Location
  • South Korea
Length
52+ weeks

Pricing

Salary / Benefits
The current salary range for public school positions is 1,800,000-2,400,000 Korean Won per month.
Mar 16, 2018
Sep 18, 2019
8 travelers are looking at this program

About Program

Take that first step towards a great adventure and apply with Canadian Connection. We help ESL teachers find excellent teaching opportunities in private and public schools throughout South Korea. Free housing and airfare provided. We assist you every step of the way from your interview to your arrival in Korea. We also offer continued support during your year abroad.

Canadian Connection will do the following: Match applicants with an appropriate school, Negotiate your contract, Collect documents and process working visa, Make all travel arrangements, Supply teachers with travel kit which includes maps, travel guide, cultural insights book, and an introduction to the Korean language brochure, Put teachers in contact with current/former teachers, Act as ongoing liaison between the school and the teacher.

Program Reviews

4.68 Rating
based on 38 reviews
  • 5 rating 84.21%
  • 4 rating 10.53%
  • 3 rating 0%
  • 2 rating 0%
  • 1 rating 5.26%
  • Benefits 4.65
  • Support 4.7
  • Fun 4.3
  • Facilities 4.65
  • Safety 4.65
Showing 1 - 8 of 38 reviews
Default avatar
nathaniel
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

2012

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!

What was the most unfamiliar thing you ate?
I ate freshly prepared shashimi from a local fish market.
92 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Micah
4/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Experience of a life time!

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!

What would you improve about this program?
Perhaps knowing exactly where you will be placed upon arriving to the foreign Country (address, city etc.) as well as what school you will be working at - to better prepare ESL materials and English supplies from back home.

More time off to travel and explore. Korea has very little holiday time compared to other Asian countries.
81 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Peach
1/5
No, I don't recommend this program

I am in Korea now!

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!

88 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Jenny
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Canadian Connection is a good connection to have

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.

79 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Janelle
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Professional and helpful

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.

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

Extremely disappointed

Company seemed great at first. Responded promptly to emails and so on. Had the screening interview and I was told I had scored really well and that I would be sent a lost of schools with Jobs matching my criteria in maximum 4 days. It's been over 2 months now. I sent them an email when I had an apostil on my criminal check about a week after my interview. .. no reply. After two months of nothing I sent another email asking if they were still assisting me at all. No reply (as expected). I would not recommend this company. Gp with adventure teaching instead who have been a million times better.

79 people found this review helpful.
Response from Canadian Connection

Hello Jade,

Thanks for your feedback and we're sorry to hear you've had a poor experience with Canadian Connection.

We're having a little trouble tracking down your specific case with the information listed so I'd like to welcome you to contact us directly via phone (416-949-2169) or skype (canconx) and we can locate your application record and get to the bottom of our error.

I can say that we typically don't reveal interview results/scores during the actual interview. Our usual process is to follow up with the applicant within a week and, if they pass our interview, we then begin discussing potential options at that time. It looks like their may have been some miscommunication on our part, so we'll review this process with our interview team to make sure this is made clear to applicants in the future.

Again, We're truly sorry your experience with our company was not a positive one and we'll endeavour to make sure this doesn't happen again moving forward.

Best of luck with your new position and we hope you have a wonderful time in Korea.

Shane Finnie,
Canadian Connection

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

KOREA: DO IT!

I am a qualified English teacher, who is currently completing my 4th and final year. Canadian Connection caters to jobs in Jeollanamdo, which is in the far south of South Korea. Jeollanamdo is known for its friendly people and its beautiful scenery. It is very clean, very safe and it is relatively cheap to live here, as compared to North America.

Your will be responsible for assisting Korean English teachers with the curriculum. It is definitely not necessary to be a 'qualified teacher.' In fact, many of the best ESL teachers are not; they are, however innovative, passionate and creative! You are not responsible for marking or report cards. Your soul responsibility is 'conversational English' and getting the students more comfortable with the language via games, activities, worksheets, role-plays, etc.

I HIGHLY recommend living and working in South Korea and I HIGHLY recommend Canadian Connection! It is a great recruitment company that offers its teachers a lot of support and educational workshops.

85 people found this review helpful.
Default avatar
Katwood10
5/5
Yes, I recommend this program

Canadian Connection for the Win!

I would highly recommend Canadian Connection as a recruiting agency to go to Korea. They have been in the business for years so they know the ins and outs of legal paperwork, culture and have the experience to back it up! They are incredibly professional, willing to offer advice and treat each person like an individual. Every step of the process, they updated me, gave me advice and helped me make sure that every detail was taken care of. They helped me figure out what city to go to, gave me a guide to life in Korea and even booked my plane ticket. Plus, they were there to meet me at the airport when I arrived in Incheon. I am so happy that I worked with them, because I was truly prepared to come to Korea. I couldn't have asked for a better experience, and have been living happily in Korea for over 19 months now! I have recommended and will continue to recommend Canadian Connection to anyone interested in teaching in Korea!

73 people found this review helpful.

Questions & Answers

Hello Nicola, Great to hear from you and thanks for your questions. Unfortunately we can't hire teachers with dependents for our programs. In this case you might want to contact private institutes directly to see if you can speak with a school director that can accommodate your situation. Best of luck in your search.

Hello Cassandra - thanks for your question. Both 3 and 4 year degrees are accepted. The main stipulation is that you have a completed Bachelor's degree. Hope that helps but let us know if you have any further questions. Thanks, Shane