It is strongly recommended that you have experience travelling in other countries other than your own in order to help quell the culture shock one may feel in Asian countries. RR and Asian Gateway believe that teaching experience is not necessary but travelling and life experience is. We take this into heavy consideration when deciding to recommend you or not to our various contacts. First and foremost, we are a business and in order to keep our reputation in good standing, we must insure not only that we are sending teachers to respected, legitimate schools but also we must insure that the teachers we send are honest, hard-working and culturally open-minded. In other words, if your only goal is to make cash, you need not apply.

We at Russell Recruiting and Asian Gateway are more than happy to offer advice and answer all questions, don't hesitate to email a list of queries and don't forget, there is no such thing as a stupid question! For more on what the companies we deal with offer, please refer to the Schools and Benefits pages.

Advice Tip #1 :

If you are in contact with any other recruiting agencies, and they try to charge you for their services, then something is wrong. All agencies are paid placement fees by the companies, schools and outfits who ask for the teachers to be sent. The only costs you should be incurring are the expenses to courier notarised documents to the country you are going to and a processing fee at your nearest consulate to complete the visa application. Any other costs anyone asks you to pay for are false and you should be careful.

Advice Tip #2:

Stay away from any company that states they will "reimburse" you for your plane ticket, steer clear of these organisations as well. You should have your ticket in hand. You end up fighting tooth and nail to recoup that money once you arrive. Needless to say, it will definitely leave a bad taste in your mouth right off the hop. Some schools will buy the initial flight as 1-way and then once you have completed your contract, will then purchase another 1-way ticket for you. You will see this method more often as less and less Korean school owners are as trusting of all foreigners. Yes, a few bad apples have wrecked it for us by skipping town and leaving the employer high and dry. In some cases, the school would definitely have been at fault, driving the teacher away with repeated contract violations. In other cases, it’s the teacher fleeing for the beaches of Thailand because they found out that teaching ESL just wasn’t for them, ultimately screwing the school and the other teachers.

Advice Tip # 3:

Always get a medical check-up before leaving your home country and make sure you bring the doctor’s note stating you are in full health with no pre-existing diseases or conditions. There have been instances where a teacher has fallen ill and the school will try and blame it on an old injury, disorder, etc., just to squirm out of paid sick leave and other benefits you are entitled to.

Advice Tip #4:

Never, never NEVER surrender your passport to your employer for “safe-keeping.” That’s a sign that the owner will work you like a dog, violate your contract and keep you basically hostage and will keep your passport to prevent you from leaving suddenly when conditions get really bad. This is an extreme case but don’t think for a minute this hasn’t happened.

Advice Tip #5:

Always, always, ALWAYS get the school you are applying to, or the recruiter you are working with to get the current foreign teacher contact info so you can make direct contact with them to ask about the director, the school, the owner, accommodation, local amenities, paying on time, honouring benefits in the contract, etc. If a school is bad then you will be sure to hear it loud and clear. The only person to trust is the foreign teacher. If they have been treated like trash at the school, they sure as hell won’t recommend it and will do anything to make sure the school either gets shut down or the position doesn’t get filled in order to exact some sort of revenge. Once you hear from these foreign teachers, you can email us and tell us what they said. From there, we can usually deduce if it’s a yea or nay.