When I first starting teaching English in South Korea, back in 2005, I had next to no experience of English teaching, nor did I know any resource books that would have certainly helped during my initial time working at a private English institute (also known as a hagwon – 학원). However, the only books that I was able to purchase prior to arriving in South Korea was a copy of English Vocabulary in Use as well as English Grammar in Use. These books actually helped out when I was planning my grammar lessons, but I had little knowledge of English grammar when I was starting my teaching career, as I ..read more

I graduated from the Southampton Solent University as a mature student after studying towards a BA (Hons) International Business in 2005. I achieved a respectable 2:1 despite having to juggle between parenting, full-time studies, and part-time work. After graduating and successfully completing three stressful years of academic studies, I set about looking for employment. Prior to my academic studies, I was fortunate to have served within the Royal Air Force, so I returned to the Armed Forces Careers Centre but they were unwilling to employ me at the time. I spent the next three months searchi ..read more

It has been over 18 years since I started teaching English to students in the UK and South Korea, with varying degrees of success. In the following video, I share ten different ways to get your students speaking either in an online or face-to-face environment. 1. Themed Discussion Questions The first tip for anyone new to teaching English and getting students to speak would be to focus on teaching themes or topics with students. When you get students studying such themes or topics, then they will be geared to discussing such aspects. If you are unsure about how best to get students talking, t ..read more

This year has certainly been filled with change, not just personally but also professionally. However, a huge thanks to Peter Clements for his inspiring post on his year in review. Where to start? Well, let’s begin at the beginning of 2023. January 2023: Starting a Jazz Group It was a few years in the making, with apprehension during rehearsals as we were still suffering from lockdowns until December 2021, yet I was asked to join fellow musicians, with the aspiration that we would get a few gigs in the South East once lockdowns were removed. We had rehearsed sporadically over the years and ha ..read more

It has been 18 years since first arriving in South Korea, back in 2005, and started my job at an English language school in the middle of nowhere where. I actually arrived in Anseoung (안성시) in Gyeonggi-do (경기도)) which was, at the time, an agricultural city and known for grapes. There were a lot of rice paddy fields and was more a remote town with no other foreigners. I felt rather isolated but it was the best introduction to South Korea I had with the first twelve months being incredibly difficult and a steep learning curve. Anyhow, the second time arriving in South Korea in 2023 is certainly ..read more

Teaching English at a Korean private institute, also known as a ‘hagwon’ (학원), is considered the easiest way to find a job in South Korea, and to be honest it was also my very first job in that country. Anyhow, in this post we shall look at the pros and cons of working at a hagwon as an English teacher. We are going to look at both five advantages as well as five potential disadvantages. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments and don’t forget to Susbcribe to the Seoul Foreigner channel. The Advantages Advantage 1: Free Housing The first advantage of working for a hagwon ..read more

I was fortunate to have joined up to Korean language lessons through a programme, that has returned post-COVID, to help teachers feel a little more at home in South Korea. Personally, though, this is the first time that I have attended an in-person lesson and was unsure what to expect. However, being involved in the ..read more

In my previous post, I shared the announcement that I was relocating with family to South Korea. There were a number of challenges that I was facing with regards to my work and visa before relocating, as nothing had been confirmed at the time of writing. If you are interested in what I had to ..read more

After returning from South Korea from a trip during the Christmas of 2019, I was ready to return to my work and continue teaching international students at the University. Things were going well for in the first three months on 2020, until news broke of a virus doing the rounds in China and Italy. About ..read more

“Academic Writing: Mastering Citation and Referencing”, written by Paul Murphy, is Prosperity Education’s latest publication with it being geared towards learners on pre-sessional university courses or for teachers who are teaching the principles of academic writing and skills. The author, Paul Murphy, is a teacher who has taught on various English for Academic Purposes (henceforth ..read more