Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Stan Rogers]

I wonder how long it will take for these falling student numbers to equate into job cuts for teachers?

http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/news/2011/02/27/0200000000AEN20110227003300315.HTML

[hondaicivic]

[earthquakez]

The days of many of the foreigners teaching English in Korea now are numbered and that news story gives one of the reasons. Another is the fact that the young Korean English teachers starting to come into the public school system are far better than most of the other older Korean English teachers at their schools.

I noticed when I was working in public schools that the young Korean English teachers who were getting their first jobs at school or who were under 30 had already travelled to the US, Canada or other English speaking countries. This does make a difference - the stilted nonsense that passes for everyday English in some Korean English textbooks can be countered to some extent by having those kind of young teachers.

A Korean media story dealing with the unfortunate deaths of two foreigners recently put a nasty, xenophobic slant on the tragedies. As the Gusts of Popular Feeling blogspot noted, those 'newspapers' (actually they make the UK "Sun" tabloid look like responsible reporting) used the tragedies to yet again bash foreign English teachers and slander us as people who are not fit to teach in Korea.

Of course the persistence of too many hagwons in employing people on the basis of being young and looking a certain way without actually any proof they have ever done English or other teaching in their lives, has everything to do with the problem of inexperience and lack of qualifications among some foreign teachers here. But I can see the Korean Govt making a real effort to strike a blow to the hagwon industry for real in the relatively near future.

[Caffeinated]

[Stan Rogers]

[meridian]

[lonestarteacher]

[Vagabundo]

[earthquakez]

I'm not so sure that hagwon customers are demanding thin, female, blonde/brown haired females or same in the male sex as much as we are led to believe. My current hagwon boss had a few of that kind in the past but as he said, there is too much time taken on the issues that come up when inexperienced English speaking foreigners don't know how to teach English and take too long to adjust to a work schedule in Korea.

He says that his customers want a foreigner who doesn't look strange, doesn't act strange and can teach effectively, including having a work record that shows this. (Note my boss speaks differently from the way I am writing - this is my translation!) That's where I came in although I pass the general 'good looking without being specially attractive' test that seems in force in Korea.

I think the hagwon owners and the recruiters they employ are driving a lot of the trend for inexperience with looks. I have heard first-hand from females with impressive experience compared to many here who'd be best using their skills in hagwons in Seoul where the customers are affluent that they're told they
Can't' get a job in Seoul for whatever reason the recruiter makes up. These are not females who look strange or are unattractive and they certainly have 'people' skills.

Seoul people pay more than many Koreans in the provinces for their kids' education. I find it hard to believe they want a newbie or young person who has not worked at all or has worked in a limited way in the English teaching field because there's so much expense involved.

Some females I talk to have a theory that it's because of the sexism here and I must say, I didn't notice in Japan that there was the same superficiality about looks for foreign English teachers as there is in Korea. I also think Korean men feel far