Korean Job Discussion Forums

[z3371538]

Lol. When did I say that? You know a lot, but you are also needlessly negative.

Japan is a good place if you are willing to stay for 5 plus years. Start up costs are ridiculously high. The market is saturated partly because Japan has a cool reputation and everyone wants to live there. Not the same can be said for Korea. The cost of living in Japan is also much higher and rent and airfare is nearly never paid. A good point for comparison is that PART TIME University jobs in RURAL Japan require 3 published articles and several years working experience. Rural University job offers in Korea typically still only want a BA.

[Malislamusrex]

haha.

[iggyb]

Public school jobs are going to dry up for some years.

The global economy will have to pick up. It might also take getting another pro-English (pro-US/Western) president in the Blue House.

The hakwon industry will remain strong. It will only grow in strength now that parents know the foreign teachers are being let go.

There will probably be a glut in the teaching market for a couple of years as public school teachers who want to remain in Korea fight for hakwon jobs. With the bad global economy, we've already seen a glut in the market even with public school jobs. --- So, it would not be surprising to see the return of shared apartments and Saturday classes like it was back in the late 1990s and early 2000s before public school jobs came around.

Korea will still be one of the biggest importer of English instructors. The pay will continue to be OK for people just finishing college and starting out in the work force.

Colleges will still be running hakwon-type institutes.

Things will look much like they did in the past before public school jobs.

And public school jobs might come back around after the global economy picks up. Maybe when another pro-English, pro-US/Western president is elected.

Because, Korean teachers have sucessfully resisted the current one's 5-year long effort to force them to teach English in English.

As long as Korean teachers keep teaching almost exclusively in Korean, relying almost exclusively on inadequate textbooks, and focusing on memorization of vocabularly, set sentence patterns, and grammar - instead of the communicative language teaching techniques they do read about in college teaching textbooks --- the schools will continue to churn out students who have studied English for many years but can't use it.

I first came to Korea in 1996. I taught adults in hakwons, and one common thing about them: They were angry about their time studying English in school.

Public schools don't need foreign teachers. Enough Korean teachers are good enough in English to teach it effectively in elementary and secondary schools. But, it takes discipline and effort to not fall back on the Korean crutch and prepare lessons that seek to maximize communicative skills.

It is much easier to stick to the textbook and use Korean.

As long as they do that, there will ALWAYS be a need for foreign instructors in the hakwons....

[iggyb]

I should have added:

As long as the hakwon industry flourishes, FTs will find jobs here, and the hakwon industry isn't going anywhere.

Korean parents are obsessed with the dream of "educational advancement" and staying ahead of the families next door. And companies continue to give perks for workers passing standardized English tests.

Koreans have universally complained about the hakwon system as long as I've been paying attention (mid-1990s), but they never do anything about it...

Plenty of ESL jobs will be here....

[Charriere]

Thanks to those who contributed above, especially TP and Iggy.

I agree with a lot of what has been said. Essentially the ESL industry will continue to exist here, albeit with fewer western teachers.

Now it's just a case a finding a decent position before the glut of public school teachers hit the job market!

[whatinformedopinion]

Hey, I know that private tutoring is strictly forbidden. But, like people have talked about getting fired for a travel blog with EPIK. Are hagwons strict about any additional employment, if it's not private tutoring?

[zxc1973]

There will still be a big demand for EFL teachers in Korea. A university where I worked 5 years ago and one of the best gigs in Korea looks for quality teachers every year (ttompatz is spot on about the increase in quals necessary to get the better jobs). When I applied for (and got) my first uni job back in 2002 there were 9 positions available and they got 120 applicants. This was during the good ole days when demand outstripped supply. The person in charge of hiring said that out of all those applications he could throw 115 straight in the bin- people asking how much they could earn in their resumes etc..

Ultimately it doesn't matter if there are 2 or 20 job vacancies because you only need one. I guess in the short term with this glut of people in country, the number of jobs which offer free flights upfront may be reduced.

[Weigookin74]

[Squire]

My job here ends at the end of the semester. Not surprising given it's rurality (is that a word? ) but I was desperately hoping budget cutbacks wouldn't affect me for just one more year

[ttompatz]

[koreatimes]

[RufusW]

There's also the issue of non-Westerners teaching English. As long as China and SEAsia put economics above racial hangups they'll be hiring Koreans and maybe Japanese people to teach them; not the more expensive Westerners.

The issue with India is that English is firmly in their government curriculum - it's basically required for anybody in the middle class. So it's more about access to education rather than access to Western TEFLers. They will also be teaching themselves more effectively. I don't see a large increase in demand happening.

But there will always be demand for well-qualified English teachers. This is what people should concentrate on becoming. The free ride is stopping.

[Malislamusrex]

China are going to hire Koreans and Japanese to teach English... classic.