If you are thinking about teaching English in Korea, one of the first decisions you need to make is whether to teach at public schools (EPIK) or private school programs (hagwons). While there are other options, like international schools, they usually require more teaching experience and a teaching degree. EPIK and hagwons are the more accessible choices for anyone looking to jump into teaching as a beginner. There are pros and cons to each option.
First of all, to get an E2 English teaching visa in Korea you have to meet a few requirements. You must be from one of the recognized English-speaking countries in Korea which are Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, United Kingdom, United States, or South Africa. Your schooling from 7th grade through university must have been conducted in English. You also must have a Bachelor's degree from an accredited university within one of the recognized English-speaking countries. If you do not meet these requirements, you cannot teach English in Korea on an E2 visa.
There are some commonalities between both EPIK and hagwon jobs. First of all, both positions are required to pay 50% of your national health insurance and 50% pension contribution (the rest automatically comes out of your pay). You can collect you pension when you leave Korea or when you retire in Korea. Out of pocket, the National Health Insurance costs about ₩140,000 so about ₩70,000 comes out of your paycheck each month. Your pension comes out to about a month's pay for each year you work. Both are also legally required to give you severance pay equal to about one month's pay. The last major similarity is that both provide housing (typically a studio apartment) or a housing stipend. If a hagwon does not offer housing or a stipend, I would look elsewhere as the cast majority will offer it.
My studio apartment in Bucheon, which came with the desk, table/stools. and a different bed frame. I bought the rest of the furniture and brought it from my apartment in Ulsan.
EPIK
EPIK, or English Program in Korea, was created by the Korean Ministry of Education to improve English language education and promote cultural exchange. This government-funded program places teachers at public schools across the country. The school season for students starts on September 1st in the fall and March 1st in the spring, with teacher intake about a month before. To become an EPIK teacher you apply directly through the EPIK website or with a recruiter. The application process starts about six months before your expected start date. For more on the application process for the E2 visa in general, read my article "How I Got an E2 Teaching Visa in Korea."
After you apply and pass an interview, you will be directed to fill out paperwork, sign a contract, and apply for your visa. You'll also complete a 15-hour online orientation course. Once you get through all of that, your EPIK program starts with an unpaid orientation in Seoul for all incoming teachers where they will provide you with food/housing and teach some fundamental skills for teaching and living in Korea. Orientation lasts one week, and at the end of that week you receive your placement. This is when you first learn where you will be teaching. Before heading to Korea, you can give your location and age preferences, but ultimately you could end up being placed anywhere in the country.
When you arrive at your school, you will receive paid training and complete one more online orientation session. After that, you'll begin teaching with a Korean co-teacher. A typical work day is Monday through Friday from around 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM with an hour lunch break. With EPIK, you will teach a maximum of 22 hours per week with the rest being planning time. You may also be required to teach at more than one school in the area at different parts of the day.
EPIK uses a set pay scale that you can find here. The monthly salary ranges from ₩2.1 million to ₩2.8 million which is currently about $1,500 to $2,000 a month. In addition to the benefits of healthcare, pension, and housing, EPIK provides a settlement allowance, entrance/exit allowances meant to cover flights, renewal bonuses, 26 days of PTO, and 11 sick days. A lot of these benefits are to reward teachers who complete their contracts, especially in rural areas. When teachers leave the country before their contract is complete, students are left without a foreign English teacher until the next EPIK intake. Teachers also tend to want placements in Seoul and Busan, so there are higher salaries and benefits for teaching outside of those locations.
Hagwons
Hagwons are privately owned by Koreans or foreigners and typically operate outside of normal school hours. Kids tend to go to hagwons in addition to public school. There are no standards for hagwons, so the quality/type of teaching varies greatly depending on the program. Parents typically pay a lot of money for their children to go to hagwons, and there is a high demand because of the culture surrounding education in Korea. Many kids will go to math programs, taekwondo, etc. after school in addition to attending an English hagwon. Because of this, hagwons can be found on every corner. This means lots of options to choose from, but also lots of option to sift through to find the diamond in the rough.
To find a job at a hagwon you either work with a recruiter or find job postings yourself to interview directly with the schools. Some forums I have used are Dave's ESL Cafe and WorknPlay. You can also find some jobs in Facebook groups. I highly recommend joining groups on Facebook or utilizing Reddit to find advice from teachers in Korea. I also recommend checking out the Hagwon Blacklist so that you can make informed decisions about schools based on experiences other teachers have had in the past. Keep in mind, some of these opinions might be subjective. Another way to utilize these pages is to get familiar with red flags in hagwon contracts and become familiar with what should/should not be included in them.
With hagwons, there is a lot of flexibility when it comes to your options. You can choose the location, students ages, work hours, etc. based on what schools are offering. Typically you won't have a co-teacher, meaning you will either be given materials to teach or completely responsible for teaching/lesson-planning on your own. Many teachers like this as they often have more freedom to teach how they want or find a school the aligns with their teaching style. Classes tend to be smaller but can vary depending on the hagwon. You can also find schools opening in the mornings or afternoons/evenings depending on your preferences. You can also find higher paying jobs. Starting salaries can be closer ₩2.5 million a month and get much higher with experience than the EPIK pay scale cap of ₩2.8. Contracts are also more negotiable versus the set contracts of the public schools.
While hagwons provide healthcare, pension, and severance pay and typically provide housing and reimburse flights, they don't often include settlement allowances or sick days and typically don't offer as much PTO. The legal minimum is 11 days of PTO. Hagwons also typically are Monday through Friday with all Korean holidays off, but some are open on the weekends and opt to pay time-and-a-half for holidays instead. It is very important to search around and read contracts to find a school that works for you and has the best benefits.
Hagwons have some risks that public schools don't have. Being privately owned, hagwons can pay late, try to require extra work or hours outside of your pay/contract, or close completely. Shady schools might try not to give you severance pay, not offer proper breaks, not give proper support either in school or outside of school, or do other things that are either illegal or simply take advantage of their teachers. It is so important to know your rights and do your research when signing a contract. I will be writing more in depth about workers/teachers/foreigners rights in Korea in the future.
With that being said, many people, including myself, choose the hagwon right for higher pay and more control over where they are located and what school they choose. I personally found a hagwon on my own through Dave's ESL Cafe. They provided a flat ₩1,000,000 for flight reimbursement, a studio apartment close to my school, ₩2.5 million a month pay, and a good amount of training. However, they also provided very little planning time, did not have proper staffing to accommodate more than a few days of vacation at a time, were open on the weekends, and closed very suddenly after going bankrupt. You can read my article all about this school and my time there called "My Experience Teaching in Ulsan, Korea."
There is no unemployment pay for foreigners, and your E2 visa is tied to your job, so my options were to change to a D10 job-seeking visa with no pay or find a new teaching job within two weeks of my job ending. I found a new position in Bucheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, Korea and moved myself across the country and started training at my new job. That position had a vastly different work structure, more intensive lesson-planning, and was overall a vastly different experience from my first school. I ended up leaving that position early due to issues with the workload along with health issues I had developed at the time. I will be writing more in depth about my experience in Bucheon vs Ulsan and my health issues in the future. I will not be naming either school because of Korea's anti-defamation laws and because I don't want to burn any bridges as I still want to live in Korea. Either way, the first school is closed permanently and the second school was not inherently bad and did nothing illegal. It was just not a good fit for me.
So what route should you take? Should you opt for the flexibility of a hagwon or the security of EPIK? There are many pros and cons to both, and I think both can be great options depending on your situation. While the pay and random location are major downsides for EPIK, I do think that the job security, more predictable workload/structure, and benefits make it a great choice. For anyone wanting to live somewhere specific, aim for higher pay, find afternoon hours, have more flexibility, and do more research, hagwons can be a great choice. The most important things are that you do research on all of your options, know your rights, and remember that you are your greatest advocate. Your time in Korea is all what you make it based on your own attitude, planning, and preparation.
Below is a chart of some of the major differences between EPIK and Hagwons.
EPIK | Hagwons | |
|---|---|---|
Hiring Season | Starting August 1 for February placements and February 1 for August placements | Year round, but more openings for around February/August |
Choose your location? | No | Yes |
Requires TEFL? | Yes | Not always |
Co-teacher | Yes | Not usually |
Job Security | Yes | Not always |
Student Ages | Vary, no choice | Vary, based on school choice |
Number of Students | Can range from 10 - 40 | Varies per school |
Training/Orientation | Yes, unpaid orientation and paid training | Sometimes |
Pay | Set scale ranging from 2.1 to 2.8 million won per month | Can vary widely |
Working Hours | Typically around 8:30 - 4:30 Mon-Fri | Varies, usually morning for kindergarten and afternoon/evening for school-aged kids and adults |
Teaching Hours | 22 hours per week | Varies |
Planning Hours | Typically a couple hours per day | Varies |
Lesson Planning | Yes, but amount of planning varies | Varies drastically |
PTO | All national holidays plus 26 days | Minimum of 11 days, all national holidays are PTO or time-and-a-half |
Paid Sick Leave | Yes, 11 days | Not often |
Health Insurance | 50% paid by employer | 50% paid by employer |
Housing | Provided or monthly stipend towards housing | Provided or monthly stipend towards housing |
Pension | Yes | Yes |
Settlement Allowance | 300,000 won | Rarely |
Renewal Bonus | 700,000 won at end of each renewed contract *Gyeonggi 2 mil split as 1.3 at start of contract and 700,000 at end // Jeju 1.3 mil at start of contract only | Sometimes |
Entrance Allowance/Airfare | 1.8 mil won paid in first month or first six months (must pay back if you terminate contract before 6 months) | Usually paid upfront or reimbursed within the first month up to a certain amount |
Exit Allowance/Airfare | 1.3 mil won after each contract *Seoul, Jeju, Gyeonggi only at end of final contract | Sometimes |
Severance Pay | Yes, about one month's salary | Yes, about one month's salary |
Comentários