Loved my experience with TaLK

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! : )