Korean Job Discussion Forums

[GreenlightmeansGO]

I know it is the work of demon-spawn yada yada...

The reason I am thinking of doing it concerns the bad state of affairs South Africans have to deal with. Recruiters that I have heard of in SA suck. I would like to give applicants a fair deal...and earn a bit of money.

Now, don't think I want to earn millions. I would just like enough for my girlfriend (Korean) and I to get by. I figure that having her there with me will make it easier to process everything and to find good schools for teachers.

Don't know if you know this, but there are less than 1000 South African English teachers in Korea (according to some poll I read that was posted on this site), so maybe it's time that SA plays a bigger role...maybe...

And what is the going rate that recruiters charge schools? I would charge less, as I am only concerned with survival and a bit extra.

[Otherside]

Well it might be a good idea, the figures I saw show the number of South Africans to be just a shade over 500.

I've also toyed with this idea (in the future), I've heard recruiters usually charge a fee of about W1mill. ($1000 is the figure thats thrown around).

That being said, my views of South Africans teaching in Korea is somewhat jaded. Most of the South Africans i've met here are most definatly not native English speakers, many speak with thick accents and even make some pretty bad grammatical mistakes when speaking. While Koreans, and other foriegners might be unaware of this, and just right it off to "the South African" accent, as an English-speaking South African I can pick up the Afrikaans accent immediatly, and perhaps am better equipped to pick up their common mistakes.

With the current numbers of South Africans being so low, its very easy to fly under the radar but if planeloads of teachers from Tukkies et al, start coming over, I feel that it would actually be detrimental to the cause of South African teachers here.

Note. I'm not saying that all South Africans who don't speak English as their first language aren't fluent or not equipped to teach English, but i've definatly met a few who wouldn't pass matric if they had to write it in English posing as English teachers.

[Bibbitybop]

Are you on an E-2 visa? You'd better set up your practice in South Africa as it would be illegal to set up in Korea.

[GreenlightmeansGO]

Yeah, it would be in South Africa. Thanks for taking notice.

An interesting side-note, I've had to post ads on Dave's for my school and have been spammed by bad South African recruiters. The teachers they represent aren't exactly the cream of the crop (like the ones mentioned above, with the less-than-desirable accents). I hope to find good teachers and good schools for them (if any of this ends up taking place).

[garykasparov]

Does the following crook below ring a bell?

Andrew Ahn: Administrator
Academy of English
Tel: +27 21 683 6354
Fax: +27 21 674 0813
[email protected]
Capetown South Africa

[Otherside]

[JasonC]

Hi greenlightmeansgo,

While I can appreciate what you are trying to do, I would say that you will be setting yourself up for frustration if you go through with your plan.

Although it may be the case that there are bad recruiters in South Africa, that is not the reason for the low numbers. The reason is that hagwons pretty much only hire South Africans as an absolute last resort. Obviously, North Americans are what they look for first. Things get progressively harder when placing British, Australian, Irish, Kiwi...and, in last place, you have South Africa.

I am speaking from years of experience with this. It has mainly to do with accent, but perhaps equally with perceived marketability.

Even if you are very honest and straight-up with your applicants, the difficulty you will have is finding schools that will hire these applicants.

My suggestion is that if you are trying to have a sideline business, don't just focus on South Africans. There is no reason why you can't try to help applicants from other countries too.

My other suggestion is to make your decision wisely. If you are going to go ahead with the business, do it properly and for the long-term. If you are only doing it for a short-term attempt at making a few bucks, it will be the applicants that you place that will suffer. You should plan to be around for the duration of their contract in case any issues arise.

As much as people think it's easy just to jump in and start recruiting, there is a lot more behind it. One major issue is trust. People are going to want to know how long you've been in business and how they can trust you. That's a hard question to answer when you first get started.

Anyhow, I hope all goes well for you, and if you want more info, feel free to get in touch with me.

Jason