Amen to Mike's reply! I think that many of the Korean hagwons WANT younger teachers ( I am 50) because they can PUSH THEM AROUND. Sometimes schools even advertise for teachers WITHOUT experience. A friend of mine was told in her interview that was BEAUTIFUL ENOUGH to work at their school!

There are good hagwons. I worked for one. What I have found is that the hagwons are driven by the parents - what the parents want, the school tries to provide. Unfortunately, as in many countries in the world, Korean parents DO NOT understand what makes a quality teacher.

I, too, am married and don't drink. Despite what Koreans say, Korea is NOT the undisputed king of making money for ESL teachers. One must consider the costs of things- and I have found that in China I can save a great deal larger portion of my pay then in Korea.

The problems with posts like Mary Choi's and her cheerleading section is that they don't seem to bother with little details like the truth.