Korean Job Discussion Forums

[thebektionary]

When people you know ask you about teaching in Korea? I have at least two people asking me per day and it's been making me kind of annoyed. I don't get annoyed easily and I have been happily helping people who want to go to Korea out for a long time but now I find myself being a smart ass, saying "Have fun spending $500 on the visa and waiting 4 months..."

I used to feel special that I taught in Korea. Like it made me unique. Now everyone is doing it and the market is flooded. I guess too many people told their friends.

This isn't something that should upset me, but I guess it does in some strange little way.

[Cacille]

Yeah, cause you're no longer special. I don't mean that in a rude way, think about it face value. When everyone is doing something, it becomes not so special anymore and that makes people annoyed when they had done something so different - something many can't do.

But then the economy melted down. People started looking anywhere, especially graduates who realized they had no other options (like me) even with that degree everyone told them would help them get started on the right foot in life. What many couldn't do, now they needed to. Therefore, no longer a special thing, more like a way of life due to the economy and lack of options for young people.

Now it's a great way to pay off bills, see the world before too much weighs us down, and get some good experience. I can't wait to go, only about 25 days now till I get over there myself. No worries, I can roll with about anything and think it might be more than just a 1-year fling for me.

[Dodge7]

Absolutely Facebook is the reason for the mass influx of people teaching here. Idiots tell 100 of their friends and convince them that it's a 17/24 hour party!!!! WOOOOOHHHHHH!!! PARTY T-I-M-E!!!!
Give me a break. This place and this profession is a joke.
It's an absolute sham from the top--starting with the hagwon bosses that despise you and your co-workers that hate your guts because you make more money than them, all the way down to us "teachers" who aren't really that professional at all and make the profession of teaching a laughing stock. I'm a little embarrassed when other teaching friends back home find out what I'm doing--it's the D-League of teaching. A step up from teaching at the YMCA, perhaps.
I'm a licensed teacher back home and OP it makes me DOUBLY angry when I see accountants and engineers coming over here because it was their only out, and hey "anyone" can teach, right?
No.
It demeans my profession and turns it into a "You can't find work, you can't do anything with the degree you got in college? Hey, you can always do that monkey job teaching" sort of thing. But this is Korea's fault and the system, so I persoanlly don't blame anyone on here--I'd do it too if I had another career besides education and was without a job. So no offense people = )

The cat's out of the bag and will never return to pre-2005. NEVER.You just have to get used to it.

But yes, OP, there's nothing more that makes me cringe when I see other friends facebooks, 24 years old, that I KNOW are not teachers, posing at random bars in Itaewon and smashed. The Jersey Shore crowd--You know who I'm talking about. Then all the while they have their name written in hangul (which is so cheesy, if you do have your name written in hangul on facebook, please delete it, you look like a tool). You are NOT cultured, it doesn't make people envious of you because you can speak or write a little Korean, you're just a cheese ball.

So, you asked if I'm bitter. Yeah, lol, I'd say so.

[andrewchon]

I see 'status anxiety' here. We are human beings and our happiness is governed by how much attention we get, how nicely we are treated, and how much we expect of it. Unfortunately because we are human beings we never get enough, it's never good enough and our expectation is unlimited. You can either go way of Epicurus or Xeno, have them in moderation or reject them altogether. I'd go with Epicurus. As for the econo-fugee-yama avalanche that makes you bitter: they are barbarians.
And they are teaching barbarians. What do barbarians do? They reject anything that they are not accustomed to. They'll reject each other and eventually have a barbaric confrontation. As Ashoka the Great said: it's so hard to convince the people to be good.

[plchron]

[Weigookin74]

[Julius]

I see this has become a general venting thread.

OK heres my bitter pill for the day: what I hate is the school bosses and management (usually insecure males) who don't want to know you as a person, are not in the least curious about your culture or life outside of korea.

They just want to convert you to permanently smiling, packaged, besuited and tied, korean notion of what is acceptable.

[TellyRules986]

[bbud656]

This post isnt necessarily about Korea making people bitter, but I do want to say something about that. Before I got here I would look up as much information as I could about living in Korea and that inevitably led me to this forum. No doubt living in a foreign country can be stressful and people are going to vent about it sometimes. If you are researching living in Korea, dont be discouraged by negative reviews. If you come here with all these preconceived notions of what its like and that its stressful, then you are going to go out of your way to notice them. Honestly, its not that bad. The two most important things I can think of that improve your quality of life here are your relationships at work and how much Korean you try to learn.

As far as other foreigners go, I almost never see any because I barely drink.

[PatrickGHBusan]

500$???

Seriously?

[Carbon]

Job-related? Seriously??

[PRagic]

If you really wanted to go back to the days when you were even close to being in a small minority and having a 'special experience' if you were an English teacher in Korea, you'd have to go way back, maybe pre-95.

There were then changes to 'Hakwon Laws' that enabled just about anyone with a garage to open up a school, and this precipitated a huge influx of new teachers, most of whom where underqualified.

And then the whole public school sphere debacle began; this is when the true tsunami of underqualified hit the shores of the penninsula.

Over those same years, rules were relaxed and new guidlines established that made it possible for even BA holders to shift to university positions. In this regard, a pecking order was established in (English) teaching career track in Korea. It would only be a matter of time before supply met or surpassed demand and the market would be able to demand better qualifications. Several of us 'old timers' called it early on.

So now the best hakwons want not only the BA but also certifications.
The best universities want only MA holders with additional certifications.
The best middle and high schools want people with degrees related to TESOL.

And now it appears that all universities will be required to hire only people with MAs. Again, we saw that coming years ago.

Per usual, the worst jobs in EBF, whether hakwons or p.s. will hire anyone with a pulse. The people that take these jobs are usually the ones who don't do any research prior to signing.

Are there 'real' ESL teaching jobs in Korea? Sure, and they're here to stay. They're here for those who either came in with all of their requisite degrees completed, or for those who came in and built up their credentials (e.g. added their MA and a CELTA/DELTA) while gaining experience. These are by-and-large the professionals who could give a flying crap about some newbie on F.B. in a crap job going on about the party perks Korea has to offer. These are the people that can afford to park their arses on sandy beaches in the winter while those F.B. touting idiots toil away in perkless hell. Comparing status? Not an issue for the professionals I'm happy to count among my closest of friends.

Over the years there have also been either ESL aligned or non-aligned career options that have sprung up and many have shifted entire career paths while prospering in Korea. Invest in yourself while you're here and it'll pay off; you'll be more apt to be able to stay ahead of the curve and less apt to have to remain in positions where you may indeed end up feeling down about just whom they let work there!

[PatrickGHBusan]

PRagic that was very well said.

[T-J]

[The Floating World]

Nah whilst pragic may have apoint and I'm sure it was a different degree of different, I'd put it at around 2004 / 2005 when the place become overly flooded with people merely looking for mercenary reasons rather than the adventurer type (ok we liked the dough too, but hey...)

Being from the UK I really cannot say I have the same problem. My friends back home think it's cool I came here but only one has ever expressed interest in coming here and that is mainly sue to economic pressures.

I miss the old days when Gekkos or whereever wasn't so packed to the rafters and there were less guys to compete with for girls (Korean and waygook) and you met more quirky, adventurer / eccentric, yet kind hearted types in general.

But hey ho, everything changes.... and moves to...... China...!