Thanks for visiting my website! You’ve come to the right place if you’d like to learn more about what it’s like to teach English in South Jeolla Province (“Jeollanamdo”), South Korea. Since this particular post from when I first arrived in Korea is still one of the top hits for “Jeollanamdo Language Program” on Google, I thought I’d post some updates here that might be of interest.
- Update: June 30, 2021
- For your browsing convenience, I’ve organized all of my posts from my time in Korea onto one page. Visit the Korea archives to learn more about what it’s like to teach English in South Korea.
- Update: May 31, 2021
- After 3+ years, I’m finally leaving Korea for good. At this point, I’m very happy to be moving on to bigger and better things, but I’m still grateful for the experience and all that it has taught me. Click here to read my thoughts on moving on and what’s next.
- Update: November 11, 2019
- I’ve now been living in Korea for a year and a half. A lot has happened during that time! I’ve switched towns within Jeollanamdo and I’m planning on staying here for a third contract, until February 2021. For older/wiser reflections on my time here thus far, click here.
- There have been some changes to our contracts since I wrote this post in May of 2018. In my opinion, they don’t have any significant positive or negative impact on our lives here. Still, it’s worth being up to date and informed if you are a new person considering coming here. Click here for more information on the contract changes.
- JLP has done away with the April and November orientation groups, and absorbed them into the February and August orientations. This means that if you are thinking of coming here, your options will be either a February or August start.
You should still find the information below relevant if you are thinking of joining us here in this lovely little province, but I definitely recommend checking out the links above to get a fuller picture of what your experience in Korea might be like. Happy reading, and feel free to contact me with any questions you may have!
Cheers,
Michael Goonan
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My first three weeks in Korea have been a very busy and exciting time! Now that I have settled in, I’m planning to keep this blog up to date with stories of my experiences, travel guides, teaching recommendations and much more. I’ll also be sharing guides and stories from my past experiences living in the Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand, and the Netherlands and traveling throughout Europe and Oceania.
For now, however, I thought I’d start with a general summary of the process I went through to get to Korea. Of course, it’s important to note that this is a summary of my own experiences and, as was repeated over and over to us at orientation “everything depends.”
Public or Private?
If you are thinking of coming to Korea to teach English, I highly recommend reading as much as you can about others’ experiences. By and large, people seem to have an awesome time here and get a lot out of it; but many factors lead to a diverse array of experiences. Some of these include whether you choose to work for a hagwon (private academy) or for the public school system (EPIK), which region of the country you are placed in, whether you have an urban or rural placement, and how open you are to culture shock!
I chose to apply through EPIK for positions in the public school system. In my view, the benefits package for public school teachers is much better than for hagwon teachers. You get much more vacation time (18-32 days depending on your province), a guaranteed 9-5 work schedule with overtime pay, and the peace of mind of knowing that the government is paying you, and that your school won’t shut down tomorrow if it’s not making enough of a profit. You are also sure to get a round trip flight allowance of 2.6 million won, and a settlement allowance of 300,000 won. Many peoples’ flights end up costing less than that, but they get to keep the money anyway. That’s a pretty good deal, especially compared to hagwons, which increasingly are only offering a one-way flight, despite offering round trip flights as standard practice in the past. Public school teachers also have the benefit of a week-long orientation program, and the support of a co-teacher.
While people certainly have positive hagwon experiences, the general consensus of teachers I’ve talked to who have done both is that public school positions are much better, for these reasons and many more.
EPIK (English Program in Korea)
The disadvantages to EPIK are that you aren’t guaranteed a chance to work in your preferred location, and that the application process involves more time, effort, and red tape. Therefore, if you are thinking of applying for public school positions, I highly recommend going through a recruiter. They have connections for the best positions and tons of experience helping clients to submit the best possible application. I went through Korean Horizons, and my recruiter Alistair was extremely helpful to me every step of the way, even taking an hour of his time to prep me for the interview. He helped me through the complex process of gathering the many documents that were needed to secure my visa, and even sent me a “welcome package” when I arrived in the country.
The vast majority of EPIK applicants apply to be in Seoul or Busan, Korea’s two largest cities. There are only so many positions available in these cities and competition is fierce. Since I was applying for a late intake (April), there simply weren’t any positions in Busan available, even though I listed it as my preference. If you are dead set on going to Seoul or Busan, don’t take it for granted that EPIK will place you there just because you have a good résumé. I have a Master’s in Secondary Education, a U.S. teaching certification, a CELTA, and two years of international teaching experience. At the end of the day, EPIK had its own needs. When my placement finally came in, I was told I had been placed in South Jeolla province (known as Jeollanam-do in Korean); a part of the country I had never heard of! A quick Google search revealed to me that it is the least developed province in South Korea. There was no information about which city (or rural backwater) I would be placed in, and I was told that I would learn this information when I arrived at orientation, as is standard EPIK practice.
The Jeollanamdo Language Program (JLP)
I’ll be honest; at the moment I describe above, I felt cheated, and considered taking a position at a hagwon so that I could be in Busan. But I decided to take a step back, take a few deep breaths, and keep an open mind. I’m now so happy that I did, because it turns out that the Jeollanamdo Language Program offers the best benefits package of any province in Korea that I am aware of. Unlike most EPIK teachers, who receive 18 days of paid vacation and hagwon teachers who only get 7-10, JLP teachers receive a whopping 32 days of paid vacation. JLP is also administratively separate from the rest of EPIK, and runs its own amazing orientation, which I will talk more about below. In fact, until this year, JLP actually did its own recruiting, separate from the rest of EPIK. The province has a Canadian regional coordinator who has been living here for 12 years, and is super knowledgeable, helpful, and supportive, and available as a resource to you for the duration of your contract.
JLP does have many quite rural placements. My roommate from orientation is currently placed on the island of Jindo, for example. It’s worth noting, however, that Jeollanamdo is relatively small, and you are never more than an hour or two from a city. The largest city in the province is Gwangju, a vibrant, artsy city of 1.5 million with an international vibe and very interesting and proud history. I’m lucky enough to be placed within a 40 minute bus ride and 30 minute drive from there, in the town of Nampyeong. And from Gwangju, it’s only a 2-3 hour train ride to Seoul. I’m also about 15-20 minutes from Naju and Bitgaram, which are smaller cities but with a lot to offer. The other major cities in the province are Yeosu, Mokpo, and Suncheon.
Of course, city life isn’t everything! While I do like the culture and vibrancy of a major international city when living in such a foreign environment, I also grew up in a small township in Pennsylvania of about 900 people, 10 miles north of a “city,” with a population of 70,000. As such, I love hiking, cycling, bodies of water, and just generally soaking up nature and the great outdoors. It turns out I’m in luck, because Jeollanamdo is a hikers paradise, with major destinations such as Mudeungsan National Park. Every town and city also has several mountain trails that are free and open to the public.
Orientation
Our orientation took place in the beautiful waterfront city of Yeosu, on Korea’s southern coast. JLP put the group up in the DS Hotel and nearby Noble Hotel. I can only speak from my experience at DS, but it was a lovely hotel. The room contained two very comfortable beds, one double and one single. We were well fed every day for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The bathrooms even had heated toilet seats!
The bus ride from Incheon airport was about 4 hours. I was very happy that I had arrived in Korea a few days in advance. Not only did I get to explore Seoul a bit with a friend of mine who had just cycled from Sweden across Asia (more details in a later post!), but I also had the opportunity to adjust to the time and get over the worst of my jet lag. Still, JLP was sensitive to the long journey, and the first day or orientation simply consisted of a brief opening ceremony, our medical checks, and a chance to rest.
Most of the orientation consisted of a 9-5 schedule of information sessions on teaching and Korean culture, demo lessons, and familiarizing ourselves with our contracts. On day 1, we received our school placements. However, I did receive a bit of a surprise when I met my co-teacher. Although my placement card simply said “Nampyeong Elementary School,” it turned out that I was working at Nampyeong English town! I’ll explain the difference a bit more in a later post, but it was a pleasant surprise, as English towns are meant to be fun places for students from around the area to go on a field trip. No teaching from a boring textbook!
Probably the most memorable part of the orientation was visiting the Hanok Heritage Village in Jeonju. This area is full of traditional Korean houses called hanok, which stand in stark contrast to the modern high rises and skyscrapers that have come to cover much of the southern part of the peninsula. We were dressed up in traditional Korean costume (hanbok) for this excursion, which provided quite high quality entertainment to the Korean teachers and school officials, as well as the locals. Overall it was a great day in a fun (if touristy) area. We also had the opportunity during the week to attend the Yeosu busking festival, and to hike to the top of a small mountain whose name now escapes me.
During orientation, we had plenty of time to socialize with the 40 or so teachers in our intake. It is agreat group of people and we had a lot of fun getting to know each other and exploring our new surroundings. The orientation is definitely a big advantage to public school teachers in this regard. While hagwon teachers often land in Korea and are expected to start teaching right away, with little to no adjustment time, we were introduced to our jobs, support and social network from the very beginning. At the end of our orientation, we met our co-teachers who drove us to our (school-provided) apartments. Mine has be extremely helpful with all aspects of settling in, including helping me buy furniture online, giving me extra kitchen supplies, and taking me to immigration to fill out the forms for my Alien Registration Card (ARC).
Explorations Thus Far
As I write this post, I’m currently on a bus to Gwangju where I’ll meet with my friend Saul from orientation as well as some other native English teachers who live in the city. In the morning, we’ll head to Mudeungsan National Park and hike to the tallest summit in Jeollanamdo! In the past few weeks, I also had the opportunity to explore Seoul for a few days, visit the Gwangju Folk Museum, check out some of local bars and restaurants in Gwangju, Naju, and Bitgaram with some of the great folks who live and teach in the area. Stay tuned for more posts about these and other recent adventures.
Hey mike,
I will be moving to jeollannamdo in August through epik and was wondering how easy it is to meet up with Rotherham English teachers?
Do you find it hard to get around from where you are based to the cities?
How if your apartment in the grand scheme of things? Do you find it comfortable?
I look forward to your response.
Jessie
Hey Jessie,
Glad to hear you’ll be joining us here in August! In general, it is very easy to meet up with other English teachers simply because most schools have them – even in rural areas. There is one other English teacher in my little town and there are 4 others within a 15 minute drive/30 minute bus ride. I’m also lucky enough to be very close to Gwangju and there are probably over 100 there – several of whom I’ve become friends with. It is a little bit more difficult in some of the very rural areas – for example Jindo and Wando islands – but chances are very high that there will be at least one or two people in your area that you can see on a day-to-day basis. The orientation is also a wonderful opportunity to connect with dozens of other English teachers who will be stationed all over the province. The province is well connected by bus lines which are usually very cheap and can take you from city to city. My orientation group has planned several weekend get togethers in Jindo, Suncheon and Mokpo so far. If you want to, you can easily meet up with other teachers every weekend.
Getting around is not all that difficult for me. It takes about 30 minutes by bus to get to Naju and a little less than an hour to get to Gwangju. A bus ticket costs about $1.25 each way, regardless of distance. I also purchased a cheap moped to make it easier to get around my small town itself and to be able to get around the countryside to some of the other neighboring towns such as Hwasun and Bitgaram. This is a wonderful convenience, but by no means necessary where I am. Once you get to Gwangju, Suncheon, Yeosu, Mokpo, or Naju, it is very easy to get anywhere that you want in the country. Buses tend to be cheaper but trains tend to be quicker – especially the KTS. In a “worst case” situation (for convenience, not necessarily for your day to day life), you might be on an island and it may take you 2-3 hours to get to one of the major cities I mentioned.
I do find my apartment comfortable, and I’m lucky that it is a 10 minute walk away from my school. It has air conditioning which is really important this time of year! As far as I know, everybody gets an airconditioned apartment. I think that we are in Jeollanamdo are luckier than other EPIK teachers in that we tend to have apartments with several rooms rather than just studios. My apartment has a large bedroom, a small spare bedroom, a bathroom, kitchen and balcony. One thing that might happen, however, is that the apartment may not be super clean when you move in. Unfortunately, it is not customary in Korea for the previous tenant to clean up after themselves when they leave. I ended up paying about $100 to have the place professionally cleaned because the place was pretty gross when I moved in. I’ve heard from others that they had similar issues – but it is by no means universal.
Here is a good video tour of an average apartment. It’s a bit smaller than mine, but it should give you a good idea of what to expect at a minimum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbcK9_viPew Here’s a tour of one that’s much better than average. It’s not likely you’ll be so lucky, but it’s good to know what’s in the realm of possibility: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TEOc9T5Y6s
If you have any other questions, feel free to post them here! You can also add me on FB if you like.
Hi Mike!
Thanks so much for sharing this information. My wife and I just received our contracts and will be teaching in Jeollanam-do as well. I noticed the contracts said paid leave was “32 days (inclusive of weekends and national holidays)”. That wording seems a little strange to me. Does that just mean that they’ll include the weekends and national holidays that coincide with our leave, when we take it?
Hey Sam,
The vacation days are definitely a little bit confusing at first. To maximize your time off, you need to be strategic about when you take them. First, you have limited windows of opportunity to do so. In my situation, I can take 8 of my vacation days in summer (August) and the other 24 in winter (January). Because of the scheduling of my camp this year, My 8 days during summer were basically determined for me. As a result, one national holiday and a weekend are mixed in. I will actually be not working for 11 days, though, because I’m working up to Friday August 10. The first weekend does not count since I worked up to the Friday. The next weekend (August 18-19) does, however. That’s the general rule: the weekend counts towards your days if you are taking off both the Friday before and the Monday after said weekend. If you work either or both, the weekend won’t count. Ditto for national holidays: If one is mixed in with a stretch of time you are taking off, it will count. However, if you choose to be off during a different stretch of time, or make sure that the day before or after the national holiday isn’t included, you will get the holiday off anyway and it won’t count. So, if you take your vacation days strategically, you can end up with quite a bit more than 32 calendar days off. A more detailed explanation is available here: http://heyfallon.com/jlp-vacations-time-off/
Hey Mike,
First and foremost thank you so much for this post! I just got placed in JLP and trying to find information on people’s experiences has been challenging. I’m a little nervous to be moving somewhere rural and not knowing any of the language. Did you know any Korean before moving?
I’m debating on just applying to Hagwon in Seoul instead because I’m so nervous about this potential language barrier.
Any advice on this language crisis of mine would be much appreciated!:)
Best,
Kayla
Hey Kayla, sorry for the delay getting back to you. I’ve been busy with preparations for camp here. I can’t tell you what experience you would like better because I am not you, but I can give you the data to make an informed decision. It’s true that the language barrier is big living in a place like Nampyeong, but I’m not far away from Gwangju and can easily be there every weekend. It’s not Seoul, but it’s a major progressive city with a lot of young people and more English. I did not know any Korean before I came here and my Korean is still quite limited. I don’t really need it for my day to day social life though, because there are plenty of expats that live nearby and hundreds who live within an hour or two in the province. You don’t have to worry about feeling so isolated. In fact, of all the places I’ve lived abroad, Korea has the strongest expat community I’ve come across, no matter where you are placed.
When it comes to a hagwon in Seoul, all I would say is tread carefully. It’s an employer’s market there, and hagwons can be sketchy about things like pension and health insurance. Post any contracts you get up on reddit for review and make sure they are following all applicable laws and that there are no clauses stating that you must work overtime for no pay, etc. There are honest hagwons out there, but even the best ones usually pay less, offer much less vacation time, and fewer benefits overall that public school positions: especially in Jeolla where the benefits are the best in the country. In the end, you may decide that is all worth it to live in Seoul. All I can say is that Jeolla probably has the best working conditions you will find anywhere, and there is plenty of opportunity to be social here.
Hello,
I know that with JLP, the orientation process is separated from the EPIK orientation even if the native English teacher was recruited through EPIK. My question for you are:
1. How long is the JLP orientation process? Is it 9-10 days like EPIK?
2. I have heard that with JLP for the medical check, you would undergo a urine test and then speak with a doctor but no blood test or chest x-ray. Can you please confirm if that was true for your case?
Thank you!
Hi Ashlee,
My orientation was 7 days if memory serves me right. I heard that it used to be 9-10 days in the past but they decided to shorten it. I had all of the tests done (urine, blood and chest x ray) and also spoke with a doctor very briefly. At my orientation we did the medical checks on the first full day (after flying in, arriving and Yeosu and getting a good night’s sleep the night before). We were finished by around 1-2 PM and the rest of the day was just free time.
Don’t worry about orientation and the medical check. Both are very low-stress and the orientation is a pleasure because you get to know so many other teachers.
Let me know if you have any more questions!
Mike
Hey there Mike,
Thanks for sharing your experiences in Korea. I’m planning on applying for EPIK after I graduate from college next December. I want to be placed in a more rural area because I enjoy hiking and spending time outdoors. I came across your blog while doing research into rural areas in South Korea, Jeollanam-do province seems like a good match for me. What would be a good city to list on my EPIK app for placement in Jeollanam-do? My only concern is getting placed on one of the islands. I like rural areas, but not that rural.
Hello Nick,
I just saw your comment so I apologize for the delay in responding. That’s great that you are planning to apply to EPIK after graduation! Working here is likely going to be better than most entry level jobs in the states in terms of ability to save, benefits, and ability to pay off students loans you may have.
The good news in response to your question is that if you would like to be placed in Jeollanamdo, you should have no trouble as it is not a particularly well known area. The bad news is that you do not have control over where in the province you will be placed, and EPIK will not tell you your placement until you arrive in Korea. In that sense, there is no guarantee that you won’t be placed on an island. I have, however, heard of recent college graduates applying and being placed in some of the provincial cities. However, the number of open positions during each cycle in Jeollanamdo is a bit lower than it was in the past. There are two reasons for this: more people are renewing their contracts than did in the past, and some positions are losing their funding due to a decline in the student population in Koea. The average Korean family only has one child these days. So it’s really luck of the draw and will depend on what’s available when you apply.
When it comes to cities to list on your application, the major hubs of the Jeollanamdo province are Yeosu, Suncheon, Naju, Mokpo. Personally, Yeosu and Suncheon are my favorites and I reckon they’d offer the best lifestlye. They are both located near the southern coast and have a nice mix of a small city atmosphere with Western conveniences but rural surroundings. Having lived for 9 months now in Naju, I would say that there is nothing special about the city itself, apart from its close proximity to Gwangju – the major metropolitan city within Jeollanamdo. If you are interested in living in Gwangju, you might consider listing Jangseong or Damyang on your application. These rural areas are just outside the city, and most of the teachers who teach in those schools live in Gwangju. When it comes to islands, I have visited Jindo and Wando but not the others. I’ve heard that life on Jindo is not for the faint of heart and can feel quite isolated, but is a great experience for the right type of person. Wando, on the other hand, is a place that I can truly recommend. The beaches there are beautiful and Wando city, while small, is a fun place to hang out.