I am seriously looking into this as a career option at the moment. I need overseas work experience if I am going to be considered a serious candidate for humanitarian work during my lifetime, and I have a $30k student loan that's not going away.

A common scam that has variants in the mail-envelopes-for-$$$ area runs as follows:

You see an advertisement for teaching English in some other country. Vague promises of easy money and all the paperwork being handled for you are on the ad.

You call in. They figure they've got you hooked. They wow you, ask you to come in, maybe.

Here's where they spring the trap. They need, oh, $200, let's say, to "expedite the paperwork and cover incidental costs" or some piece of flim-flam.

You never get your walking papers and a month, two months rolls around before you realize you've been had.

If you do choose to do this I would suggest doing a buttload, and I do mean a lot, of research on whoever you choose to use to have you placed with an ESL agency on "the other side".

There is another program run by the Japanese goverment. I think it's called the JET program. It's the same idea, teaching English to Japanese people, except for it's a government program (GEOS is a private sector business).

If you want additional information, you can check out Ni-Ka Online, which is maintained by the Dept. of Foreign Affairs, or go to the Japanese Embassy in Canada's website (look for Exchange Programs).

Be careful though, I've had several friends move to Japan and they all become very attached to the country. One friend stayed there for 5 years, another for 4 and another went off in 1996 and we never heard from him again. I've gone over twice (once for pleasure and once for business) and I was enthralled by the place.

Edited to add: I notice you mentioned Korea and Turkey as your top candidates. While I don't have any info on teaching in Korea, I believe that this guy might (don't quote me on that!). For Turkey, while not a teaching position Imaginative Traveller is a UK-based company that runs adventure travel trips to Turkey (among other places) and hires westerners to act as tour leaders. My wife and I went on one of their tours (to Turkey) for our honeymoon and our tour leader hailed from Australia.

[ 08 May 2003: Message edited by: smcniven ]

I know a few people who found international work with the UN, straight out of school (early 90s), even without the real-world legal and outreach experience you seem to have. They started in support areas like conference organizing and logistical support for humanitarian aid; one of the main requirements seems to be a willingness to travel.