Korean Job Discussion Forums

[seoul_nhl]

Does learning Korean help your career opportunities here? Aside from teaching and making life easier will learning Korean help in giving you more job opportunities?

I realized I repeated myself......

[zappadelta]

Affirmative.

[ajgeddes]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[yingwenlaoshi]

[PimpofKorea]

[Bibbitybop]

So YoungFRANKenstein's 11 years of experience here, which spans the majority of time the ESL community has thrived her, means nothing, yingwenlaoshi?

I beg to differ. I'm not a veteran, this is my opinion, but I'd like some facts to counter most of the opinions I've read about this.

Learning Korean is beneficial and is something more ESL teachers should learn, but I agree that most principals, administrators and directors don't care about your ability to speak fluent Korean.

On another note, Learning Korean will make your life easier in Korea, but I know uni teachers who don't speak much Korean.

[mithridates]

Well, Korea has the 12th-largest economy in the world, and the average person can't speak English well. It would be impossible for a reasonably ambitious person to not make more money knowing the language (this would also involve switching to something besides English teaching though).
Oh, speaking Korean also increases one's chances of getting married and then getting the invincible spousal visa where you can do almost anything. Not that this should be the main goal in studying the language, but it certainly makes it far more likely than without knowing any of the language.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[ajgeddes]

You are looking at this all wrong. I have two friends who have great part-time jobs, because they speak Korean. Both of them work on tv and were picked because they can take directions in Korean. Teaching English goes beyond sitting in a hagwon classroom.

[hellofaniceguy]

Absolutely not. The better career jobs are made via connections, friendships, relationships, etc. It's who you know who knows someone important. Speaking the local language is always a benefit...but not for career jobs. Besides...who in their right mind would want a career job in korea? A few years, ok, but career wise? It seems that even koreans want out of korea judging by the amount of visas' issued to koreans from other countries.

[zappadelta]

I can't believe some of you are saying 'no' to this.

For me, one thing that speaking Korean can do is leave a good impression. When I go to an interview, there is always someone around, be it the principal of the school, the director, the janitor, that can't speak English. If you can at least greet them and make some little small talk in Korean, you come off looking really good and they will remember you. As opposed to the 5 or 6 other teachers that also interviewed for the job.

Also, it's a great benefit in the classroom. It's great for explaining difficult grammar points that the kids might be grasping. Good for teaching new, difficult vocabulary. And, great for classroom management. If you get the classroom commands down in Korea, they will listen and probably respect you more.

And, of course like Mith said, more opportunities can surely open up for you outside of teaching. And, he should know about that.

[bobbyhanlon]

this is such an obvious 'yes'. i mean, come on! for a teacher, ok, nobody cares if you speak korean or not, but if you want to do anything else, then of course it is a total advantage.
my korean is not particularly good, but i get by. often i thought 'i wish i spoke perfect korean' because i've been told so many times that i could do anything if i just learned more. really.. the only value you bring if you don't speak korean is that you are a native english speaker- you will be in demand to teach english, and correct people's documents, and so on- but virtually nothing else.

anyway.. i'm getting out of here in june so i don't care any more. if you plan to make a real career here though, definitely learn korean.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Young FRANKenstein]