Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Viaje]

I'm about twice the average age of the average teacher who goes to Korea. I'm mulling over what to do, to take a job in Korea or to enter a teaching program here in the US. I would have to begin with elementary and take classes at night to get my teaching credential, or perhaps do a master's degree. If I stayed in teaching for the rest of my life I might try to eventually teach at a community college. I'm wondering how many here at Dave's plan to remain in teaching after returning to the home country. Would you like to teach other subjects, such as Math or English or Social Studies, to native English speakers; or would you end your teaching life when you leave Asia?

Partly the reason I ask this question is to imagine what it would be like to actually teach in the US. Teaching in Korea is different, and teaching ESL is different no matter where you teach it. Many go to Asia for the adventure and travel, others go to pay down student loans. What about the question of teaching, in general, as a career but in your home country. Is it something you see as fulfilling and rewarding, or as a career that really would not pay much or be worth the trouble compared to other professions?

[PRagic]

Age is a consideration. The better half and I just cracked the big 40. I've been living in Korea about 16 years, and back and forth for over half my life. She has her own business and I'm a professor. We have talked about moving to the US, but honestly not for professional reasons; we've done well here and like living in Korea.

Truth be told, however, the Korean health care system just isn't up to par, especially when it comes to dealing with major health issues. Knock on wood, that hasn't been a concern yet, but down the road, we'd like to have our bases covered. My wife's Koean, and she's more critical of the health care here than I am. The doctor patient ratio is off the charts, the hospital facilities are third world (6 people to a room, unless you want to pony up some serious won), and someone from your family should be with you in the room at all times. The list goes on.

And then there is the cost. For minor things, the health insurance available makes basic care and meds affordable. For hospital stays and surgury, however, get prepared to shell out the better part of your retirement fund. Well, be ready to pay if the ambulance can ever make it through the traffic all the way to the bloody hospital!

So to make a short answer long, the answer is, 'yes,' we've thought about moving to the US IF and only if a position came up that included premo health coverage in a warm, no-tax state with an acceptable cost of living. Tough order to fill.

[Thewhiteyalbum]

Right now I'd rather be working in Starbucks in my home country than be living here. But that's just me..

5 WEEKS TO GO!!!

[PRagic]

The way things are going, you'll count yourself lucky to get and keep a job at Starbucks! You'll burn through any savings you banked in your year or two here in about 6 months, so I hope you have a good plan.

Best of luck in your move. Let us know how things work out.

[Ya-ta Boy]

I taught high school social studies in Iowa for 20 years before coming here. I loved it and felt it was rewarding and satisfying. However, I came here and started teaching adults and it was the best decision I ever made in my entire life.

Korean adult students are self-motivated (a major, major plus) and don't need any discipline from a teacher, so classroom management is never a problem. (The same cannot be said for teaching Korean high school students.) I also find adult Korean students to be extraordinarily appreciative of any effort made. The final benefit is that I personally like the feeling of teaching a subject/skill that allows you to see the progress on an almost daily basis. Gratifying.

On top of all that, you get to experience the expat life which is more fun than living and working at home.

[Son Deureo!]

I taught in Korea for 5 years, teaching kids for 2 of those years, and adults and college students for the other 3. I loved it for all the reasons Ya-ta Boy mentioned.

When I came back to the US, I decided to get my teaching credentials and Master's so that I could teach here. I'm now teaching high school Spanish in a small town in Western New York, and am seriously regretting the decision. The workload and bureaucracy are much worse (three formal lesson plans a day, and I am expected to keep a written record of every little thing, including when a kid leaves my classroom to go to the bathroom), and the attitudes of my high school students are a pain to deal with and get me down. In Korea, the value of education and English are taken as a given, and our very presence in the classroom is a living reminder of the importance of our content area. My American students are constantly whining, "Why do we need to know this stuff?"

I will not be returning to teach at this school next year, and am seriously considering returning to Korea.

At any rate, to answer the OP's question, I learned the hard way that teaching in Korea and in the US are so different that it is possible to love one and hate the other. Many of my current colleagues do find teaching public school to be more fulfilling than I do, and I found teaching English in Korea to be much more worthwhile than most of my colleagues seemed to. Although as a first year teacher in a rural school I'm not saving as much this year as I would have in Korea, the long-term prospects (e.g. tenure) and benefits seem to be much better, but a resourceful and hard-working ESL teacher in Korea can also make some serious bank quickly.

All in all, I found that the two are much more different than I could have imagined, and I'm more cut out for teaching in Korea than in the US. Your mileage may vary.

[Thewhiteyalbum]

[Viaje]

Starbucks has closed 700 stores recently in the US, and finding any type of job is becoming difficult.

I found a few of these posts to be very interesting, and exactly the type of information and perspective I was looking to learn about. By this I mean a comparison of teaching in the states versus Korea. I often thought of becoming a teacher here in the states, but I often heard so many horror stories--especially related to administration and parents, and also unruly students; that it did not seem worth doing.

I just read an ad taking applicants for new teachers here in Los Angeles. It seems an awful lot is expected of teachers, the workload, the after-school meetings and extracurricular activities, the desire for you to be a superhero with model--everything; and all this for a low starting salary in a school located in a bad area.

There was an ad for new teachers in Washington, D.C. It gave a stipend for a summer of intensive training, with the job starting in September. They allow you to work towards your credential while teaching, with a decent salary. I was thinking of applying for that and then they closed the application process less than a week later, for elementary school. Apparently people don't want to teach middle or high school because the District of Columbia in the US is one of the toughest cities in the country; in other words these programs were still open last I checked. I have no idea what actually doing a teaching job in these schools would be like, but I suspect it would be very challenging and that is why the opportunity exists in this crumbling economy. However I am in need of starting a career, at this later stage of life, and teaching makes me feel I could make a difference and get to enjoy the gratification that has been cited by others posting here.

Korea sounds like it may be more rewarding in some ways with less of the paperwork and beuracracy issues that hamper teachers in the US. What concerns me is how would it be to teach in Korea for a couple or three years only to return to the US a few years older and not further along in starting a new career. I would not have a master's or a teaching credential, and may find it hard to be hired here. Sorry to mull this over, but if it elicits any more comments I would appreciate it. My main interests now are in earning as much as I can but while also developing a rewarding career which fulfills me at a personal level. I could sacrifice a little of the former for more of the latter, or vice versa. But I don't want to waste more years in the US working hard and not smart, just working to pay the bills, etc.

[berrieh]

I hope no one wants to teach in the U.S. currently! Two years ago, when I got my B.A., the state I live in was so desperate for teachers, it wasn't much harder to get a teaching gig than getting one in Korea. Demand was far larger than supply. Perhaps typos in your resume were more of a problem, but basically you just needed enthusiasm, a Bachelor's degree, and a clear background/drug check. Some subject knowledge was helpful if you wanted to get a job at a better school.

Right now, they've been laying off teachers since budgets strongly contracted; they actually still "need" teachers as the positions they're eliminating are "needed." They've just decided they can't pay for them and are shoving more students in classrooms than our state constitution allows (temporary measures have been taken to make this legal "temporarily"). The stimulus seems to have stopped the bleeding, as they're likely not to layoff for next year but only to keep a freeze. Usually there are a zillion hiring fairs; this year, there's really not much to speak of at all.

Anyone looking for a teaching job in the next 1-2 years isn't likely to find one. A job at the community college as an adjunct is still possible, if you have a proper M.A. I am not finishing my Masters yet because I have to get a teaching job to finish it (the alternative is to pay $3000 to work 40 hours a week for free for 4 months...and still not get a job), and there are no teaching jobs to speak of at the moment.

Many states weren't hiring before; almost nowhere is hiring now. My state should have jobs within 2 (maybe 3) years, so I'll be back to finish up the degree (even if they don't, I'll save and then finish it). I'm coming to Korea because I want to teach (that's my primary motivation which may make me an oddity I suspect) - I substitute here and I live for the days when they call me in. I love teaching kids. And Korea still has jobs that pay a living wage (even with the won plummeting, it's as much as subbing per hour here but with guaranteed work each week).

But eventually, I want to teach in the U.S. - and will. I want to teach secondary and then move on to teaching either at a community college or in a teacher training program.

My current adviser who recruits teachers for the county and hires professors at the university level actually said that teaching abroad - with a public school, uni, or other "official" school, not a hagwon - would be good for my resume at all 3 levels (secondary, CC, and later for uni once I got the PhD). This makes sense since I want to teach English (Language Arts) and my state requires massive amounts of ESOL training and re-training so being able to work with non-English speakers and train others to work with non-English speakers is key. So, in my case, I certainly hope it brings me closer to building a long-term career.

I certainly understand your worries, though. I think it's good to both have a plan and have some back-up plans -- and be willing to be flexible if life throws the unexpected at you.

[Ya-ta Boy]

You mention a couple of times that money is a factor and there is that 'indebted' in your sig. Yesterday the Won fell below W1500 again. It's quite possible it will get even worse and it's unlikely to get much better until the world starts to recover economically.

It's my personal observation that people who come to Korea with money as their #1 objective have the most difficult time adjusting to living here. Any casual reading of posts here at Dave's will demonstrate just how many people are having a hard time handling life here. It's stressful moving from one city to another in your home country; moving from one country to another is another ball game entirely. Korea is not for everyone.

[greekvvedge]

I am sorry to disagree slightly with some of the above posts,

the truth is, in the U.S., despite slashing budgets in some states, if you have a math, science, special ed, or even english teaching certification- you can find a job teaching somewhere, at a higher rate of pay than korea. not that there aren't other perks to living in korea.

[berrieh]

I promise you that if you have an English certification and no experience, you cannot currently get a job teaching in a decent school. Sure, you can get a job somewhere, but not somewhere without metal detectors unless you either know someone or get very lucky. I planned on possibly teaching low SES students and I even like working with ELL kids, so that's no problem, but I don't want to go to the nation's worst disctricts in DC, LA, Miami, etc.

There will soon be competition even for those jobs with the layoffs that are still forthcoming in many states. There are many states in which it's always been difficult to get a teaching job, balanced by just as many where it was easy. The easy states are starting to become difficult, the difficult states impossible.

The rate of pay would be better, yes, but the stress would be enourmous and those cities are terribly expensive anyway. In Florida, pretty much the only jobs left for newcomers are in the very slums of Miami, and I'm not even sure there are jobs there at present. 500 teachers were laid off in the past 6 months locally (just 1 county); they'll be the first re-hired likely since they already have connections, so competition is fierce.

Special Ed (REAL Special Ed, which requires ESE certification), Math, and Science? That is a different ball of wax, of course!

[blaseblasphemener]

[Son Deureo!]

[SHANE02]

taught at home first.....so short answer No.