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82%Overall
Rating
Program Description
TaLK Teach Abroad Program in South Korea
Description
TaLK (Teach and Learn in Korea) is a program sponsored by the Korean government. Its mission is to bring native English speakers to rural parts of Korea to teach practical English in public schools. English instructors will write orignal lesson plans for varying grade levels. Teachers are expected to stay in Korea for a full year starting at the beginning of each school year (August).
...as soon as I stepped foot into my classroom in South Korea, I knew what I wanted to do. -Charlotte Jones, TaLK Alum
Ratings and Reviews
0 of 0 people found this review helpful
Amazing Program!
100%Overall
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1 of 1 people found this review helpful
Amazing Experience
100%Overall
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South Korea is an amazing country in itself. The culture is rich and the people are respectful. I had a wonderful time there.
The Teach and Learn in Korea Program offers a month of training to prepare you for what you will encounter in the school. They work hard to make sure that training is fun and relevant.
If you are the first to teach at your school, you will receive assistance in finding an apartment and money to furnish it. If you are not the first person, then you will have to just settle with what the person before you purchased.
We received three large books filled with teaching materials. It helped a lot. The activities are placed in subject order. It would be more helpful if the materials were separated into grade level sections.
My school was really kind to me. We had staff dinners and even a weekend trip to the mountains. I had loads of fun.
The TaLK program has so many benefits. The pay is very generous seeing as though your only real expense is food. In the program you only work 15 hours a week. This gives you a lot of free time. Explore the country.
I plan to go back to S. Korea. It was truly amazing.
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
Best abroad program
100%Overall
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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
2 of 3 people found this review helpful
Great people not so great support
80%Overall
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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.
11 of 17 people found this review helpful
TaLK: Six Months That Can Change Everything
90%Overall
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I have nothing but great things to say about the Teach and Learn in Korea program. The gist of the program is to place native speakers into rural Korean after-school public classrooms and help foster a love of the English language in elementary EFL learners. The wage is not as much as EPIK teachers, but you also only work 3 hours a day. Flight is paid, housing is paid. As a "scholar" even get culture money to fund your own adventures and are provided with Korean classes.
The truth: The TaLK program changed my life. I am now in school to get my MA in TESOL and plan on going back to Korea for curriculum development. There is a one-month training session in which you learn how to teach and make tons of new friends. Korean food is some of the most delicious in the world. I had several mishaps while in Korea and the support staff was always timely in their replies. I never once fely unsafe. My school was rural, as stated in description of the program, but I felt completely welcomed and honored to teach there. Ample supplies, technologies and assistance were available in my classroom.
Downsides: Communication with your school can be difficult. Expectations are not clearly stated and miscommunications can be common and relentlessly frustrating. It's important to keep in mind that you are teaching a voluntary after-school class and that attendance is optional so you have to be fun and flexible in the classroom. Some people had bad experiences, but I also faced many challenges with my school. It is important to remember to always keep a positive attitude towards any dealings with your school or the Office of Education.
In summation: you're paid 1,500 a month to work 3 hours a day and teach adorable Korean school children and have a fantastic experience learning about Korean culture.
If you have two years of college under your belt and are looking for a life-changing experience, I have only one question-- Why haven't you already applied?!
10 of 19 people found this review helpful
TALK application process, NOT the program!
20%Overall
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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.
12 of 20 people found this review helpful
New program... has a lot of kinks to be worked out
50%Overall
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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.
8 of 21 people found this review helpful
TaLK all about it~~
80%Overall
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TaLK is a pretty good idea if you are still studying but want some extra experience outside of lectures and essays. If you've graduated already though, I wouldn't recommend it as there are far better deals and experiences to be had.
For me, the average school meant getting to school for around 8.30am, teaching a lesson or two in the morning, and a lesson or two in the afternoon. Fifteen hours a week teaching is not stretching, but in our school although there was money for resources, there weren't any, so I spent a lot of that extra time making flashcards and the like, which I strangely enjoy. The most frustrating thing were the days when you only had an hour of class, but had to hang around all day just the same. On the other side, the school did make every effort to include me in all aspects of school life - from field trips to music clubs, which definitely enriched my experience. It's one of those you get out of it what you put into things...
To be honest, I didn't go to many of the TaLK organised sessions after the initial training; I settled into life in Korea pretty easily, and they just weren't really things I fancied doing. But the fact that I didn't go wasn't a problem, and I knew lots of people who went and had great times.
I taught with TaLK from 2008 - 2009, after which I stuck about in Korea for another year before moving back to Europe. Three years down the line and I'm still teaching and training to be a qualified teacher in my home country, and I can definitely thank TaLK for some of that.
13 of 26 people found this review helpful
Awesome Experience in South Korea!
100%Overall
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TALK is such a wonderful program for anyone wanting to teach English in South Korea, especially for college students and college graduate who want to experience more of the world. The TALK program is a Korean government sponsored program, so the scholarship includes free housing and cultural field trips to learn more about Korea.
The schools where you teach are in the countryside, so it takes some time to travel to if you live in the city. But if you choose to live near your school, you can really develop relationships with the Korean community. The schools are often equipped with good technology and resources for teaching English.
The program requires you to only teach 15 hours a week, from Monday to Friday, so you have a lot of time to experience the culture, learn the language, and relax. It is also very easy and relatively cheap to travel to other Asian countries from Korea if you want to travel during your vacation.
Although you can certainly get around Korea with only knowing English, it would be great if you learn some Korean in order to communicate with the local people better and enjoy your stay in Korea better. The food is quite spicy compares to American food, so keep that in mind and be open-minded about trying new things. Korea is a fun place to be in because the Korean dramas and pop songs are very entertaining. Its fashion can be really cute. All in all, TALK is a great program to be in if you want to experience Korea and teach English to countryside students.
18 of 28 people found this review helpful
Loved my experience with TaLK
100%Overall
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I loved being part of this program. First of all, they provided a whole month of training, cultural experiences/introduction to Korea, Korean classes based on your level, and time to connect with a great group of friends who from all around the world and who are placed all throughout the country. The awesome thing about that was that when you visit different regions of Korea, you almost always have a place to stay, or someone to meet you there to stay with at a jjimjilbang (best alternative)! Plus, now that I've been out of the program for 2 years, I have friends all over the US and the world, and much more reason to visit those places!
Everyone's experience was different, so I'll just list my experience. I lived in a homestay with the family of one of my students. This was a great way to be involved in the community, to learn Korean and experience the culture on a day-to-day basis, and because I loved coming home to them every day. Also, I saved a ton of money this way since I didn't have to worry about electricity, heating, internet, or other living costs. I was able to take a large chunk of money home after my year! Some of the drawbacks were that I had a fairly small space of my own, I like I should come home at a decent hour (which is sometimes hard on the weekends, so then I just stayed at a jjimjilbang), and because of my limited Korean, we couldn't always communicate everything we wanted to each other. Still, I wouldn't have changed my experience living with them.
I lived in a ship building town in Jeollanamdo near Mokpo. It was a small town packed with people in high-rise apartments. My class sizes were about 30 per class and I only saw each class once per week. Also, I only saw 4th-5th grades. Most other people in the program had smaller school sizes, taught all grade levels, and saw their classes every day. Like I said earlier, every experience is different. Sometimes I wish that I had that small-school-experience, but I enjoyed where I was. It wasn't always easy to communicate with the staff and teachers of the school since I was not fluent in Korean. It was helpful that I had college students "Korean scholars", who were able to communicate in both languages, come and help with behavior management and getting messages across to the other teachers and staff. These Korean scholars were awesome, and became some of my closest friends!
I would say that the pay is pretty good for the work that we do. We basically work 15 hours per week aside from lesson planning and material preparation. Some programs pay more, but those jobs are full-time. If you are looking specifically to make money, then maybe this isn't the program for you, but if you are looking to experience Korea, gain a great community, and have an enjoyable time teaching, and then I would suggest that you consider TaLK! : )
Program Info
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.