Hi everyone. I just so happened to stumble upon this thread, and as a current (and 2nd-year) Fulbright ETA in Korea, I thought I'd just put my 2 cents in regarding the different teaching opportunities in Korea. I would definitely stand by Fulbright being the best teaching opportunity in Korea, and for a number of reasons. Yes, we get paid less than literally every other teacher in the country, so if you're just interested in coming to teach English in Korea to make money you'll definitely want to consider other options. However, the Fulbright office does a phenomenal job working out any problems that we might have with schools or life in Korea in general. The Fulbright office is not a part of your school or a provincial education board; they have a serious interest in making sure that your needs are met. When it comes to hagwons, I'd steer clear. There might be a few good ones, but I've talked to a lot of hagwon teachers, and if you are stuck with a bad one, they really make life hell. It's really quite common for them to screw you over or take advantage of you in any way they can. Also, you will probably have almost no vacation time... maybe one week out of a year contract?
Fulbright ETAs are given extremely generous vacation time, and tend to have better luck getting out of coming to school on totally pointless days when you aren't teaching any classes and are basically seat-warming at your desk. If you are coming to Korea because you are interested in Korean culture, language, etc., and want to have your own independent time for studying or volunteering in other ways, this is a huge advantage.
The Fulbright program also has a much longer orientation period than other programs, incorporating serious language study, cultural acclimatization, and teaching workshops that make the transition to Korean life much smoother.
I definitely don't want to discourage people from teaching in Korea via other programs, like EPIK. I've had a few friends teach through EPIK, and they had wonderful experiences. I just wanted to put my two cents in about the actual differences in the programs. I hope this helps. And congrats to everyone coming to Korea. Yes, we miss 4th of July coming over here, but a lot of us got together and the end of our grant year last year and had an awesome grillout weekend.
Anyway,
Cheers
