you that the better private schools are getting more picky, but its still a teachers market here if you can get through the intimidating recruiters.

There is talk about letting Philopinos teaching here as they do in Thailand. That caused teachers wages to drop dramatically there. It will probably happen soon as there are already quite a few who teach here illegally already.

[qiranger]

Yup, with the influx, schools can sit back and be selective now. I would love to see Filipinos be allowed to teach here, especially since a large number of Koreans go to the Philippines to learn English there. It's better for families and better for the Korean economy.

[Gimmeabreakman]

Very similar to Japan. I don't know about J nationals though.

[qiranger]

Yup. I thought about teaching in Japan, but I'm not sure I could handle the formal dress required at most institutions.

[simpsonsguy22]

i have a bachelor's degree

[eros14521]

Your voice is freaking awesome, man! You should do voice overs for movie trailers!

[phantomwaltz]

Hi, thanks so much for the info. I'm considering going to Korea to teach. I was born and raised in the U.S., but I'm so fluent in Korean than people think I'm an exchange student. I'm a UW graduate with a lot of experience in libraries and recently tutoring. The main concern I have, however, is my GPA which is horrible - a 2.85. What do you think about this? Would this affect me?

[KazukiSeirei]

Just wondering, because my wife is a native Chinese teacher so whenever we look for teaching jobs, we try to find locations that are looking for both English and Chinese teachers.

Thanks for the info.

Peace.