In some cases, it relatively affordable to become an ESL teacher. In my experience, it was a little bit more especially since I wanted to work in the EPIK program. Now you could go the ‘hagwon’ route, but for me, as a first-time teacher, I wanted to be in a more secure program. For EPIK, you need to have not only your Bachelor’s degree but also a TEFL certification. That’s not quite the case with hagwons. I know that some only require you to have your Bachelor’s.
So, let’s say you want to apply to EPIK and you’ve got a year before you want to go. Here is a breakdown of the costs you’ll spend:
TEFL Certification
If you haven’t read any of my other teaching posts, I went through the International TEFL Academy online program to get my TEFL certification. Normally it costs around $1344. But if you wait a bit, as I did, you could hit them up during a sale. I waited until the end of the year and enrolled in the program for about $1000. The only other costs that came with the course was if you wanted to order the textbook or not. You don’t need to since it is on the course moodle website, but you can if you felt the need. Tuition for you may vary from $1500-$2000. It all really depends on which program you go with. Total Cost For Me: $1040
Passport Photos
You can get them done at your local drugstore for about $15 bucks, but you can easily do it yourself. All you need is a good quality camera like the one on your iPhone and white background. There are tons of sites where you can resize your photo to the correct dimension. Then send it off to your local print shop. I sent mine to Walgreen’s to be printed and at $0.34 each (4×6) I had 6 printed with two photos on each. And you are going to need a lot of passport photos. Total cost for me: $3.00
Valid Passport
While you are applying to schools and programs to teach at aboard, you should have a valid passport. If you don’t have one, you need to apply for that. A new passport will cost you $145 and renewal will be $110. Since mine expired 6-months after I would arrive in South Korea, I decided to renew. Total: $110 +mailing fee
Document Fees
Once you get accepted into the program, now you have to gather all the necessary documents. Since I went through a recruiter, I was able to get a discount on certain document fees.
- Criminal Background Check (fingerprinting & notarization) $125
- Copy of your Bachelor’s diploma notarized: $50
- Sealed University transcripts, 2 of them: $25 (depending on your school costs will vary. I had two schools to get my transcripts from.)
Total: $200 +mailing fees
Photocopies (2 copies of each)
If you have a printer, then this will cost you nothing. However, if yours is broken, then you’ll pay a small fee to photocopy all your documents. For me, it cost a bit more since I wanted to have a copy for myself. Total: $50
FedEx Documents to Recruiter
Since I wanted it to get to my recruiter the earliest, I choose to go with a faster courier. Which meant it cost me more than normal speed. I paid around $72 dollars to get my documents to my recruiter in Asia by the following Monday (I mailed my stuff off on a Friday).
Visa Application:
Including the pre-paid envelope so they can send you back your passport with a visa, it all depends on your country. Total: $55
Airfare & Accommodations:
All programs and schools will offer a one-way airfare fee to Korea, but you will have to pay for it first before being reimbursed. And you’ll get reimbursed 100% if not more for what you paid for. My recruiter had me work with a travel agent to get my ticket. My fee, included sharing a hotel room with another fellow teacher, came to $850.
My total cost to become an ESL teacher came to a total fo $2,308. That’s not bad to help me take the leap into a new life adventure. While I could have stayed in the USA working my 9-5 job, I found that this new adventure is what I really need to do.
There’s going to be lots of additional costs like buying a new suitcase or stocking up on deodorant for your year aboard. You’ll also need to save some money once you get to South Korea. You won’t get paid right away, you are going to need to have some money with you to tie you over until then. So remember to budget in those little things.
What do you think? Was it worth it? Until next time… 안녕히 가세요, jane*
There Goes Jane 