What’s the most popular destination for English teachers? I’m not sure, but an article on The Korea Times website tells us that over 90 percent of elementary school students are taking private English lessons.
90%! That’s insane! Many of these attend Korea’s private cram schools, where numerous children continue studying long after the school day is over.
TOEFL in Korea
On top of that, Korean TOEFL test takers made up 20% of the worldwide total last year. That’s a huge market for TEFL. Thankfully, there are standards that have to be met for teachers in Korea. In fact, ETS (Education Testing Service) are planning a new exam for teachers of English to ensure quality.
Teaching in Korea
If all this talk of a ripe market has whet your appetite, check out Dave’s ESL Cafe for some job listings in Korea. The pay is very good in that country, but you should beware that it is hard work.
The downside of Korean life
The TEFLLogue recently published an interesting inside scoop on teaching in Korea, and it’s not all fun and games. The author says he works for 40-50 hours per week. Teaching for that amount time is stressful, so find out the specifics of a job before you take it on.
Let’s hope all that teaching amounts to a lot of learning – Go Korea!
