Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bcjinseoul]

With the US economy nowhere near where it needs to be and some +30,000 E-2 visa holders already here, it kind of makes me wonder...with all the floods of applicants for EPIK/GEPIK/SMOE these last two semesters past (Aug 2009 and Feb 2010), how bad will things be this time around? With EPIK hiring for SMOE this time around and throughout most of the country, I'd say the total number would be about 1000-1500 positions; shot in the dark. Something tells me that there will be more...many more applicants, like 5,000-10,000. This place certainly has changed, and all the paperwork to get a visa through EPIK is quite tedious as well. Any thoughts or insight out there? Will anybody be able to follow up on the stats and report a few months from now, just for curiousity's sake?

[Fishead soup]

Scare mongering- Heard the same last year. But those hightly qualified people never arrive. They go to Japan, KSA, and other Gulf countries where they can make piles of money and retire in SE Asia with a motorbile grass hut and a little cutie.

[azzwell]

I have a sweet job that I am leaving in a boys middle school and my wife has the same in another boys middle school. Comes complete with a very nice two bedroom apartment for which we pay NO utilities.
EPIK, or anyone, can have it. We are done with the xenaphobia, hate, racism, and irresponsibility of a culture that cannot grow up and make it to the twentieth century, let alone the twenty first.
We are going to Myanmar to work in an international school for half the pay, we are at the top of the EPIK pay scale, but way more job satisfaction and a much better quality of life.
Put it this way, five years here, a school that loves me, the head of the local POE told them to do anything to keep me, yet I did not even get a raise when I renewed, even to the mythical EPIK 1+ scale, not even brought up, utter dreck.
Trust me, there are many who feel as we do and many more who are leaving. As long as Korea remains mired in the Confusian culture that treats non-Koreans as second class citizens with no rights, who are vilified in the press and on the news, and have no respect for laws, contracts, and just plain common courtesy people will be leaving the country and jobs will be open.
As long as Korea requires nothing more than a B.A. (how stupid is that) to teach their children, they will suffer the dubious distinction of being 191st in the world on TOEIC scores, with a population that cannot innovate, think critically, and communicate effectivly in the English.
To put it bluntly, the Korean public school system is losing two teachers, with over ten years experience between them, teaching creds., and CELTAs becuase they treat us like cattle.
If you want to come here, please do, its a nice life for a while, but when the real Korea shows through, as it eventually will, the boredom, hate, and stupidity will reach in and grab you and you will wonder why you ever got off the plane at Incheon.

[Lostone7]

LOL thanks Fish head soup =)

Been a while since I been on as I moved on to greener pastures =)
but, I heard the same scare mongering stuff the 5years I was there too lol and it NEVER will happen lol

You said it the best those with good qualifications will go elsewhere and the young inexperienced will head to Korea was that way 10yrs ago when my cousin went was that way when I was there.

Oh, not quite retired yet but did make it to SE Asia got the cutie and well SE Asia does pay very well now for qualified people they kind of figured it out. good pay = good employee.

And the truth is Korea is expensive and the pay I see advertised hasn't changed in 6years but inflation and expediences certainly did =)

I am now making 3X what I made in Korea and the cost is 1/10th so don't fret Epik will always need people = )

[creeper1]

[azzwell]

Actually I speak Italian and Hebrew, along with English.
I expect to get flamed here, I really do, and it does not bother me at all. Keep going.

[azzwell]

Oh, and I never said I was the greatest mind, just pointing out a few facts about life here. Can you speak another language?
I have though outside the box, I can think critically, most of my students and co-teachers cannot and I have had thousands over the past five years. This was not a slam on the Korean people, if you will read the post you can see that, but about being able to teach students to communicate, innovate, and think critically in English. The onus is on the Korean system to hire teachers who can actually do the job, native and Korean, and even more to treat them like human beings so that the students, who suffer from a lack of skilled teachers, can have some qualified teachers who will stay, nurture, and educate, as I would if I was not treated as an indentured servant.
That being said, let me guess, you just have a B.A. right and your just happy to have a job here in Sparkling Korea?

[creeper1]

[TheUrbanMyth]

[azzwell]

[creeper1]

[Triban]

Dude azzwell are you leaving the end of August? Where is your school? Im tryna move to Seoul yo.

[azzwell]

and how am I being racist or xenaphobic?

Xenaphobic-
one unduly fearful of what is foreign and especially of people of foreign origin

Racism-
1 : a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race
2 : racial prejudice or discrimination

[azzwell]

Urban Myth-B.S. on that one dude, totally. There are no private schools in America that only require a B.A. to teach, no way.
Creeper-Dual Italian/U.S. citizen lived in Palermo for seven years.

[creeper1]