Broke? No Job? Hate your job? Wanna see the world?

So I've gotten a few questions here and there about coming to teach in Korea, and ultimately why I decided to.

So here's why I came:

- Had a graphic design job, thought I could get signed on again, but couldn't which = no job
- Searched for jobs for about 3 months with no luck until I saw pictures from a friend on Facebook about being in Korea
- Asked her why she was over here and she said she was teaching
-I looked into it, said why not, and here I am

Furthermore, you have to decide whether you want to teach public or private schools. I personally recommend public school even though at most private schools (hagwons) you get paid more.

With public school this is what I got:

- Airfare paid for (usually public schools don't do this, but my recruiter paid for my flight...I highly recommend them...teacheslkorea.com)
- Free apartment (free meaning I don't pay rent, but I do pay utilities which add up from anywhere from 100 USD to 200 USD...I had a 300 dollar bill last month, but that's only because I didn't know how the heating worked and I had set it too high.
- Pay is around 1.8-2million won, but you can make more by teaching afterschool classes..I was surprised to see a deposit in my bank account for around 700 dollars for an 8 week class I taught!
- 20 days of paid vacation (4 weeks)...but you can also get random days off because of holidays or random days with no classes/off because of testing
- I'm with the GEPIK program

You are required to have:

- A bachelor's degree in any subject
- a valid passport
- no drugs in your system
- criminal background check
- an adventurous spirit (my add-on)

So that's basically it, at least with GEPIK. When you add the total pay up, it can total anywhere from $1500 USD a month to $2000 depending on the exchange rate. Right now the exchange rate is going back up so I'm able to save more money than I was at the start.

And that's the biggest thing for me right there. 1500 may not sound like much, but when you don't have a 700 dollar rent bill to pay, along with a car note or gas, or crazy cell phone bills (my HIGHEST cell phone bill here has been only about 30 dollars), etc, you have more than enough money to eat, go see places (unless you're just bad with money...there really is no excuse..unless you need to send a lot of money back home, which a lot of people do). I send home anywhere from $400-$800 and STILL have enough to live on for whole month. And I'm not talking about scraping by here. I have been here 10 months now and I have cooked a total of two times. It's actually cheaper to eat out here than cook.

Ultimately I don't plan to be here for more than two years as I do have some other plans in place I want to accomplish, but for now, this is good.

If you hate your job, need a job, need some time off to do something different, or you just want to see a part of Asia for a year, teaching English in Korea my be for you.

Research it well, and know what is expected of you. Check out the site a typed above as well for even more info. Cheers.