Disclaimer (so I don’t get cancelled)

Please take all this info with a grain of salt, you will definitely not be asked all of these questions and some are quite rare
but have simply added all of them because it gives me anxiety not having everything in one place. Every EPIK application
process and placement is different. If you are not sure about something please contact EPIK directly :)

Interview Questions
Random spin wheel for practicing questions
Co-teacher
- If a co-teacher isn’t helping out in the lesson, how would you deal with that?
- How would you handle conflicts between your co-teacher or students?
- What if your co-teacher doesn’t participate in the class out of embarrassment since they’re not a native
English speaker?
- Do you know your role in comparison to your co-teacher?
- What do you do if your co-teacher cuts you off in the middle of a lesson?
- Your co-teacher may offer criticism regarding your teaching style. How would you respond to this?
- Your co-teacher is usually a non-native speaker of English. They may make a consistent grammar mistake
in their teaching. If students are starting to pick up on it, how will you approach the issue?
- Decisions and events in Korea are often made at the last minute. You might have made plans to meet with
friends but your co-teacher asks you to go on a work dinner. What would you do?
EPIK
- Why EPIK?
- Why did you decide to apply through EPIK rather than a private school (hagwon)?
- What do you know about the EPIK program?
- What does EPIK stand for?
- Do you know the EPIK timeline?
- How do your values and EPIK’s values align?
Korea
- Why Korea?
- What do you know about education in Korea?
- When do Korean children start English classes?
- What do you know about different regions in Korea?
- Why did you choose _______ province and what do you know about it?
- How much Korean food have you eaten and how much did you like it?
- Do you have any ties to Korea?
- What will you do with your free time in Korea?
- What specifically do you know about Korean culture?
Teaching
- How does your degree relate to teaching in any way? (if you do not have a teaching/education degree)
- What sets you apart from the applicants with teaching experience? (if this applies to you)
- Which age group fits you best/you would be the best at teaching and why?
- What was the most important thing you learned when taking the TEFL course? (if this applies to you)
- Why do you want to be a teacher?
- Why do you want to teach English?
- How will you manage your classroom?
- How do you intend to develop relationships when you are working with so many students?
- How would you incorporate current trends into your class to make them entertaining for students?
 - What is your teaching philosophy?
- You may be in a class of 30-40 students. If one is uninterested, how will you engage them?
- What would you say are the top qualities in a teacher?
- How do you go about making lesson plans? How do you determine what is important and decide what
goes in the lesson?
- How would will teach/deal with rude/misbehaved students?
- How would you teach a group of students that have very different abilities?
- If a student is making a consistent mistake such as ‘I are student’ show me how you would correct them.
Other
- Questions around study abroad experience (if this is something you put down).
- How will you deal with being independent in Korea?
- What’s your 3-5 year plan, what do you plan to do in the future with this experience?
- How do you deal with culture shock?
- Where are you at with your paperwork?
- Questions about overseas experience (if this applies to you)
- How would you respond if your school gave you a dorm on campus and not an apartment like the other
teachers get?
- Do you remember a time when you had conflict/a disagreement with a worker in the workplace, if so how
did you solve this?
- What are your strengths and weaknesses?
- Tell me about yourself?
- What do you expect to be the most difficult part about coming to Korea?
- How will you deal with home sickness?
- Tell us about your relationships with your two references?
- What do you plan to achieve through this experience?
- What are you doing to prepare yourself for this opportunity?
- What do you know about Korean work culture?

Interview Question Replies

(what other interviewees said, use this only as a guide as it is more valuable for you to formulate your own personal
response rather than copy pasting the perfect answers)
- What do you know about education in Korea? Korea takes their education very seriously, and it plays a big part
in people’s life. From learning at a beginner level to going to high school and taking big exams to get into a good
university. (summary, very academic focused)
- What does EPIK stand for? English Program In Korea.
- When do Korean children start English classes? 3rd grade (Native English teachers are not allowed to teach
kindergarten but can teach first and second grade if it is aferschool)
- What if your co-teacher doesn’t participate in the class out of embarrassment since they’re not a native
English speaker? Ask how I can support them to become more comfortable and be a good example for the
students as a fellow native korean speaker.
- Co-teacher conflict. Clear communication in a supportive way, sharing feedback to develop teaching skills for
both parties, giving examples of where content is correctly used (in the instance that there is a disagreement about
what is being taught), emphasise your openness and willingness to solve problems effectively and respectfully,
prevent vs solve by communicating expectations and how to teach together, keep workplace hierarchy aspect in
mind when forming your answer for these type of questions.

Demo Lesson Topics

 - Feelings
- Animals
- Jobs
- Weather
- Body parts
- Colours
- Likes/dislikes
- “Do what you made your lesson plan for the application on”
- Items of clothing
- Going to the supermarket
- Directions
- Prepositions

Interview Tips/Info
- You should get your interview result within 3 days (maybe 5) (they will tell you this in the interview). They
will email you regardless of the result to let you know what the outcome is.
- Make sure you have your application, preferably printed out on hand.
- Demo lesson will be a random topic which you will have three minutes to prepare for.
- Don’t expect responses to your questions during the demo lesson (e.g. “who knows what feelings are?”)
just pretend like they have responded.
- They will probably ask you to stop the demo lesson once time is up (around 3mins)/they have heard
enough, don’t be discouraged by this; it is normal!
- Emphasise your openness and willingness to solve problems effectively and respectfully (advice given in
response to co-teacher issues but is relevant for most questions/answers)
- Make sure you are not speaking too fast.
- Use answers such as “that is an interesting question”, “I was thinking about that the other day” to help give
yourself more time to answer if needed. If you know the answer however, respond confidently, don’t stall
unless you have to!
- You won’t be able to screenshare.
- Have a pencil and paper to take notes on if you need to.
- Be expressive during your demo lesson as it is representative of how you will work with children.
- If demoing with elementary students try to avoid using more complex terms e.g. “please describe ____”.
Beginner level students, no more than four words e.g. It is red rather than this is the colour red.
- You will get the opportunity to ask questions at the end so write any that you have down so you can ask
them when the time comes.
- Might be helpful to have flashcards/whiteboard for demonstrating during demo lesson but definitely not
compulsory.
- They will ask you about any medical history you listed in your application so be prepared to talk about this
briefly and confirm whether it is ongoing.

Document Info/Tips
Most of the info you need is in the detailed required documents pdf sent after a successful interview. This is just extra
stuff/things that have popped up in the chat.

General
- Passport copy can be scanned and printed through a copy machine on regular paper.
 - Some documents may need to be notarised before they are apostilled but this depends on the type of
document and the country. Notarisation is where a notary public certifies a document, often these people
are lawyers.
- Transcripts just need to be sealed not notarised or apostilled.
- Photocopies of mostly everything is needed (apart from transcripts). Originals and one set of copies for
EPIK then one for yourself for personal reasons or visa purposes. More info in the required documents
pdf.
- Make sure you remember to sign your application form! It goes next to your printed name.
- https://www.idphoto4you.com/ for sizing your professional photo.
- Korea writes dates as yyyy/mm/dd.
- If you need to make edits to the first six pages of your application, just email your coordinator with the
specific edits you need. They will make the changes for you.
- If you need to make edits to your lesson plan or essays, fill out the application edit form sent with the
other documents and send this to your coordinator. Only fill out parts that need to be changed. They will
make the changes for you.
- Check if your local library has free printing.
America
- Criminal Record Check (CRC) needs to be an FBI one and this includes getting fingerprints done. You do
not need to get this document notarised.
- Monument Visa is a good recommendation for apostilling, takes around 2-3 weeks
- Request confirmation code from FBI -> You can go get your prints at a post office aand give them code ->
they will send to the FBI who will send you back your digital CRC pdf -> upload this to Monument Visa or
your preferred company/peoples.
- Not every USPS does fingerprinting, most UPS places do but not all for an FBI background check.
- Accurate Biometrics maybe not a slay?
- Don’t use LiveScans.
- Checks or money orders can be used to pay for apostilles. You can get money orders done at banks, Publix,
post offices and chain supermarkets.
- UPS recommended for sending documents to Korea.
- Pirateship recommended for streamlining and helping with sending docs to Korea
New Zealand
- As our transcripts are only digital these will need to be sent to EPIK email (epikoffice@korea.kr).
- Degrees/diplomas need to have a photocopy taken of them which can then be notarised and apostilled.
Original may need to be brought to notarisation appt.
- Do not need birth certificates (for once when they said Australia they actually meant only Australia).

Learning Korean Recommendations

- Lingodeer
- In person tutor
- Youtube channel ‘Learn Korean in Korea’
- Pimsleur Korean course
- Coursera
- Preply
- Ttmik
- Italki

Other Info/Tips
- EPIK will notify you of the province you are placed in before you apply for your visa but you won’t know
your specific location and school/s until the last day of orientation.
- Notification of appointment/contract comes before visa.
- If you deny your placement you will not receive another placement option and will be restricted from
applying again for the next two intakes.
- June and onwards is a reasonable expectation for placement emails to be sent out however everyone is
different.
- Depends on your embassy whether you will have to go in person or not for your visa.
- To be considered for Seoul you have to fill out extra forms. You can apply for Seoul if you selected it in your
application or if you selected flexible.
- To be considered for Incheon you have to fill out extra forms. You are required to deposit some of your pay
as an accommodation bond and will only get this back if your apartment is damage-free, etc.
- Settlement allowance is given with first pay check.