BD, in all fairness and honesty, I have to say it's not ALL bad in Thailand or SK.

South Korea is AWESOME from what I've seen. If you like teaching young kids, this is the place for you. Women from the west who are good with kids and like teaching young learners should come here. The only problems I see overall is the outrageous prices for a lot of things and directors who like to bend, or even break, the truth about their schools.

The school where I'm teaching is not really a 'school' at all-it's a hogwan. Do you know what this is? It (at least MINE) is a place where students come after their normal school classes for 'extra' exposure to English. My classes begin at 4:30 pm and run for about 5 hours. My largest class has had 7 students and my smallest has had only 1 student. Most of my learners are younger than 12, and the youngest become simply uncontrollable when the door closes and class begins.

The older students here are very serious, and their proficiency levels will make your jaw drop, at least if you've taught in Thailand a year. Even the younger students could talk circles around the oldest and best M6 (high school senior) Thai students I had last year.

SK is also a LOT cleaner than Thailand. The bathrooms have all the necessities that you won't find in the land of Thai.

Unfortunately, most of my SK students are younger learners, and I'm a guy who won't teach young kids. Young learners inevitably come with behavior problems--something I refuse to correct because they should know better and it's not my job. I'm a teacher, not a babysitter. Again, if you enjoy teaching kids, this place is definitely for you. It ain't for me, that's for damn sure.

For Thailand, it's not THAT bad if you carry sanitizer and toilet paper with you everywhere, never eat from the slop troughs, don't really need to make a lot of money for things like student loans, and don't mind cheating/cheaters in your classrooms. I saw a LOT of cheating in Thailand, and I'm a guy who finds cheating HIGHLY offensive. I had students in my classes in Thailand who had 3.5 GPAs in English, yet still couldn't even use pronouns correctly after ten years in English classes! This happened because these students were allowed to cheat their way through all those years. I have high standards for my students, and I expect a student to be able to at least write a two or three-page paper by the time he's hit about his eighth year in English. These kids couldn't even put together a simple sentence after ten. And I was expected to correct this mess. If you don't mind cheating and cheats, and take precautions to keep Dehli Belly at bay, Thailand is a good place. You won't make any money teaching here, however, so don't get your hopes up. Also, in other countries you can get free TESOL training and a air ticket reimbursement. You won't get that here save for one or two schools.

I've thought about teaching in Chile, but there seems to be some political unrest brewing down there of late.

I'm also thinking of teaching in Turkey. I have a friend there who is helping me look for a university job. I may go there in the coming weeks. I've been to Istanbul and I liked it.

I've heard the middle east is good, but I need two years experience teaching at most schools there--something I don't have yet.

If I don't find a job in Turkey in the coming weeks, I'll try to find a job in Singapore or Taiwan. If I get lucky, I'll work a year while simultaneously earning a master's. If I don't, I'll go back home. That's looking like a 50% probability or more at the moment.

Thanks for the reply, and good luck, BD.

RK