Korean Job Discussion Forums

[liveinkorea316]

[PRagic]

Not that I know of, and I've worked at three major Korean universities. There is generally a preference for people with a background in Korea and who can speak a little Korean, though.

[enchoo]

YES
I have 2.8 masters degrees (gyopo) and my counterparts have all 1-2 bachelors (white) but they probably have been teaching full time all this time while I have been teaching and getting one of my masters at the same time.

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Bowden_PSM]

At a uni in Japan prior to my current stint:

Year 1: 18 instructors; 13 male, 5 female; 15 white, 2 black, 1 asian; all British or commonwealth.

At my current university, the foriegn English staff for the last two years:

Year 1: 14 instructors, 12 male, 2 female; 11 white, 1 black, 2 asian; 10 US, 3 Canada, 1 NZ

Year 2: 12 instructors, 11 male, 1 female; 10 white, 1 black, 1 asian; 9 US, 2 Canada, 1 UK.

I would suppose this is because of the following, in my opinion.

1) Men make up a much larger pool of the ESL instructors in Korea, as in the general sense, men are more likely to leave everything back home and take a chance on going a year abroad to a foreign land.

2) Men are more likely to stay a number of years at it, building up the credentials and experience required to get a uni gig.

3) Blacks, as one poster stated, make up a small percentage of the population back home (10%). I don't know how many as a percentage go abroad in ESL, but in my uni and the PS board before that there were 2 black guys, both from the US.

4) Our hiring commitee looks at all applicants from all over the place. The criteria seems to go in this order: credentials, experience, time spent in Korea, have they taught adults before, age, have they lived in the countryside before, gender, race.

5) My current uni seems to like hiring people from the US, but that could be just our uni.

I just think it is ESL demographics in general at the uni level of qualifacations. As one poster stated, these jobs are very competetive these days. Just my 2 cents.

[Bowden_PSM]

Thought I'd also mention that the Korean faculty is made up of 3 men and 3 women, and that the hiring commitee is made up of 2 foreign staff and one Korean, with equal votes for each.

[Platinumrose]