Korean Job Discussion Forums

[garykasparov]

02-10-2008 18:03

Better Pay for Teachers

By Michael Stevens

The average English teacher today makes just under 22.8 million won a year, which may not look too bad for a twenty something-year-old. However, a qualified teacher will soon realize that one could make more money and not work anywhere near as hard, doing other things. Often they are told they will work short hours and be able to travel and see Korea. However, they quickly find out that early mornings are for students who need extra help, evenings are for lesson plans, breaks between classes are less than 10 minutes and weekends just aren't long enough to prepare for the next week's classes, let alone see the many sites of Korea.

According to the Education Ministry, one in every three teachers leave after the first year, and almost twice as many leave within three. If any other business had a turnover rate this high, something would be done to fix the problem. Education isn't just any business. It's the most important business around. For teachers are the educators of the human race.

Unfortunately, the current fashionable fixes for education fit terribly. Instead of simply acknowledging that starting salaries are woefully low and committing to increasing them, politicians have wasted decades obsessing with finding new ways to attract and hire new teachers, when they really should be trying to figure out how to keep the ones that are already here and have the experience. The ability to teach and be a good teacher isn't like working on an assembly line.

If a product has flaws on the production line, analysts consider all the possible reasons; substandard materials, design flaws, employee fatigue, etc. Teachers receive students from a society with deteriorating moral values, tremendous economic woes, increasing education costs and lowered family values, and the teachers are expected to produce a finished product from these types of raw materials. More sadly, if the product does not meet the government standards, the teacher is at fault.

It seems preposterous that a society complains that this nation is facing economic problems and then elects a president that has business experience. And yet, when speaking of educational matters, no one considers the fact that the president has never taught an English class. The greater truth is that the highest levels of academic authorities have come from administrative ranks and not from the classroom.

And so we have the voice of the inexperienced directing the classroom veterans and kids contaminated by their own society. Korea has a historic tradition of ignoring those who teach and then complaining about the quality of education. We lack logic and common sense. If Korea really wants to improve their educational system, they must retain the good teachers that they have instead of constantly hiring new teachers that have no experience. A college degree is no guarantee that a person has what it takes to teach English, what it takes is someone truly committed to making a difference in the children's lives.

The writer is an English teacher in Guri, Gyeonggi Province. He can be reached at [email protected]

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/opi_view.asp?newsIdx=18640&categoryCode=162

[Ya-ta Boy]

[Mi Yum mi]

Does anyone ever listen to this assclown? The OP I mean. Not Yata.

[Netz]

Although I don't agree with the OP's overall analysis of the ESL industry here, I do agree that the problems he identifies are valid.

It can all be attributed to one thing.

Greed.

Korean culture has a very "soft policy" on lying. That's right, lying is quite "acceptable" here, especially if it helps achieve your end goal. Most Koreans would outright commit Federal perjury in order to protect a family member from prosecution. Transparency of Korean businesses is appaling. The newly elected President, a convicted white collar criminal, but is seen as a "good businessman" by the constituents!

Face it, this country creates it's own problems, by refusing to change and adapt to a globalized community.

Hey, Koreans, YOU ARE NOT ALONE!

But I digress.

All of the problems with the "English Education System" here could have been solved a long time ago, if people in the education business (slave traders) had been more concerned with the quality of the education they provided, instead of thier PROFIT.

And all this time, the Korean govenrment has done nothing to prevent the exploitation of foriegn workers, improve working conditions, and enforce laws already in place. At the same time they have allowed criminalistic business practices to continue, which has tainted thier entire education "system".

Too many Koreans, have made too much under the table money, off the backs of Foriegn English teachers for years, and THAT is the real reason for the "quality control" issues at hand.

Once Koreans learn to "fly straight" (KAFTA is going to be a HUGE incentive to get thier &#$% together), things will be improve.

I personally just don't see Korea solving any of the problems any time soon though, I mean they've had over 50 years to deal with North Korea, and look how much progress theyve made.

Yeah, right.

Anyway, I'm just enjoying watching all the political pandering these days, it more comedic than any "comedy" shows currently on Korean TV.

Until then.......say KIM CHI!

[The_Conservative]

[Unposter]

You want to "fix" the Korean English-education system? You have to define "fix." IF the problem is that many Koreans can't speak English well enough, then the solution is quite easy: Make speaking the focus of English language education instead of grammar and TOEIC. The teachers (believe it or not) are good enough. The students (believe it or not) are smart enough. They are just simply not required to do it right now.

Lee Myungbak who does seem to have more than his share of wild ideas in my opinion is actually moving in the right direction here: Make English teachers teach in English. Why not?

But, until the college enterance exam is changed to reflect the new focus of conversational English and until English is used as something other than a raw competition for places at elite universities and the highest paying jobs, there will always be grumbling and complaining no matter how competant the teacher.

Why? What else are you supposed to do when you loose the meritocracy game? It wasn't my fault: I could have been a contender if I had a better education, a better teacher, a better etc...

It is all about winners and loosers; it is not about meeting minimum qualifications. A good teacher gets you into the best university, the best job...A bad teacher doesn't. And, since 90% of all Koreans don't enter elite universities and get the highest paying jobs, 90% of all teachers are bad. You cannot change this.

At best, you can go abroad and try and go around the Korean system. (A great reason to learn English by the way).

If you think all these complaints about English education are about you, the foreign teacher, you aren't getting the full picture.

Koreans will compete and complain about the competition until they either escape Korea or stop being Koreans or they win the race.

[Homer]

Bad article....but equally bad response when netz refers to employers or people running the education market here as slave traders. I suggest you look up the word slave and pay close attention that what constitutes a state of slavery. I can pretty much garantee that slavery does not include freedom to leave for one thing...but hey.

[Juregen]

I personally wish that the focus should not be on English Language Acquisition alone, but just on Language Acquisition overall.

Korea will be screwing itself by this single mindedness on English.

Yes I know, its just a pipe dream.

[Netz]

[Homer]

I will ask one question netz: How are ESL Foreign Teachers treated as slaves?

Abuse...sometimes.
Cheated...sometimes too.

I am not looking to flame you and you make a valid point under the unecessary rethoric. I just think too many of us go overboard with the drama of teaching here and start refering to our situation as slavery or indentured servitude.

At the end of the day, we are all Foreign workers on work visas. We can all leave the country freeluy and go back home or somewhere else. We have passports and the freedom to travel or quit or jobs. The fact some teachers get cheated here (and many times they get cheated through their own ignorance but lets not discuss this) does not in any way, shape or form constitute a form of enslavement. Refering to it as such is insulting to people who really have it hard (ex:3D workers here, sweatshop workers back home or women back home who are brought to our countries and forced to prostitute themselves in order to pay off some debt). It frankly too often smacks of pampered whining.

Focus on the real issues and put the problems in perspective.

I too have lived in many different countries. I have seen many different visa rules for foreign teachers and workers in other nations. They vary from the more open visas (ex: Japan) to the extremely restrictive (ex: Saudi Arabia) to the middle of the road visas (ex: Korea).

Which foreigners are exploited here in Korea?

3D workers for dead sure. Their plight is worthy of pity and action. Us Foreign Teachers are not exploited for the most part. We do get cheated by some creep employers but thats where the comparison stops.


As for your statement of lack of ethics by Koreans when dealing with non-Koreans, I am sorry but to me that statement has no credibility at all because it is too broad and based on nothing more that what you have experienced with Koreans or perhaps read on an anonymous discussion board. Are some Korean employers shameless in their exploitation of 3D workers? God yes and they deserve to be hanged as they are preying on desparation to line their pockets...an immemorial practice by human beings since the dawn of civilisation of course....those people are pond scum.

I have a problem with the way the ESL industry is run here. It lacks a regulatory authority and has entry requirements that are basically a joke.

This allows those bad employers free reign. Do not confuse a basket of bad employers with the larger group that is Korea. Doing so only proves ignorance or bigotry or prejudice on you side. You can do better than that I am sure.

[Netz]

Homer, I agree with almost everything you said. I also retracted my "slave trader" label in the previous post, and tried to be precise in the last sentence comparing it to some form of human trafficking. Also I was not trying to discount the 3D immigrants, as I realize that the exploitation they're regularly subjected to far outwieghs that of people working in the ESL industry.

Still, after over eight years in this country, and having had multiple conversations with MANY adult Koreans over extended periods of time, along with my own personal experiences (and that of otherexpat friends working here, not just teachers), I maintain that the way the Korean governement allows Korean business owners to freely abuse foriegn workers, at all levels of their economic strata is deplorable.

Also, some people do get trapped here, and can not leave (at least temporarily) because they were unprepared finnacially to pay thier own way home two months after arriving due to "employment issues".

$&#* happens, and it happens with high frequency in the ESL "business" in South Korea.

[yingwenlaoshi]

[chris_J2]

I'm on 26.4 million.

[Homer]

[yingwenlaoshi]

Whatever. Believe whatever you like.