Don't Teach English in South Korea
If you're thinking of going overseas to teach English in South Korea, some people say you’d better not.

Why not to go.
There is a 70% chance that5 being unknown of many juridical details in your very much complicated contract, you may be deceived. Most people don't last the first three months with a company. The ones who stay longer usually end up getting screwed over for even more money.  

There are people who may be a notorious example. Lets take M (lets call him so) for example. Mister M`s first visit to Korea lasted for one year. He lived in the small city of Jeonju in Jeollabukdo province. By the end of the contract he had not been paid for 2 month and despite Korean law he did not receive the bonus in the end of the teaching year.

The second time he stayed in the capital of the country, in Seoul.  He was fired because his girlfriend was an afro-American, and his supervisor did not like that of the racists view points. For both the girl and the teacher it was very upsetting because they had never before encountered such blatant racism. They really hated teaching in this country. The girl had never come there again She came over to visit briefly during M`s first trip to South Korea, and came over again the second time. She was also interested in maybe teaching someday, but now she's changed her mind.

These teachers do plan to go back to South Korea again someday, perhaps in 2012, but M will never be teaching English there ever again. He loves South Korea as a country, but their schooling system is inadequate, too privatized and far too corrupt.

The rule of thumb in Korea is that if you're not Korean, then you don't matter. You have almost no legal rights. If a company decides to terminate your contract, for any reason whatsoever, they can and they will. So if the supervisor is racist, like the one depicted was, or if the company is planning to swindle you anyway (like the first company did), then prepare to lose money.

The first company M worked for owes me 6,200,000 won (roughly $6000 American dollars).The last company M worked for still owes him 700,000 won (roughly $650 American dollars).Both times he got screwed over, and he is not the only one. South Korea has the worst reputation for ESL teaching.

They are notoriously bad for stealing from their employees, giving the employees bad apartments (my apartment in Seoul had a leaky roof and there was mold all over the walls and the ceiling), shirking on the responsibilities, paying employees the incorrect amount, skipping payments, and firing the employee on the 11th month (so they don't have to pay the year-end bonus or the return plane ticket).

They will try every trick in the book, including stealing your wallet, in order to take your money.Make no mistake about it, the Korean "Hagwon" system is trying to make money, and they have no qualms about firing teachers for no reason and refusing to pay them their money.

During his second trip to South Korea, the company that fired M refused to pay him the money they owed me for the previous month, even though it was required in their contract to do so. The fact of the matter is that M`s supervisor there had NEVER even read the contract. She didn't have a clue what it actually said in there.

Indeed, your "English Contract" that you sign is worthless. The only thing of value under Korean law is your Korean contract, the one you sign when you enter the country... and so unless you already speak and read flawless Korean, then you really don't have a clue what your real contract actually says.

For example, according to what M was told by recruiters the 2nd time he went, his apartment would be clean and have air conditioning. Instead it was a moldy mess, and there was no air conditioning (and it gets very hot in South Korea).

M`s advice to people is that if you want to teach English overseas, do so as a hobby. You won't make any money at it, because the companies will screw you over. If you want to travel to South Korea, go right ahead. Indeed, its  strongly advisable foe you to volunteer yourself for a contract, and when you're there with your free plane ticket, skip out on them and visit Japan or China instead. If they are going to screw over foreigners, then is nothing wrong with us foreigners screwing over them.  

South Korea in general has nice people, great food and its comfortable being in the country. The only bad is deceit in the Hagwon schools. Mister M got screwed over the first time, and he still went back because he loved the country so much. When he got screwed over a second time, he decided there would not be a third time. They won't fool him a third time. And actually M was not an easy person to be deceived. He took every precaution in trying to find companies with a great reputation, but the fact of the matter is that all of them except for the most prominent and world widely famous are actually with bad reputation. Every foreigner told he had something wrong with his company.

The contract items are not guaranteed, so one should be particularly careful while choosing a place for work. The best variant is to work for the government of a foreign country such as USA or Canada for instance.