Slinging English in Korea

In 2003, Mark Sampson joined the flood of English as a second language teachers flocking to Asia for employment. Korea has been a particular draw for ESL teachers, renowned for generous contracts and a high quality of life. Peaking at about 22,000 foreign teachers there in 2011 with a slight decline since, the trend has seen Canadians, Americans, Australians, Brits, New Zealanders, Irish and South Africans snapping up E2 working visas and year-long contracts teaching English to students young and old, in public and private schools as well as after-hours language academies (hagwons) and universities and giving private lessons. The teachers are often young and jobless back home, although some are older people in search of a change.

Sad Peninsula, Sampson’s second novel, after Off Book, draws on the author’s three years in Seoul to paint a fabulously rich picture of...