When I first came here in 2005, I was totally culture-shocked, but I guess that’s part of it all whenever I go. I think anyone could feel the same. Well, we all just need to keep calm and stay on the ground. If we get overwhelmed, we might lose sanity (LOL). It’s good to see fellow Westerners here; some of them from the United States and the rest from Europe though I can get a s ...

  Teaching in South Korea, so far, has been a great experience for me especially that I am dealing with cute little children learning English. I love my students who are always cuddly though at times can become really a test for my patience especially my students, who are forced to study English. Yes, that’s right. Some of them do not like learning English, if not for their mothers. I k ...

My schedule was changed and no one told me. That’s par for the course and I’ve gotten over it, but when I went to find my students they were sitting in a dark room, lights were off, chatting or sleeping or as they told me, “studying history”, with no teacher in sight. Tell me why my job is getting cut when there are clearly plenty of teachers that don’t even want t ...

A reader writes in: I’m having a problem. I’m trying to find a new job in [city redacted], but no hagwon owner will hire me without speaking to my previous school about why I left early. (They stopped paying me on time and I gave them notice and left 2 months before my contract was up. It was an amicable separation.) However, it seems that [hagwon name redacted] is giving me a bad rep ...

I’ve received a number of questions asking ‘where should I live?’. Sure, it’s kind of fun thinking about Jeonju vs. Tongyeong, but the possible permutations are endless. If you’ve already passed the ‘Should I teach English in Korea?‘ quiz, now it’s time to figure out where you should go.

A reader writes in: Hi Chris: I stumbled across your blog and I’ve found it to be of great use to me, as I am going to be heading to Seoul in approximately two months to teach English. Although I have done quite a bit of research on my own, I have been unable to find information on how much time I’m going to have to spend outside of the classroom preparing lessons and grading papers.

This blog focuses on travel and life in Korea – but for many wonderful readers, teaching English takes up a pretty significant amount of time. Hope these help you in your classes!   Sparkle Die! Also called ‘Sparkle!’, this spelling game requires students to pay attention and spell well. Get the students in a circle, then explain each student will spell words exactly one le ...

What do recruiters do? Recruiters act as a liaison between you and employers in South Korea. They can help you get job interviews, negotiate your contract and remind you which documents you need for your visa. Why are there so many negative things about recruiters online? Recruiters tend to get a bad rap on forums like Dave’s ESL Cafe. There are a few reasons for this—some good, some b ...

It’s time to move forward. I do think we need a organization that assists teachers; in fact, I’d be open to sitting in on that future discussion and offering up some ideas. Let’s get the seven or eight or twenty of us interested in moving forward and have a roundtable sort of meeting. Not in a bar, not in a coffeehouse, but a rather sterile, business room of sorts.

Chris in South Korea note: this is a guest post from Chris D., whose biography is part of the story. Since we happen to share the same first name, please kindly address your comments to Chris D. (the author of this guest post), or Chris B. (yours truly) to avoid confusion. A post written by myself on the same topic is scheduled for later today.