Hey, I appreciate the support. I'm now getting a lot of negative feedback about SK and Asia overall--feedback I can confirm is true. With that in mind, I think I'll head back home and get a master's in TESOL or English. Too many schools and directors here are putting profit before anything else, including their own students. Yeah, I've met too many people, both white face and Asian, who've learned how to milk foreigners pretty well. I also believe there to be too many secrets kept in this business about where to go for the best jobs and where the landmines are that'll drain you financially and emotionally.

Thanks again, and good luck, Jin

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

Latin America? I'm not sure what your background is, but finding work teaching adults down there is not too hard. I have only taught kids, which is what I like doing, but I have met a few people in the past that went to South America and taught adults. Some of the big cities can be a little expensive, but if you go to mid-sized or smaller city, you would be amazed at how well you can live off a small income. Don't get me wrong, I had some problems, but nothing like this stuff I read about you guys in Asia!

Are there any of you folks on this board who have taught in Central or South America? You all seem to be in Asia. I thought about possibly going to Asia, but after reading what some of you are saying about it, I may be heading south again!

Hey man, sounds like you'll be moving on, so I wish you all the luck. In response to what you wrote about there being a small amount of people who log their complaints in this forum, I can only say that my sentiment equals yours. I think this is the perfect place to assess, advise, and warn. I'm sure you've noticed some of my own posts that are generally geared toward warning teachers about the pitfalls of teaching in Asia - more specifically the pitfalls of trusting agents and/or schools without doing some serious research. Actually, I myself have benefited by such warnings about Korea and have believed for a number of years that one must be very cautious about teaching there. Otherwise I may have found myself in the same position as you. Unfortunately, the rest of Asia seems to be learning from Korea about how to use and abuse the foreign teachers. I've hopped around China for a couple years now and won't put up with the slightest deviation from what's promised, be it verbal or written. It's cost me a lot of bucks in terms of loss wages and travel expenses - not to mention getting outright ripped off, but at least when I leave I do so with my own sense of honor intact. Furthermore, I always let them know that their actions are completely without honor. Usually that leaves them without a response and a half smile that tries to ease what I know is their loss of face; however, in the back of their minds they're still counting the bucks and could therefore care less about damaging their honor or their family name. Yeah, welcome to Asia as they join the "world economy." I take some solace though in knowing that the Chinese aren't particular about who they rip off. They love "getting over" on the next guy, be it a foreigner or their fellow countryman. An interesting aside to all that is that my Chinese girlfriend has traveled to most places with me, and she has been shocked and indeed embarassed to see the way I've been cheated. (She's also been deeply concerned about the lack of manners shown by her countrymen that has been demonstrated by people in the travel industry as well as other service industries.) Now it is she telling me to be careful about who I trust, which I take as good advice, but it surprises me at myself because I've always considered myself to be fairly discerning.
Fortunately, I'm working for an honest organization right now. Second time I've worked for them actually. I had to travel to many different places before I realized that they are on the top of the list in terms of follow through and honor. Albeit,I'm aware that English is their business and businesses are pretty ruthless here so I must be careful.
Well anyway, take care Rheno and, again, good luck wherever you land.

hi Renho, i agree with you, the director lied about the age of the kids.i hope that any other teacher outthere ask before taking the job to speak to other foreign teachers at the school and ask all details.
Renho man,i hope things improve for you.

Hey, Joker, I almost forgot........

Before arriving here, recruiters and schools in SK wouldn't leave me alone. My inbox had at least three or four new messages each morning, and just as many every evening for the past month or so.

After landing here and starting work, I'm finding my email 'inbox' messages are becoming fewer and fewer and rapidly heading to 'none'. You see, I've been telling them all that I'm finally in SK and would like to check out their schools in person.

Why are they suddenly treating my like I have the bubonic plague? Supposedly changing schools/jobs is easy here.....I wonder if it really is.

I agree. The director of my hogwan flat-out lied about the ages of my learners.....they were supposed to be 'young high school kids enthusiastic about English' according to him. Uh-Huh. Tell me another one. The oldest kids I see at my 'Wan are 14. Sure, they're young high school kids, but of late he's pulled out all the stops--I'm now teaching classes of uncontrollable, whiny-ass 8-year-olds and their ages are going down, down, down. F##k this. I didn't come here for this crap.

Maybe this guy will come in and slap ME in the face like the director slapped the English teacher you told about. I have white relatives back in the states who fought in the Korean war. If any slanty-eyed Korean slapped MY face, he'd wake up 15 minutes later across the room wondering where the dump truck went that just bowled him over and left him with a bloody, broken nose and a jet roar in his ears for the next week.

Yeah, I wish he or any other director around here WOULD slap my a##. You'd be reading about what happened next in the Busan newspaper the next day, I guarantee it.

I heard of one American ESL teacher who was teaching a class one day and the principal came in and slapped him in the face. Apparently they can get away with that in Korea.

My advice to any Wannabee wanting to go to Korea is triple check the school you are going to!

Rheno, you sound as though you have soured a bit on SK. Are you wishing you were back in Thailand? Will you be staying in SK?