Teach and Learn in Korea (TaLK)

Program Reviews

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Tshia
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Great program to get your feet wet before potentially immersing yourself in teaching English

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What would you improve about this program?
More structure and details regarding classroom material funds.
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Chris
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

TaLK is a great, but not flawless, program

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Rya
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

TaLK in Jeju

I was with TaLK for one year, teaching elementary school in Jeju. The program was pretty amazing! I had the chance to work closely with some pretty awesome children, while developing my own teaching skills. The program starts off with a one month long orientation, which was pretty useful, but had long hours. We had some intro Korean lessons, which were very useful, and the chance to get tips from people who knew what they were doing.

There was an additional orientation at your local region. That gave me the chance to get to know the other scholars in the region. I hear that in other provinces the teachers are more spread out, but because I was on Jeju, most people were pretty close by. On the one hand, that provided a good support network for us when we were learning to lesson plan and how to deal with our new students. On the other, it did mean we didn't get the isolated experience in Korea that some of our peers on the mainland got, which could be a good or a bad thing depending on what you're looking for.

Overall fairly good support, though it really came down to your school.

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Dan
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing Program!

This was an amazing program. I was so happy to have been part of TaLK. They really took care of me and I was able to experience Korea! It was a great to teach elementary students and really help them with their future. I made connections all over Korea and even made friends from all over the world.

The 3 week orientation is great too! I would have to say that the organized field trips and scavenger hunts were my favorite part of the orientation. The reason for this is because it gave the TaLK scholars opportunities to work with and get to know one another in an enjoyable setting. They were also structured enough to keep the groups busy, but casual enough to still have freedom to explore and experience Korea.

Most of the lectures from orientation are very applicable to what I will be doing in my assigned school. I can see the depth and detail the TaLK Program must have gone through to put together such an organized and diverse lecture load. Since I am fairly well accustomed to the Korean culture, I was able to reap the most benefits from the lectures involving teaching techniques.

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Alex
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Amazing Experience

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Skenglishadvebrure
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Best abroad program

This program is safe, fun, and exciting. The programs orientation provides wonderful information and intro to south Korean teaching. The schools are small with kind kids wanting to learn. Best place to make friends all over the world

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chunsa88
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Great people not so great support

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.

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Charlotte
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

TaLK: Six Months That Can Change Everything

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Arjun
1/5
No, I don't recommend this program

TALK application process, NOT the program!

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.

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Anna
3/5
No, I don't recommend this program

New program... has a lot of kinks to be worked out

I love teaching and I love working oversease. However, I have encountered many problems with my school. I think I am just at a "problem school."

Unfortunately the TaLK program has been little help with the issues I've had with my school.

If I had to do it again I would have chosen the Epik program. It pays MUCH better and I think a person would run into the same problems with either program.