Teaching Contracts in Korea

In our experience, shorter is usually better when it comes to contracts. Also, most school directors are open to discussing things beyond what is outlined in the contract in order to keep their workers happy and to make sure their schools run well. The standard bar by which to measure your contract offers are as follows:

Term: Most contracts are for one year terms, ie. January 1^st, 2008 to January 1^st, 2009, but are negotiable if you are looking for a shorter or longer work term. Some teachers opt for only 6 month contracts or less, but the sacrifice on these shorter term contracts usually ends up being the contract completion bonus (roughly equivalent to one month's wage) and the school offering the contract may not then cover the cost of your round-trip flight from your home country.

Wage: As with most parts of the contract this amount is negotiable, but the average starting wage for new teachers in South Korea is around 2 Million won per month, but can go much higher based upon experience within the country and the ESL industry.
Accommodations: As part of every contract, most schools will provide housing for the foreign teachers they employ, however due to the increase in competitiveness within the ESL teaching industry some schools have dropped this, choosing to pay the teacher a higher monthly wage while the teacher is left responsible for figuring out their living situation (the school will probably provide the "key-money" or deposit which would be necessary for any rental property). This latter option is one we would suggest only for experienced teachers within South Korea as finding an acceptable apartment/living situation within the country may be an extremely difficult prospect for those new to everything. In most cases we suggest allowing the school to provide for your accommodations, thus relieving much of the stress and complications.
Teaching Hours: This will cover most aspects of your work week as it relates to the number of salary hours in a week (anywhere from 25-30) plus rates for overtime.
Attitude: Some contracts attempt to outline acceptable levels of practice and dress. Though not technically enforceable, these are merely expectations on the part of the employer and employee, a baseline from which to develop a good working relationship.

The Little Things: From this point on contracts can be as specific or ``free-wheeling`` as both parties involved are comfortable with. Over ``contractualizing`` the working relationship may end up making things more strained than they need to be, when all it might take to come to an agreement on a particular issue would be a quick sit-down with the school management.