It makes me smile to see these terribly negative posts about Korea. Of course things are not as rosy as some recruiter sites would have us believe, but then again there are English teachers in other places for whom Korea would be a big step up.

I make well under US$1000 a month, including Christmas bonus and yearly savings plan. I have to pay almost $800 every year to renew my and my family's visas; this is almost an entire month's pay packet. I have a very light class load, but the students are almost completely uninterested in English, over 50% drop out long before final exam time.

The local people feel they are superior to foreigners, as do local people just about anywhere in the world, the shops want to charge higher prices to white faces, and there are all the other little annoyances such as opening a bank account, registering kids at school, etc reserved for foreigners.

How to handle this? Learn the language, meet the good people, ignore the bad, try to change what you can and try to ignore what you can't.

Not every English teacher has the option to run back to their homeland because they can't find their place in another culture, and I believe that South Korea still offers something that many other places do not, a chance for teachers to make and save some reasonable money without the threat of having your head cut off or being blown up for the dreadful crime of looking like an American.

PS Michael, I enjoy your posts here, nice to see that there are some serious teachers around!