Korean Job Discussion Forums

[AsiaESLbound]

Not all qualified teachers will make good truck drivers and nurses, but they will try it out of desperation. I would venture to say most certified experienced teachers back home are not cut out for living and teaching in Asia as it's very different and probably best done with no formal pedagogy. I can now see why no experience nor knowledge of teaching is best. It takes an open mind and the will to live in a very smelly polluted country full of high stress due to pressures to perform.

[PatrickGHBusan]

+2 on the Hong Kong program.

However, in Korea, since you are certified, start by checking out the International Schools and apply with them directly. Many of them offer better pay and conditions.

[randall020105]

i think mr pink nailed it earlier. i couldn't have said it better.

[wylies99]

[519forlife]

The whole South, North flare up over the ship sinking outta keep most away I'd think.

[Smee]

Posted an update, based on this thread and the reaction to the NY Times article.

http://briandeutsch.blogspot.com/2010/05/bad-market-for-teachers-in-us-will-mean.html

Commenters point out that much of what's done in Korea, as native speaker assistant teachers, doesn't count as actual experience on paper for teachers going back to the US.

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Smee]

Here are some reader comments about experience in Korea not counting on paper back home:

From sonagi92:

[fusionbarnone]

[quote="Ramen"]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[Welsh Canadian]

I've noticed a few more schools now wanting teachers to teach SAT stuff. For the students who are more likely to go overseas.

[sarbonn]

What's funny about the whole thing is the cycle function that emerges from the market. Right now, schools in the US aren't hiring, so there are tons of extra people looking for work as teachers at the K-12 level. A few years ago, the market imploded on the community college circuit, so that MA level instructors were having trouble finding work. What happened with the MA level people is they were moved out of the market by the lack of jobs, so the market tried to compensate itself by hiring lots of adjuncts (to save money). Those people got peeved at the low pay for the same work, and they've moved away from the community college market, taking other jobs that they can use their MAs and MSs for. Now, community colleges are starting to suffer from a lack of strong teachers, as they've already started to pull from their adjunct pools to discover those people are starting to move on as well. In a few years, that market will favor the teachers, but there won't be enough of them, so we'll see a huge "need" for more people to fill those jobs. Then too many will be churned out, and the cycle starts up again.

The public school market is going to be one of the more interesting animals because it's historically been very hard to fill these positions. Now, we have too many teachers, which is something we've rarely ever had. Those people are going to leave this field and find other jobs, mainly because they're going to have no choice. And when the market starts to correct itself, they're going to have a HUGE gap in teachers because it's really, really hard to recruit people into that field. It rarely pays well, and the job itself is one of the harder ones around when comparing to other things one could be doing with the same amount of education.

I generally don't see the majority of this surplus going to the overseas teaching market because even though all of us know about this market, it's surprising how few people are even aware it exists, or how to get involved with it if they do know it exists. My sister contacted me last week to help the son of a friend of hers figure out how to get through the planning stages of working in South Korea as a teacher because none of them had an idea how to go about what they had to do. And that's not surprising because it's quite a hurdle of information that you have to go through, even though once you've done it, it seems like it was a walk in the park.

Anyway, not trying to start an argument. Just sharing a perspective.

[PatrickGHBusan]

Very interesting post sarbonn. I agree with the points you make.

A similar trend can be seen in Canada for Teachers.

As for your last paragraph about the complexity of getting work in Korea for a newbee...it always amazes me how clueless some people are! Sure, ititially it can be intimidating to consider working overseas, but with the internet the way it is today it is so easy to find the information you need!

It baffles me that a person would find it hard to figure out how to apply for a job in Korea and what to do once you apply....

[marlow]

[PatrickGHBusan]

A troubling trend indeed marlow....