 Hi and welcome to another live session by ITTT. My name is Linda and I'm here today to talk about teaching English in South Korea. So welcome, welcome. I'm just going to wait for people to join. Please do let me know if you can hear me, if you can see me, or if you're not, if you can't hear me, if there's a problem, if anything's wrong, because that would be bad, obviously. So yeah, drop a comment, just leave a high and where you're tuning in from, that would be really helpful. Let me know where you guys are watching from. And yeah, I can see a few people have joined already. Hi, thanks so much for joining. Awesome. Okay, I got a yes. I can hear you from Mika. Awesome. Or Mika. Sorry if I pronounced that wrong. But yeah. Yeah, thanks so much for joining. Okay. And Mika, Mika is from Argentina or joining from Argentina. Very cool. Awesome. With Mandy. Hi, Mandy. I remember you tuned in before, right? Thanks for tuning in again, Mandy from Iowa. Awesome. Great. Nessa is watching and listening from the Philippines. Great. Awesome. I spent my honeymoon in the Philippines. It was amazing. I want to go back so bad. But yeah. So let me just show you today's topic so that everybody who's joining knows what's happening and what's going on today. Today, we're talking about teaching English in South Korea, and I'm so excited about this topic. And it's actually been a super requested topic. Every time I go live, because we do these, these lives weekly. So every time I get like requests, please do a live about, you know, Korea, just Korea. I've been living in Korea for five years. Yeah, almost six years. Like in May, it's going to be, well, in May, it's going to be six years. But yeah, time flies. So I've been here a while. I've been teaching. I've been, you know, teaching a couple of different classes and like did summer camps and winter camps and teaching kids and teaching adults, teaching business English, teaching conversation, teaching full time at a kindergarten and elementary school with afternoon programs and stuff like that. So yeah, I hope that I'll be able to, you know, provide some good information and some insight into what it's like teaching English in South Korea. And, you know, everything else that goes along with it, if you have any questions about, you know, what it's like living in Korea or, you know, learning Korean or, you know, all those things that just kind of come with that with teaching here and living here. Just let me know. And you can ask me any questions that you have at any time. I did prepare a presentation. But yeah, you can throw your questions at me at any time. Feel free to do that so that, you know, I'm not just talking by myself here. But yeah, it's a very active crowd already. I see some questions coming in. So Mandy was asking about if I teach in a public or private school, or is it all private? So currently, I am mostly teaching online, different projects because of COVID. But yeah, I do work full time for ITTT. And so teaching is sort of on the side for me at the moment. But I did teach full time in Korea. My first year here, it was a private kindergarten, private kindergarten with elementary school, afternoon classes. But I do have some friends who, you know, work at public schools. So I also know a little bit about that and can give you some information. So hope it works out. Yeah, so anybody who's here, are you interested in teaching English in Korea? Is that why you're watching this live or just teaching abroad in general? And you're looking at options or what's the deal? Let me know. Also, maybe where you are currently in your TEFL journey, are you taking a TEFL course? Are you thinking about taking a course? If you're taking a course, which course are you taking? Let me know. I'm super curious, you know, who I'm talking to, so that also I can adjust sort of my information based on, you know, what you guys are doing, what you guys are wanting to hear, you know, what kind of information I can provide and stuff like that. But I can see a lot of questions already coming in. That's awesome. Okay, great question from Amy here. Thanks so much for asking because I know a lot of people are curious about that. And that's why I actually did a live session about sort of teaching the best teaching destinations for 2021 during or post, well, we're kind of still in the pandemic, but you know, during the pandemic. So what's the situation? So Amy's asking, should anyone even bother looking into teaching abroad while there are COVID lockdowns? So it always depends on, you know, where you want to go. So because the lockdowns are different, right? I know there are some very strict lockdowns happening like in Europe right now. Here in Korea, it's not as strict as it is in Europe. So we do, we're not really on lockdown, but there are restrictions in place. So I can tell you what it is like right now. For example, basically everything closes at 9pm. And you cannot meet, hang out with more than five people. But other than that, it's pretty much, that's pretty much it. So like everything closes at 9pm. And a few weeks ago, it was like a little bit stricter where cafes were only take out. So you couldn't actually, because cafe culture is huge in Korea, we can talk about that a little bit later, but like people love going to cafes and people go to cafes to like work or study and they hang out there for hours and hours and hours. So that was restricted. So you could only get takeout at cafes. But since like two weeks or so ago, they also lifted that and you can hang out at cafes again. But yeah, back to the question. So yes, countries are still hiring. And I have a couple of friends who are actually new in Korea, who got here in summer last year for that intake, that fall intake. And they got here in July or August. And they get hired. So you do go through, you know, the quarantine, the two week quarantine. But every teacher coming to Korea already has typically an apartment assigned. So you can quarantine at that apartment. So basically at home, you quarantine at home. It's at no cost to you. It's free. You get like this COVID quarantine package from the government. And you quarantine there. And after two weeks, you know, if you're good, if everything is, you know, negative, and then you start teaching. So actually teaching abroad is one of the only ways that you can travel right now or go abroad. So it's definitely still happening. And schools are hiring, you know, the need is there, the demand is there. So yeah, don't worry about that. It's definitely still happening. Then loose, I saw your comment about learning Korean. And I'm actually going to talk about that a little bit later. So stay tuned. I am going to mention that I have a special slide just for that. Yeah. All right. So there's a lot of people interested in teaching in Korea, only virtual right now. Okay, so you are teaching online. That's really cool. Can that be possible? And then maybe go abroad. Okay. Yes. So yeah, a lot of people are starting, you know, teaching English online at the moment to get experience. And, you know, because of COVID, you can't really do anything else. So that's a great way, you know, get started teaching online, getting experience and then going abroad later. That's definitely a good idea. A lot of people are doing that. So yeah, that's a great idea. Okay, very, very cool. So Mandy says I'm interested in teaching abroad, but South Korea is my ultimate place to teach. I just got done with the course and I have to finish my practicum to get my certificate. Awesome. Great. Congratulations. So Korea is the ultimate place to teach. Awesome. Great. Awesome. Love it. All right. Before we jump in to the presentation, all the, you know, info that I have for you, please, please, don't forget to like and subscribe so that you don't miss any of the lives we are going live or we are live on Facebook and YouTube at the same time, which is really cool. So we get people from both platforms joining, which is really exciting. And also if you're listening to this as a podcast episode, thanks so much for downloading. We always turn our live events into podcast episodes. So if you're interested in, you know, audio only format, you can check us out. It's called the Teflon TESOL podcast by ITTT on all major podcast platforms. So yeah, thanks so much for downloading and listening. Also, there will be a special offer at the end of the session, a discount. If you've watched before, you know the drill. So at the end of the session, there will be a 30% off discount link for any ITTT Teflon TESOL course. So you don't want to miss that. So stay tuned. Great. Alright, then let me turn on my presentation. And I'll be a little smaller down here. Hope it works. And also let me turn this off so we can all see the whole thing. But yeah. So teaching English in South Korea. Let's take a look. And here we go. I always introduce myself for those who are new here. Like I said, we are going live every week, actually twice. I go live once a week. And my colleague Lisa, she goes live also once a week. So on Tuesday. And yeah, she's a non native English speaking teacher. So that's a really great other perspective. We have a lot of non native English course takers and graduates. So if you're one of them, I highly recommend checking out Lisa's lives because she has a lot of great info for non native English teachers. She's a very successful teacher. She does a lot of online teaching. Also in class, she worked in China. So she's very knowledgeable about that. And then yeah, about myself. So my name is Linda Dunsmore. On the one hand, I'm a travel writer and content creator under the name Linda goes East. So you can find me at Linda goes East.com. And that's basically a blog website about living in Asia and a lot of information about Korea. So if you're interested in living working Korea or just traveling in Korea or Asia, I highly recommend checking that out as well. I have a huge guide about teaching English in Korea with filled with information about, you know, my personal experience, and also other people's experience. And I'm going to share the link to that in a little bit so that you can check it out. You can find me on social media at Linda goes East. I always say that, you know, just feel free to reach out to me at any time. Ask your questions about Tefl T so Korea, anything really you can just reach out to me. I am from Germany slash USA. So I was born in Germany. My mom is German. My dad is American. And yeah, I spent time in both countries. And since 2015, I'm based in South Korea. And before that, I also taught English and spent some time in China actually studied Chinese, moved to China. But then I met my now husband who turned out to be Korean. So that's why I moved to Korea. Basically, that's the story. But yeah, on the other side, I also am a Teflon T sole marketing professional at it, international Teflon T sole training. And you can find us at Teflon course dot net. And on Instagram at international Tefl training. I highly recommend checking that out, giving it a like a follow, because we are really trying to build that page on Instagram. We have a lot of followers, our Facebook page is huge, but our Instagram, you know, it's growing slowly. So we'd appreciate some follows there. And yeah, it's a leading Teflon T sole course provider worldwide. We have online courses in class courses, combined courses of all different for all different needs, basically. Yep. So that's who we are and I am. And yeah, let's see. So I just want to start off with like a few interesting facts about Korea. I thought I would kind of be maybe funny and interesting. So just to get like an idea of, you know, what Korea is like. And yeah. So interesting facts about South Korea. South Korea for the Americans out here is about the same size as Indiana. And actually South Korea or the US, sorry, the US is 99 times bigger than South Korea. So South Korea is quite small, quite a small country. And yeah, I love, you know, just taking the car and then just going on different road trips. It's really fun, because everything is quite compact. So you can drive down, you know, to the beach in like an hour. So there's always like a beach nearby. It's really great. But I actually have a map of Korea in the next slide and I can talk a little bit more about, you know, what the country is like itself. But yeah, also there are more than 3000 islands around South Korea. So I think not a lot of people know that, that actually there's a lot of islands. And Jeju is the biggest island in South Korea. Oh, Luz said, I would love, I would love to stay for more, but I need to go to work now. Thanks so much for tuning in though, Luz. You can watch the playback. You can watch the replay later. It'll stay on our page and on YouTube. Thanks so much and have fun at work. Great. Okay, so yeah, Jeju Island is the biggest island in Korea. It's a popular tourist destination, especially nowadays because we can't really travel abroad. So a lot of people are going down to Jeju. You can actually take a plane from Seoul to Jeju. It takes like an hour. It's very fast or actually under an hour. And it's really, really nice. Amy says it's the size of Indiana that is mind blowing. Yeah, right? So it's quite small and that's only South Korea and not the whole peninsula. It's only South Korea, but yeah, it is very small. Yeah, then approximately 9.7 million people live in Seoul. And actually Seoul, so Seoul is the capital city and that's where most people live and Seoul and its surrounding areas, that's where 40% of the whole population lives, around 40%. It's what they always say. So it's very, it can get very crowded in Seoul and yeah, apartment prices are really high there and the cost of living is a little bit higher than, you know, the rest of the country. Traffic is crazy in Seoul because, you know, just 40% of the whole population live in the area. So it can get quite crowded, especially in different, depending on, you know, where you are visiting, which part of Seoul. So yeah, I do not live in Seoul. I live about an hour and a half south of Seoul. I'm going to show you that in the next slide. And I love Seoul. I go up there a lot, but it can get crowded and I do, I'm always, I always feel like relieved when I go back home. But yeah, yeah. Anyway, it's also an interesting fact. The next one, South Koreans are one year old when they are born. So that's something that a lot of foreigners can't relieve up their head around. It's kind of a strange system. But yeah, you're when you're born in South Korea, you're already one year old. And then also everybody turns one year older on January 1st. So that's also very interesting. So imagine that, for example, my husband, he was born in September. So when he was born in September, he was already one. And then three months later, January 1st, he turns two. Isn't that wild? Even though he's actually what three or four months old, but he's two in Korea. So yeah, that's one of their interesting systems. That's why when you come to Korea as a foreigner, they ask you how old you are, they're always like Korean age or American age, because they're different. And you'll be older in Korea. Just to let you know, you'll be older, either one or two years older, depending on when you're born. But yeah, that's always something that kind of I think is really crazy and very unique to Korea. I don't know any other place that does that. Let me know if there's another place that does it like that. I don't know. Amy asks, and then he still celebrates his birthdays in September. So yes, it's kind of like nowadays, so the younger generation, they celebrate their birthday on their actual birthday. But like the older generations, they usually follow the lunar calendar. So they would celebrate their lunar birthday, which is different every year. So like in our calendar, like the Western calendar, I guess. So my parents in law, they kind of celebrate their birthday according to the lunar calendar. So every year, I have no idea when their birthday is because I don't follow the lunar calendar. So it's kind of, yeah, it's difficult. But like the younger generation, they follow like the Western calendar. And also everything that's like official, like for getting like an ID or license or whatever, they follow the Western calendar. So for official things. But that's just one of those little cultural things that they do. But I heard that this system kind of causes problems for some kids, especially those who are born, you know, at the end of the year, because they, like I said, they are one, and then they turn two a few months later. So they're actually a few months old, but they're considered as being two in Korea. And then they're in the same class with older kids. And so some of them have disadvantages because of that. So I heard that they might kind of change that. But I have no idea. But that's just, yeah, it's something crazy. So, okay, Amy's asking. So basically, everyone gets a bonus two years, birth at the first. Yeah, sorta, yeah. But there's no two birthdays a year. So yeah, everybody's turning one year older on January 1. But then like, that's like officially. And then you also celebrate your own birthday on your actual birthday. But like, it's just like it's symbolic. You don't like age two years in one year. You know what I mean? I don't know. It's complicated. Like, yeah, I don't even know who came up with that or like why it's like that. I have no idea. But that's just how it is. Okay. All right. Then also very interesting to know that all men before 30 have to complete between 21 and 24 months of military service in Korea. That's basically because technically, and I don't want to get into the whole history of things. But technically, you know, Korea is still at war with North Korea. They, you know, technically officially, they are still at war. They never signed an end of war agreement. So that's why, you know, the military power is still very strong. And they are, you know, for protection and security. So all the men, they must commit to 21 to 24 months of military service before turning 30. And a lot of men do that actually during university, they would do like one year of university, then like take a break, do their military service, then come back and finish the university. So things like, Oh, excuse me, things like that. So that's just something to know. If you're dating a Korean, make sure he has completed his military service, or you're going to end up waiting for him for two years. So yeah. And then the last fun fact that I added in because we're very close to Valentine's Day is another interesting fact that on Valentine's Day, so on February 14th, it's the women that give chocolates and gifts to their, to the men. So to their husbands or boyfriends to show their love. So it's the opposite sort of. And then so on February 14th, it's the women giving the men chocolate chocolates and gifts. And then a month later on March 14th, the men give the women chocolates and gifts. So they're sort of two Valentine's Days. Actually, every month, every 14th of the month has like a special kind of couple holiday. Um, Korea is a lot about couple culture. It's a huge thing like people wear couple clothes. You go out, you see people wearing like matching outfits, matching shoes, matching anything matching. So they love showing off to their couple. And so it just turned out that every 14th of the month is a special couple holiday. So this can be like Valentine's Day. Then I think March 14th is called, I think it's called White Day. Then there's like, is there like a, like a chocolate day. Then the other one is like a flower holiday. You get flowers. The other one is like for jewelry. The other one is for taking, I think couple pictures or I don't know. But yeah, so technically every 14th of the month is a couple holiday. You can look that up. We're not doing that, my husband and me. We're just doing Valentine's Day. But yeah, that's what's happening. So those are interesting facts about Korea, I hope, to get an idea of what it's like over there. And now I just want to show you guys a little bit about what the country looks like. And maybe this is too small. It's a little small for me too. But yeah, just a little bit of geography, I guess. So we already talked about the size. So South Korea is quite small. The US is 99 times bigger. So, and it's about the size of Indiana. So it's quite small. But there are nine provinces. Even though I know down here it says eight provinces. But so eight mainland provinces and one special province, which is Jeju, right here. So that's the biggest island that I talked about earlier. And yeah, so nine provinces. Seoul is over here, up there. That's where Seoul is. Next to it here, that's Incheon. That's where the airport is. So when you're arriving in Korea, you're actually not arriving in Seoul. You're actually arriving in Incheon over here. And the airport is kind of like on this island. There's like this little island here. That's where the airport is. So when you're flying into Korea, you see all the islands. And then you're landing like on this island where the airport is. And then you can take the train, the bus, or taxi, or wherever you need to go. It's not far from Seoul. It's quite, I think the airport train is maybe like 45 minutes or so. But they also have buses, you know, that go all over the country. So that's that. Then obviously here is North Korea. So actually Seoul is quite close to North Korea. Not that far away. You can take tours to visit the border, which is really interesting. If you're into history or just in general, I mean, it's just something really interesting to see. The DMZ, the demilitarized zone, you can go in there. And you can take the full, so they have a smaller tour and a full tour. So the full tour is like where you actually see the North Korean guards, where they face each other, the North Koreans and the South Koreans. So that's really cool to see. Yeah, then actually I took a trip with two of my friends in like late summer last year and we went up to, I think it was maybe about here, a city called Paju. And I took my car and I was driving and we were driving sort of like really at the border. So there was like barbed wire fence. And then on the other side, it was North Korea. And you could see like just North Korean like scenery, like the mountains and stuff. No villages, you can see that. But like, this is kind of cool, like you're driving and oh, yeah, there's North Korea. So it's kind of fun. But yeah, I live sort of here, kind of really in the middle of Korea, which is convenient for me. I like it because I have a car so I can drive anywhere. It's almost pretty much the same distance anywhere. So I really like that. Yeah, Daegu because somebody was asking about Daegu. Daegu is right here. So those are like, because you see it's a different color. So a few cities are like special cities, they're not, they're not like in the pro like, they're not part of a province. They're like sort of their own thing. So those are a few cities like you can see here Daegu, Busan, Busan, Guangzhou, Daejeon, Sejong, Seoul and Incheon. I think that's it. So those are like the special cities. And then those are like the provinces and Jeju. And those are just some, you know, attractions around Korea, some of the most well known. I thought it was just interesting to include so that you can see that it's very there's a lot of variety. So like there's, you know, beaches, ocean, islands, there's bamboo forests, there's tea fields, there's like also like, this is Busan. This is a really fancy part of Busan. It's really nice to take like a yacht tour there. There's history, a lot of historic buildings. There's also, you know, snow, especially this winter, we had a lot of snow. So there's like winter sports going on. There's like a lot of really nice ski resorts, all that stuff. So all of this is Korea. Because I think a lot of people have some sort of different opinions about Korea or like they're not, they don't really know a lot about it. So yeah. Also, again, if you're interested in learning more about especially traveling in Korea, you can check out my website, lindegoseast.com. And yeah, you can see more about that. I hope this is interesting. I didn't get a lot of comments so far. Anybody still out there? Let me take a sip of tea. But yeah, Korean tea, by the way, this is actually really nice. Sort of like probably from this area. This is a big tea area in Korea and also Jeju Island. So here, wait, this is here. That's the tea area down here. Very, very pretty. I'm actually planning on going down there again this spring. I love tea and just, you know, seeing like the tea fields and all this stuff. And with the cherry blossoms in spring, it's just so beautiful. So I really enjoy that. Okay, tea break. Thanks, Amy. Okay, cool. All right. Thanks for letting me know you're still there. I don't want to bore you guys. I feel like I'm just talking, you know, I can get carried away. I love living in Korea, you know, it's so fun. So if at any point, you know, I get too much of topics, let me know and I'll shut up or I'll get, I go through it faster. Anyway, so that was it about our geography class, I guess. Cool. Joannis is very interesting. Would love to road trip all around Korea. Oh my God, that's my goal, especially, you know, now with COVID, we can't really travel abroad. So I just want to, yeah, take my car and go everywhere. That would be my goal. Moses says, hello, Linda. Hi, Moses. Thanks so much for tuning in. We're talking about teaching English in Korea. All right, very cool. All right, I guess, oh, Albert has a question. Cool. Albert asked, what kind of tea is that green tea, the tea that I'm drinking? Yes, actually, no, well, it's actually this one. And normally I don't do tea bags, but I don't have time to do the loose leaf right now. So it says post fermented tea with sweet elegant flavor of Korean pear. It's actually my first time having this tea. But yeah, this brand is really nice. You can check it out. Osulog. They have some really, really good tea. And they are actually went to the Osulog Museum on Jeju Island. Oops, here, on Jeju Island. They have a big tea museum and tea fields there. But yeah, so South Korea mostly produces green tea. They do not actually make puar or anything like that. Mostly green tea. And it's actually really nice green tea. Also a little bit of matcha, even the matcha, matcha culture isn't that big compared to Japan, for example. But yeah, anyway, that's my tea. All right, moving on. Now we're getting into more about actually teaching in Korea. And I just want to start off with the qualifications because people are always like, you know, what do I need? Do I need to have a bachelor's in education? Or do I need to, you know, what do I need to have? So basically two things are important, mostly when it comes to teaching English in Korea is your nationality, unfortunately, and your qualifications. So generally for qualifying for the English teaching visa, which is the E2 visa that most English teachers are on here, you must be a passport holder from the following countries. So U.S., Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. Oh, ignore that university. So yeah, you need to be from one of those countries. You need to be a passport holder from one of these countries. However, there are some loopholes and I'm going to talk about that in just a bit. So don't worry about that. Then you also need to have at least a bachelor's degree and a copy must be notarized and episteld. So but yeah, that's really, you can get that done very easily. But yeah, you need to have a bachelor's degree. But it doesn't matter which major. So it doesn't have to be in TESOL. It doesn't have to be in teaching. It doesn't have to be in English. It can be any major as long as you've completed four years of education. Yeah, so that's sort of what you need in order to get the visa. So your bachelor's degree, the copies, they must be notarized and episteld. And there's a lot of companies that do that. So an episteld is like a, it's similar to a notarization, but like it's for international use. I think that's the difference. But there are a lot of services. If you search like, if you search it online, you can find services to do it. You know, they have express services. Obviously you need to pay more money for that. But yeah, it's pretty easy to do. Some other requirements that you will need to get the visa are three sealed university transcripts. You also need to get a clear criminal background check. And that usually kind of takes the longest to get. I feel like especially now with all, you know, the public offices not really operating at full speed. Yeah, so you need to get like your fingerprints taken and then sent that in for US people from the US. It's like you have to send it into the FBI, you get an FBI criminal background check. Has to be clean in order to get to visa. Yeah, you also need a passport photo copy. You need to present a resume. You also need to have a signed copy of the school contract for passport sized photos and two letters of recommendation. Even though now I'm thinking about it, I think I didn't have any letters of recommendation. So I'm not sure if that is still the case. I don't know. But yeah, that's the general requirements or things documents that you need in order to get your visa. But like before that, obviously, so you need to make sure like you have all of these things, you have your bachelor's degree, you know, prepare, get ready. And then once you have all of these things, you tick, you tick all the boxes, you check all the boxes, you can then move on to applying for a job. Once you have that, they will give you the contract and then you can usually you can basically do like the final steps of going to the embassy and, you know, presenting all the documents and then you get your visa. So that's that, basically. Oh, yeah, now we didn't really talk about the Teflor T-sol yet. As you can see, it was not a requirement. So Tefl certification is not required to teach in Korea or basically it's not required to get a teaching visa in Korea. So those are kind of two things. There's a lot of schools in Korea that will still require their teachers to have a Teflor T-sol just for their own personal preference. So it's definitely beneficial to have a Teflor T-sol even though it's not an official requirement. You will definitely get a higher salary compared to people who don't have a Tefl certificate. And you also have access to better job opportunities. If you're Teflor T-sol certified, because like I said, nowadays a lot of schools are making it a requirement. So they only hire certified people. So if you don't have a Tefl certificate, then you might earn less and you don't have access to all of the jobs available. So that's why we are offering 30% off today, our Teflon T-sol courses. If you watch until the end, I'm going to drop that 30% off link into the comment box. Or actually, let me drop it right now. Let me drop it right now. Why not? All right. So I'm just dropping this link. I'll share it again later on, but let me just drop it in right now so people can check it out. So this is the link that you can use to sign up for a Teflor T-sol course, 30% off. Okay. So check that out. I'm going to mention it again at the end of the session, but just right away, if anybody's interested, use that link, get your 30% off. And yeah. So like I said, it's beneficial to have a Teflor T-sol certificate in Korea and also, so for example, I was teaching English in China before I came to Korea. At the time when I lived and taught in China, a Tefl certificate was not a requirement, but then now it is a requirement. So things, laws, and regulations change. In case it changes, you want to be ready, you want to be set and you want to have a certificate. So more and more countries are, following suit and are making a Teflor T-sol a requirement to get a visa. So I can see Korea doing that too in the future. So it's always good to have it. Okay. Then let's talk about the money aspect. So how much can I earn teaching English in Korea? So those are the typical salary ranges. Basically, we have to look at what kind of school it is. So it always depends on the type of school and then also on your own background and qualifications. So we start off with public schools. Public schools, you typically earn the least. It's the bottom part, but it's still not bad, especially depending on what region you teach in. And we can look at that a little bit more later because public schools is also the Epic program. So the Epic program is a teaching program in Korea that a lot of teachers are going into. And then they get placement in Korea through the government. So yeah. Oh, and it's only in Korean won. I'm sorry. So 1.8 million won to 2.7 million won sounds like a lot, right? You'd be a millionaire in Korea. But yeah, 1.8 is probably about 1800 US dollars. Let me just double check on my currency app. So 1.8 million. Oh, 1.8 million is currently, oh, it's actually 1600 US dollars. So starting at 1600 up to 2.7 million, which is 2,425 US dollars currently. So that's what you'd be making in a public school. Then a little bit more, you can earn a little bit more in hagwons or private language schools up to 3 million won. So that is currently 2,700 US dollars. Yeah. Then universities, you'll be making more. If you manage to get a university job, those requirements are usually a little bit higher. So they usually want people with a master's degree and preferably a master's degree in teaching or TESOL or English. But it's definitely doable, especially in smaller cities. There, the universities aren't that strict. And usually, if you, you know, you're in Korea for a while and then you get to know people, you do a bit of networking, you could definitely get a university job because they're always looking for teachers. And working for university in Korea is really, really nice. You have very, very little teaching hours. You make a lot of money. You have a lot of free time and you get like two or three months paid vacation every season, every term, every semester. So it's really, really nice. I recommend that. And the highest paying school would be an international school. That's usually how it is everywhere in every country. They pay the highest, but they also have the strictest requirements. So international schools, they typically only hire people with a teaching license from their country. So not only a TEFL or TESOL, but an actual teaching license. So they, like you have to go through teachers, college and all those things. And so that can be a little bit challenging, but we know not impossible. Then also, when you teach English in South Korea, you're not only getting your salary, but there's also some extra benefits such as paid housing. So most teachers, they get paid housing, either paid housing or a housing stipend. So you might get like a couple of hundred dollars stipend, or you can receive paid housing and then you live in a teacher's apartment. You also get health insurance and typically paid airfare and like year of contract bonuses. And there's also a pension scheme that you basically pay into. So the national pension scheme. And then when you leave Korea, you get all of this money back. So depending on how long you're staying, how long you're paying into this pension scheme, you get like a couple thousand back, a couple thousand dollars back when you leave. So this is a really, really good chunk of money that you can then use, you know, for when you're going to a different location or you're going back home as sort of like a starting, starting capital. Yeah. All right. All right, I have a question here. Chibi says universities I've heard is extremely hard to break into. So like I said, it depends on, you know, where I imagine that soul, you know, is probably really hard. But if you're in a smaller city, you know, networking and you get to know people, maybe you took some, I was actually offered a university job at my university job at my here in my city. And it's a really good university. It's a national university, a lot of international students. It's very prestigious. And because I just knew people, you know, and they were like, Hey, yeah, you know, we know you're a good teacher. We know you're certified. You've been here for a while. Would you like to work at our university? And so yeah, just depends on, you know, networking. And yeah, it's definitely not impossible. I think they make it make it look harder than it is. But I feel like you definitely need to be like in Korea for a while, at least like maybe two or three years to be able to work at a university. Alright, let's move on to yeah, comparing hagwons, which are the private schools and public schools. So because I get this asked a lot, you know, what's better working for private school for public school in Korea. So my experience, I worked at a private school at a hagwon before. So I can speak about that. I know a lot of people who work for public schools and I, you know, know their opinions and experience. So basically a hagwon, you will usually find more, more, more foreign teachers. Yeah, more foreign teachers work at hagwons. So compared to a public school where you might be the only foreign teacher working in the entire school. So that can be kind of hard if you're new to Korea, you don't really know anybody. And then you're the only foreigner there. Usually you're in your own like foreign office. So I might get a little bit lonely, you know, there might not be that many other foreigners around. So that's just one of the things. Then the other one is that hagwons do pay a slightly higher salary. So you will be making a little bit more money working for hagwon. But you also have more working hours typically. And for a lot of hagwons, depending on, you know, what kind it is, a lot of the working hours start after lunch. So at like 1pm, a lot of hagwon teachers are working 1pm to 9pm. So a lot of people enjoy that. They have like their mornings off. And then, you know, they work until nine can work. But some people prefer, you know, they're usually like nine to five. At public school, I think it's also nine to five or like eight, eight to four depends on what school it is. So yeah, that's the thing. And then at public schools, you have typically more vacation days, which is really nice. But yeah, so compared to the hagwon, at my hagwon, I had I had 10 paid vacation days per year, five in the winter and five in the summer. And you can't, you couldn't choose like when you want them. Like that's the school vacation and all the teachers get that time off. That's it. You can't like, it's not a flexible date, typically. With public schools, it's a bit more flexible. Obviously, you'll also have vacation when the kids have vacation. So it's also not, you know, you can choose your own dates. But like, I have a friend and she is able to take a few off days when she needs them for public school. But in hagwon, that's typically not the case. Yeah, and also for public schools, one thing, especially if you work for Epic, the Epic program, and I'm going to talk about that soon, you might end up working at more than one school. So I have a friend and she's in the Epic program here in my city in cheongju. And because it's sort of a smaller city, she actually works at, I think now it's two schools, but she worked last semester, she worked at three different schools. So she had one main school and then she went to two other schools, I think Thursday and Friday or something like that. So that can be the case. Obviously, it doesn't have to be a negative thing. But yeah, you're going to have a lot more, you know, students, you know, different school systems to deal with, you know, different coworkers might be a little bit overwhelming. And also she, so her main school was pretty close to her paid house to her paid apartment. But the other two schools were kind of like rural schools. So she had to take a bus out into the countryside. And it was like took like 45 minutes or so. Yeah, which is also not too bad. But she really loved the experience. It's, you know, part of the Korea experience, I think is gives you a very good, authentic insight into Korean life. So yeah. So those are pretty much the differences between Hagwon and public schools. All right, let me take a look at the comments section real quick. We have a question here from Luz. I am an accounting major, but definitely good in English. Is it possible for me to teach English in Korea? No teaching experience. Ouch. Okay. Yeah, so like I said, it doesn't matter which major you have your degree in for teaching English in Korea. But it sounds like if you say it's I'm really good in English. What what country are you from? So that always depends. You know, like I said, for the teaching visa, you need to be from an English speaking country. There are some loopholes. And I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But typically that's one of the hurdles depends on your it depends on your nationality. But yeah, the qualifications are definitely there. Okay. All right, let's go to the next one. Yeah, so this is Epic, the Epic program. And if you were watching one of my previous lives, I did a live about the best government funded English teaching programs. And South Korea, no, sorry, the Epic program was on the list. So that would be similar information if you watched that before, but just a refresher then. So Epic stands for stands for English program in Korea. It is run by the South Korean government. And it is a program that places foreign teachers into schools across the country to work as English language instructors. What's great about the Epic program is it's super, it's great for first time teachers to Korea or abroad in general. It offers competitive salaries and extra benefits, like I mentioned. And it basically offers the chance to live and work in a unique cultural environment in East Asia. That's what they advertise their program with. And yeah, for details, you can check out epic.go.kr. They are hiring. They're always hiring. So there's like two hiring seasons. One is for February, March. That's when the school year starts in South Korea in March. So they hire February, March. And then another one, the second semester is August, September. So that's when they hire second time. But you need to fill out your application like I think six months in advance. So yeah, you need to be early with that. Also the requirements are you need to be a citizen of a country where English is the primary language. So the countries that I mentioned before. You also must have studied from at least the junior high level seventh grade and graduated from a university in one of the seven designed countries. So Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States or South Africa. However, and this is a little loophole here. Indian citizens are eligible for positions if they meet all other requirements and hold a teacher's license in English. Because I get this asked a lot. A lot of Indian people from India approach me, they really want to come to Korea. And so this is a great opportunity for those wanting to come to Korea. If you meet all the requirements, plus you have a teacher's license in English, you qualify, you're eligible for the Epic program. So I think that's a really good good way also to get to Korea. Then there's also a for all the other citizens. There is a working holiday visa for Korea. It's only for 12 months, but it can be extended. And you can actually check that out if you look for working holiday visa Korea. A lot of people from many, many different countries are eligible. They do have some countries have quotas that only I think for some countries, it's like 100 people, 200 people from that specific country can receive that visa. But many, many countries have unlimited quotas. So check that out. And maybe you'll be eligible. And this is basically allowing you to work and live in South Korea. And then while you're here, you can explore some other visa options because there's a ton of options. Korea is really pushing for their, you know, getting international talents to Korea. So they have a lot of different visa options. And so don't be discouraged. So maybe you need to go through a different way into Korea, not the straight teaching English and Korea way, but maybe some, you know, turns here and there, depending on where you're from. But don't be discouraged. There are a lot of options, the visas, there are a lot of different visas, visas available. So there's a lot of options for everybody. But yeah, back to Epic, you also need to hold a minimum of a bachelor's degree. So it's the same thing from before. You need to have a bachelor's degree, a four year degree. And it doesn't have doesn't matter which major. But what's interesting, if you have an associate's degree, so two years, a two year degree, you can apply for the talk program, which is pretty much the same thing as Epic, but for people with associate's degree and usually younger people. So the talk program is also a teaching program that places you into schools in South Korea. And for the Epic program, you also need to have a TEFL or a TESOL of at least 100 hours. So that's the difference. If you want to go through the Epic program, you need to have a TEFL certificate. Unless you have majored in TESOL, or you have a teaching license and stuff like that. So, but other than that, you need to have a TEFL or TESOL. And again, just a reminder, let me show you the banner. Here, special offer at the end of the session, 30% off for all TEFL or TESOL courses from ITTT. Just wait a minute, and then I'll share that link so that you can get TEFL or TESOL certified as well. Okay, I think there's one more slide about Epic, about the salary and additional info. It's pretty similar to what I said before, but this is only Epic. So they have this level system. So depending on your experience and qualifications, you will earn more or less. And also it depends on, as you can see here, what region you work in. So actually, other provinces, so basically the, I guess, not so popular places outside of Seoul and Busan, pay the most. So, yeah, you might end up working for like a rural school in like a small town, but you earn the most money. But even like my city is actually in this category, but it's still a pretty big city. It's almost a million people here. Big city, you know, there's a downtown, there's a shopping mall, like there's everything here, so like don't think it's like in the boonies, it's not. But that's usually what people think, like people in Seoul or from Seoul, they think everything outside of Seoul is countryside, but it's not. Just want to put that out there, it's not. But yeah. Then the benefits are pretty much the same as I said before. So you get a fully furnished accommodation, an apartment, you get paid airfare in and out of the country. You also, and this is different, that's unique for the Epic program, you get a 300,000 Korean won settlement allowance. So sort of like to get you started with your life in Korea, if you have to buy some stuff for your kitchen or like, you know, some anything for your house, food that will get you through like the first month until you first paycheck. So 300,001 is about like 300 dollars, a little bit less than 300 dollars. But yeah. You also get 18 days paid leave plus all national holidays. So like I said before, typically for private schools, you get 10 vacation days. And in the Epic program, you get 18. So that's a big difference. Yeah. And then you also get one month salary, bonus and completion of contract. That's the same with private schools as well. Yeah. Okay. And here's some information about applying. But yeah, go to the official website, epic dot, what was it? G O dot K R. Let's go back. What was the website? Yeah, epic dot G O dot K R. So head there. And there's all the info how to apply when apply all the forms, everything you need in one place. And you can also reach out to them directly. I'm not from Epic. So all of this is all the information here I have from my own research. Of course, things might change, might be different on the actual website. So just to know. Okay. Then. Oh, now it's the question about, do I need to know Korean before I go to Korea? I know at the beginning of the session, I don't know if you're still here. Some people asked about that. So do I need to know Korean if I want to teach English in Korea? And so I'm splitting this up into two categories. So do I need to know Korean for teaching English in Korea? The answer is no, you do not need to know any Korean for teaching English in Korea. For example, if my school, the private had one, it was, they had something like the English only policy. So you were only allowed to speak English to all the students and all the students were only allowed to speak English to you. So no Korean, if they spoke Korean, it was like, hey, no Korean, no Korean. So you don't, you don't need to know any Korean to teach English in Korea. Also for the Epic program, if you work at a public school, you don't need to know any Korean to get hired. Now, do I need to know Korean for living in Korea? That's a different story. So most of the time people living in Seoul, in Seoul, English is pretty widely spoken everywhere in, you know, the restaurants, all like the, all the places pretty much everybody speaks English in stores and pretty much outside of Seoul, it's a little bit of a different story. So like in my city, pretty much, yeah, I find people who speak English here and there, but they're not that common, not that many people. So if you know Korean, it's definitely going to help you living in Korea. Also, if you live in Seoul. So I definitely recommend, you know, learning some Korean before you go, just to help you, you know, settle in to your new life in Korea, make friends, just get around, you know, it starts at like going to the convenience store and buying something at the person asks you, do you want a bag, you know, just little things like that. And or just, you know, knowing how to say hello, thank you, and please goes a long way. Koreans, you know, they're very helpful. If they see like you can't speak any Korean, they will help you and be helpful and try their best. But if they see like you're making an effort, you know, a little bit of Korean, it really goes a long way. And so I definitely highly highly recommend it. And I actually want to share a link for anyone who's interested in learning Korean. I highly recommend 90 Day Korean. And I'm just dropping the link into the comment box, you can check it out. 90 Day Korean. They offer a lot of great resources and programs. You can work with a teacher or by yourself. You know, it's a really great resource for learning Korean. And, you know, it can't hurt learning a little bit of Korean before you go. There's also a lot of There's also a lot of options learning Korean while you're here. But due to COVID, a lot of those things are not happening right now, like the in class Korean courses. There also is a government sponsored course or program. It's called KIIP, the Korean Korean integration and immigration program or something like that. So that's specifically for foreigners living in Korea. You basically can take free Korean classes, you go to a school. And you can learn Korean there. And it's through the government. And they have like six levels. If you go through all the levels, you are actually able to change your visa to a permanent like resident visa. So it's a really good program that helps a lot of people who are serious about Korea. And they really want to stay here and they want to be a part of everything. They take it. And I actually took this course. It's really helpful, challenging, but helpful. And yeah, I highly recommend it. Moses asks, do you speak Korean, Linda? I do speak Korean. I'm sorry. I do speak Korean. I did also learn started learning Korean before I got to Korea. I was living in China at the time. And I had, I met this girl who was Korean, who was from Korea, but she lived in China with her family. And she taught me some Korean before I went. And then when I moved here, I started taking Korean classes at the local YMCA here in my city. And then I also started with that KIIP program that I just talked about. And I did all the levels there. So I can speak Korean, but I wish it would be better after almost six years. So I definitely need to need to learn some more. But yeah. So yeah, check this out. 90 day Korean. I highly recommend it if you want to learn Korean. Check it out. And then let me answer a question from Juliana. She asks, do they have any Christian schools? Yes. Actually, there's a lot of Christian schools in Korea. Also maybe a fun or interesting fact about Korea, about 50% of the population or the people in Korea are like, so it's like split 50, 50, half and half. Half of them are Christian and half are Buddhist. So typically older people tend to be Buddhist and younger people tend to be Christian sort of. So yeah. But definitely there's a lot of Christian schools. Also a lot of Christian private schools, Christian international schools, definitely. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So that is the end of this teaching English in Korea session. I'm just going to open up the general Q&A. You can ask me anything. And also you get 30% off. So this is our 30% off link. Let me share it in the comment section one more time. And you can also scan the QR code. And then you'll also see the application page. So the link goes straight to the application page. But you can just check out the normal website first and then figure out which course you want to take and then go back to the application page and fill out your application. You can also just fill out your application. No strings attached. You don't have to pay right away. You can apply it and think about it for a few days. We will send your reminder emails. And yeah, you'll get the 30% off. Okay. Thank you, Amy. That's sweet. All right. If anybody has any other questions about Korea, about TEFL, about anything, now is your opportunity to ask them. I'll still be here for a few more minutes. And then I'm going to sign off because I feel like my throat is a little bit scratchy. But yeah, let me know if you have any questions. If you found it helpful, if you found it useful or not, I'm happy about any kind of feedback. Positive or constructive, as they say. Anything. Let me know. All right. Mika says, thank you, Linda. Really helpful information. Thank you so much. I hope so. I hope so. Like I said, reach out to me. At Linda Goes East, if you want to learn more about Korea, more about learning Korean or anything at all, you can just message me and have a chat with me. I'd be happy to do that. All right. Maxine. Hi, Maxine. She's asking, is TEFL recommended if you want to teach English privately with families, business leaders, instead of schools, institutions? All right. Yes. So actually, fun fact. I just started teaching English online for a platform. I might do a live about that later on when I have figured it out more. But you can also upload your qualifications there. So this platform is sort of teaching privately. I definitely think a TEFL is great also if you want to teach English privately, because it still shows that you can teach, you know what you're doing, and I think it's a great thing. So I definitely recommend it. It really shows whether it's your family member, your friends or any other people. It shows them that you're serious, you're, you know what you're doing. You're also up to date. You know, you have all that knowledge. And yeah, I definitely recommend it. All right. Jessica is asking, sorry, I missed most of the live. Did you go over the teaching English online aspect? So this live was mostly about teaching English in South Korea. So I didn't really talk about teaching English online. But is there anything you would like to know? You can let me know. You can ask right now. All right. Oh, Lua. Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I can't pronounce your name. Lua Kamin? Chris? I'm just going to say Chris. Chris, is it a plus to teach English abroad if I have the TESOL TEFL course? Yes, definitely a plus. More and more countries and schools are requiring a TEFL. And like I said earlier, for example, I was teaching English in China before, couple years back. At that time, a TEFL was not a requirement, but now it is. So regulations and rules are changing all the time. So you want to be ready. You want to be ahead of the game and definitely get certified in case, you know, it changes and then you're in a country where they're like, Hey, now you need a TEFL. So definitely I recommend it. All right. Jessica, it's asking. All right. Do most teaching English online companies deal with China versus Korea? Okay. So yeah, there are a lot of teaching English online platforms that cater to specific countries or specific student groups. So it's true that there's a lot that actually focus on China because China is so big compared to, especially compared to Korea. China is huge. There's so many people in China. So that's why there's so many companies that focus at China. Because China is actually the largest market for teaching English as a foreign language online or abroad. It's just huge. And there's so many English learners. So that's why you will see a lot of companies that specifically target China and Chinese students. But there's also platforms that have Korean students. There's a lot of local Korean websites for teaching English online that hire foreigners. There's also, you know, different apps that they use here where you can apply it to be a tutor and things like that. So yeah, there's something for everybody, for every region, for every kind of student. So definitely. But that's the reason why there's a lot of China focus because China is so big and it's the biggest EFL market. Yeah, Juliana says that's right. Any tutoring platform needs their ESL tutor to have a Teflur T-Sale certificate. Exactly. So it's definitely good to have. Nowadays, it's just one of the standard things, a Teflur. All right, Jessica asks, can I rewatch this live after it's over? Yes, you can. So it'll be available for replay at any time after it's finished. So you can just stop by. I see you're watching from Facebook. So yeah, it will be on our Facebook page. You can just rewatch it. And it also will be on our YouTube channel. You can also rewatch it there. Okay. Okay, let me just show you guys this last slide. How to find ITTT online, just a little reminder of how you can find us at Teflcourse.net and then on Facebook, on Twitter, on Instagram. Check us out. Give us a follow and a like and a subscribe and all those good things. We also have a YouTube channel, a very big YouTube channel. We share a lot of different really cool videos that you should check out. So yeah, let me go back to the QR code in case somebody wants to scan it. But yeah, Joanna, one last question here. Could you tell us a bit about the job hunting process? Sure. So you can either look for a job by yourself, or you can go through a recruiter, or for Korea, you can go through the Epic program that I mentioned earlier. So if you want to go through the program, which is one of the most popular ways, you apply directly through their website, epic.go.kr. I think I know it now. Yeah, you can go there and then you can apply. You can also find a lot of open vacant jobs online. If you just search teaching positions, Korea, a lot of stuff will pop up. You can also check out different Facebook groups. So there's groups like English teachers in Korea, ESL jobs in Korea, or like things like that. That's actually a really great way. There's a lot of recruiters on there. There's a lot of school head teachers on there looking for people to hire. I recommend that. And yeah, you can also go with recruiters. We actually work with a bunch of different recruiters. Let me share that here. Sorry. Here, if you click on this link, here, teflacourse.net slash EFL minus ESL minus jobs, you'll see a list of our Teflon TESOL partners. And a lot of them are actually recruiters. And there's a lot of them that are focused on South Korea. And you can reach out to them. We've worked with them for many years. And they will help you. They would gladly help you find a job in South Korea. And also good to know is that recruiters are at no cost for the teacher. So the school pays the recruiter and not the teacher. So you can use these services for completely free. And yeah, I recommend doing a combination of all of those things because you don't have to stick to just one or even just one recruiter. You can reach out to 10 of them at the same time. It doesn't matter. So just use every opportunity you have so you can pick and choose which job position is the best for you. That's what I recommend. Okay. All right. Then yeah, I'm going to sign off now. Again, you can rewatch this live at any time after it ends. I see I get a couple of questions now, but I already answered that in the live. So I recommend just watching it from the beginning. So you get all that info, all that good stuff. Don't forget the 30% off link. Don't forget to reach out to me, Linda Ghost East, if you have any questions about teaching in Korea, living in Korea in Asia, anything like that. And also check out that link that I shared earlier about learning Korean, studying Korean. I highly recommend it. And yeah, I hope to see you guys again next week. I'd love to have a chat with you again. And yeah, I'm signing off now. Have a wonderful day, evening, night, morning, wherever you are. It is morning here where I am Thursday. It's 11.19 right now. So I'm going to get ready to have probably my second morning coffee. And yeah, I'm also going to get this episode up on our podcast so you can listen to it as a podcast episode. Don't forget to like and subscribe. So you don't miss any other live sessions that we're doing. We go live twice a week, one time me, one time my colleague Lisa. And yeah, this was a fun session. Let me know if you have any questions. Now I'm just rambling. Yeah, I'm going to sign off now. And yeah, have a wonderful rest of your day. And I hope to see you again.