Korean Job Discussion Forums

[bassexpander]

Anyone else heard about this?

Dr. Paul Robertson talked about this in the podcast I recorded yesterday, and it was interesting. Not sure how to take that.

Paul said 300,000 Koreans are now studying overseas in the Philippines. It's easy to dismiss it and say, "Oh yeah, right.." but something he said made a lot of sense. When Koreans look for jobs, employers look for overseas experience/study in a foreign country. By going to the Phils., they can say they have studied overseas.

He also said that the 26,000 or so visas may have been approved to try to stem the tide of English education $$ leaving the country for the Phils.. I wonder if by acclimating Koreans to Philippinos (and by trying to save a buck) they actually will be shooting themselves in the butt and encouraging Koreans to study in the Phils. -- sending money outside of the country.

Kind of funny that their attempts to save money locally might mean that more money actually goes out of the country instead.

Anyway, it sounds like an important topic to discuss. Click on my www link to hear it, if you want.

[aarontendo]

Listened in on your podcasts, they're great by the way =)

Eh I'm a sky is falling, chicken little kinda guy. I don't like the idea of bringing in 26,000 Filipinos. Yes I'm a greedy *beep*, cause I just feel it's gonna forever keep our wages down if they do that.

But yeah you bring up a good point, might make Koreans more than happy to go overseas to study. Then again though, have we seen the same with native teachers? Has having native teachers come here made Koreans more likely to study abroad in our own respective countries? Or am I just entirely off-base with the comparison there?

[tob55]

Hey bassex, I listened to the podcast this morning and it was quite good. If you want another good interview about some of the F visa issues, send me a PM and I might be able to put together of us F visa people to ask the straight questions to. Very informative podcast and great to see you using your talents to help the whole EFL-ESL community here in Korea. I know for myself it is nice to get some more sensible views from the people you have been interviewing.

Take care and keep up the good work my friend.

[bassexpander]

Thanks for the comments.

Tob,

How are ya?

I'm putting together a small studio in my office so I can sit around and record some 'rap sessions' with some other teachers for podcasts. We'll have to do that, but it might be more interesting if you talk about your F-5.

[sojourner1]

So the English teaching industry is about to change in a big way?

[Netz]

[semi-fly]

How is this (hypothetically) going to affect the current job market? Wouldn't it flood the market with capable/willing English teachers?

Are we assuming all of the visas are E-2 and not other visas (student visas and the like)?

Any chance they will be folded into the 'Reach to Teach' program (Getting native teachers with 2 years college experience, etc.)?

[nautilus]

[bassexpander]

I think that what we're seeing here is a gov't attempt to kill the hagwons. My wife tells me the schools outside of Seoul can't afford to bring in Western teachers, or just can't get them at all, so that's what the filipinos are for. Those are public school jobs, not hagwons. In all honesty, I don't see the hagwons as the "enemy" in this one, assuming someone wants to point the finger at a Korean entity. The gov't is. The overall goal of the gov't is to drive down the price of English education, because they are upset Koreans spend so much on it. Also, a lot of money is going out of the country. As Paul said, it's difficult to know what the true motivation is behind the visas.

In any case, I will bet you my best pair of shoes that the gov't wouldn't think twice about cutting our wages to nothing if they put enough hagwons out of business and get control of the teacher market.

That's the intention, as I see it. Hire us. Pay us just well enough to kill off the hagwons, then dump us in the trash in favor of much lower priced workers.

[wylies99]

[Young FRANKenstein]

[SHANE02]

The new visas, from what I gleaned from the podcast and other media, were for public schools.

Hakwons will never dissapear. They are part of the culture here. In the private sector, I don't think Korean moms will adjust well to Min sok being taught by a non-white. The govt will never be able to control the private education market. What may end up happening is prices actually rising in the private sector. That's what happened when the great "Immersion" idea was announced.

Don't forget, the GNP has many friends in the private education business.

[citizen erased]

26,000?


I thought there were only something like 20,000 job openings every year.

[desperation]

I have seen this coming for a while. They are going to test the waters with this MASSIVE CROP of 26,000 people. If it goes SOMEWHAT well, they will disperse the next crop by expanding the laws to allow them to go to any hogwan or public school anywhere. Just WAIT until AFTER September finishes....early to middle October when people start freaking out all across the country because nobody has filled positions due to the new laws and LACK of foresight in POSTING ads for jobs LONG ENOUGH in advance.

Ya heard it here 1st !

[ytuque]

Supply and demand determine price. It looks like TEFL salaries are going down next year.