Korean Job Discussion Forums

[iggyb]

I accepted a 2nd job offer with SMOE. I know some here have recommended shooting that down on the "Burnt Once Principle." Some have said the same concerning recruiters in the past. I respectfully disagree:

If you do that, you cut out huge chunks of job opportunities in Korea - not all of which are bad. It is like burying a hakwon chain because of one bad local owner.

Also, if you can't accepted being burnt once in Korea, then you really, really shouldn't come to join the ESL industry......seriously......Some people recommend avoiding it altogether, and it isn't bad advice. --- You have to have a right mind-set to come here. You have to be willing to take some hard knocks and keep plugging along.

In the job hunt, you'll have some blind alleys and disappointments. In a job, you'll get cheated some times and get treated like a slave sometimes. If patience and fortitute are not two of your stronger virtues, give Korea a pass. If they are, and you are the type that plugs along - thinking things through and pursuing any avenue to get what is your due, then you can make the ESL industry in Korea worth it and work for you...

--- So, when my recruiter contacted me out of the blue after I came to Korea on my own dime after SMOE bent me over and gave me a good reeming a few weeks ago --- and said he had a job SMOE wanted him to recommend someone for and he wanted to know if I'd take it, I went to check it out.

--- If teaching is your profession -- the setup is about as close to ideal as you'll find in your career, I'm willing to bet...

I liked my setup in high school in the US: Even before the remodelling, I had technology in the class and a class size that made my only real limit my own imagination. I had 5 to 11 max. EFL students per class and 3 90-minute block classes a day. I had a projector connected to the computer and a big white screen and a white board. The computer was old, but it had the Internet and DVD drive. ---- The others in the English Language Arts Department had little idea of what I did in class, and they and the head teacher were so busy with their own classes and coordinating their pacing with each other, I was free to do my own thing. As long as they liked the material I put on display from the classwork, I had a lot of freedom.

--- On the surface, this SMOE job will be similar to that with a mega upgrade in the quality of the technology:

It is a teacher-trainer position at one of SMOE's TESOL education centers. Each class has 5 to 11 students. Each also has a large wall monitor for the computer -- in a couple of classes, it is a touch screen. So, I have all the tools I'm used to using in high school ESL in the US - but much, much better quality for each tool.....I think I'm salivating....

--- That said --- I can give a reasgonable guess --- 80%-90% of the TESOLers in Korea woud ---- pass on this job if they could visit it in person.....

You can think of it as a -- religious retreat:

It is isolated even from the small town it 5-10 mins from. It is about 30 minutes from the nearest city. It is 1 1/2 hours from Seoul...

If you are in your 20s and single, you can forget socializing for the most part - except for weekend trips into Seoul, pretty much... If the managment wants to hope to retain teachers, they would need to consider hiring couples - even if not married. The place is so isolated from what most single, 20 something TESOLers in Korea are looking for, I can give a wild guess the place has had a hard time holding people even for a full year --- especially if the person isn't a teacher from their home nation...

--- For me --- I think I'll like it much...

I'm 38 and married. I've lived in rural, urban, and suburban settings, and I prefer rural....I like nature. I like the moutains in Korea because it reminds me of the scenery back home in Georgia. --- As I was completing the MA Teaching this summer, most of the other students were 25-30, and all of them were hoping to land a teaching position in good schools in Atlanta or wanted to move closer to the city than they were already in the fair sized city-suburb we were studying in that was a short drive to downtown Atlanta. -------- I was the odd man out wanting to move closer to the mountains out of the already small town I was teaching in....I like the outdoors and nature....

So, the isolation of this SMOE job shouldn't get to me the way it will get to others in the industry...

The housing is also located at the school. Remember - it's like a religious retreat setup. You are right there with other teachers and the adult students. Privacy will be toward the minimal. (Like I said, you can forget certain key types of socializing for single people...).

But that won't bother me given age and marrital status....

When my (Korean) wife and I decided I'd go back to Korea for at least a year to help her mother, one goal I had was also to teach Korean adults. I wanted to see how things have changed since I last taught them exclusively in 1996-1998. These Korean teachers will likely be an ideal group for that:

They are not working. They are taken out of their schools for an extended period and given intensive, "immersion" English instruction which will help them professionally and likely personally. They probably can't be giddier.....I remember how giddy I'd get in the US when snow threatened to shut the school down for a day ----- I thought I got that way when I was a teenage student!!! I didn't know teachers danced for joy even more wildly.....

Besides the joy of an extended paid vaction, these teachers will likely be very open to learning not just English but about cultures and societies...

....In short, they will likely be very motivated....

Small class size.......great technology.......motivated students.......what more could you ask for in a teaching position???

---- Of course, the ESL industry in Korea could disappointment again...

I'm not even teaching yet......SMOE could bend me over for a good 2nd time.......The management could make teaching effectively difficult in even such a seemingly ideal setting. I could be grossly misunderstanding what the students will be like....

But from what I saw on this short visit --- all the way around --- it is by far the best job offer I've ever had in Korea in 4 years of teaching (1996-2000) and since I started this new job hunt a couple of months ago...

Time will tell how it goes....

[D.D.]

Living at a school in rural Korea is yucky like kimchi for breakfast.

[iggyb]

For those who don't like it....

That description fits the bulk of the TESOLer pool that comes in and out year to year, but it isn't everybody. Different people are different...

[oldfatfarang]

Glad to hear you're fired up for your new job.
However, how does your wife think about the isolated position, or will she be living away from you (with her parents ?)?

[ThingsComeAround]

Okay, its great that you found your place in Korea.
Are you sure it is SMOE you are working with/for? 1.5 hrs away from Seoul usually means that you aren't in the Metropolitan area, which is what SMOE controls. Sounds like GEPIK.

Managers here like it when they can use and abuse you. And usually they give you a little power after they see they can control you like an indentured servant.

Glad to learn that you are teaching adults. Usually they are more interesting, and they open up to some really wild conversations once they are comfortable with you.

[arrangingpieces]

i'm glad everything worked out for you iggy! i have always found your posts both insightful and helpful.

i would have considered my 2nd offer as well if i hadn't already sent my documents to a new company and what not. i agree with all that you said. turns out it will take quite awhile before i actually get over because SMOE never canceled my visa even though i was stated they had. lots of hoops now but will eventually get sorted!

best of luck.

[iggyb]

arrangingpieces,

Thanks.

oldfatfarang,

My (Korean) wife will go back to Georgia after visiting her grieving mother for 2 weeks to go back to her job and part-time college classes. She'll return for an extended vacation in the spring. After one year, we'll reevaluate the situation and either she'll join me and be closer to her mother in Korea, or, I'll return to teaching high school EFL in Georgia.

ThingsComeAround,

It's SMOE. I don't want to get too specific about it. It is one of their language training retreat-like setups. I've actually been offered 2 positions like that since I arrived. I didn't visit the 1st one and took the 2nd when I saw it...

Everybody,

I have no delusions about the ESL industry in Korea.

I don't know the public schools. That is new to my experience. But, I've always said the industry is a cesspool, and the way SMOE treated 100 of us this year didn't help convince me the government was offering great stability to a crappy industry...

That said - the point of the post is to show that plugging away for people with patience and fortitute CAN work. It can fail miserably despite best efforts as well. And anybody thinking about coming over should have a pretty hard and flexible mindset - or choose a different country to do ESL...