Job Discussion Forums

[Chris21]

This is more of a philosophical post, rather than a request for information. I was wondering if anyone had thoughts on the future of our profession in Asia.

Never having taught EFL in another country, it's difficult for me to tell how EFL jobs in Japan rate against those in other parts of the world, but after reading some of the forums on this site, it seems that we have it pretty good. I think our salaries are higher than just about anywhere. Certainly our salaries are as high as any country in East Asia, but there has been a slow erosion of conditions since the bubble burst at the end of the eighties. It's not to rare to see jobs at conversation schools fall below 250,000, while benefits like free accomodation and bonuses have disappeared. Of course every teaching context is different. Those teaching at public schools and unis may have more benefits, but it seems that these are slowly disappearing too. All the while, competition for jobs seems to be increasing. Other than salary, I've always felt like I have a great deal of freedom in planning my lessons. Certainly this is not the case everywhere (I've got some colleagues working in smoe very regimented systems), but after reading the Middle East posts, it seems like we have a little more freedom in Japan.

Anyway, I'd bet that the gradual erosion of working conditions will continue in Japan unless the economy has a dramatic reversal of fortune. Is there another place that could one day rival or pass Japan in terms of teacher benefits?

Everyone makes a big deal about China's rapidly growing economy, will China ever be able to provide the same kind of salaries that we have here in Japan. Personally, I enjoy life here, but I would be ecstatic if there was some competitive pressure on Japanese institutes to improve working conditions in order to prevent teachers from leaving for China. I'm guessing that this is at least 10-15 years away, but probably much farther... although 10% annual GDP growth every year has got to yield improvements eventually.

The Middle East countires would seem to be another promising option for the future. The explosion of oil prices in the last couple of years has got to be a boon to all facets of their economies. It seems that with all of the extra perks in some of the teaching contracts in the Middle East (free accomodation, travel budgets, and bonuses) that the Middle East already offers a compensation package that is comparable to Japan, especially for families. 5 years after soaring oil prices, will teaching contracts be affected?

Finally, Korea seems to be almost on par with Japan. Will their steady development into a first world country eventually overtake Japan?

Anyway, I'm no expert. I just wanted to hear if people had any interesting thoughts on the future of our field.

[PAULH]

[markle]

Personally I see the Asia EFL scene this way:

Tier one
Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore - stable economies, high living standards and costs, established but saturated EFL industries, reliable legal, health systems, competitive 'real world' salaries.

Tier two
Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia
less stable economies, lower living standards and costs, established but saturated EFL industries, not so reliable legal, health systems, not as competitive 'real world' salaries.

Tier Three
China, Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor etc
unstable (but 'booming') economies, low living standards and costs, emerging EFL industries, virtually non existant legal, health systems, not competitive 'real world' salaries.

This is a fairly general view of course there are scenarios that don't fit into the catergories above.

I see the Middle East as a whole other kettle of fish

[Chris21]

I gotta' agree with that tier system, that's how I see it as well. I wonder if the tiers will be the same in 15 years though? I'd be surprised if parts of China don't move into that second tier in the near future, especially the universities in the major cities.

As for West Asia, I think the Middle East can be safely put in tier one, and probably has the best chance of passing Japan in the future. Getting back to Paul's point about how oil affects teacher contracts, I think because these economies are so singularly based on oil production, any spike in oil revenue is bound to find it's way into hospitals, roads, schools, universities, and other social institutions (and hopefully a gradual rise in teacher compensation). It's amazing to think that in about a year oil has gone from a then record $50 a barrel to more than $70... that has to be good for their economies!

[Firestarter]

Teaching in general is not a highly paid career in most of the world, and language teaching in particular is certainly not. Nor should it be, as the demand for such services aren't that strong amongst the largest share of the population in virtually any country. How many nations in the world could count foreign language acquisition as high on the list of priorities for their citizens? Japan is just odd in that sense because Japanese people had so much disposable income they could pursue language education as a hobby. Now that levels of disposable income are falling, working conditions, especially pay, for language teachers are falling in line with the international industry standards. Although, the above poster is right in saying that Japan still competes fairly well with other countries in terms of working conditions and pay. The irony however is that as demand (and pay) for instructors falls, required qualifications will likely increase. It's what would be frustrating about pursuing advanced qualifiactions for EFL teaching: quality of available teachers doesn't drive demand and subsequently renumeration, quantity of interested students drives demand and renumeration.

Teachers tend to blame big companies for declining standards in working conditions and the introduction of dispatching teachers. I think that's a bit off the mark. With respect to dispatching teachers, that simply follows a wider trend of labour outsourcing that is prevelant in many industries in most of the industrialised world. Pick up a North American yellow pages from 1990 and you'll only see a handful of temporary staffing or employment agencies. Pick one up now and you'll see dozens and dozens. Companies are increasingly outsourcing labour and it is certainly not peculiar to Japan or the EFL industry in this country. For univeristies, high schools, companies, etc., using agencies to recriut teachers allows them to drastically cut HR operating costs and control quality in an area where they have little or no expertise. With respect to decling standards, what evidence suggest teaching standards really have declined? That's a question I'd be interested in hearing an answer to. Generally as industries mature standards become more refined. How could things be worse now than in the eighties, when from what I read on boards like these LITERALLY anyone who could speak English was offered a chance to teach it.

I think the EFL industry in Japan will gradually assimilate to that of other nations. Much like poverty level paying teaching work in Eastern Europe, people will still flock to it because it represents a tremendous opportunity to live and work in a foreign country. For those that bemoan the fact that these people are not career EFL instructors and just drag the industry down I'd point out two things: 1) there's very little demand in the world for highly qualified language instructors and 2) the quality of EFL instructors will always fall in line with what students demand - more so in Japan than other places because here students have more choice and freedom (i.e. money) to go elsewhere. Big language companies provide students with largely good services and language education. That's why they are so successful.

In ten years, I think Japan will still be a great place to live and work. But teaching in Japan will become more and more like teaching just about anywhere else: a pretty tough job that probably won't make you rich. For those that hate the riff raff of people coming over here to teach, the above is probably a good scenario as from then, only people truly committed to teaching or committed to experiencing Japan will apply.

[Khyron]

[randytheringworm]

The questions that I ask myself are:

How bad can things get in terms of salaries and conditions before there's a shortage of native speakers to fill the perceived need for Eng. language teachers?

What is the nature of this need in the first place? For example, what function does a teacher in an eikaiwa or hogwan really perform? What does having a native speaker as a teacher really add to , say, a situation where Saudi military recruits are being taught basic Eng., that couldn't be supplied by Egyptian or Tunisian teachers who are fluent in Eng.?

How will changing conditions alter the perception of this need?

One positive (if I can put it like that) feature of the Gulf ME is that there will never be a steady stream of people who are willing to take any salary that's on offer just for the experience of living there. But sadly both in Japan and the Gulf there are people who have thrown in their lot with TEFL teaching, and for whom ,either because of age or commitments (e.g., Japanese spouses, kids) a career change is not convenient. A lot of them can be counted on to stay in the field despite deteriorating salaries and other conditions (for example, nonrenewable contracts, disappearing perks, etc.)

[Firestarter]

[markle]

[Chris12]

Khyron wrote:

I can tell you that Korea has surpassed the raw working benefits in Japan already. It's been like that for a few years, from what I gather. My raw benefits, I mean financial benefits. I cannot see Korea surpasing Japan in the social/cultural/etc. appeal factors in the near (or distant) future.

After talking to a few people here who are working at NOVA, Shane's, eikaiwa, etc., I've realized that they don't have it nearly as good here as they would in Korea, financially speaking. Japan is not the number one country to teach ESL in financially, as far as entry-level positions go.

I don't think it's fair to rate places like Hong Kong and Singapore to Japan in this way, as they seem to have greater qualification requirements than simply "speak native-level English and have a degree."[/quote]

I completely disagree with Khyron! I lived in Korea for half a year. Finally I decided to break my contract and I returned to Japan. The money was good in Korea, and I was able to save, because I didn't like going out.
A colleague got beaten up so many times just because he had a Korean girlfriend. Finally they got married and moved back to the Australia.

Most Koreans like to see themselves as victims to justifying hating everyone! I have never meant so many out right prejudice people in one tiny country.

Other than Korea, everyone where else I taught at had advantages and disadvantages. My favorite places is a toss up between Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan!

And as someone else wrote, I am one of those people who enjoys teaching, and living in a different culture!

[PAULH]

[wangtesol]

What is the future of EFL in Asia? It is not really a philosophical question at all.

There is such a thing as "language planning" that the US State Department, US Defense Department and the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office deal with directly. Thousands of government employees work in some way in langauge planning overseas. The State Department's Educational and Cultural Affairs Bureau alone employs thousands of government staff.

Along with their sub-agencies (e.g., the British Council, Regional English Language Officers, English Language Specialists), corporate partners (e.g. Pearson Publishing, Manpower, Interac) organizational partners (e.g., Mormon Church, various universities, Summer Institute of Linguistics) they have a large influence on what the future of EFL in Asia is.

The labour supply, us teachers, have some influence over the future of EFL in Asia especially when we can organize and demand collective agreements with the corporate partners. However, this is only currently the case in Japan and recently in South Korea.

I have been checking around with the organizational partners, and I have not found one career centre at a university that has labour law resources for teachers going overseas. And then when I have offered such resources they have been refused.

This should be changed. Because if incoming teachers to Northeast Asia were already educated about their labour rights, then work conditions of EFL jobs will improve (except in rural China). But don't expect your alma mater, embassy or employer to tell you what your rights are.

But these places will...
http://www.generalunion.org for Japan
http://www.efl-law.com for South Korea
http://www.buxiban.com for Taiwan and China

[ironopolis]