TEFL forum

I have a degree and am Tefl certified and I recently applied for the public school system in South Korea and was rejected within the week with no explanation as to why. I went through a reputable placement agency, and since that didn't work, I went through other agencies and they responded immediately and wanted a resume and pictures. Since that happened they haven't responded since. Is there anything I did wrong or the way I look is hindering me from getting a job over there? I don't want to jump to conclusions but if there is a problem I want to fix it.

Did the agency say anything? This seems quite strange if you're fully qualified, etc.

What about applying for jobs privately (i.e. directly with the school).

I haven't tried applying privately. And no nobody said why I was not chosen.

Well, without seeing your resume and application I can't really say but it does sound rather strange. If you wanted to PM them to me I'd be happy to take a look (or post them here, but publicly that might not be the best thing to do).

I worked in Korea for two years. Most of the teachers I knew there had their undergrad with no teaching certificate and started with no experience. If you were rejected with better qualifications than most and no explanation it may well be because of the color of your skin. Koreans have a very definite idea of what they think an English teacher should look like and as unpleasant and racist as it may be, that does not include dark skinned people. A Canadian friend of mine of Indian decent was actually told that he was not hired at a certain school because of the color of his skin.

The author of the blog "Ask a Korean" talks about this issue in Korean society, if you've any desire to read up on it: http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2007/03/ ... along.html

I have read that article before and I understand their ideas of what a native english speaker should look like, and as far as race that is always an issue but there are sometimes other factors that may affect the decision to hire someone.

You said they didn't respond in a week? They maybe just busy and taking their time. Keep trying to get through to them and see what happens... I have had similar dealings with recruiter's lack of fast response time.