TaLK - Internships in South Korea!

South Korea is an amazing country in itself. The culture is rich and the people are respectful. I had a wonderful time there.

The Teach and Learn in Korea Program offers a month of training to prepare you for what you will encounter in the school. They work hard to make sure that training is fun and relevant.

If you are the first to teach at your school, you will receive assistance in finding an apartment and money to furnish it. If you are not the first person, then you will have to just settle with what the person before you purchased.

We received three large books filled with teaching materials. It helped a lot. The activities are placed in subject order. It would be more helpful if the materials were separated into grade level sections.

My school was really kind to me. We had staff dinners and even a weekend trip to the mountains. I had loads of fun.

The TaLK program has so many benefits. The pay is very generous seeing as though your only real expense is food. In the program you only work 15 hours a week. This gives you a lot of free time. Explore the country.

I plan to go back to S. Korea. It was truly amazing.

I was lucky, I had a great school with really nice teachers and facilities but one down side was I had no textbook to teach with so I had to make my own materials from scratch and that was really difficult.
The lack of co-teacher was another troubling point. There was only 1 co-teacher in my province but we had 3 TaLK scholars. There was a university 30 mins away from my school so I don't see why they couldn't have gotten someone from there to help out. It was really difficult trying to control the students when they didn't speak good English.
I found you get a lot of support during Orientation, but after that it's really just you on your own. The TaLK office has nothing to do with you after you go to your province.
The other foreign English teachers I met were really nice people and we made a network together. So overall it was ok.

I never actually ended up participating on the TALK programme, only applied. My warning to prospective applicants is to be prepared to go through a very lengthly application process. I had to go for an in person interview, obtain criminal record checks, get an apostille (none of which were explained very clearly), resubmit a lesson plan until it was of a very high standard, have to obtain two quality academic references. Also this all has to be done, ideally within two months of the participation deadline, otherwise your application may be deferred to the next cycle, like mine was. None of the expenses for crimical disclosure and transport were reimbursed. I'm sure the experience itself is a great one, but make sure that you have enough available time, and are willing to use all your resources to get through the application. Also, there were unclear instructions about their contact number of their website, and the website was quite slow.

What Can I say about the program...

It has been couple of years but the memory is vivid as it happened only yesterday.

I won't say how good is the prgram because you have to experienced yourself to know what it really likes.

ok...
good things....endless!!!
i'll try to make it as simple as a shopping list.

1.Wonderful opportunity to meet people from other countries and make friends.- I still keep in touch with some!

2.School teachers were really helpful and nice.
at my school, they gave tips of student's characters and it helped me a lot to understnad students and how to approach them. Also they found me a good place to live!

3. Good pay, good working condition and good life!
the pay is good and TaLK is really treating their scholars well. you are going to be placed at a rural area but you won't be alone because you will have other scholrs around your region and it helps a lot to settle down.

now 3 advises I would like to give to coming scholars.

1. Be nice!
please be polite. this is the key to have the best experience and get along with others no matter who you meet.

2. madke sure you have someone to talk to and meet.
very very important. maeke sure you are happy and don't feel lonely. Seriously, they will down size your problems when you share with them, they will maximise good things :)

3.Be thankful.
being in a strange culture is not easy. everything seems weird and awkward. but remember they(the school and children) also feels same way as you are!
But they are willing to accept you and love you. so be thankful for their willingness and open heart.

I can go on and on and on and on...

but i'll leav the best things for you to find out!

TaLK is a pretty good idea if you are still studying but want some extra experience outside of lectures and essays. If you've graduated already though, I wouldn't recommend it as there are far better deals and experiences to be had.
For me, the average school meant getting to school for around 8.30am, teaching a lesson or two in the morning, and a lesson or two in the afternoon. Fifteen hours a week teaching is not stretching, but in our school although there was money for resources, there weren't any, so I spent a lot of that extra time making flashcards and the like, which I strangely enjoy. The most frustrating thing were the days when you only had an hour of class, but had to hang around all day just the same. On the other side, the school did make every effort to include me in all aspects of school life - from field trips to music clubs, which definitely enriched my experience. It's one of those you get out of it what you put into things...
To be honest, I didn't go to many of the TaLK organised sessions after the initial training; I settled into life in Korea pretty easily, and they just weren't really things I fancied doing. But the fact that I didn't go wasn't a problem, and I knew lots of people who went and had great times.
I taught with TaLK from 2008 - 2009, after which I stuck about in Korea for another year before moving back to Europe. Three years down the line and I'm still teaching and training to be a qualified teacher in my home country, and I can definitely thank TaLK for some of that.

At the beginning of the program, I enjoyed the stay at the university. I met a lot of people and had no need to speak the language. Things were great! When I was moved out into my own province and my own city and apartment, things started to get difficult. Not knowing the language was choking me. With all that said though, the staff from the school was amazing. They sattisfied my every need and issue. They were always there when I had a problem, so this made life enjoyable and comfortable. My apartment was a mess from the previous scholar, but it didn't bother me much. I cleaned it up with my Korean co-teacher. She stayed up until 3 in the morning and helped me. I organized all of my stuff and turned the apartment into "my apartment". After all, this was going to be my home for the next 5 months. The time has passed by very quickly and I can't believe I only have 3 months left on my contract. Trips to Seoul, Samchuok, and other cities have been very enjoyable and you never feel like you have nothing to do. Gangneung has a river, which I walk along every night to clear my mind and breathe fresh air. This internship/scholarship program has offered me a great experience of teaching, culture and adventure. I highly recommend everyone to try it!

TALK is such a wonderful program for anyone wanting to teach English in South Korea, especially for college students and college graduate who want to experience more of the world. The TALK program is a Korean government sponsored program, so the scholarship includes free housing and cultural field trips to learn more about Korea.

The schools where you teach are in the countryside, so it takes some time to travel to if you live in the city. But if you choose to live near your school, you can really develop relationships with the Korean community. The schools are often equipped with good technology and resources for teaching English.

The program requires you to only teach 15 hours a week, from Monday to Friday, so you have a lot of time to experience the culture, learn the language, and relax. It is also very easy and relatively cheap to travel to other Asian countries from Korea if you want to travel during your vacation.

Although you can certainly get around Korea with only knowing English, it would be great if you learn some Korean in order to communicate with the local people better and enjoy your stay in Korea better. The food is quite spicy compares to American food, so keep that in mind and be open-minded about trying new things. Korea is a fun place to be in because the Korean dramas and pop songs are very entertaining. Its fashion can be really cute. All in all, TALK is a great program to be in if you want to experience Korea and teach English to countryside students.

I loved being part of this program. First of all, they provided a whole month of training, cultural experiences/introduction to Korea, Korean classes based on your level, and time to connect with a great group of friends who from all around the world and who are placed all throughout the country. The awesome thing about that was that when you visit different regions of Korea, you almost always have a place to stay, or someone to meet you there to stay with at a jjimjilbang (best alternative)! Plus, now that I've been out of the program for 2 years, I have friends all over the US and the world, and much more reason to visit those places!

Everyone's experience was different, so I'll just list my experience. I lived in a homestay with the family of one of my students. This was a great way to be involved in the community, to learn Korean and experience the culture on a day-to-day basis, and because I loved coming home to them every day. Also, I saved a ton of money this way since I didn't have to worry about electricity, heating, internet, or other living costs. I was able to take a large chunk of money home after my year! Some of the drawbacks were that I had a fairly small space of my own, I like I should come home at a decent hour (which is sometimes hard on the weekends, so then I just stayed at a jjimjilbang), and because of my limited Korean, we couldn't always communicate everything we wanted to each other. Still, I wouldn't have changed my experience living with them.

I lived in a ship building town in Jeollanamdo near Mokpo. It was a small town packed with people in high-rise apartments. My class sizes were about 30 per class and I only saw each class once per week. Also, I only saw 4th-5th grades. Most other people in the program had smaller school sizes, taught all grade levels, and saw their classes every day. Like I said earlier, every experience is different. Sometimes I wish that I had that small-school-experience, but I enjoyed where I was. It wasn't always easy to communicate with the staff and teachers of the school since I was not fluent in Korean. It was helpful that I had college students "Korean scholars", who were able to communicate in both languages, come and help with behavior management and getting messages across to the other teachers and staff. These Korean scholars were awesome, and became some of my closest friends!

I would say that the pay is pretty good for the work that we do. We basically work 15 hours per week aside from lesson planning and material preparation. Some programs pay more, but those jobs are full-time. If you are looking specifically to make money, then maybe this isn't the program for you, but if you are looking to experience Korea, gain a great community, and have an enjoyable time teaching, and then I would suggest that you consider TaLK! : )

This program was fantastic! It was my first time living in a foreign country and TaLK really made it easy to adjust to the culture change with their in-depth orientation which thoroughly prepares you for your adventures ahead. I spent 12 months teaching and I liked living in Korea so much that i am returning next month.

i simply loved it. referred my friends and they are having their time of their lives! i met some life long friends and still keep in touch in southern California! get way to network, learn the language and culture, amazing culture trips, taught some wonderful kids, and had a blast!

TaLK has honestly been one of the best things I have ever don in my life. While I was never specifically interested in a career in the education system, when this program presented itself to me, it was an offer I could not refuse. Certainly after arriving in Korea and going through the orientation program here (basically three weeks of great trips paid for by the Korean government, as well as a great networking opportunity; all on top of classes/lectures that help form a solid foundation for your future teaching experience) I could already tell that I made the right decision to drop everything back home and come on over. Once I was placed at my school, the staff were very welcoming and supportive, and within a few hours I was moved in to my home and being shown the key areas of my town (for example, where the grocery store, bank, bus station, etc. are). Through the past few months being here, my experience has been largely positive - any issues I may have had were promptly addressed by the appropriate person/department. The only issue I have really had while here is dealing with the very last-minute nature of things here. For example, you often don't find out you have a long weekend until the Friday before, which ends up making travel plans (if you care to 'escape' for a bit) rather difficult. However, being pro-active with issues like this (for instance, asking at the beginning of the semester what days you have off) will help you void these problems, but you are sure to still experience last minute requests and advisories. Otherwise, Korea as a whole has been a very welcoming, friendly country. My experience with TaLK has been so great that I even extended for an extra 6 months, despite my need to get back home to finish schooling (it's VERY difficult to just give up an opportunity like this).