GEPIK Jobs Teaching in South Korea
Tips for a Job Interview with a Korean School
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Unless you are locally in Korea, interviews will take place over the phone. Usually the supervisor or school principal or the English teacher assigned to the school will call you for the interview. The time taken for each interview varies between 5 and 30mins depending upon the school.
- Interviews tend to be less formal than ones in Western countries.
- Employers are interested in your responses, however, what they look for the most are your manners and personality during the phone interview.
- Schools have strong preference for teachers with clear confident speaking voices, who seem friendly and outgoing..
- It will help to demonstrate your enthusiasm for the job.
- If you are interviewing specifically for a position or age group, be sure to mention your interest in this specific age group
Some common interview questions for English teachers in South Korea:
- What contributions can you make to our school?
- What are your plans for continuing your professional growth?
- Describe your personality.
- How would you handle a class that consists of students with a varied level of English skills and capabilities?
- Tell me about three people who have most influenced your own education and educational career.
- What kind of students do you like to work with? What type of students do you think that you could teach most effectively?
- You give an assignment, and a student ridicules the assignment saying it doesn't make sense. What would you do?
- How would you help students feel successful and motivated?
- What methods and techniques do you use to evaluate students progress besides using tests?
- How would you challenge the slow learner and the advanced learner within the same class?
- What kind of teachers would you prefer to work with? Why?
- What activities would you like to participate in with our school?
- What quality or qualities do you have that would enhance our teaching staff?
- What are some personality characteristics you find undesirable in people?
- Who should be responsible for discipline in a school? Why?
- What needs and/or expectations do you have of the school administration?
- Describe any school experience you have had, particularly in student teaching (or in another teaching position) that has prepared you for a full-time position at our school.
- What rules do you have for your classroom?
- Describe your teaching style and how you would accommodate the different learning styles of the students in you classes.
- What do you consider to be your strengths and how will you use them in your teaching?
Become a Teacher in South Korea
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If you are taking the time to read this that means you are considering teaching in Korea and working with Touch4Teaching.
The first step is to submit the online application form.
Online application form is to inform us of your current status as far as documents and visa status. It will also help us know what your preferences are. Another benefit to filling out the online application form is to use our website to view currently available positions and future positions as well. Lastly, most principles at public schools and academies come to our website to view the teachers we have available, this means they could see your form directly pick you as their teacher.
Your application will be sent to Footprints Recruiting for screening. The head office in Vancouver will perform the screening on behalf of Touch4Teaching. If you are accepted through the initial interview stage with Footprints Recruiting, a placement Coordinator for Touch4Teaching will send your application to the National Ministry of Education for consideration.
NOTE: If you have applied with another recruiter you need to STOP the process with them if you wish to move forward with us. If your application is submitted through multiple channels with the Public Schools, your candidacy is automatically rejected. If your application is submitted by multiple recruiters to private language schools in Korea, the private language schools will often reject your candidacy based on concerns that you are fishing and not serious about an application with them. If you are already a Footprints Teacher or if you have already applied with Footprints Recruiting, please contact your current Placement Coordinator or the Screening Department to let them know if your interest in GEPIK public school teaching positions with Touch4Teaching.
Interview - Accepted - Then What ---- Apply for a Position
After you apply and are accepted, you will be presented with different school options. Pick the school/area you are interested in and let your Touch4Teaching Placement Coordinator know where you want to go and they will send your file to the specific school administrator that you are interested in.. If that school is interested, your Placement Coordinator with communicate their interest to you and set up a short over-the-phone interview which generally lasts 10-30 minutes. If both parties are satisfied after this interview, an offer is made, sometimes directly to you or sometimes through our Placement Coordinators. If accepted, we move to the next step.
Get E2-VISA
After the interview process if you and the school have decided to sign the contract the next step is to get an E-2 visa. If you want to be an ESL teacher in Korea then you must have an E-2 Visa, if you work without one you are teaching illegally. In order to get an E-2 visa you must have all the documents below.
Documents you must prepare
- Criminal Background Check (Apostilled)
- Original diploma
- Sealed transcript
- Passport copy
- Four passport sized photos
*Documents school/academy must prepare
- Contract signed between teacher and school/academy
After reviewing the employment contract if there are no problems you will have to sign (3) copies of the contract and send a copy of contract by email or fax to touch4teaching. Six important documents you need are; (1. Criminal Background Check (apositlled) 2.Original Diploma 3. Sealed Transcript 4. Passport copy 5. Four passport sized photos 6. 3 signed contract. You must send all six of these documents to touch4teaching. It is EXTREMLY IMPORTANT that when sending these files you use ONLY Fedex, UPS, or DHL. After getting the tracking number please email it to Touch4Teaching. After touch4teaching has looked over these documents we will send them to the immigration center. After the immigration has reviewed all the documents it will take about a week for them to give a visa issuance number. Once we have received a visa issuance number we will send it to you by email. After you have received your visa issuance number you must take it and the documents you receive to the nearest Korean Embassy and have an interview. Once you have passed the interview they will issue you a visa.
*Documents you need to go the Korean Embassy
- Visa issuance number
- Passport
- Visa Application form
- 2 passport size photosAfter having an interview at the Korean embassy, 1-5 days after you will receive a passport with a stamp.
*important: You will have to ask or call the Korean Embassy after the interview to see when you can get your stamped passport.
Book air plane and come to Korea
While you are in the process of getting your E-2 visa we will be booking your plane ticket to Korea. There are some cases where the teacher must purchase their own plane ticket and will be reimbursed upon arrival.
Welcome to South Korea
When you arrive at Incheon International airport and come out of the gate the touch4teaching transportation team will be waiting there with the teachers name on a placard. They will transport you from the airport to your school/academy in a limousine bus.
Private Language Schools - Basic conditions for ESL teachers in South Korea
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The following are the standard details for teaching contracts in South Korea.
- Contract Period - 1 year (E-2 VISA holder can stay in Korea for a year. This is renewable)
- Salary - 2.1~3.0 million won per month (USD 1800~2415) (depending on your career and position)
- Teaching Hours - 100~120 hrs/month.
- Overtime pay - 20000~40000 won/hour
- Severance Pay - Receive an additional one month salary for completion of the full contract term
- Accommodations - FREE FURNISHED - shared or private accommodations. The employer will pay the rent or provide a housing allowance (If you have a housing, you will get at least 300,000 Won for housing allowance per a month). However, you are responsible for the monthly utilities such as phone, gas and heating. Usually, the studio is within 5 to 20 minutes walking distance from your school.
- Furniture: Curtains, bed, bedding, sheets, desk, closet, table, dining set, VCR, TV, washing machine, clothes rack, pots, pans, dishes, cutlery, phone, fridge, stove, fan or AC, and a working heating system etc. The furniture provided is clean and nice, and must be returned to the school in the same condition on the last day of this contract.
- Maintenance of, and Repairs to the apartment and appliances and the heating system, as well as replacement of worn out furniture are the responsibility of the school, but the utilities are to be paid by the teacher on monthly basis.
- Transportation - roundtrip economy class ticket provided.
- Airfar- inisitally a one-way ticket will be provided to teachers from an international airport of their choice to Korea. Upon completion of a one year contract, a teacher will get a return ticket from Korea to the original point of departure.
- Medical Care - from his first workday the teacher will be covered for his dental and medical insurance by the Korean National Medical Insurance. One half of the insurance premium is to be paid by the school and another half is to be paid by the teacher. Payment of the teacher's half of the insurance premium will be made by deduction of the same out of the teacher's salary (The current premium rate is approx. 1.5% of the salary.)
- Class Size - 5-12 students/a class (private school) 30~40 students/a class (public school) Vacation Over 14 days paid vacation Tax rate Income taxes, half of the health insurance premium, and residence tax will be deducted from the teacher's salary. It would come 3~5% of your salary. No other fees whatsoever will be deducted from the employee's salary. Generally classes 40 minutes to 50 minutes per class.
- Working Days - usually Monday to Friday
- Curriculum - your school will provide you with textbooks appropriate to the student's age and English level. Most textbooks cover conversation, grammar, reading comprehension, and pronunciation; using common everyday situations to present the material (i.e. at the Supermarket). Some schools follow a strict lesson plan for their program but most have a more flexible program, giving the teacher more freedom to present the material as they want. Generally though you will teach the material as it is presented in the teachers manual for that textbook. A lot of the textbooks have flashcards and CDs that go along with the books, as well as ideas for games and activities to help you out.
GEPIK Teaching Jobs in South Korea
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GEPIK is the Gyeonggi English Program in Korea. Gyeonggi province is the most populated province in South Korea wit ha population around 23 million people. . Each year GEPIK hires approximately 2000 native English speakers for jobs around Gyeonggi province. Gyeonggi province is often referred to as Gyeonggi-do (the "do" means province or state in Korean).
Here is some basic information about GEPIK:
- the GEPIK program is run by the Gyeonggi Ministry of Education
- each school in Gyeonggi province hires teachers independently
- the GEPIK program administrators officially select Korean licenced recruiters to staff teaching jobs with the schools.
- the individual schools contact the officially selected recruiting agencies to get their teachers
- if you apply through multiple recruiters for a teaching job with GEPIK you will likely be rejected on the basis of multiple applications which causes confusion for the schools and administration so pick the recruiter you want to work with and go with them. Touch4Teaching is an affiliate company of Footprints Recruiting and we are an officially selected recruiter to staff position with GEPIK
- Gyeonggi is the province that surrounds Seoul. Many of the schools and cities that are in Gyeonggi province are connected to Seoul by subway
- There are approximately 11,000 elementary and secondary schools across South Korea and approximately 3800 of these are in Gyeonggi province.
South Korea, Gyeonggi province in particular, is a fantastic destination to teach English for those who are looking to teach Abroad. Teaching English in South Korea provides a great opportunity to save quite a bit of money while enjoying a good lifestyle.
