Canadian Connection

I worked for Canadian Connection in 2012 , in Ulsan South Korea. It was honestly the best year of my life. I lived 10 minutes from the beach and my school. The social scene and travelling were great. My school co-workers were incredibly kind and welcoming. I was paid well and had four hours of paid prep time a day, every day.

Ulsan especially was a fantastic place to live, there were so many restaurants, nice walking trails, and shopping options; however, it was much less busy than Seoul or Busan. It was also close to the bullet train and had great bus stations.

I would highly recommend the program to any teacher, especially if they don't have kids yet; it is so much more valuable of an experience, than just supply teaching, professionally, financially, and personally!

After finishing University, I wanted to take a year to work overseas before jumping into the
mundane career world in my native Country. I wanted to travel and experience living in another country, absorbing as much of the culture as I could. I chose to get my TEFL certificate through ITTT for it was cost efficient, I could work at my own pace, and the program had great reviews so I knew it was something I could trust.
After completion of the TEFL course I chose to apply to Canadian Connection, a program that sets you up with housing and an overseas school to work at, while guiding you every step of the way. Canadian connection also provided a 'get to know you' session and taught the basics of Korean culture before living there. Once in South Korea I had a 1 week training session with fellow certified teachers from all over the globe.
I was placed at a school about 1 hour outside of Seoul (Gyeyang, Incheon) and from there began to put my TEFL training into practice.
Living and working in South Korea was an experience of a life time! Although challenging in the beginning, once I allowed myself to get comfortable and fully embraced the culture and way of living in a foreign Country I truly began to enjoy myself and take in all South Korea had to offer. I met many foreign teachers life myself (called, waygooks) at the orientation the first week in Korea and we bonded instantly, I spent a good amount of time exploring Korea and South East Asian Countries with many of these people. Travelling is something we all had in common, and a great contributor to why we chose to work in a foreign Country in the first place.
Korea has an extensive history, amazing food, 24/7 night life, endless noreabang rooms (karaoke), the biggest christian church in the world (a must go to), numerous mountains for hiking, a plethora of beaches, weekly festivals in different towns, an amazing subway transportation system that will get you anywhere you need to go within an hour and did I mention how kind the people were?
It is safe, very clean (Korean people are meticulous with clean streets), and very welcoming to English speaking people!
Choosing only to stay a year was not an easy decision, it is very easy to be swept away by Korean culture, and I have many friends who stayed for 2 + years teaching ESL. I went over with a few goals; teach, learn as much as I could about the culture, make life-long friends, travel as much as I could (in and out of Korea), eat as much Korean food as I could (you won't get anything like it when you move back home) and ultimately grow as an individual. I was able to check off all these things on my list plus some! My time working and living overseas in Korea allowed to me gain a new understanding and confidence of where I wanted to go later in life and new things I wanted to achieve. Korea challenged me to be more independent, allowed me to tap into my adventurous and extroverted side and opened my eyes to the world of traveling and experiencing new and exciting cultures.
Living and teaching ESL overseas, if only for 1 year can deepen ones understanding of how others live as well as gives a new admiration of how unique and special each Country is.
I highly recommend teaching ESL and living overseas, it is an experience that is unforgettable!

Hello,

I would like to share my experience with Canadian Connection. I applied with C.C. but I didn't arrive in Korea through the agency. The initial communication with the agency was quick and helpful. I sent my application (plus documents) and just needed to wait to hear back about the teaching position. However, I didn't hear back even a month before the departure. I wrote several emails, made phone calls, and left messages with the secretary (not sure if she's still there - very sweet lady). I did find out that I wasn't selected for the Jeolla position. The coordinator mentioned a different program to apply to. So, I applied again with C.C. for the EPIK program. The communication and results were the same as before.

Sidenote: When I applied through the agency, EPIK requested that all questions be sent to the agency instead of them.

I decided to apply to the teaching program in Korea directly without an agency. The application process, email responses, interview, and position update, took less than a month.

Yes, I know C.C. needed time to send the documents to the program. I just wish the the agency could have been more prompted/transparent with my updates... even if I wasn't selected from the beginning.

C.C. was very helpful with the organization of the application. Their booklet of how to apply was well put together and easy to follow. However, if you have all of your materials then applying directly to the teaching program might be a quicker option.

All the best!
Fighting 화이팅!

I only applied with Canadian Connection so I can't make any comparisons between companies, but they were great during the application process. They emailed me promptly, set up interviews within the times that were given to me, and organized all my documents and sent them to Korea. There is no way I would have survived that documentation experience on my own. I had a little bit of a surprise when I applied to Seoul and ended up in Gangwon-do province (which apparently is pretty common, seeing as all my friends applied to other places, too). BUT, I think it's a blessing in disguise that I was placed here because, although I'm in the middle of nowhere (LITERALLY), I live in a building with two other foreigners, my school is amazing, my co teacher is EPIC and the students are brilliant and adorable. My apartment looks onto the mountain and fields and if I want, I could be in Seoul within 2 hours of a bus ride. Overall, the experience has been wonderful and I would highly recommend Canadian Connection to start off this amazing journey.

I used Canadian Connection when I applied for the EPIK program almost 4 years ago. They were very helpful and helped me navigate the application process with ease. I didn't feel so stressed once I was accepted either because they told me everything I needed. I'd use them again if I go back overseas.