Go and work in South Korea if you're a graduate.

sdavi3680

And as for having bills to pay back home, you don't need to worry about it unless you're paying a mortgage or something. Loads of the people that go over there do it so they can pay off their college fees. It's going to be a long time before I can save that sort of money again without living with my parents. I would like to know what sort of UK salary I would have to earn to be able to save that much, pay the rent and regularly go out to restaurants.

ambercam

Do you know if people who do not have a degree but do have either CELTA or TEFL instead would be accepted to teach in S.Korea, or is it a definite case of no degree no chance? Thanks.

sdavi3680

I think you might find some places that would except someone without a degree, but I'm pretty sure the majority wouldn't. Seems stupid as someone with a CELTA and no degree would be a better candidate than than someone with a degree. Anyway, you're dealing with Korean logic here, two words that don't normally go together.

FATBALLZ

South Korea are desperate for intelligent young workers as everybody under 35 in S. Korea is addicted to Internet RPGs and are therefore unemployable. Plus they have trouble getting migrant workers across the border.

sdavi3680

FATBALLZ wrote: »

South Korea are desperate for intelligent young workers as everybody under 35 in S. Korea is addicted to Internet RPGs and are therefore unemployable. Plus they have trouble getting migrant workers across the border.

haha true. Everyone is too busy playing Starcraft to hold down real jobs.

freeme86

Hi, I have recently been considering doing this, it sounds perfect for what I want to do.
However I was wondering is it cheap to live/eat out there? I know that they give you accommodation, so I was wondering how much I could actually save.....espeically because I have a flat which I would like to avoid selling to do this...so I would have to rent it out, but obviously that is a bit risky as i would have to find a job as soon as I returned home to keep up the mortgage payments.
Also do you know what areas are good to live in Korea? i was thinking probably Seoul as I like cities, but i dont really know anything about the country and keen to explore.

sdavi3680

Yeah, Seoul would be the place to go. I personally wouldn't consider anywhere else, especially if you like cities. In Seoul you have access to a lot of home comforts and other foreigners. You wouldn't really want to choose any of the smaller towns as I imagine you could feel quite isolated. The good thing about Seoul is that it is a big city with all the normal big city fun things to do, but it also has mountains with plenty of places to hike within the city.
Food is cheap. A really nice Korean meal at a restaurant for two people would cost around £10. Obviously it can be cheaper or more expensive depending on tastes, eating out at TGI's or Outback often will soon rinse your money.
Generally though, it is cheap living. £4 for a taxi across town. £2 for a filling take-away meal.
You would get a salary of at least 2.1 million Korean Won per month and can realistically expect to save over half your pay-cheque. So lets say, save 1.3m per month which is around £750. We saved nothing like this amount though as we went out all the time and bought loads of stuff. If I was a little younger and not in need of jumping into a career I would go back for a two years and just try and save every penny.

hopefullysaving

Thanks for posting this sdavi

I have been looking into it, and I am wondering what agency you used to get the job. You obviously had a good experience so I would like some recommendations, please.

Also, I pay off quite a few debts by direct debit. Is it easy to send money back to a UK bank account on a mothly basis?

sdavi3680

It's easy to send money back. The Korean bank will charge you a small fee for doing it. I think one of the banks over there has an account where you can do it all from an ATM.
I can't remember what agency we used. When we put our details up on that Dave's ESL cafe website, we were flooded with agencies sending us details.

Just to make sure the school is in the area you want, don't believe adverts saying that it is only 15 minutes to central Seoul, or think that because it is on the subway line it is still Seoul (some of the subway lines go miles and miles out of Seoul).

The most important thing though is to speak to the current teachers at the school and the one you are replacing. Hopefully they will be up front and you can get idea of the working conditions and whether they enjoy it. Also, if you are speaking to them on the phone, get their email address too and ask a few questions over that, it's likely that when you speak to them on the phone they will be in the boss's office, not exactly a place for free chat!

The Dave's cafe forum is the place to go if you want to ask questions about specific schools or areas of Seoul, you can even post your contract up so others can have a look over it for you.

hopefullysaving

sdavi3680 wrote: »

Also, if you are speaking to them on the phone, get their email address too and ask a few questions over that, it's likely that when you speak to them on the phone they will be in the boss's office, not exactly a place for free chat!

Ahh, clever advice!

I am working it all out at the moment and have more or less decided to go for it. I'm in a boring minimum wage job at the moment and cant seem get back to the salary level I was on before this downturn hit us. It's a good excuse to go travelling and experience a new culture.

Thanks again