Korea conclusion
It was a bittersweet feeing as our days in Korea came to an end. We survived one year in a foreign country teaching English! We accomplished a lot in the year and time flew by fast. There were definitely highs and lows as the days went by, but overall it was a positive experience for the both of us. Would we teach again? Yes. Would we teach in Korea again? No. Let me explain.
If it is your first English teaching position, then Korea is one of the best choices. Most positions will only require you to have a bachelor's degree, but your application would be greatly enhanced with a TEFL certification. Most positions will provide roundtrip plane tickets, accommodation, and health insurance. The salary you will earn will be around 2,000,000 won per month depending on your location. So the package was good, and since it was our first teaching gig, it was the route we chose.
Why Korea wasn't for us
Let us start with stating that this is solely based on our own experiences. We know many people who have enjoyed their stay and others who have continued teaching in Korea since we left. A large factor for us were the people, both Korean and Foreigners. The majority of expats living in Korea were straight out of college, single, and younger than us. We were the old married couple, so interests and experiences were obviously different. For Koreans, it was a lot harder for us to make relationships outside of our coworkers mainly due to language barriers. Even with our coworkers, there was a separation between the Koreans and non Koreans, so it felt very forced.
Another factor was the food, and this definitely was in relation to where we were located. If you were located in a bigger city, then your experiences might be different. As you know, I am a huge foodie and Korean food although good, was somewhat repetitive. I missed the depth of flavors of spices and herbs found in other types of cuisines.
Some awesome things about Korea
Korea is a beautiful country. We started exploring the southern and eastern parts of Korea but unfortunately never made it up north pass Seoul. Public transportation is on time, comfortable, and clean. It is one of things we miss dearly from Korea. Another is their infrastructure. Korea has one of the fastest internet speeds in the world and you can have internet basically anywhere.
Goodbye Korea hello SE Asia!
After our one year contracts ended in Korea we headed back to USA for the holidays. Our plan from the moment we started our Korean adventure was saving enough money for our south east Asia trip. Stay tuned for our SE Asia adventures!
