Location
  • South Korea
Length
52+ weeks
Classroom Audience
Early Childhood High School Middle School Pre-School

Program Details

Job Type
Teacher Exchange
Classroom Audience
Early Childhood High School Middle School Pre-School
Housing
Apartment

Pricing

Salary / Benefits
Typical contracts for 1st year teachers start from $2000/month. Visit our website for details.
Starting Price
2000
Price Details
Salary: 2.1 - 2.7 Million KRW (dependent upon experience)

BENEFITS:
- 10 days vacation
- Paid airfare
- Healthcare
- Pension plan
- Paid apartment
What's Included
Accommodation Airfare Travel Insurance
What's Not Included
Activities Meals SIM cards Transportation Visa
Jul 20, 2021
Apr 23, 2021
58 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

We provide our teachers with an honest, upfront, “no-bull” perspective, and we work tirelessly to prepare each teacher to live and work abroad for a year. We are aware of and interested in each teacher’s unique needs and desires because we were all teachers once, too! Everyone on the AT team has lived and taught in Korea, and we use our industry experience to help you navigate the ever-changing Korean job market.

We are committed to finding a work environment that is well suited for you, and we’re committed to helping you navigate the cultural intricacies using our expertise and multi-cultured team. It can seem overwhelming to pursue the application process and get your foot in the door, but rest assured, our selection process is straightforward, and we will be right beside you every step of the way!

Visit our website to submit an application or request more information. Korean schools hire year round, so NOW is always the perfect time to apply!

Program Reviews

4.51 Rating
based on 72 reviews
  • 5 rating 70.83%
  • 4 rating 18.06%
  • 3 rating 5.56%
  • 2 rating 2.78%
  • 1 rating 2.78%
  • Benefits 4.5
  • Support 4.6
  • Fun 4.4
  • Facilities 4.35
  • Safety 4.65
Showing 9 - 16 of 72 reviews
Default avatar
Grant
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Awesome company to work with, but don't use the Arrival Store

My experience with Adventure Teaching was almost nothing but positive. I contacted them in February of 2016, and from the very beginning they were prompt, professional, and seemed genuinely interested in me. I really appreciated how informed they kept me the entire time. I always knew exactly what documents I needed to get and when I needed to get them. Once I had all my documents in, they almost immediately sent me an email about interviewing with a school.

I interviewed with Avalon English, a hagwon mainly located throughout the greater Seoul area. I got a very good impression from the company. Their HR head is a really great guy. I passed the first round of interviews and was told I needed to submit a short mock teaching video. Adventure Teaching sent me all the information on what I should include in my video as well as tons of tips and example videos. I finished my video a few days later and was offered a contract with Avalon which I accepted. I arrived in Korea on May 15'th of 2016 and have been loving it here. It's such an awesome country, and my job is fantastic. I plan on staying here for a very long time, and am very grateful to Adventure Teaching for helping me start off my adventure overseas.

The only reason I did not score them a 10/10 is they work with and recommend a company called the Arrival Store. I had zero experience living abroad before this year so I didn't really know what is a good deal and what is a bit of a ripoff. The Arrival Store is very overpriced. I am still very glad I used Adventure Teaching, but if I were to do it over I would not have gotten products from the Arrival Store.

What would you improve about this program?
The Arrival Store is definitely a ripoff. Their prices are very high, and they make it seem like it is very difficult/inconvenient to get a cell phone service set up in Korea. I met with a KT provider here who offers the same cell phone plan as the Arrival Store for about 30,000 won cheaper per month. Switching to the KT service was very quick and easy. I love Adventure Teaching but do not recommend the Arrival Store.
53 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Dustin
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Help at every step

I worked with Adventure Teaching to get placed at an academy in Korea. Robyn was my main point of contact for most of the process and she was incredibly helpful, patient and organized. The visa process can be especially complicated, but Robyn and her team made it simple. Adventure Teaching employs a very organized and clear process to follow when going through the visa application process. From start to finish (and even after), she was communicative and kind, which made working with Adventure Teaching a fantastic experience! I highly recommend working with her and her team if you're interested in working as an English Teacher in Korea.

58 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Korean
1/5
No, I don't recommend this program

AT literally forgot about me

I started my ESL career with AT, following the advice of my friends who went into a similar field.

First off, the requirements are quite clear, exactly what is needed, what needs to be notarized, etc. The agent wanted updates every week, but when I asked questions with the hope of more details I never got back more than a sentence. The agents in Korea appeared a lot more professional and helpful than the overseas agents, writing with more details and useful information. Once I got an offer everything with the Korea office went smoothly.

As for the placement, AT had little information about the school, other than it was 'one of their favorites'. The contract was very standard, and at the same time vague in some aspects. The situation upon arrival wound up being socially toxic to both myself and the coworker previously placed by AT. The school also didn't seem to have any idea what was actually happening in the school.

I received a very standard email 2 months after arrival, and beyond that nothing except junk mail from the arrival store. There isn't any additional support from AT upon arrival in Korea.

A potential replacement teacher was told by AT that they would interview with me over Skype at my 7 month mark. AT gave my personal skype without permission and didn't even inform me that I was going to talk to anyone, let alone interview.

Several teachers turned down the offer upon learning about the actual situation in the school. AT wrote to my coworkers and asked about what the school was like, and claiming that I was wrong. The coworkers confirmed what I had told the potential teachers. AT completely forgotten that they had put me into the school, and seemed to have lost my email (but still had my skype, and couldn't send me a message any other way). To this day I haven't received an email from AT since the 2 month mark in the contract that I had signed.

I finished my year, and moved on. From my experience I feel AT is very lacking in terms of knowledge about the schools that they place teachers in, and about providing support to teachers that they place overseas.

It is an adventure to go overseas. If you get a good placement with AT, more power to you. I couldn't, and in the end I was just another number to them apparently. I'd recommend looking at other recruiters.

60 people found this review helpful.
Response from Adventure Teaching

Hi Korean Expat,

We have never been ones to shy away from negative feedback so thank you for sharing. I agree that others reading through this website should be informed about all the differing experiences our teachers have. Measured to the other reviews on the site, it sounds like you had a uniquely difficult experience with AT, and I apologize for that.

Since we started in 2007, we have always tried to be as transparent as possible with our incoming teachers which is why we always try set you up with a teacher currently teaching at the school to get the latest information on the school. I'm glad to hear that since things were quite negative, you were able to inform potential teachers and they were able to stay clear of the school and take other jobs through AT. Apologies that you felt violated by having a teacher contact you. Our email addresses always come from the school, and not our own database when putting our teachers in touch with current teachers.

I hope you were able to enjoy your time abroad despite not feeling like your placement met your expectations.

I'd welcome more information about this school and how we can improve our services to you. Feel free to email me directly or reply to this thread as well so others can read. I hope you were able to reply to our internal feedback survey sent to you 1 month after arriving which we review weekly as a team and take action on how teachers recommend we improve.

Safe travels!

Reuben
CEO, Adventure Teaching

Default avatar
Aaron
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Adventure Teaching: A Solid Recruiter.

In my experience, I found Adventure Teaching was a good choice. I only utilized AT in my job search, and found Kelly Hogan to be a very helpful placement coordinator. I've heard good things about working with the other PC's as well.

I was placed in a public school a little bit outside of Daegu, and it has been an overall good experience. Kelly was helpful with the interview process and getting my documents together. I decided not to take the first job offer, went with the second job I was offered, and I feel I made the right decision. Kelly was supportive of my decision and helpful in finding a better fit!

It is important to do your own research in finding positions in Korea, even with a reputable recruiter there are no guarantees that any given position is going to be good or bad. With hagwons, be sure to talk to the foreign teachers and do some research. In public schools, talking to the former teacher usually isn't possible, but with PS's this is typically OK. Overall, I found Adventure Teaching to be reliable and fair in their recruiting process.

What would you improve about this program?
Be more open about how Touch for Teaching and Adventure Teaching are affiliated. I didn't realize how they worked together until after I was in Korea!
56 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Alex
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Caring, Thoughtful, and Informative for Beginners

I applied and went through this process on kind of a whim and a gut feeling, and the next thing I knew I was on a plane to Korea.

Adventure Teaching made this easy. They walk you through everything from the beginning so you know how the application process works and the deadlines and such. It might be a bit too drawn out, but it's very clear with little confusion. They have excellent information about the country and your new personal and social life there - the info itself is personal and delivered by knowledgeable and friendly staff that I felt very comfortable calling at any time. Plus they were always very quick with responding to emails and would answer ANY questions you had about living in this foreign country, no matter how stupid I thought I sounded.

By far the best things about this company was their personable staff, injecting initial confidence and information in a quick, friendly (and user friendly) way, and smoothing out the application process for you.

Their fault to me was that they were a bit pushy for me to sign a contract, saying it was the best offer I was going to get, and their tone switched a bit. I felt like they should have been more understanding considering that this was a big decision for me; however, I recognize that they probably had a strict deadline and for them I was already hooked anyways.

Everything went exactly as planned once I arrived in the country, just like they said it would. I just followed their emailed instructions about where to go from the airport and it was really easy.

I met the greatest people in Korea. I can't begin to describe the people, the food, the hiking, and the experiences there. I miss it so. It is so easy for an open minded foreigner to live there and be involved. The key for me was meeting others in an expat community. I joined a hockey league and got lucky meeting people on bar crawls and in the street. Your social life and confidence will be the best it's ever been. Here's a tip: say YES to EVERYTHING in your first month. It will set the tone for your whole year and you will build great relationships. It's draining, new, and so damn exciting, I'm excited for you!!!

One more fault was that once I was there, communication from Adventure Teaching pretty much stopped, save for a two month check in. I understand that some people get lonely easily while on this adventure, and so I feel like AT could give better recommendations on foreigner friendly clubs, areas, events and so-on. I'm sure that if I would have emailed and asked them, they could have given me some recommendations, but I didn't need to because I met so many people in the first month.

As I see it, their job is to find you a job and prepare you for Korea, it's up to you to do your own research about the various contracts and schools that will be offered to you, while including their (perhaps hasty) opinions. They excel in getting you prepared for your new life there, and for making the lengthy and confusing application process as easy for you (a beginner) as possible. They could be more helpful once you're in the country (but I never needed it so...) and they could give you better information about the schools you're placed in, as well as giving you a few contact options once you land - preferably your head foreign teacher - just in case anything goes awry. Most bad experiences I've heard from are where someone's co-workers or bosses are terrible, and that's hard to gauge until you've been there a few weeks.

57 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Vanessa
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Quality Recruiting, Especially for Beginners

Adventure Teaching is a great resource for new teachers looking at South Korea. They have all relevant informatiin you might ask for or not even know to ask for in a convenient, concise and organized system. The recruiters and Korean liasons are on the ball when it comes to finishing paperwork and keeping in contact.

The drawback for me, as an experienced SK teacher returning, was the overload of already known info and the pretty vague job search results. I was, admitedly, picky customer, but my resume was shown to several schools that weren't even in my desired province.

On the whole though, comparatively impressive recruiting company with friendly and effcient people. I eventually found the most amazing school and love working here!

What would you improve about this program?
A little more personal touch and honed search results. Other than that, I think it's perfect.
53 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Catherine
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

You Really Should Probably Do This

Adventure Teaching was responsible for helping me begin a new career. I had just finished college and like many recent graduates I was having a tough time finding a job. Thankfully I did some internet searching and found Adventure Teaching. Their application process was easy and while the process between initially applying and flying over is as naturally long as you'd expect (roughly 5 months or so), AT was there to help me every step of the way and they helped me be as best prepared as I could be for my first full time job, helping me with everything from getting an online TEFL certificate to getting packed and arranging and preparing for my flight.

I am so very happy working at the school they had me interview with. IT was the first school I was interviewed by and obviously I got the job. I am literally working my dream job right now and I don't want it to ever end! I love my day-to-day life, seeing the happy children's bright faces in the morning to helping the elementary school students in the afternoons. I love everyone at my workplace and I have made some friends. My manager, director, and vice director are very pleasant people. If I don't feel like working for myself I can just look at them and feel motivated to try my hardest to put my best teaching efforts for the sake of my school and of course my students. And thanks to AT, it's possible, and I can experience my dream of living and travelling in Asia.

What would you improve about this program?
The only thing I would like to see updated is some miscellaneous information on the site. Korea (at least the urban areas where I live) is more modernized then some of the information on the website might have you expect. I think that maybe the information on what to pack and social etiquette was written by people who may or may not have recently been to Korea within the last couple years or so, so I packed some things which I didn't need. But it's very minor and in some ways helps mentally prepare you for some of the culture shock.
52 people found this review helpful.
Read my full story
Default avatar
David
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Sample size of one, but I wouldn't change a thing

Well, this is my first and only experience with a recruiter, but they are the reason I could decide to get a job in South Korea in December and be working full time in March.

Adventure Teaching were the first ones to reply to my email of interest. I was impressed that THEY wanted to interview me to see if I was a good fit for them as a company, instead of just plastering my resume everywhere. They sent me a variety of job positions to interview for and got the ball rolling on the one that wanted to hire me so fast that the visa process barely had enough time to get their side of things done. I made it within the estimated time required and was on a plane the same week. They kept me abreast of all the comings and goings so I had enough time to visit my family and friends before departure.

I am 7 months in to my first year of work in Seoul and the only things I would change come from me now having a better understanding of what I want from a teaching position than I did, staring at school websites on the other side of the world looking for a change in direction of my career. I plan to be staying on after my contract is done and I will definitely hope to use them again.

What would you improve about this program?
Honestly I don't know. I haven't heard many stories of comparable experiences from others and I've only used one recruiter once, so... Yeah, I wouldn't change anything.
48 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers

Thanks for providing such great insight Elizabeth! Nate, we highly recommend taking a TEFL course as we find it helps with building confindence in the classroom and gives you a better idea of teaching English. Here are a couple of online courses we'd recommend https://adventureteaching.teflsource.com/