Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Mr_Bacon]

I was chatting with a Korean guy (now living in Toronto) a little while ago in a chat room. He earned his degree here in Canada, and had also gone back to SK as an English teacher for a few years.

About me:
Canadian, 2nd year university, hope to teach in Korea after I graduate

He told me that the job market for English teachers could potentially collapse depending on which party wins the next election. He said that the current party was responsible for creating the huge demand for native speaking teachers, but that now there are far more English students than there are English jobs. Apparently the opposition party plans to cut back the demand severely if they win, to save money and fix the imbalance between English speaking and English employment.

Can anyone verify that?

I've been looking forward to Korea...but since I won't graduate for another 3 years, should I give up my hope about Korea and find a plan B country? If so, what other countries (Asia preferred) should I look at?

Thanks a bunch,
-Mike

[D.D.]

I hate politics so I don't pay attention but I am sure English education was in full swing long before this new government was in power. It also seams that the job market is starting to ask people for more English speaking skills.

[iggyb]

You should keep an eye out on other nations anyway. The Korean market has been a sewer for a long time. You can jump into it and land fine and end up with a net positive, but overall, it chews up a fair number of people who try it. Keep your options open.

On the market collapsing...

I haven't been there in a long time and haven't been reading this forum much. It is a little hard for me to gauge the impact the explosion in public school jobs has had.

But, I can't work my normally good imagination enough to picture the TESOL market "collapsing." If they severely dropped the number of public school jobs, it would be a boon for the hakwon industry. Maybe there would be a big net loss in jobs altogether, but I can't imagine the supply of teachers vs jobs available being "collapsed." There will be a lot of TESOL jobs in Korea as far into the future as I can peer.

In the mean time, you can do stuff to help yourself besides just getting the degree. Do some volunteer TESOL work. I'm sure there are opportunities for that in Canada just like in the US. Maybe your university has a ESL language institute pretty much like a hakwon. Every university I went to in the States had one -- where all kinds of students of varying ages would come from all over the world (mostly Asia and Latin America) to study for a few months to a few years. You can try making contacts there to do volunteer conversation tutoring -- basically hanging out and talking with people from abroad - and put it on your resume as tutoring.

In many medium sized towns in Georgia, which has a growing immigrant population, you can usually find a church or community center or immigrant advocacy center or the local library that has free ESL classes or pay classes that you could contact about volunteering for - either teaching or just conversation tutoring.

[asmith]

We're on the cusp of a world financial meltdown.

How will that affect our jobs? You'll still have English teachers, but the won will begin to crap the bed after Christmas.

You'll just be doing it for a lot less money.

[iggyb]

P.S.

Education reform in Korea goes at a pace snails would call slow.

They have been talking about getting native English teachers in public schools years and years before it happened. They have been talking about attacking the hakwon industry for even longer. And hakwons are going strong. The bottom line is - Korean see English as a way for themselves and/or their children to have a better future.

That - coupled with the very strong Korean society habit of watching what the Joneses are doing and not wanting them to be in a better position for success than their own family -- means there is going to be a huge demand for English education among the masses. If the government doesn't try to meet it, hakwons will. And Koreans will continue to send their children abroad to study if they have any shot at managing the finances...

[PRagic]

Actually, most experts agree that a good many currencies, the Won included, are undervalued against the US dollar. I'll be looking to ship home buckets of coin should the won dip into 1000 territory again.

[asmith]

[iggyb]

Can we get a sticky thread - something like - Come Discuss The Great Global Depression - so that asmith and others can come on all the other threads and just provide a link to the sticky post ---- instead of 75% of the threads becoming part of a running conversation across all those theads with so much repetition???

I don't want to sound too bitchy --- but it is getting to the point the focus of threads are being jerked to this general discussion within the first page or 2 when usually the OP is asking for specifics or pointing to a specific issue.

[PRagic]

Ok, back on track, then. OP, don't worry about the ESL market. You still have two years of university to do and a lot can happen during that time. Plus, you only need to find one job if and when you come over, so don't worry about the lot of them.

End thread?

[asmith]

[PRagic]

And don't over generalize there, ASmith:

"In dollar terms, the increase in emerging Asia's consumer-spending this year will more than offset the drop in spending in America and the euro area." - The Economist. 15 August 09, p. 7.

[Mr_Bacon]

Thanks for all the input folks. I suppose I'll just have to wait and see what happens. Maybe the trend of slow reform continues, maybe it doesn't. Maybe the entire world implodes into a puddle of weeping poverty, maybe it doesn't.

So what other countries might I consider, since I'm keeping my options open? Japan seems too expensive...I've read a few good things about Taiwan, but I don't know much about it.

[lifeinkorea]

[cubanlord]

[TheUrbanMyth]