If you are a recent graduate or someone who is simply tired of their job and are looking to teach English in Korea for the summer or fall, now is the time to get started making preparations.
If you have made the decision to teach in Korea, you want to first make sure that you meet the requirements needed in order to be granted a working visa. Once you have done that, you want to be sure that you understand the process and documents involved in obtaining a working visa.
If you are uncertain that Korea is the right place for you to teach, you can do some further research on the different cities that you can teach and also some of the popular things to do in Korea.
Once you have made the decision that Korea is right for you, you will need to apply to us, after which time you will be contacted for an interview.
If you have any questions you can send us an email at: info@travelandteachrecruiting.com
(A big thanks to one of our Travel and Teach teachers, Breda Lund, for this!)
Buddha’s birthday, a national holiday and the most important Buddhist festival, is coming up May 21. What better way to celebrate than an overnight templestay in historic Gyeongju!
Plus, since it’s a three-day weekend, and Gyeongju isn’t far from Busan, it’s a great opportunity to head to the beach. So after getting in touch with our spiritual side at the temple, we’ll go experience a different type of relaxation in Busan.
Gyeongju was the capital of the Silla Dynasty, which was was Buddhist and highly artistic. So it’s no surprise that it produced the most magnificent temples in Korea. Built during the sixth century, Golgulsa temple was carved from solid rock and is the only cave temple in Korea. Visitors and pilgrims come to Golgulsa to see the ancient Buddha statue, original to the temple, as well as the unique cave sanctuaries.
Another exceptional aspect of this temple is its focus on seonmudo, or zen martial arts, which we may observe and experience during our visit, along with other traditional practices like a tea ceremony and zen meditation.
We will also visit the most well-known sights of the city: Bulguksa, the most famous temple in all of Korea, and Seokguram, a unique man-made grotto shrine.
Then, we’ll head to Busan to visit the famous Haeundae Beach, with its seafood restaurants, aquarium and miles of sand!
For more information on itineraries and how to sign up for this trip click here
When you hear about Korea, a few things may come to mind: The bustling sprawling capital city of Seoul; the mountains providing the backdrop for cities such as Daegu; or perhaps Buddhist Temples of Tongdosa. Wherever your mind wanders when you think about what you will see and experience in your journey teaching English in Korea, you may be surprised as to the other many fascinating sights and scenes available to you.
As you are preparing for your trip to become an ESL teacher in Korea, you are most likely concerned with things like getting your documents all prepared for your working visa or making last minute plans to see your friends and family one last time before you go on your way for a year or more. You are probably also thinking about what you will do in your first day of class or what your co-teachers will be like or are possibly scrambling to finish up the remaining hours of your TEFL certification course.
When all is said and done, and you are as prepared as you can be, stop for a minute and think about what’s ahead. You are on your way to a whole new world, one that most travelers of South east Asia do not bother to stop and check out. Korea will now be your home, and one that you will soon get adapted to. Whether you come from Canada, or the US, you will be entering a world that boasts some of the most beautiful scenes and ancient treasures that Asia has to offer. And the best part is, that all of these are just a few hours away from you.
People tend to forget that there is more to life in Korea than having a good time with your friends at the bars on the weekends, or exploring the crazy all night shopping malls in Dongdaemun Seoul. While there is nothing wrong with making friends and getting a little bit crazy on the weekends, do consider coming home from the bar early on a Friday night so that you can get up and make that train to the ancient tombs in Gyeongju or to the Jinju Castle. It will be well worth it.
Transportation in Korea is very inexpensive and also very convenient. If your apartment is not close to a train station for example, there will surely be a bus close to you that will get you there; if you arrive at your destination but are not sure where to go from there, ask a local taxi driver who will either take you there or show you the way. If you get lost anywhere in Korea, just ask someone if they speak English and are able to help you. You might get lucky and find someone who has confidence in their English, or you might find someone that is a little bit shy, but even they will have some knowledge of English and should be able to assist you. In either case, Koreans are very friendly people and are more than willing to help foreigners when they can. They are also a very proud people, so as long as you make an attempt to first speak in Korean to them (a simple anyounghasayo!), then you will get the reception that you are looking for.
Whether you are into K Pop or not, if you are on your way to your new job teaching English in Korea, you will surely hear about the latest sensation, Gain.
David Dutton is a director who supports independent art and music presence both locally and worldwide. Take a look at his short film on South Korea to give you an idea of what you will be experiencing when you get there to begin your job teaching English.
There is so much more to this great opportunity than the rewards that you get alone from teaching English in Korea. Be open to travelling around Korea, to the food and the culture or you will surely be missing out on a lot.
Japan has always been the leader in robot technology, coming up with ingenious ways to use robots (often quite unnecessarily), in our daily lives. Past robot ideas include: PaPeRo, a robot that has the ability to interact with people and also perform autonomous actions; it’s newer version, PaPe-Jiro, a comedian robot; or the Actroid, a humanoid robot (weird).
Koreans are, more than ever, competing in the robot market and have come up with a great idea to prevent injuries from happening in prisions with their robot prison guard. One can only hope that prisoners won’t get too annoyed during the trial period while the engineers work out the tweaks.
Since PSY has taken over the world with his Gangnam Style video, 100′s of parody videos have been made around the globe. Here is good one from the students at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario:
If you are teaching in Korea or planning on going to Korea soon to teach English, you are going to want to try Korean food. You might not know much about Korean food now, but once you discover how amazing it is, you will most likely become a fan of it and incorporate it in your diet…even after you return home from Korea!
For more information about the food that you can find in Korea, check out our Korean food page here.
No matter what city in Korea you end up teaching in, you will inevitably have ‘western’ restaurants in your city. These can include Indian, Thai, American or Mexican.
For some great insight as to the ‘best of the west’ that Korea has to offer, check out Jackie Bolen’s post on The Best Expat Restaurants in Korea.
If you have not yet heard of Busan Kevin, an ESL teacher who has been teaching English in Korea and Japan for years and documenting it, check out his Youtube page here.
Kevin, a friend of Shane’s, also made a nice little video giving a ‘shout out’ to Travel and Teach Recruiting, which you can see here. (Thanks Kevin!)
In addition, Kevin has written a book about what it is like to teach English in Korea and in Asia in general, which includes tips about adapting to a new culture, managing a classroom with little or no teaching experience and many stories about teaching ESL. You can buy Kevin’s book for the bargain basement price of $5.99 on Amazon.
Home |
Blog |
Sitemap |
Links |
Add to favorites |
|
