Korean Job Discussion Forums

[fancypants]

My CELTA-certified BEd-holding friend is repeatedly being rejected for jobs in Korea because she "looks Asian" (she is Canadian with Chinese parents).

She has been trying for more than two months now.

She is getting pretty down about it and is on the verge of giving up on Korea altogether.

She has quite a bit of ESL experience in Canada and this is where I know her from - she is a former colleague.

As a last resort, I thought I would post something here: does anyone know of any reputable hakwons or universities who will hire her on the basis of her professional credentials and not her appearance?

Thanks

[nomad-ish]

has she thought about public schools? at my last orientation, there were people there of korean, chinese, etc. descent. they also don't focus much on age at public schools either

[fancypants]

Thanks for your reply. How would she get hooked up with a public school? Thanks.

[PRagic]

Good call. Public school seems like the way to go for your friend. Once here, she could look into university positions, but for the most part, having the MA would help.

Best of luck to her.

Oh, and just do a search for jobs on the net. Easy to find.

[milspecs]

I've heard lots of places won't hire asian looking people.

But everyone I've emailed about it, says they didnt have trouble at all finding a job. I am Korean and I've been reading blogs from people teaching ESL in Korea. All the asian bloggers I've emailed said they had no problem at all.

I know a couple of them worked for CDI. Maybe they can help?

[nomad-ish]

there's a lot of recruiters out there that hire for public schools, such as canadian connection, korvia, worknplay, eslplanet, etc. you can do a search for good recruiters on dave's. some programs you can apply directly for though:

EPIK - English Program in Korea --> http://www.epik.go.kr
GEPIK - for the province around incheon and seoul --> http://gepik.ken.go.kr/eng
IMOE - Incheon Metropolitan Office of Education
SMOE - Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education (only hires through recruiters and you can only apply for SMOE by one recruiter)

i'm sure there's more, but this should be enough to get you started

[PRagic]

If your friend is certified (with an MA, if American) and experienced, then they should apply to the Hong Kong NET program. Much better for professional teachers.

Again, good luck.

[fancypants]

Thanks for all the posts, they have been most helpful. Keep them coming if you have more sage advice.

[Quack Addict]

Koreans can hire whoever they want. If they want to hire Chinese looking Canadian then they can. Why is it racist if they don't want to hire your friend? Korean parents want native speaking white people. They don't want Asians. Bottom line. This thread is stupid. Boo hoo for your friend. Go to Kuwait where they don't care as long as you speak English.

[PigeonFart]

It's racist because the perfectly qualified and capable teacher is being turned away because of his/her race.

This thread is not stupid. It shows some very serious problems with the way some people think, and if you think it's acceptable behavior to select teachers based on their appearance, then the children are ultimately losing out.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[MANDRL]

[DrOctagon]

[ChinaBoy]

[Ya-ta Boy]