Where to Teach ESL: South Korea

Teach ESL in South Korea

For my thoughts on other ESL teaching destinations besides Korea, check out:

Malaysia as an ESL Teaching Destination and Teaching ESL in Vietnam

Today, it's all about Korea and of course I've talked about job conditions and the like on this blog for years, but here's a quick summary for newbies considering Korea as a place to teach English. It's an excerpt from my book, The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future.

Ten years ago, South Korea was one of the best places in the world to teach English due to the high salary, extremely favourable exchange rate with the USA and Canada, free housing and airfare along with minimal qualifications and low expectations for teachers. These days, cost of living has risen significantly while salaries have stagnated and qualifications and expectations for teachers have risen so that it is not the prime location it once was. 

However, there is definitely money to be made and saved, especially if you are willing to live frugally. Most teachers can put away around $1,000 per month with little effort and live quite well. For others, with some effort and frugal living, they can save up to $1,500 per month (and more if they are doing overtime or have permission from their visa sponsor to teach at other companies or schools). 

Another way to live well in Korea is by working your way up the job ladder into a university (for tips, check out: How to Get a University Job in South Korea: The English Teaching Job of Your Dreams, which has a very low number of working hours and lots of vacation. If you do some overtime work during those down times, you can increase your savings potential significantly, up to $4,000-5,000 per month.

Where to Teach ESL: Malaysia

This is an excerpt from the book, The Wealthy English Teacher: Teach, Travel, and Secure Your Financial Future. If you like what you see, head over to Amazon-it's available in both print and ebook formats.

Teaching English in Malaysia

Along with Vietnam, Malaysia is a place that you will find lots of teachers who used to teach in Korea or Japan but have moved on to bigger and better things. While there are not that many English teaching jobs in Malaysia, the ones that are available are excellent in terms of salary, professionalism and vacation--especially the mentor-teacher ones where you travel to public schools and work with the local English teachers. However, out of all the countries in South-East Asia, it is perhaps one of the least attractive ones for a variety of reasons including lack of tourist infrastructure (of which any foreigner working there would benefit from), food, and a high prevalence of Islam and the negative things associated with that, especially for women.

Working in Malaysia-Helpful Resources

Teaching English in Malaysia- A concise introduction.

The Best TEFL jobs in Malaysia- From the most fabulously helpful website, TEFL-Tips. All the major companies that do the popular mentoring program can be found here. (As an aside, I went to Malaysia to visit an old friend last summer; he is now doing one of the mentorship programs. He loved it and it did seem like a great job from everyone I talked to about it).

Teach Away- University ESL Instructors in Malaysia-  This is a recruiting company, but it seems like a very decent job, especially for those who want to teach university students.