Korean Job Discussion Forums

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

Since I arrived in Korea there's been a noticable increase in the percentage of people being hired by public schools with working for a public school being mostly unheard of (except for EPIK which was a joke iwth just a few hundred teachers) when I arrived to it starting to become the default choice for newbies these days. At the same time I haven't noticed any large increase in the number of waygooks about.

In theory it would be the rural hagwons that would be least able to compete with public schools to get whities. The more urban schools can attract people since they charge higher tuition (especially the high-end hagwons that're all in the big cities) and can guarantee a more urban environment than the public schools. On the other hand I can't see why someone would take a job in most rural hagwons in the current job market. So in theory a lot of the hagwons in rural areas and small cities would be cutting way back on whitey.

Has this been happening? Has anyone noticed any drop in the number of whities being employed by hagwons anywhere?

I be curious.

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

In my rural county of 70-80,000 the number of waegooks working at hagwons has recently increased from zero to one, that I'm aware of.

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

bosintang · Posted: Mon Jun 11, 2007 9:09 pm Post subject:

I'm urban but not in a prime place. There are still plenty of foreigners working here in hagwons. I think a lot of people still choose hagwons over public school jobs because at least initially, they pay better. As well, it's possible that the number of foreigners has gone up quite dramatically. We're seeing estimates as high as 40,000 now, when just four or five years ago estimates were as low as 6,000.

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

pest2 · Joined: 01 Jun 2005 Location: Vancouver, Canada

The real reason rural areas dont hire as many whites is that ppl in the countryside dont have as much money to send thier kids to hakwon. There are some hakwons in my area, but they dont have native speakers. The main reason is that the local economies just cant afford such luxuries. We are expensive for Koreans.

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

Yu_Bum_suk · Joined: 25 Dec 2004

chinook · Joined: 17 Mar 2004 Location: canada

hagwons hire year round too. if you need a job and you need it fast...

Smee · Joined: 24 Dec 2004 Location: Jeollanam-do

There are two foreigners at hagwon in my town of 16,000 (although one guy works in a different county, I think). There are a few hagwon in my town, but only the one has a native speaker. A big part of it is people don't do their homework and they take the first job they're offered. Furthermore, a recruiter could bill this as a bucolic, seaside town close to mountains and islands, and people would sign up for it without researching these claims. Of all the foreigners going into small towns in Jeollanam-do (in public schools or hagwon) very few are asking questions on here or on other forums.

Saxiif · Joined: 15 May 2003 Location: Seongnam

Well hopefully the trend of more and more people going to public schools will continue, the more market pressure to shape up that gets applied in the hagwons the better, which is even the case for the good hagwons. I think that the low-end hagwons are already suffering badly and I recently heard that my ex-school went bankrupt, which was music to my ears Smile

LuckyNomad · Joined: 28 May 2007

In Gangwon-do, last year there were about 16 Epik Teachers. Then last fall it became about 50. Now it's well over 100 and there are plans in the next two years to bring that number above 200. I think it's basically because the parents are poor and can't afford Hogwans.

sojourner1 · Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2007 9:40 pm Post subject:

Do I see a big exodus of waygook teachers out of the hogwans and into the public schools? Yes, becuase last year while I was doing my research there was not many public school positions and they advertised that it required one year of experience to get hired due to their not being many public school jobs offered like there are this year.
Can you see the English hogwan industry going through a competitive change where only the best schools will have a waygook teacher and survive as English schools? I think it's in the works which will be better for everyone involved.

It appears that macro market pressure for the English hogwans to change and improve is beginning to occur. Perhaps this is how the Korean government is imposing change on the English hogwans in an indirect way with ambition to offer English education to all kids regardless of economic status.

Public school seems to be a driving force in the English teaching industry due to offering about 2.6 m won for 30 teaching hours a week on a 22 hour contract, having a KT to deal with discilpline issues, and offering English education to many more kids regardless of income status, while offering guaranteed stable employment contract conditions to teachers.